Sure. But as AD points out, why bother?Yes, of course, they are even in T5.
But why would anyone use them when "reactionless" M-drives are available?
Does Marc still talk to Frank? Has he read any of Frank's interviews about TNE?
LBB5 79 m-drives are fusion rockets
TNE m-drives have always been fusion rockets/HEPlaR as a deliberate change to move away from the electrically powered thruster plates of MT and back to the original intent of a reaction drive as m-drive (according to Frank Chadwick).
But as Another Dilbert has pointed out there is no putting the grav based reactionless thruster back in its box (MgT, T5)
3. Thrust: Ships maneuver using reaction drives, referred to as M-Drive or maneuver drive.
Which is why I think it looks like a fusion rocket in LBB2 '77. Well, that and the maneuver drive being something with a 1Td hole in the middle (it's sized at 2%Td MINUS 1Td) that's bolted onto the fusion reactor -- a fusion reactor that in '77 isn't used for anything else.*with the exception of using it as a weapon in HG1.
You still can pick and choose to some extent.You still have to pick and choose.
It was 48 hours in '77. In '81, that changed to "four weeks" of undefined use.The fuel on a ship is not good for 4 weeks maneuvering, at the fuel use rate of LBB2 a ship has 48 hours of continuous thrust available not 4 weeks. Enough that an few hours of combat doesn't need you to track fuel. But if you are going to be moving around a system for a while fuel use becomes an important factor, hence the more detailed rules of Beltstrike.
The design intent behind TNE was to make fuel a resource you had to manage rather than have a ship that is just point and go,
LBB2 a ship has 48 hours of continuous thrust available
It was 48 hours in '77.
Players and refs who hadn't seen the '77 rules would have no idea that it was supposed to only cover 48 hours of full-power maneuvering
1G | 2G | 3G | 4G | 5G | 6G | |
48 hours (2.0d) | 74,649,600 km (0.499 AU) | 149,299,200 km (0.998 AU) | 223,948,800 km (1.496 AU) | 298,598,400 km (1.996 AU) | 373,248,000 km (2.495 AU) | 447,897,600 km (2.993 AU) |
It doesn't quite feel like post-HG '79-Traveller where everything goes brachiostochrone , but it's a perfectly valid way to get around!Accelerate - coast - decelerate. You can get anywhere in the solar system with a 1g drive, it just takes a bit longer.
You can usually do the 100D thing on departure and arrival, though, and you might have a bit spare for some zipping around dodging pirate missiles.You can't get anywhere useful in 48 hours of power maneuvering using 1-2G drives a lot of the time.