One person trader ship

[warwizard]

For some years I've thought about just how cheaply one could obtain a ship that could deliver about Cr 200,000 a month in gross revenue and be operated with a crew of one.

So designed under FF&S II (T4) I offer the Shoestring merchant:

Shipyard class A TL 9 with planetoid hulls available.

Hull is a 100 Dt metallic planetoid 1400 cubic meters internal volume with 71 cubic meters retained for internal structure and 20 factors of armour (unarmoured hull = 0 armour in CT) Hull masses 568.24 mt and costs about MCr .13 for tunnelling and transport to the shipyard. (Savings are about MCr 4 million compared to a constructed hull).

Engineering:
TL 8 Fission power plant 41.4 MW output 41.4 cubic meters 165.5 metric tons, MCr 4.136

TL 10 HEPLAR maneuver drive 3.7 cubic meters 3.7 mt 7400 KN -37MW MCr .037 (imported from nearby system for ImpCr 7000 transport cost)

TL 9 Jump Drive oversized to jump with 150 Dt enclosed volume.
41 cubic meters 126 mt -37.8 MW to jump in 1 Hr MCr 12.6

Electronics:
Sensitivity 12.5 Passive Scanner, Sensitivty 11 Active Scanner, no tracker.
1000 AU Laser Communicator, 1000 AU Radio. Ships Computer CP 2.0 CM 0.5,
Maintence Computer CP 2.0 CM 0.5 High Automation 1 Bridge workstation and one standard workstation in Engineering with computer linked controls on both.
38 cubic meters 14.55 mt -2.44 MW cost of electronics MCr 5.1915

Environmental:
Class IV life support with air and water recycling, 1 small stateroom, no environmental gravity or inertial compensation. Food storage and refridgeration for 1 person's meals for 1 standard year, 1 airlock, 1 small cargo hatch
48 cubic meters 4.8 mt -1.13 MW MCr .112

Jump Fuel 15 displacement tons no purification plant carried
Maneuver fuel 9 displacement tons
340 cubic meters 24 mt

Grapples for external 50 Dt cargo module USL dry (no plumbing or power or life support provisions beyond simple lighting)
70 cubic meters 70 mt MCr .07

56 Dt of cargo
742 cubic meters and provision for 742 mt of mass

1719.6 mt .439 g acceleration, total impulse 6.14 g-hours.
50dt cargo module 707mt reducing accel to .311 g total impulse 4.35 g-hours

MCr 22.8 STD cost
MCr 24.5 with fees (Down payment MCr 4.9, monthly payment Cr 102,113)
MCr 17,83 with discount

Expenses:
Per jump: Refined fuel up to 26Dt Cr 13,000
Tug and lighter services CR 5,000 delivering loaded 50 Dt cargo module, and hauling off the one being delivered.
Per Month Payment Cr 102,113
Crew salary: Owner aboard

Total approx Cr 138,000 assumming two jumps per month.

Income
Income per jump Cr 105,000 from Freight

Cr210,000 - Cr 138,000 = Cr 72,000
Annual maintance month is income 105,000 expenses Cr 228,000 +102,000 + 18,000= -243,000
Anual results: Cr 792,000 - Cr 243,000= Cr 549,000 per year after expenses and anual maintance.

Ship pays off down payment in 9 years.

Not calculated is the effect of the local exchange rate at the shipyard which would reduce the price in Imperial credits to approx 70% of the local price, which would add some 360,000 in increased income.

 

[Khan Trav]

Yes, would it be stealthy?

 

[rancke]

Hull is a 100 Dt metallic planetoid 1400 cubic meters internal volume with 71 cubic meters retained for internal structure...

Not 20% used for structure?

MCr 22.8 STD cost
MCr 24.5 with fees (Down payment MCr 4.9, monthly payment Cr 102,113)
MCr 17,83 with discount

Is discount available to planetoid hulls? It isn't under HG, presumably because each planetoid is unique.


Hans

 

[aramis]

Yes, would it be stealthy?

Not when in space. Be an IR beacon just due to the temps.

 

[warwizard]

Yes, would it be stealthy?

There are no levels of stealth installed on the ship, some 70% of the available surface area is used for radiators for the power plant, so in this case Aramis is quite correct, the ship IS an IR beacon.

