Nice stuff so far.
I’m totally confused by the numbers given though.
A Planet size 5 was mentioned elsewhere and a 4g ship.
d (planet) = 8.000km
100d = 800.000km
Meaning, on arrival in the system one must travel 400.000km twice, once at full throttle and then at full break. Naturally that assumes a very accurate jump exactly at the 100d point.
My memories of physics come up with
t = root (2*s/a)
t = time
s = distance [m]
a = acceleration [m/s²]
And that is a lot more than that number listed in that table. The table lists 2.5h, whereas the above calculates to 7.86h
Did my mere knowledge of basic physics fail me completely or are the numbers indeed wrong ?
Furthermore, I must admit that I was utterly startled by the differentiation between arrival times and departure times to that ever so important d100.
I have always assumed that you need to be at zero velocity before engaging the jump drives. Thus, regardless of your direction of flight, you would need to turn around your ship at half point.
I suppose that has been discussed before, but I am anything but a Traveller expert and so I would kindly raise the question again.
Is it possible to jump at non-zero velocity ?
And if that is the case: what is the velocity of a ship after a jump ?
Is it the same as the one you left the previous planet with ? Or does engaging the jump drives immediately knock you down to zero velocity ?
A Planet size 5 was mentioned elsewhere and a 4g ship. At 100d (after about 5.56h) it would have a velocity of 80.000m/s.
And of course, it would take 5.56h to break down to zero velocity.
Which in turn would require an incoming ship arriving at a smaller planet than the one it jumped from to actually arrive way outside the 100d of the destination planet… or take a non-direct route at least. So, in all the assumptions about actually positions of ships, one would need to consider the departure planet of the potential victim.
Well ,apart from all that… can’t wait for the second episode !