CT Only: Small Craft Life Support

[Condottiere]

Onboard artificial gravity tends to become an option for cutprice spaceships.

Arguably, not really an issue for short haul and/or low acceleration trips, between seventy to one hundred forty percent Terran norm.

 

[Condottiere]

At this stage of interplanetary transportation, the difference is like that of a Great War vintage biplane, and an Airbus A220.

There are still military applications for biplanes.

 

[Grav_Moped]

At this stage of interplanetary transportation, the difference is like that of a Great War vintage biplane, and an Airbus A220.

There are still military applications for biplanes.

Yep. North Korea still uses Antonov An-2s.
The Azerbaijan military is using remotely-piloted An-2s for reconnaissance and bombing in their conflict with Armenia.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Smallcraft need to have gravitics.

Their deckplans are orientated for gravitics.

Several of them are capable of multi-g accekeration - 12 hours at 3g+ is going to kill, not to mention the perceived g forces of combat maneuvering.

You don't build a 6g drive into a craft and then routinely use it at 1g, you build a 1g drive into it in the first place.

Hold on.
LBB2'77 had shorter combat turns if I remember right* (turns were 1000 seconds -- 16.67 minutes -- in '81), and small craft had a limited number of turns of acceleration.
Did they originally expect small craft to run at max acceleration for hours on end?


*I do remember that it used miles rather than kilometers, and I think the length of a turn was set to make for nice round numbers. Ten minutes?

 

[mike wightman]

Odd, that post has disappeared?

And now it has re-appeared - very strange.

In CT 77 the ship's boat is 6g and has 9 tons of fuel. It uses 10kg per g per turn.

So 9000/60 = 150 turns of continuous burn. A turn is 10 mins so that's 1500 minutes or 25 hours of continuous 6g thrust.

 

[Grav_Moped]

So I was right about the shorter turns and limited fuel endurance, but wrong about how limited it was (basically, not limited in the context of a combat engagement).

 

[mike wightman]

77 also gave a rough guide to ship fuel use - 288 turns or 48 hours worth of continuous thrust from a fully fueled power plant/m drive.

Also in 77 is that you refuel your power plant every jump cycle not the 4 weeks duration that it became.

 

[kilemall]

Odd, that post has disappeared?

And now it has re-appeared - very strange.

In CT 77 the ship's boat is 6g and has 9 tons of fuel. It uses 10kg per g per turn.

So 9000/60 = 150 turns of continuous burn. A turn is 10 mins so that's 1500 minutes or 25 hours of continuous 6g thrust.

Whoa, missed that LBB2-77 had it as 10 minutes. It was 1000s in most other CT versions.


Adjusting for 1000s turns, which would be 16.2 minutes, which translates to 40.5 hours. Not quite 48 hours at full burn, but we can expect some of that accel to not be full 6Gs so it could be a general use rating.

 

[kilemall]

Smallcraft need to have gravitics.

Their deckplans are orientated for gravitics.

Several of them are capable of multi-g acceleration - 12 hours at 3g+ is going to kill, not to mention the perceived g forces of combat maneuvering.

You don't build a 6g drive into a craft and then routinely use it at 1g, you build a 1g drive into it in the first place.

Again, gravitic compensation in the tonnage budget handled by the M-drive allotment.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Again, gravitic compensation in the tonnage budget handled by the M-drive allotment.

It's in the bridge. /kidding

 

[Condottiere]

One tonne acceleration bench has enough space for four passengers.

Considering limited space, and presuming short flight duration, another reason to have passengers seated is to stop them wandering about.