A Newish Mode of Jump Housing - Sort of

[Terry Mixon]

Did you ever just wish you could stuff an irritating passenger in a closet for the rest of the week in jump? Now you can! Sort of!

MixCorp presents their new FastBerths. They come in single occupancy taking up 1/2 a dton and 3 seperate seats in the same unit for a 1 dton model.

The FastBerth is an enclosed seat that can recline if desired. The seat is designed for passengers under the influence of Fast Drug during interstellar travel and massages and works in other ways to eliminate the chance of sores from not moving for extended periods of time.

The luxury interior space is state of the art and will easily entertain the passengers at their speed of perception. The passenger will be able to fine tune the pace of things until it is perfect.

It is expensively furnished and stocked with food and drink. It comes equipped with an entertainment systems, fully configurable surfaces, and holographic entertainment features. The passengers will have the most excellent and luxurious trip.

The FastBerth's robotic brain is both a medic to continuously monitor the passenger and a steward to see to their needs. This excursion will have them talking about how it seemingly passed too quickly.

It includes 18 kg of storage for each passenger's belongings.

 

[mavikfelna]

Absolutely amazing!.

 

[rinku]

It's fair to say that a week long induced coma would also seem to be medically safer than cryogenic suspension...

But a passenger left to do nothing be eat and be amused without human supervision... what could possibly go wrong...?

 

[Terry Mixon]

It's fair to say that a week long induced coma would also seem to be medically safer than cryogenic suspension...

But a passenger left to do nothing be eat and be amused without human supervision... what could possibly go wrong...?
View attachment 6262

They only have a few subjective hours, but you're not wrong.

 

[rinku]

Although it is fair to say, as I've said before, that for really long distance travel, putting em on ice in a transportable low berth would work.

Freeze 'em on Regina, thaw 'em on Glisten. Ideally both ends are done at a well equipped and staffed hospital or specialist cryo facility.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

10 days, 240 hours divided by 60 = 4 subjective hours - sedated. They should arrive fully rested and not bored.

Assuming linear scaling for price about 35 Cr for the drug. Make it 50 Cr to include sedation.

Store them on a bunk dimensions in meters 1 wide, 1 high 2.33 long 3 in a vertical stack 7 cubic meters. Assume a 1 meter aisle between 2 rows of bunks and you get 6 in 1.5 dTons. If the stacks are 2 passengers per 2 meter wide bunk you get 12 in 2.5 dTons and 1 aisle between the 2 double wide rows. So 12 people the drug costs 600 Cr. You could probably reduce the price to about 350 Cr and still equal or exceed the profit per ton of cargo for J-1.

For anyone under 2 meters tall you have room for a couple of suit cases at the foot of the "berth".

Seems quite economical compared to low berths and without the chance of killing passengers. Even better for frequent flyers they only age 4 hours for each jump, 6 jumps and you age 1 day compared to 60. 60 passengers for the life support of one. Minimal "storage" cost per passenger, no steward you could probably undercut the cost of a flight in any of the other modes. A significant increase in the volume of travellers.

Hijackers still possible if they have an implant with the antidote and an integrated timer. Which is why they get locked in with a motion sensor, weight change alarms on the bunks.

 

[swordtart]

Whilst I was happy with the slow metabolism thing, I had difficulty with some peoples idea that it was just living your life at 1/60th normal speed. Some things cannot be done at 1/60th normal speed. One is walking, which is postponed falling. If you cannot step forward before gravity drops you then you cannot walk. So a bed seems entirely sensible.

Another aspect is food consumption. I don't think your body would respond well to having a chunk of food halfway past your epiglottis for an extended period. So I tend to assume that fasting is normal during a period of using Fast Drug. You can easily survive without eating for a day and if properly hydrated before hand a lack of fluid needn't be an issue.

So I don't think you need the dining facilities (and I don't think anyone would be able to benefit from them). For such a short relative duration a light meal before you took the drug would more that cover any calories burned during the two weeks under Fast Drug.

I presume also that the Cr1000 per person aboard would apply pro rata to Fast Drugged passengers (so Cr10 per passenger per trip would more than cover it).

 

[Arkathan]

TL12 equivalent of an IV drip for fluids and nutrients.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Yeah, the food is a concern. I’ll take that back out. They can manage for a few hours without.

As for bunks, many people would find that boring, so I like the idea of reclining seats. Locked in for their safety and the crew.

 

[swordtart]

Yeah, the food is a concern. I’ll take that back out. They can manage for a few hours without.

As for bunks, many people would find that boring, so I like the idea of reclining seats. Locked in for their safety and the crew.

