Ok, I kind of finished putting fingers-to-keyboard and have a document describing fuel harvesting station operations. I figured it would be easier to just create a new thread than put it in the last one. The document itself stands at four pages right now (including some adventure seeds), and I only described the components, and did not try to use the design system to create them (waves hand... 'these aren't the rules you are expcting... but they pass the sniff test').
I don't have a regular doc upload site, and I don't use google docs (I know... flog me now...). So here's the info. If you would like for me to email you a copy, just drop me a note and I'll email it to you (though you'll have to tell me where)...
I don't think this is all that polished yet, but that's what you guys are for! Enjoy.
Fuel Harvesting Station
The Fuel Harvesting Station is a Ling Standard Products (LSP) family of products that consist of a remote fuel collection station, a set of in-system tugs vessels for boosting and catching fuel pods, fuel collection vessels, and the fuel pods that deliver fuel to any area of a system. The purpose is to provide a cheap, continuous source of hydrogen system-wide. These stations are typically operated by the local Starport Authority, or sometimes by the system authorities. It is not unheard of to have a local system corporation operating it under contract to a governmental organization. Each station is built to an average of TL-12. LSP has licensed the design for the sub-craft and provides technical resources to systems that are looking to establish such a system. A great deal of planning and consideration is required to safely operate a continuous fuel pod transit system system-wide.
The system consists of the following modules:
Fuel Harvesting Station
The fuel collection station consists of a primary habitat module that functions as the primary central control facility, crew quarters, and a support area for maintaining the fuel pods, tug ships and fuel collection ships. There also is sometimes an accompanying refinery facility for processing raw hydrogen into refined fuel. The fuel collection station is usually orbiting a gas giant, and may contain secondary fuel storage facilities for ships to refuel without collecting the hydrogen on their own. The fuel storage facility will generally keep a good supply of both refined and unrefined fuel available for sale or distribution. The amount will depend on the system traffic. Fuel collection stations may also be placed near ice fields or even as far out as the Oort cloud if that is the only source of fuel. Stations that are deployed that far away require more time for fuel pods to be delivered due to the vast distance. Stations that are shut down may require the deployment of tugs for years after shutting down to catch all of the inbound fuel pods!
Generally there is only one collection facility per system. From that station the booster ships accelerate fuel pods in ballistic trajectories towards the intended recipients. The average time in transit for a fuel pod is 30 days. Remote outposts, stations or secondary consumers may have that time period lengthened, depending on the distance. The rate of supply is tied to the average consumption by the recipient. For extremely busy ports, its not unusual for them to receive multiple fuel pods per day, while remote or very small users may only see one fuel pod a week, or even just once a month. Due to the transit times of a fuel pods, stations must plan in advance for their fuel consumptions. They must also account for possible disruptions in service. Therefore most facilities generally try to keep 5-7 days of fuel on hand at any one time.
Each fuel pod recipient must have at least one fuel pod tug available in order to receive and send fuel pods. Stations or planets that receive multiple daily shipments, or the largest of the available fuel pods will typically have enough tugs to catch and return 2 pods every 8 hours. This number can be increased or decreased as required.
Fuel Tugs
Fuel tugs are basically nothing more than engines, with an attached small bridge and basic crew quarters. A fuel tug has enough fuel onboard for 5 days of operation, basic flight controls and sensors. It is not intended to venture more than 8 – 12 hours from its base. During the boost phase, the tug can move 25,000 Dtons at 1G. Once the pod has reached its’s deployment position the tug de-couples from the fuel pod and either maneuvers to catch an inbound fuel pod or returns to its base. An unburdened tug can accelerate/decelerate at 6G’s. For fuel pods greater than 25k Dtons, multiple tugs may be added to the fuel pod to maintain the delivery period. Alternatively one tug may boost a single pod, but it will require a much longer period in order to achieve the standard 30 day delivery period.
