Jump-6 Liner

[AnotherDilbert]

A small basic J-6 liner:

200 dT, J-6, 2G, MCr 157 in quantity.
Jump fuel carried in a 300 dT drop tank that is carried trough the jump, drives dimensioned for 500 dT.
10 dT streamlined interface / life boat.
6 crew, 14 staterooms, 8 passengers.
The ship is somewhat cramped with only half the normal common areas.

Total costs about kCr 380 / jump.
Revenue kCr 470 / passenger, so up to kCr 3760 / jump.
Earning potential about MCr 3 / jump, so about MCr 75 / year. The ship can pay for itself in 2 - 3 years.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

If we instead drop the tanks we get something like:

110 dT, J-6, 2G (1G with tanks), MCr 67 in quantity.
Jump fuel carried in a 66 dT that is dropped every jump.
10 dT streamlined interface / life boat.
4 crew, 12 staterooms, 8 passengers.
The ship is somewhat cramped with only half the normal common areas.


Total costs about kCr 1130 / jump, including 58% replacement drop tank.
Revenue kCr / passenger, so up to kCr 3760 / jump.
Earning potential about MCr 2.5 / jump, so about MCr 60 / year. The ship can pay for itself in 1 - 2 years.

The disadvantage is that we need more passengers to break even.

 

[Reynard]

What is this, the Emperor's personal yacht?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I'm trying to look at the economics of a J-6 liner at the stated kCr 470 per high passenger, with and without expending drop tanks.

 

[PsiTraveller]

Put the fuel in Demountable Tanks (1000/ton) on External Cargo Mounts (100/ton). This is usable for Jumping and saves the Drop Tank collar tonnage as well, and is cheaper then a Drop Tank (25 000 / ton)

 

[AnotherDilbert]

That is quite sneaky.

I think that is technically not allowed. Demountable Tanks must be placed in "Cargo Space". "Cargo Space" is defined as an internal component on p22. External cargo mounts allows you to carry cargo, but is not "Cargo Space".

I agree that we should have Exterior Demountable Tanks (as in CT TCS). Off the cuff I would say they need to be hardened to withstand space and make them somewhat cheaper than Drop Tanks, say kCr 20 / dT.

 

[Condottiere]

The correct plumbing is essential.

 

[PsiTraveller]

Scoundrel book page 93: The External Cargo Trader has 500 tons of external cargo: 470 tons of cargo and 30 tons of fuel supply tied into the Jump Drives to give J2. So storing fuel externally was allowed in 1st edition. It did not say in Demountable tanks, so just put up cargo space at full price externally, which costs twice what drop tanks cost (but no mention of docking collars at 0.5 MCr per ton).

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The Exterior Cargo Trader doesn't seem to be strictly legal under the rules for external cargo in Scoundrel...

It does not use Demountable Tanks, but as far as I can see it could, since the MgT1 rules for external cargo are rather different. Note that Drop tanks are almost as cheap as Demountable Tanks in MgT1, so they are presumably both resonably space-worthy.

 

[PsiTraveller]

There seems to be no cost for the 30 tons of fuel stored externally on the trader.
Making a box of spaceworthy material and putting a tank inside it seems simple enough. Running a pipe through the hull to the Jump Engines is a plumbing issue and seems possible. Having it use less tonnage than Drop Tank collars makes sense since there does not need to be split second timing to release the tank before a Jump field forms.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

There seems to be no cost for the 30 tons of fuel stored externally on the trader.

I think it is regular no-cost (internal) tanks placed in the external section, which I think is not correct.

Making a box of spaceworthy material and putting a tank inside it seems simple enough. Running a pipe through the hull to the Jump Engines is a plumbing issue and seems possible. Having it use less tonnage than Drop Tank collars makes sense since there does not need to be split second timing to release the tank before a Jump field forms.

Agreed, but the External Demountable Tanks should not be an order of magnitude cheaper than the Drop Tanks, which is why I suggested kCr ~20 / dT, slightly cheaper than a Drop Tanks or non-gravity hull. Note that in CT Exterior Demountable Tanks cost the same as Drop Tanks for the tanks themselves.

 

[Condottiere]

The jump drive will be doing a lot of sucking in order to fill up that jump bubble, so you'll need certified pipes that can handle the load and pressure.