Big cinema recliners. 2 x 2 hour in-flight movies and you're there

 

[mavikfelna]

So, instead of a luxury version, a cluster version for troops being deployed. It provides briefing and training updates on the trip so they arrive ready to jump into the fight? Maybe design one big enough for an entire squad to be shipped together in a single unit that can be moved from ship to ship? Might have to include a cryo-option for that last bit though, since it implies they are going to be moving through several jumps. So freeze them for the first part of the trip and then thaw them out but keep them in fast time for the last jump while updating their briefing on the coming situation?

 

[swordtart]

So, instead of a luxury version, a cluster version for troops being deployed. It provides briefing and training updates on the trip so they arrive ready to jump into the fight? Maybe design one big enough for an entire squad to be shipped together in a single unit that can be moved from ship to ship? Might have to include a cryo-option for that last bit though, since it implies they are going to be moving through several jumps. So freeze them for the first part of the trip and then thaw them out but keep them in fast time for the last jump while updating their briefing on the coming situation?

Seems like a lot of faff to fit in a 4 hour briefing.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Big cinema recliners. 2 x 2 hour in-flight movies and you're there

That's pretty much what I was thinking.

 

[Arkathan]

2 movies?
Catheters.

 

[rinku]

Nappies (diapers) would be far more practical. And dust is going to settle on them at an acellerated rate, so sponge bathing is probably advised (but easily catered for by the machine), suggesting that specially designed disposable clothing is also a really good idea. But also just a trivial detail that can be folded into life support costs, like fresher use is. It would be a cheap item.

 

[JaimesBeam]

I can't imagine intentionally going into a coma just to keep from being bored. Low Passage exists because for financial or technological reasons at low tech levels.

 

[swordtart]

Something is off with respect to manipulators (on the cluster version at least).

It seems to show 3 manipulators of size 5.

The slot refund is for complete removal of a size 8 manipulator (10% of 128 = 12.8 rounded up to 13).
The slot cost for adding a manipulator 3 sizes smaller is 1% of 128 which is rounded UP to 2 (which is calculated correctly for the additional manipulator on row 21).
So the refund for downgrading from size 8 to size 5 should be the difference or 11 slots.

It doesn't make a huge difference, just a minor adjustment to the storage. Personally I'd probably put the passenger luggage in external storage and use the saved slots for robot functions (probably upping the armour or hits to make it a bit more resilient to neglect, add some self cleaning to keep that luxury intact or to fund a further price reduction of the unit (around Cr2500).

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Not to avoid being bored. Lower prices without the risk of death in a low berth. Safer from being hijacked by passengers (like low berths). Life support for 60 people drugged is likely less than the cost for 1 person in basic as there is no food cost as people don't need to eat for the duration of the trip. You pay the medic at one end and no steward. You could even make a special "crate" that houses the people and load/unload them as cargo, it would have its own life support and plug into ship or warehouse power.

Carrying live stock the same way is also more efficient for the same reasons. Much better for colony vessels.

You could potentially under price low berths AND make a higher profit per ton.

Make the "crates" collapsible (say to 1/4 size) and shipping them back empty frees up cargo space for the return trip. Also you buy a ship without low berths that may never be full while only carrying the crates on consignment from a company that arranges to ship them full enough to be profitable to them. Leaves more cargo space when not carrying the "fast" passengers.

 

[swordtart]

If you can cluster fast berths the same applies to Low berths so you can carry as many in each. The only real difference between the two is the life support costs Cr100/month for low berth and Cr16/month for fast berth. For the fast berth however you also need to add the cost of the fast drug and the antidote.

The risk of death with a TL12 Low Berth can be reduced to nil if it is in a medical chamber with even a cheap robot brain, so it is no longer a consideration.

Basically it will come down to passenger preference or possibly legislation as one or the other might be subject to regulation in a specific setting. I would imagine you are drawing from the same customer base.

Any low or fast drugged passenger is more profitable than Basic passengers. Once you have paid the KCr3 per month in costs for each pair of passengers there isn't much left of the maybe KCr8 you can get for their passage fees. Once you take off the KCr6 you could have got for shipping an extra 3Dton of freight each jump, you have made a comparative loss even before you start accounting for the maintenance and mortgage on the stateroom. Plus there is the risk of passenger disturbance - and basic passengers have more reason than most to be disruptive.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

There is no reason why a 2 month long dose of fast drug should be used instead of a 10 day dose and allow them to come out on their own. So the fast drug is cheaper and the antidote not needed, let them come out on their own or pay for the antidote in advance.