Imagine Trade in Traveller between Alpha Centauri and the Sol system. It's Jump 2 distance. You are on the Alpha Centauri world and you have significant volumes of goods for Terra/Luna, Mars, and Titan. And incidental goods for the various other locations in the Sol system. What is the most likely way this trade is managed for the large contract shipping routes? There is obviously going to be tramp trade, but the vast majority of the goods are going to be standard, scheduled routes.
Is it:
1) Three jump ships each loaded with the goods for their specific destination
2) One jump ship that goes to Terra/Luna and lets everyone else's goods get reshipped on non jump vessels based at the starport
3) Jump Tenders that regularly carry non jump freighters between the two systems and they go their separate ways from there?
4) Is the answer different for Mars and Titan, given how far Titan is from Earth compared to Mars?
Secondary questions
1) Does the answers above change depending on how far apart the different planets are at the time of transit? Mars can be anywhere from 50m and 400m km from Earth (farther, really, since you can't fly through the sun).
2) How important is it for a ship to be able to go directly to a Terran downport? Is that even legal or would customs/quarantine be at the highport?
Tertiary Questions
1) How far can you put a starport from a planet without the planet leaving it behind as it zooms around the solar system? Frex: can you put a refueling station at the 100D limit without it needing to be effectively just a tanker ship?
2) Micro jumping is so much more expensive than sublight travel that I don't think it would be used for commercial shipping (except for passenger vessels). Agree/Disagree?
3) Would LASh benefit from making the lighters into drone ships? Does that fit the Charted Space sensibilities?
Is it:
1) Three jump ships each loaded with the goods for their specific destination
2) One jump ship that goes to Terra/Luna and lets everyone else's goods get reshipped on non jump vessels based at the starport
3) Jump Tenders that regularly carry non jump freighters between the two systems and they go their separate ways from there?
4) Is the answer different for Mars and Titan, given how far Titan is from Earth compared to Mars?
Secondary questions
1) Does the answers above change depending on how far apart the different planets are at the time of transit? Mars can be anywhere from 50m and 400m km from Earth (farther, really, since you can't fly through the sun).
2) How important is it for a ship to be able to go directly to a Terran downport? Is that even legal or would customs/quarantine be at the highport?
Tertiary Questions
1) How far can you put a starport from a planet without the planet leaving it behind as it zooms around the solar system? Frex: can you put a refueling station at the 100D limit without it needing to be effectively just a tanker ship?
2) Micro jumping is so much more expensive than sublight travel that I don't think it would be used for commercial shipping (except for passenger vessels). Agree/Disagree?
3) Would LASh benefit from making the lighters into drone ships? Does that fit the Charted Space sensibilities?