Recent content by phavoc

Nah, no extra cost. However streamlined cargo would lose carrying capacity since its conformal. Rather than 20% cost increase, do a 20% Dton decrease. That better reflects the fact that curves are not as handy to store stuff in as flat lines. Liquid cargos would not suffer a penalty though.

Well, when Traveller was first proposed you had very large computers. That's been changed since more power microelectronics came into being and showed that it was possible. The idea of conformal fuel tanks didn't exist at that time, so large tanks (boxy or external streamlined on hard points)...

Umm, have you heard of the Quechua of the Andes? They are descendants of the Incans and their lungs have a greater capacity then us lowlanders as they have adapted to living at higher altitudes over many centuries. There are other groups around the world that have adapted to their conditions...

This is one of those places where reality and the game rules diverge. It used to be that Traveller-ideas were mirrored in the real world. However, as technology concepts have changed the game did not change with them. There is a concept called conformal fuel tanks that aircraft such as the...

To put this into perspective, how many people have travelled to outer space? Excluding the more recent space tourists who have gone up for a few minutes and come back down, only about 600 humans in our history have travelled to space. A few hundred have lived for a period orbiting the planet...

Palletization of cargo works for some things - it's certainly not the standard for FedEx, UPS or USPS ground packages. Or air packages (those get loaded individually into containers). Palletization of a refrigerator works great - but it's also wasteful from a cubeage perspective as you cannot...

On paper, you have XX, where each X is 1.5 by 1.5 x 3m tall, and represent 1 Dton. Ship layouts use the same dimension. So a 3Dton container is XX XX XX And so one, up to the standard 10Dton. That correlates to todays containers.

Totally get that with the airbag. What I'm talking about is the possible big variances in the distribution of the boxes. Having worked as a loader for a few years I'm speaking from a LOT of hands on experience. It's nowhere near as magically perfect as one thinks it might be. So when one...

In the opening paragraph the article states "The review concludes, “It can be anticipated that partial gravity environments as present on the Moon or on Mars are not sufficient to preserve all physiological systems to a 1 g standard if not addressed through adequate countermeasures.”1 Adequate...

To add to the low-G issues for humans, NASA has found out that astronauts who spend longer terms (3mos or more) also have poorer vision when they return. Evidently the low-G affects eyesight for some reason. They are looking at ways to address it, but I don't think they have figured anything...

I had done something similar in the past. I didn't bother with a 4F type container, seemed too small. For cargo I did 3dtons, 5dtons and 10dtons as the "standard". The main reason was for the cargo handling equipment. 3 and 5 dton units are meant for small freighters, like a free trader...

What kind of internal space do you think the mechanism would require? It would have to be robust enough to take the stress of a load accidentally impacting the sides, but would not need to be as strong as the hull. Telescoping with a space-rated canvas-like material could allow for extension...

Didn't think of that, but I think it's an idea that would work, for the most part at least. The hard part would be to make it flexible enough to allow for the various inconsistencies of wall heights/widths but still be strong enough to do the job. I suppose if you did it in sections, each one...

I agree with you about having to depressurize an entire hold if you are moving cargo in total deep space. In that case your containers would either be space-rated (making them much more expensive - especially if you were putting even low-G grav plating in them), or they'd need some other form...

Just one more kipper.