Fuel Collection ships
A 25,000 Dton standard-hull ship outfitted to descend into a Gas Giant to quickly fill its tanks with unrefined hydrogen. The ship itself is capable of 1G, and carries enough fuel for 7 days of operations. The ship has no staterooms fitted, as the crew generally onboard for only short shifts. There is a small (4 Dton) crew rest area. The ship itself is fitted with 6 escape capsules, sufficient for its minimal crew. Sensors are likewise minimal due to its very specific operational design. All maintenance and support is performed back at the fuel harvesting station.
Fuel Pods
Fuel pods come in five standard sizes – 10k, 25k, 50k, 100k and 250k Dtons. Five percent of their mass is devoted to external hull attachments, internal hull bracing, fuel tanks, control systems and fuel processors. The hull of the pod is sufficient to protect against meteorites, but it is an armor factor of 0 against any starship weapon. Each pod also is subdivided into 10 smaller fuel cells to protect against leaks. Fuel from each tank is routed through the on-board processors during the voyage.
Fuel Pod Size Fuel storage Fuel processors
10,000 Dtons 9,500 Dtons 15 tons
25,000 Dtons 23,750 Dtons 40 tons
50,000 Dtons 47,500 Dtons 80 tons
100,000 Dtons 95,000 Dtons 158 tons
250,000 Dtons 237,500 Dtons 375 tons
Note – 1 ton of fuel processors can purify 20 tons of fuel/day. The average duration of a delivery is 30 days (20 tons fuel x 30 days = 600 tons of purified fuel per 1 ton of fuel processors)
Each pod contains a basic navigation system that monitors all aspects of the voyage. A basic communication system is fitted to allow it to transmit regular status reports, receive commands from controllers, as well as emit regular signals every 10 minutes warning all traffic in the area of its projected path. There are also a system of thrusters fore and aft that allow controllers to maneuver the pod if required. The onboard system can also perform emergency maneuvers if it determines that a pre-defined scenario has occurred. The thrusters are able to tap into the onboard fuel and basically use the hydrogen as fuel. They are not very efficient (it takes 10 minutes to alter the course of the fuel pod by 1 degree), but they are meant for emergency use only. The pod also contains a series of explosive charges that can be detonated remotely, effectively turning the fuel pod into space-borne flotsam, albeit moving at 1G. The debris resulting from a self-destructed fuel pod is no risk to any starship, and there is a very high likelihood any materials would burn up in the atmosphere of a planet.
Operations
The fueling operations begin at the source of the fuel, usually a gas giant. In the even the station is located near an ice deposit or planetary ice rings, the fuel collection ships are replaced with orbital mining ships of 10k Dton size. There will be sufficient tankers / miners to collect sufficient raw hydrogen to fill all available tank space every 48hrs. Tankers typically operate on 8-12hr schedule (departure, travel to gas giant, descend into the atmosphere to fill their tanks, travel back to the fuel station, unload their tanks into station storage.
The fueling station is crewed to operate on a 24/7 basis. Replacement crews and most supplies are delivered by in-system cargo transports. A fueling station will be located about 90D from the gas giant. This distance is to offer some protection from ships dropping out of jump space directly onto the station. They are rarely armed or armored (most are civilian stations). They may be accompanied by attached escorts and/or fighter squadrons. Some stations have enough traffic to the gas giant (or have nearby colonies or mining outposts) that the fueling station doubles as the local high port and is the primary transit point for that region of space. Fueling stations may also have onboard fuel purification systems to purify fuel prior to shipping. Because most fuel pods can also process fuel in transit, the onboard refinery capability may be sufficient only for local fueling needs. If the fueling station also services military ships on a regular basis, then the refinery capacity will be sufficient to refine all stored hydrogen within 48hrs. Storage tankage generally is sufficient to deliver fuel for seven days without replenishment. Actual volume is dictated by system-wide consumption.