In addition the ship has a rather large slab of manufactured surface for the graples.

The only chance for stealth is to have an unpowered (and therefore cold) cargo module grappled and the cargo module has some stealth treatments on it, with some fold out panels to cover the remaining surface of the asteroid from view.

For the questions concerning the 20% , T4 has a formula to calculate the volume of hull for the shell and internal structure. I could have made an error with the formula found on pp 11 in FF&S II.

The issue for the discount on the asteroid configuration. T4 rules are silent on this regard, but I did my calculations based on full price.

 

[Easterner9504]

Trader Conversion

WP-768 Jump Shuttle WP-24323S1-000000-00000-0 MCr93.52 200 tons
Crew=3. TL=12. Passengers=O. Low=O. Cargo=O. Fuel=126. EP=6. Agility=l.

Get an SDB Jump shuttle, add 100t cradle and 10 30t modules from Modular cutter and your ready to go. The shuttle could easily be handled by one.

End up with:

Modular Cargo Ship WP-61111 S1-000000-00000-0 MCr-TBD 600 tons
Crew=3. TL=12. Passengers=lO. Low=O. Cargo=27. Fuel=126. EP=6. Agility=O.

 

[warwizard]

so what does your income and expenses look like for that combination?

 

[Dragoner]

WP-768 Jump Shuttle WP-24323S1-000000-00000-0 MCr93.52 200 tons
Crew=3. TL=12. Passengers=O. Low=O. Cargo=O. Fuel=126. EP=6. Agility=l.

Get an SDB Jump shuttle, add 100t cradle and 10 30t modules from Modular cutter and your ready to go. The shuttle could easily be handled by one.

End up with:

Modular Cargo Ship WP-61111 S1-000000-00000-0 MCr-TBD 600 tons
Crew=3. TL=12. Passengers=lO. Low=O. Cargo=27. Fuel=126. EP=6. Agility=O.

I did something similar with the Jump Shuttle:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=25918

 

[Easterner9504]

300,000Cr per jump if full of general cargo - fuel & maintenance(3K per month).

Being military it can use unrefined fuel. Trick is finding enough cargo but has potential for 72MCr per year less expenses.

 

[Whipsnade]

Considering what we now know about planetoids - that all but the largest have densities less than that of styrofoam, that internal void spaces and rifts are likely, and that most resemble constantly shifting rubble piles or sand dunes rather than solid hunks of granite - I have serious reservations about the use of planetoid hulls in Traveller.

Tough unitary chunks of planetoidal material do exist, but they either exist as planetoids too large for use as hulls or as parts of those planetoids. Size is the issue here. A planetoid needs to be a certain size in order to retain the heat necessary for the time necessary to produce the type of tough unitary structure we unconsciously assume when we think of "rock".

The HG2 model of "Find, Tow, & Tunnel" for planetoid hulls produces hulls which are too cheap and too cheaply armored. A more accurate and much more expensive model would be something akin to "Find, Quarry, Extract, Tow, & Tunnel" in which a hull-sized chunk of rock is literally mined out of the far larger planetoid in which it could have formed.

Returning to the OP's topic, I've always thought that Walt Smith's Kawzan Industries Jump Pod is an excellent example of a low cost, one-person, trade vessel. Check out Walt's other designs too. His Sextant-class 600dTon survey/science vessel is especially nice.

 

[Dragoner]

Considering what we now know about planetoids - that all but the largest have densities less than that of styrofoam, that internal void spaces and rifts are likely, and that most resemble constantly shifting rubble piles or sand dunes rather than solid hunks of granite - I have serious reservations about the use of planetoid hulls in Traveller.

Agreed, even M-Types would likely have a "grain" and one missile would split them into pieces.

 

[warwizard]

Thank you whipsnade and dragoner.

Re the CT ship presented it's got a J2 performance and 20 Dt of cargo capacity for some MCr 27 in quantity. An owner of one of these would be forced to adventure or conduct trade and speculation to use it as a trade ship. finances: income Cr 40000, expenses CR 112000 just for the monthly payment.

Re the asteroid ship. In scifi literature I've seen a process described wherin metalic asteroidal bodies are melted in a pressurized environment, and the material is saturated with gas then sprayed into a ship shape mold (in vacuum) to produce a metalic foam, which could then be tunneled out and have machenery installed. I'd say this would produce a superiour product compared to trying to use a piece of a metalic core fragment from a broken up differiented asteroidal body, with all of it's fractures and other problems you so kindly noted.

