Ship your home to the stars

[Reban]

What if you could ship your home to another planet?

Forget your advanced base, inflatable base, robot construction crew, etc. No need to own a starship.... be a Traveller by shipping your home from planet to planet.

I was inspired by the introduction to this video on YouTube: Boat Builder's Incredible 20ft Shipping Container Home

There's nothing new about containerized accommodation in the real world or Traveller, but this idea of shipping your home as a standard shipping container is interesting to me and suggests a whole new category of Travellers.

Imagine a person buys or builds one of these homes. He or she buys passage aboard a starship bringing their home as cargo. The container gets delivered planetside and the Traveller sets up home. Maybe the Traveller is a travelling artisan, craftsperson or consultant allowing them to earn a living during their stay. Or perhaps they are a dilettante wanderer with less money or a hippie/gypsy lifestyle. Once their job is done or they get tired of the view, they book passage on another starship to somewhere new. Time aboard ship would be like a mini-cruise living in the relative luxury of a stateroom with steward service. Arrive at destination, offload your home and settle into local life. Be a Traveller without a starship but with a slower pace of life than those who constantly book passage with just a bag for luggage.

In Traveller terms a 20ft container is approximately 3dtons. IMTU Standard Shipping Containers are 4dton (allowing me to put a stateroom and fresher equivalent in the ones used for accommodation).


P.S. The video is also worth watching for an idea of just how much you can fit into a 3dton stateroom. The one featured in the video would tend towards the luxury end of the stateroom scale of furniture and fittings but it gives a good idea of how much space is available.

 

[nobby-w]

It could also fold out into larger accommodation if you didn't need it to be airtight. Perhaps it might hold an inflatable tent or some such.

 

[MThompson016]

Stuff like this was mentioned in GT: Far Trader, and the use of 20' and 40' containers as housing in ares near starports on the frontier.

 

[Hovtej]

Looks great! Lived in a mobile home for awhile while in the military. Moving is not quite like closing the door and walking away. Dishes to pack; loose furniture to secure, etc. But there was comfort to be in your old home in a new location. Woke up some mornings, walked outside, and was surprised by the new setting.

 

[Hovtej]

Stuff like this was mentioned in GT: Far Trader, and the use of 20' and 40' containers as housing in ares near starports on the frontier.

They are also common on this frontier in the Colorado Rockies, but for workshops and storage. Haven't seen one converted to a cabin or house yet. Tiny homes are catching on up here so shouldn't be long.

 

[Reban]

It could also fold out into larger accommodation if you didn't need it to be airtight. Perhaps it might hold an inflatable tent or some such.

The container home in the video folds out like this, although its not finished. Seeing as you're moving from planet to planet there's probably a good argument for making you home sealed.

interstellar shipping containers may or may not be sealed depending on how you use them GT: Far Trader has both types. Its probably important to know what the shipping conditions are. Are they shipped in hard vacuum? Does the ship depressurize cargo hold etc.

Stuff like this was mentioned in GT: Far Trader, and the use of 20' and 40' containers as housing in ares near starports on the frontier.

GT:FT mentions conversion to accomidation, use as bunkers, walls etc. but the point behind the home in the YouTube video is it can still be shipped as a container. The guy who made it his home has made sure to do nothing that compromises it as a shipping container.

If you look at a lot of conversions into homes or offices or workshops, they have doors cut into the sides, bits added that overhang, or require external works like footings, foundations or services. In other words you may be able to put them on the back of a truck and move them but you couldn't ship them on a container ship as if they were just another container capable of being handled and stacked like any other.

 

[BlackBat242]

In Traveller terms a 20ft container is approximately 3dtons. IMTU Standard Shipping Containers are 4dton (allowing me to put a stateroom and fresher equivalent in the ones used for accommodation).

A Traveller stateroom normally is no more than 3dt volume in the actual stateroom - the 4th dt is actually spread around the ship in life-support equipment, passageways, lounge, etc.

OK, 2.5dt, as the 3dt volume includes the space below the deck (3 meters being the average height per deck including structural supports for the floor, grav grid, air ducts, etc).

So that 3dt container works fine for a "home" that includes a shower & fresher, but not "stand-alone" life-support equipment (you are limited to either worlds where no special LS is needed [just a small heating/cooling unit like a "window" A/C unit] or to worlds where LS hook-ups are available [the Traveller equivalent of an RV park with power/sewer/water/air supply provided]).

You only need the 4dt version if you are going fully self-contained for LS, grav, and power.

 

[Timerover51]

They are also common on this frontier in the Colorado Rockies, but for workshops and storage. Haven't seen one converted to a cabin or house yet. Tiny homes are catching on up here so shouldn't be long.

If you search on the Web, you will find quite a few examples of containers being converted into housing.