Fuel tug(s) pick up loaded fuel pods at the station, and then begin their acceleration towards the intended target. On average a fuel tug accelerate for 8hrs toward the pod’s destination, and then de-couples from the pod. The trajectory of the pod is calculated to avoid major shipping lanes as much as possible. The pick-up area at the destination is also designed to be well-away from the fuel pods final destination. Typically a pod’s trajectory will take it ‘above’ or ‘below’ a planet’s orbit to provide an additional safety factor. Tugs that are designated to capture in-bound pods will pick up the pod 12hrs out from its intended destination. This is to ensure that the tug has sufficient time to capture and decelerate the pod safely. Once captured the tug will decelerate for the same length of period that it was accelerated for, and then bring the pod to the station where the fuel is to be offloaded. It is very common for a tug to accelerate one pod towards its target and then capture an inbound pod a few hours later.
Fuel pods in transit follow a very predictable and pre-designated path. The actual path is calculated months in advance and refined up to the day of departure. System authorities upload the expected path and location of all fuel pods into planetary data nets and transmit schedules and navigation paths to all system stations on a daily base. Each pod monitors its own path and area around it (up to 25,000Km) and regularly broadcasts its speed and location to any ships in its area. Collisions between pods and ships in a system are extremely rare. The onboard systems have a number of pre-determined scenarios loaded that can influence the actions of the fuel pod while it drifts towards its intended destination, up to and including self-destruct. Pods transmit their status to controllers every 4hrs, and may receive updated trajectory and maneuvering instructions at any time.
Adventure Possibilities
A remote fuel station offers a number of possible adventures for PC’s and the clever referee. This list should not be considered exhaustive:
1) The PC’s are hired by a rival government / corporation /shady individual to interrupt fuel supply deliveries. They are given the task to destroy as many fuel pods in transit as they can without getting caught. Fuel pods are able to perform basic sensor scans of ships in their vicinity, so the PC’s must figure out a way to destroy the pod and any evidence. To keep things more challenging the referee can declare that a destroyed pod has a 75% chance of ejecting a buoy containing all records up to the time of its destruction, including a sensor profile of the ship that attacked it. Finding a buoy, which are designed to be stealthy, is a difficult task (-4 to -6DM) to detect it. Because the buoy can take any trajectory from the destroyed pod, PC’s basically only have minutes to find it before its lost in space. IF they have the right codes, they can transmit a signal that will cause it to emit a homing signal.
2) The PC’s are approached by a third party and are asked to attach as small ‘package’ on a fuel pod outbound from a gas giant towards the mainworld of the system. The PC’s need to come up with a plan that would get them close enough to the pod to attach the package (1/2 DTon) in an area that would not be detectable to a cursory sensor sweep or visual scan. They may need to actually board the pod and attempt to re-program the onboard system so that no record of their ship exists. The referee can determine if the sensor logs are able to be edited, or if the players need to somehow generate a system ‘wipe’… which will trigger backup alarm systems and notify controllers the primary system has gone offline. PC’s may, or may not, be made aware of the secondary systems and their functionality.
3) The PC’s are recruited to interrupt the fuel supplies of a remote outpost in the system. They can elect to simply destroy inbound pods, but their pay will be based on how successful they are able to interrupt the fuel supply without a) getting caught, and b) drawing unwanted attention to the activities from the authorities. Small ‘accidents’, mechanical ‘failures’ etc that seem to be random are what the patron is looking for. They want the facility to have insufficient fuel (for some reason, not shared with the PC’s).
4) The PC’s are hired as a small commando team. Their task is to infiltrate an inbound fuel pod approximately 3 days from the target, hide onboard the pod while it is captured and brought to the facility (a remote asteroid base, space station or planetoid). The facility is highly guarded, but the bulk of the security is designed to detect intruders before they get there. The PC’s will need to move from the fuelling area, enter the installation and retrieve certain information/items, and then get back onboard their fuel pod within a 24hr period. The pod will be fully unloaded in 24hrs and the tug will boost the pod back towards the fuel station by then. The PC’s cannot be picked up from the pod closer than 3 days from the target. Their pickup ship will have the necessary command codes to modify the sensor logs so that the pickup ship is never recorded.
