High-Burn Thrusters

[SSWarlock]

I've been looking over the equipment in Book 6: Scoundrel and rediscovered the entry on High-Burn Thrusters on page 88. Given that they provide "...a temporary speed boost to a ship...", some questions popped into my head.

Does the use of high-burn thrusters allow spacecraft with Maneuver 6 drives to exceed the 6G limit?

If so, what are the effects on a ship's crew of the additional uncompensated Gs these thrusters provide?

Finally, how does the use of the thrusters affect a ship's detectability?

Thoughts?

 

[barnest2]

Does the use of high-burn thrusters allow spacecraft with Maneuver 6 drives to exceed the 6G limit?

I would say yes, But I don't know by how much.

If so, what are the effects on a ship's crew of the additional uncompensated Gs these thrusters provide?

Well I'm assuming it's only a maximum of a couple of G's right? If so, very little. You get pushed back into your seat a little maybe. After all, high G roller coasters make 3-6G's, which is more than you're going to get out of those thrusters.

Finally, how does the use of the thrusters affect a ship's detectability?

I would give a bonus to detections rolls. But not that much. it's still not much heat (assuming reaction rockets) compared to a fusion reactor.

 

[apoc527]

Not sure about the rest, but a ship under high-burn thrusters is going to be quite a bit more noticeable.

 

[AndrewW]

Does the use of high-burn thrusters allow spacecraft with Maneuver 6 drives to exceed the 6G limit?

"Note that small craft under 70 tons can achieve Thrust ratings greater than 6. This is not possible on bigger ships due to stress limitations on larger hulls.

That said I don't have an official answer but did get a yes when I asked Mongoose Publishing about this myself.

 

[zero]

As an aside, when I design ship interiors if it touches Thrust 2 and above (my own faithful Stubby Merchant ship is Thrust 2), I have seats more like dentist-chair style "Grav-couches" from the old school scifi space rockets designs (at 2G+ it'll be harder to lift arms up when sat so they come with controls built into the arms, of course :wink: ) and I even have them on gimbals to suit gravity for tail and belly landing.

Of course artificial gravity in Traveller kinda handwaves all that, but I like a little realism in my ships, even if its justified as a minor safety measure for when the artificial gravity goes out

Also I just kinda pick and choose from ideas Atomic Rockets has on that website. :roll:

 

[SSWarlock]

Thank you, all, for the replies.

Here's what I'm thinking regarding the effects of HB thrusters.

1) For every 1/2 G above a character's homeworld G rating, skill rolls are 1 level more difficult.

2) For every 1G of thrust provided by HB thrusters, sensor tasks against the ship using HB thrusters is 1 level easier.

Too much? Too little?

 

[AndrewW]

1) For every 1/2 G above a character's homeworld G rating, skill rolls are 1 level more difficult.

2) For every 1G of thrust provided by HB thrusters, sensor tasks against the ship using HB thrusters is 1 level easier.

Is that for every 1/2 or 1 G above 6?

Some small craft can exceed this even without high burn thrusters.

 

[lastbesthope]

(at 2G+ it'll be harder to lift arms up when sat so they come with controls built into the arms, of course :wink: )

Our old aeronautics lecturer used to tell us that for our in flight manoeuvering labs, that the effort of lifting a pencil/pen in your hand at 2G was like lifting a pint of beer normally, something he found students were quite used to :lol:

LBH

 

[rust]

After all, high G roller coasters make 3-6G's, which is more than you're going to get out of those thrusters.

True, but 6 G for more than a second is already enough to black out for
many people, which is why it is the usual limit for our normal air force pi-
lot training flights (combat training goes of course to higher Gs, but it is
not done over inhabited areas).

 

[barnest2]

Yes, but assuming your ship can compensate for 6G's, and the thrusters don't push you much beyond that, you're fine, no?
Say a high-burn thrusters pushes you up too 8G's. You'll only be pulling 2G's after your compensator's do their work, right?
Unless you have silly compensator's that stop working completely when pushed past their maximum.

 

[DFW]

Finally, how does the use of the thrusters affect a ship's detectability?

Thoughts?

The Shuttle's booster could be seen from Earth if it was on Pluto. Its maneuvering thrusters (small for use in orbit) could be detected from the Asteroid belt from Earth. This is with TL 7 IR detectors... Given that most ships in MGT are TL 12. This would make your ship detectable throughout the entire solar system, barring the star and/or planetary objects blocking LOS.

 

[rust]

Say a high-burn thrusters pushes you up too 8G's. You'll only be pulling 2G's after your compensator's do their work, right?
Unless you have silly compensator's that stop working completely when pushed past their maximum.

Yep, this is where the hare is in the pepper*, it all depends on how you
decide the compensators work, whether they can handle some overload
or fail completely.

* old Swabian proverb, meaning unclear in Swabian, too

 

[barnest2]

Fail completely? Find me fighter pilots to crew my ship
The not fail versions... I just need people who aren't scared of coasters

the hare is in the pepper

...Mind... Blown...

 

[rust]

the hare is in the pepper
...Mind... Blown...

The long version would be something like "This is the house where our
mysteriously disappeared pet animal is served in pepper sauce", but I
am not sure that it is easier to comprehend. :?

 

[barnest2]

That makes... a little more sense? At least it makes sense as a sentence, while the other is just confusing...

 

[rust]

That makes... a little more sense?

The alternative proverb with the same meaning would be
"This is where the dog was buried" ...

 

[barnest2]

... This sounds like the equivalent of 'you hit the nail on the head'... So at that point, I get it yay!

 

[BP]

Aye, there's the rub! :lol:

 

[SSWarlock]

1) For every 1/2 G above a character's homeworld G rating, skill rolls are 1 level more difficult.

2) For every 1G of thrust provided by HB thrusters, sensor tasks against the ship using HB thrusters is 1 level easier.

Is that for every 1/2 or 1 G above 6?

Some small craft can exceed this even without high burn thrusters.

It's for every uncompensated 1/2G above the character's homeworld G rating. A ship with a 3G M-drive installed has that drive's 3Gs compensated for. Adding in a 3G HB thruster would give it a top thrust of 6Gs with 3Gs uncompensated. At full combined thrust the crew wouldn't be able to do much other than very simple tasks, assuming none are from high-G homeworlds.

Of course, tasks performed by the ship's computer (like Pilot and Gunnery) wouldn't be affected.

All this IMO, of course. In fact..*ponderponder*..all this is beginning to sound darn familiar. Now I'm wondering if I'm pulling this stuff from memories of a version of Traveller previous to MongTrav. T4 maybe (which I've dumped) or TNE?

I've got so much Traveller material from so many years it's all running together.

 

[SSWarlock]

Does the use of high-burn thrusters allow spacecraft with Maneuver 6 drives to exceed the 6G limit?

"Note that small craft under 70 tons can achieve Thrust ratings greater than 6. This is not possible on bigger ships due to stress limitations on larger hulls.

That said I don't have an official answer but did get a yes when I asked Mongoose Publishing about this myself.

Ah ha! *rolls back sleeves for extravagant hand-waving*

"The stress limitations on larger hulls is not due to acceleration forces, as most people believe, but rather due to the stresses inherent in the harmonics of the compensation fields when forced to encompass hulls of specific volumes at accelerations above definitive stepped thresholds."
- Dr. Garen Lantee
Deparment of Applied Technologies
University of Rhylanor