Cast metalic foam hull may be produced in any simple geometric shape such as a flying wing, sphere, box, cylinder, and so on, with repeatable quality and volume discounts as the mold is reused and the internal components are standardized.

 

[atpollard]

Flip side ...

Mining should produce lots of slag - molten rock waiting to be sprayed into a built up coating.

So it should be a silicate ball rather than an iron lump, but it still should be cheap.

 

[warwizard]

Options for metalic, silicate and ice for the hull material already in the rules.

 

[far-trader]

Options for metalic, silicate and ice for the hull material already in the rules.

Ice? ICE!? Seriously?

Just don't fly too close to a sun or you'll be watching your ship break apart around you

I'd say you can forget about visiting the habitable zone of any solar system,which is where the mainworld is most likely to be. Maybe even a little farther out than that and you'll have a nice vapour trail...

...on the upside as your ship shrinks and gets smaller you'll go faster

...though if you lose too much material you'll have other issues, like not having enough size to jump, having great big holes in your hull, and such.

...really? Ice? I'd at least hope they included rules on how that works, but I suspect not. FF&S2 is one thing I never got nor much looked at, after a look at the formula mess in a friend's copy there just wasn't any interest. I'd be surprised if just keeping it habitable wasn't enough to melt the whole thing in short order.

 

[madmike]

Ice is used as starship armour in the Kris Longknife series by Mike Shepherd though.

Certainly not a new idea

 

[Whipsnade]

Re the asteroid ship. In scifi literature I've seen a process described wherin metalic asteroidal bodies are melted in a pressurized environment, and the material is saturated with gas then sprayed into a ship shape mold (in vacuum) to produce a metalic foam, which could then be tunneled out and have machenery installed.

Among many other things, that's not the asteroid hull described in HG2. The hull option described in HG2 and then copied through all versions up through T4 is a "found" hull and not a "processed" one. The HG2 model is too cheap, too easy to produce, and too strong. Your processed option is none of those things.

I'd say this would produce a superiour product compared to trying to use a piece of a metalic core fragment from a broken up differiented asteroidal body...

First, the type of hull you described in this post is not the type of hull you used in your design, so bringing up the idea of "processed" hulls now is a case of coming with excuses after the fact.

Second, the trouble with the structure of all planetoids below a certain size is that they are undifferentiated. Suggesting that differentiated masses are used after they've been removed from larger bodies by natural or man-made means is another case of coming up with excuses after the fact.

Planetoid hulls, as described in HG2, are too cheap, too easy to find, and too strong. Seeing as there are few planetoid hull designs in canon, retconning the option into rarely used niche applications should not be hard.

 

[warwizard]

Whipsnade put away your barbs and look at the idea for it's worth in play and approach it with that in mind, not trying to win points in an argument here, I just think such a processed hull would be easilly mass produced using the low value metals they were not going to sell as refined metals. The idea would require a house rule regardless of which rule set you're using.

I happen to agree that ICE roids would be a very tough engineering challenge though I do seem to recall a rather large one used in the "sky raiders" adventure series.
I would be more of the mind of putting on photovotalic panels for power, using low power devices througout, and putting mylar sheeting to protect the hull from being degraded when moving it inside the dew line, and would be a fine place to use a solar sail for a maneuver drive, (don't want to lose all your lose "snow" trying to pull .1 g in one of these). I see this more as a teraforming project for moving a few billion metric tons of ice asteroid into orbit around a nice desert world that just needs more water to be prime real estate, rather than trying to make a jump capable starship.

 

[BillDowns]

I have to agree with whipsnade on this one. My own house rule is that planetoid hulls must be at least 10,000 tons.

 

[warwizard]

The current theory to get a metallic asteroid is to get one big enough for internal heating to melt large volumes and gravity to cause the metals to migrate to the middle. Let the thing cool to solidify the core then through collisions blast off the ice and rock. Hit it too hard and you end up shattering the metallic core producing irregular shapes and sizes, the vast majority of which would not be suitable for use as a hull.

Anyway lets take this to a new thread and put this one back to the discussion of one person trader ships.