I don't have a regular doc upload site, and I don't use google docs (I know... flog me now...). So here's the info. If you would like for me to email you a copy, just drop me a note and I'll email it to you (though you'll have to tell me where)...
I don't think this is all that polished yet, but that's what you guys are for! Enjoy.
Fuel Harvesting Station
The Fuel Harvesting Station is a Ling Standard Products (LSP) family of products that consist of a remote fuel collection station, a set of in-system tugs vessels for boosting and catching fuel pods, fuel collection vessels, and the fuel pods that deliver fuel to any area of a system. The purpose is to provide a cheap, continuous source of hydrogen system-wide. These stations are typically operated by the local Starport Authority, or sometimes by the system authorities. It is not unheard of to have a local system corporation operating it under contract to a governmental organization. Each station is built to an average of TL-12. LSP has licensed the design for the sub-craft and provides technical resources to systems that are looking to establish such a system. A great deal of planning and consideration is required to safely operate a continuous fuel pod transit system system-wide.
The system consists of the following modules:
Fuel Harvesting Station
The fuel collection station consists of a primary habitat module that functions as the primary central control facility, crew quarters, and a support area for maintaining the fuel pods, tug ships and fuel collection ships. There also is sometimes an accompanying refinery facility for processing raw hydrogen into refined fuel. The fuel collection station is usually orbiting a gas giant, and may contain secondary fuel storage facilities for ships to refuel without collecting the hydrogen on their own. The fuel storage facility will generally keep a good supply of both refined and unrefined fuel available for sale or distribution. The amount will depend on the system traffic. Fuel collection stations may also be placed near ice fields or even as far out as the Oort cloud if that is the only source of fuel. Stations that are deployed that far away require more time for fuel pods to be delivered due to the vast distance. Stations that are shut down may require the deployment of tugs for years after shutting down to catch all of the inbound fuel pods!
Generally there is only one collection facility per system. From that station the booster ships accelerate fuel pods in ballistic trajectories towards the intended recipients. The average time in transit for a fuel pod is 30 days. Remote outposts, stations or secondary consumers may have that time period lengthened, depending on the distance. The rate of supply is tied to the average consumption by the recipient. For extremely busy ports, its not unusual for them to receive multiple fuel pods per day, while remote or very small users may only see one fuel pod a week, or even just once a month. Due to the transit times of a fuel pods, stations must plan in advance for their fuel consumptions. They must also account for possible disruptions in service. Therefore most facilities generally try to keep 5-7 days of fuel on hand at any one time.
Each fuel pod recipient must have at least one fuel pod tug available in order to receive and send fuel pods. Stations or planets that receive multiple daily shipments, or the largest of the available fuel pods will typically have enough tugs to catch and return 2 pods every 8 hours. This number can be increased or decreased as required.
Fuel Tugs
Fuel tugs are basically nothing more than engines, with an attached small bridge and basic crew quarters. A fuel tug has enough fuel onboard for 5 days of operation, basic flight controls and sensors. It is not intended to venture more than 8 – 12 hours from its base. During the boost phase, the tug can move 25,000 Dtons at 1G. Once the pod has reached its’s deployment position the tug de-couples from the fuel pod and either maneuvers to catch an inbound fuel pod or returns to its base. An unburdened tug can accelerate/decelerate at 6G’s. For fuel pods greater than 25k Dtons, multiple tugs may be added to the fuel pod to maintain the delivery period. Alternatively one tug may boost a single pod, but it will require a much longer period in order to achieve the standard 30 day delivery period.