 

[Spenser TR]

I can imagine parks of units like this, it being a way of life among some travelling subcultures, a fad or an oddity from other places. A great setting for a scene, or location for the Travellers to meet. I can further imagine someone wanting to wander the mains, but just having gotten their kitchen "just right" and not being able to decide between the two.

Thanks for sharing this.

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

you see something similar to this on some "expeditionary" type military bases. not complete stand along housing units, but, for example a row of "bedroom blocks", with a shower/toilet block a the end of the row. obviously, these are all "permeant" or "semi permeant" installations, with external power runs. Here is a photo of some of the (better quality) accommodation blocks form camp bastion, which were made of 20 ft containers stacked and plugged together with a roof added on top. I believe this is part of the US accmodation on camp Leatherneck, but i'm not sure.

a quick google image search of "converted containers threw up some interesting photos. I quite like this one.

 

[Reban]

A Traveller stateroom normally is no more than 3dt volume in the actual stateroom - the 4th dt is actually spread around the ship in life-support equipment, passageways, lounge, etc.

OK, 2.5dt, as the 3dt volume includes the space below the deck (3 meters being the average height per deck including structural supports for the floor, grav grid, air ducts, etc).

So that 3dt container works fine for a "home" that includes a shower & fresher, but not "stand-alone" life-support equipment (you are limited to either worlds where no special LS is needed [just a small heating/cooling unit like a "window" A/C unit] or to worlds where LS hook-ups are available [the Traveller equivalent of an RV park with power/sewer/water/air supply provided]).

You only need the 4dt version if you are going fully self-contained for LS, grav, and power.

My design system of choice is T5 ACS.

- Triple Stateroom 2dtons 0.1MCr
- Common Fresher (serves 10) 1dton 1MCr
- Personal airlock 0.5dtons 0.1MCr
- Micro Galley 0.5dtons 2KCr

4dtons 1.202MCr for fitting out

Short term life support for 40 man-days is included at no tonnage or cost.

Power provided on the distributed model by Fusion+ would be good for several months or up to a year. Add an ambient cell for solar power on the roof.

Cost of a 4dton shipping container (extracted T5.0) 0.4MCr

We could get over-detailed about internal and external dimensions but for deckplan drawing purposes its 8 deck-squares arranged 4x2. We can probably get a standard deck height of 2.5m in the container and still hide most of the LS and power equipment under the floor without making the external height a full 3m.

There are of course lots of design variations you could pursue, but for ~1.6MCr you can have a functional 'Home' for 2-3 people that's very self contained and capable of transport aboard ship.

 

[robject]

- Triple Stateroom 2dtons 0.1MCr
- Common Fresher (serves 10) 1dton 1MCr
- Personal airlock 0.5dtons 0.1MCr
- Micro Galley 0.5dtons 2KCr

4dtons 1.202MCr for fitting out

Short term life support for 40 man-days is included at no tonnage or cost.

Power provided on the distributed model by Fusion+ would be good for several months or up to a year. Add an ambient cell for solar power on the roof.

Cost of a 4dton shipping container (extracted T5.0) 0.4MCr

I don't think short-term LS is 40 man days. I think it's 4. But I get where you're coming from -- adding life support will be expensive!

My archetype is the "Model 217" (I'm almost positive I got that wrong) from JTAS. Unfolded it was 8 tons, I think. It included a workstation and computer (probably a Model/0), bunks for eight?, fresher, micro-kitchen, and airlock.

 

[Reban]

I don't think short-term LS is 40 man days. I think it's 4. But I get where you're coming from -- adding life support will be expensive!

My archetype is the "Model 217" (I'm almost positive I got that wrong) from JTAS. Unfolded it was 8 tons, I think. It included a workstation and computer (probably a Model/0), bunks for eight?, fresher, micro-kitchen, and airlock.

Its four days for ten people.

Am i wrong to translate that as 40 man-days?

If LS doesn't scale like that it'd be kind of weird. A ship that can support ten people for four days, but if just one person is aboard then its still four days? Or if I cram twenty people aboard, life support should drop to only two days, right?

 

[whartung]

I can imagine parks of units like this, it being a way of life among some travelling subcultures, a fad or an oddity from other places. A great setting for a scene, or location for the Travellers to meet. I can further imagine someone wanting to wander the mains, but just having gotten their kitchen "just right" and not being able to decide between the two.

Gypsies.

Simply imagine an encampment at the edge of town, with a dozen or so of these scattered about, around a central plaza with some tables and a fire pit.

And off in the clearing nearby, sits the 80 year old, reentry scarred, Free Trader that the modules came out of.

When the camp moves, they bolt everything down, lock it all up, load it on to the ship, and lift off. They can relocate elsewhere on the world, or any other system within jump range. The Trader is modified to offer extended life support for when the camp moves and the people move in to the communal cargo bay in the free space around the containers. The can even arrange to perhaps live in the containers on board (at least for sleeping).

The population isn't overly comfortable in the ship, as it's a tight fit, which makes these camps more long term than not, but offering the flexibility to up and go when the situation warrants.

