400 ton Trade Pioneer TL9,12,15

[mavikfelna]

I was intrigued by the Trade Pioneer career in JTAS 15 and I thought I'd make a ship to fit the role. Since you find Trade Pioneers at all TL, I built 3 versions of the ship. While they can trade, it's not actually their primary function so cost was only a secondary thought for these. They are primarily for doing basic survey work for potential prospecting sites and opening up trade lanes. They can move a small volume of passengers, but these tend to be trade delegations and important people rather than paying travellers.
The small craft are there to supplement the primary ship and are useful for remote survey and excursion work as well as moving small volumes of cargo.
The later TL versions can function as rift jumpers to some extent but function poorly in the role. They b can mount a 400 ton external fuel pod and can carry up to a 400 ton vessel or 400 tons of cargo in their net.
The TL9 versions of all of these are deliberately basic, but not low end. The Excursion Vehicle is designed to replace the air/raft with a more capable unit. The Launch is a fairly standard cargo/passenger arrangement that can also do fuel skimming. The only thing of real note is the TL9 ship has a biosphere for the crew, which the later models remove for space reasons. This makes the TL9 version somewhat more comfortable for the crew and helps reduce operating costs slightly.
The TL12 and 15 versions give up internal cargo space for increased drive space, giving the ship M2 at TL12 and M3 at TL15 and J3 for both. Fuel tankage for jumps greater than 1 parsec are containerized to allow them to carry fuel or cargo as needed. The TL15 ship has a tiny 8 ton fuel bladder in the main cargo hold to allow it eek out a 5th jump 1 or 4th jump 2 with external tanks attached.
The later versions of the small craft include tow cables and hauling nets to help improve their utility. All versions of the small craft are not suitable for long duration flight. The Launch does include an integrated docking clamp to allow them to attach to any vessel and an airlock to transfer goods and personnel.

 

[ross]

I designed a Scout Trader, a Type R variant with J3 M3 capability and over 100dtons of cargo space. The Type R is one of the most versatile and customizable starcraft in the Imperium, and frankly anything above TL12 is very difficult to support in the wilds.

 

[rinku]

I quite like using the Liner for jobs like that. Already J-3 as a stock and standard design; customising is mostly a matter of swapping staterooms for other payload options, such as labs or cargo. In terms of deckplan layout it's very versatile, and you don't have to touch Engineering. (Also has over 100dtons of cargo)