Fuel Collection ships
A 25,000 Dton standard-hull ship outfitted to descend into a Gas Giant to quickly fill its tanks with unrefined hydrogen. The ship itself is capable of 1G, and carries enough fuel for 7 days of operations. The ship has no staterooms fitted, as the crew generally onboard for only short shifts. There is a small (4 Dton) crew rest area. The ship itself is fitted with 6 escape capsules, sufficient for its minimal crew. Sensors are likewise minimal due to its very specific operational design. All maintenance and support is performed back at the fuel harvesting station.
Fuel Pods
Fuel pods come in five standard sizes – 10k, 25k, 50k, 100k and 250k Dtons. Five percent of their mass is devoted to external hull attachments, internal hull bracing, fuel tanks, control systems and fuel processors. The hull of the pod is sufficient to protect against meteorites, but it is an armor factor of 0 against any starship weapon. Each pod also is subdivided into 10 smaller fuel cells to protect against leaks. Fuel from each tank is routed through the on-board processors during the voyage.
Fuel Pod Size Fuel storage Fuel processors
10,000 Dtons 9,500 Dtons 15 tons
25,000 Dtons 23,750 Dtons 40 tons
50,000 Dtons 47,500 Dtons 80 tons
100,000 Dtons 95,000 Dtons 158 tons
250,000 Dtons 237,500 Dtons 375 tons
Note – 1 ton of fuel processors can purify 20 tons of fuel/day. The average duration of a delivery is 30 days (20 tons fuel x 30 days = 600 tons of purified fuel per 1 ton of fuel processors)
Each pod contains a basic navigation system that monitors all aspects of the voyage. A basic communication system is fitted to allow it to transmit regular status reports, receive commands from controllers, as well as emit regular signals every 10 minutes warning all traffic in the area of its projected path. There are also a system of thrusters fore and aft that allow controllers to maneuver the pod if required. The onboard system can also perform emergency maneuvers if it determines that a pre-defined scenario has occurred. The thrusters are able to tap into the onboard fuel and basically use the hydrogen as fuel. They are not very efficient (it takes 10 minutes to alter the course of the fuel pod by 1 degree), but they are meant for emergency use only. The pod also contains a series of explosive charges that can be detonated remotely, effectively turning the fuel pod into space-borne flotsam, albeit moving at 1G. The debris resulting from a self-destructed fuel pod is no risk to any starship, and there is a very high likelihood any materials would burn up in the atmosphere of a planet.
Operations
The fueling operations begin at the source of the fuel, usually a gas giant. In the even the station is located near an ice deposit or planetary ice rings, the fuel collection ships are replaced with orbital mining ships of 10k Dton size. There will be sufficient tankers / miners to collect sufficient raw hydrogen to fill all available tank space every 48hrs. Tankers typically operate on 8-12hr schedule (departure, travel to gas giant, descend into the atmosphere to fill their tanks, travel back to the fuel station, unload their tanks into station storage.
The fueling station is crewed to operate on a 24/7 basis. Replacement crews and most supplies are delivered by in-system cargo transports. A fueling station will be located about 90D from the gas giant. This distance is to offer some protection from ships dropping out of jump space directly onto the station. They are rarely armed or armored (most are civilian stations). They may be accompanied by attached escorts and/or fighter squadrons. Some stations have enough traffic to the gas giant (or have nearby colonies or mining outposts) that the fueling station doubles as the local high port and is the primary transit point for that region of space. Fueling stations may also have onboard fuel purification systems to purify fuel prior to shipping. Because most fuel pods can also process fuel in transit, the onboard refinery capability may be sufficient only for local fueling needs. If the fueling station also services military ships on a regular basis, then the refinery capacity will be sufficient to refine all stored hydrogen within 48hrs. Storage tankage generally is sufficient to deliver fuel for seven days without replenishment. Actual volume is dictated by system-wide consumption.