 

[aramis]

Its four days for ten people.

Am i wrong to translate that as 40 man-days?

Yes, you are wrong. LS has multiple components.

Some can work that way (preserved rations, oxygen).

Others don't. Due to moisture and other, non life-produced volatiles, the filters will get a background dose just by circulating the air.

Ozone does different things to filters than does molecular oxygen; it's an unintended but almost unavoidable product of electronics. It's not a lot, but it's going to add up.

CO2 and CO scrubbers require a certain amount of contact time per unit volume to conduct their chemical reactions and bind the CO2 and CO. This sets an upper limit.

Nitrogen replacement is a major issue - not because it's used, but because it's simply lost through the seals.

Oxygen replacement is needed for the people - but some is lost overboard with the nitrogen.

So, while you might be able to stretch a 4 man 10 day system to cover 2 men for 20 days, it's more likely to be about 19.5 days, because some of the LS is fixed per unit time losses being covered.

But, shove 10 aboard, and the filters can't process the CO and CO2 fast enough; you get rising levels, and people start to get drowsy, then die. Once PPCO exceeds bout 0.005x PPO2, you get suffocation, despite sufficient O2 to breath being present, as Haemoglobin has a higher affinity for CO than O2 - about 210x more. 1000 PPM CO is toxic in 20 minutes in room air.
CO2 is similar, but less intense; 90K PPM CO2 is fatal - that's 9%... or PPCO2 > 0.4 PPO2.

Also note: LiOH has a limited useful time once exposed - slower reactions with other material besides the CO and CO2 it scrubs happen at a fixed rate in use. So, depending upon size of canister, it may be possible to stretch the system by not installing some, but if the system has only one canister port, and only transfers enough for 4 men 5 men becomes toxic in a couple days. And 2 men still results in needing to change the canister shorter than 20.



http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/idlh/630080.html
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/idlh/124389.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1281520/

 

[Condottiere]

Cheapest would be to ship the homes as self contained cargo, with their own life support systems.

 

[Reban]

Yes, you are wrong. LS has multiple components.

Okay. So T5's Short Term Life Support should read as four days for a maximum ten person capacity.


So T5 ACS has

0dton of LS - 4 days - 10 person capacity. - Short Term

0dtons of LS - 15 days - 10 person capacity. - Emergency

1dton of LS - 30 days - 10 person capacity. - Standard

2dtons of LS - 120 days - 10 person capacity - Long Term

It's pretty granular and not amiable to tailoring. So I'll fix the design as follows:


The Container 'Home' comes with 4 days on-board life support used as back-up and a full set of exterior life-support hook-up connections.

These can be plugged into "local services" at prepared sites. As someone up thread suggested these could be like campsite services for motorhomes and caravans. In domed settlements or colonies whats the likelyhood that there's a 'utility grid' that not only carries power and water from central stations but also breathing gases, while taking away exhaust gases as well as sewage?

or

I can build a 1dton LS module, put it in a standard shipping container and put in extra modules or other stores to support one Container Home or perhaps up to four for one month. Not great for the single traveller but the small familiy group of gypsies might make it work.


Incidentally there are other examples of LS given in the ThingMaker Catalogue. The Underwater Shelter (8dtons) "Includes life support for 10 man-months." and the Advanced Base (6dtons) is sealed and has a "recycler, fresher, atmosphere recirculating system" paired with a Fusion+ unit that operates for one year.

So that suggests that T5 life support is capable of supporting a 4dton volume for longer than four days. I reached for ACS to work up the figures quickly but perhaps that lifesupport is over engineered for spaceship use? Building the Container 'Home' in ThingMaker and using the Advanced Base and Underwater Shelter might be a better way to go.

And by TLH i can use the Atmospheric Sponge which supports the LS requirement of 100dtons for a year and only has a volume of 1KL

 

[Reban]

Of course don't forget the main idea here is:

You can turn a standard shipping container into a home that retains its ability to be shipped like a normal shipping container.

I've used a 4dton standard shipping container because thats what I use IMTU.

But you could use a 3dton or 5dton shipping container or a 30dton cutter module.

 

[robject]

So that suggests that T5 life support is capable of supporting a 4dton volume for longer than four days. I reached for ACS to work up the figures quickly but perhaps that lifesupport is over engineered for spaceship use?

Definitely geared for small craft and starships, but I also tend to think that if LS can support 4 people for ten days, that it can be stretched to one month for one person.

 

[Reynard]

What have you done to me?!!

I immediately picture these container homes springing up on all sorts of worlds as futuristic trailer parks! You'll see Fusion Plus(TM) units outside in place of propane tanks. Alien terrains but still recognizable especially with locally found rocks as walk liners, foot tall picket fences and strings of lights outside. Probably an air/raft up on blocks just because. Might explain those Population 1 worlds.

And we'll see if any world is capable of generating tornados spontaneously.