Fuel tug(s) pick up loaded fuel pods at the station, and then begin their acceleration towards the intended target. On average a fuel tug accelerate for 8hrs toward the pod’s destination, and then de-couples from the pod. The trajectory of the pod is calculated to avoid major shipping lanes as much as possible. The pick-up area at the destination is also designed to be well-away from the fuel pods final destination. Typically a pod’s trajectory will take it ‘above’ or ‘below’ a planet’s orbit to provide an additional safety factor. Tugs that are designated to capture in-bound pods will pick up the pod 12hrs out from its intended destination. This is to ensure that the tug has sufficient time to capture and decelerate the pod safely. Once captured the tug will decelerate for the same length of period that it was accelerated for, and then bring the pod to the station where the fuel is to be offloaded. It is very common for a tug to accelerate one pod towards its target and then capture an inbound pod a few hours later.
Fuel pods in transit follow a very predictable and pre-designated path. The actual path is calculated months in advance and refined up to the day of departure. System authorities upload the expected path and location of all fuel pods into planetary data nets and transmit schedules and navigation paths to all system stations on a daily base. Each pod monitors its own path and area around it (up to 25,000Km) and regularly broadcasts its speed and location to any ships in its area. Collisions between pods and ships in a system are extremely rare. The onboard systems have a number of pre-determined scenarios loaded that can influence the actions of the fuel pod while it drifts towards its intended destination, up to and including self-destruct. Pods transmit their status to controllers every 4hrs, and may receive updated trajectory and maneuvering instructions at any time.
Adventure Possibilities
A remote fuel station offers a number of possible adventures for PC’s and the clever referee. This list should not be considered exhaustive:
1) The PC’s are hired by a rival government / corporation /shady individual to interrupt fuel supply deliveries. They are given the task to destroy as many fuel pods in transit as they can without getting caught. Fuel pods are able to perform basic sensor scans of ships in their vicinity, so the PC’s must figure out a way to destroy the pod and any evidence. To keep things more challenging the referee can declare that a destroyed pod has a 75% chance of ejecting a buoy containing all records up to the time of its destruction, including a sensor profile of the ship that attacked it. Finding a buoy, which are designed to be stealthy, is a difficult task (-4 to -6DM) to detect it. Because the buoy can take any trajectory from the destroyed pod, PC’s basically only have minutes to find it before its lost in space. IF they have the right codes, they can transmit a signal that will cause it to emit a homing signal.
2) The PC’s are approached by a third party and are asked to attach as small ‘package’ on a fuel pod outbound from a gas giant towards the mainworld of the system. The PC’s need to come up with a plan that would get them close enough to the pod to attach the package (1/2 DTon) in an area that would not be detectable to a cursory sensor sweep or visual scan. They may need to actually board the pod and attempt to re-program the onboard system so that no record of their ship exists. The referee can determine if the sensor logs are able to be edited, or if the players need to somehow generate a system ‘wipe’… which will trigger backup alarm systems and notify controllers the primary system has gone offline. PC’s may, or may not, be made aware of the secondary systems and their functionality.
3) The PC’s are recruited to interrupt the fuel supplies of a remote outpost in the system. They can elect to simply destroy inbound pods, but their pay will be based on how successful they are able to interrupt the fuel supply without a) getting caught, and b) drawing unwanted attention to the activities from the authorities. Small ‘accidents’, mechanical ‘failures’ etc that seem to be random are what the patron is looking for. They want the facility to have insufficient fuel (for some reason, not shared with the PC’s).
4) The PC’s are hired as a small commando team. Their task is to infiltrate an inbound fuel pod approximately 3 days from the target, hide onboard the pod while it is captured and brought to the facility (a remote asteroid base, space station or planetoid). The facility is highly guarded, but the bulk of the security is designed to detect intruders before they get there. The PC’s will need to move from the fuelling area, enter the installation and retrieve certain information/items, and then get back onboard their fuel pod within a 24hr period. The pod will be fully unloaded in 24hrs and the tug will boost the pod back towards the fuel station by then. The PC’s cannot be picked up from the pod closer than 3 days from the target. Their pickup ship will have the necessary command codes to modify the sensor logs so that the pickup ship is never recorded.
