More star juice...I mean, fuel.

[Vargr]

Older versions of Traveller had things called "Drop Fuel Tanks", "Dismountable Fuel Tanks" and "Fuel Bladders", the last as I understand could be External or Internal.

Is there any information for these methods to carry extra ship's fuel on any MGT publication? I've looked into the rulebook but came up with nothing.

 

[rust]

Drop Tanks are one of the options described in High Guard.

 

[Vargr]

Does that mean only military ships use those?

What about the other two, dismountables and bladders?

 

[rust]

Does that mean only military ships use those?

No, it is a general option for all spaceships.

What about the other two, dismountables and bladders?

I do not remember to have seen them anywhere, but this does not mean
much, because I do not use them in my settings anyway.

 

[AndrewW]

Spinward Marches makes mention of fuel bladders.

 

[Dave Chase]

Not sure if these exist in MGT version but they are found in the CT book:
Supplement 7

Module Fuel tank, pg 22

A modular 40-ton fuel tank can
be installed in the cargo bay. Installation cuts off the rear doors and makes them
unusable. Using these tanks, the ship can make a second one parsec jump with only
a twenty hour delay. The delay is required because of standard safety checks
required on the ship, and to allow pumping the fuel from the demountable tanks to
the wing tanks. Fuel must be in the wing tanks for proper feed to the drives. Cargo
capacity of the ship is reduced to 160 tons. The demountable tanks cost MCr.5.
It is important to remember that these demountable tanks are not collapsible. When
removed or not in use, they still take up 40 tons of space, and must be stored or
warehoused in some manner.

Dismountable fuel tank, pg 27

Dismountable fuel tanks can be used in the ore bays to increase the fuel tankage
back to forty tons, but at a reduction of ore bay tonnage to ten tons total. With
normal tankage, the ship can achieve jump-1 ;with the dismountable tanks full, the
ship can achieve jump-2.
Base price for the surplus

I cant remember where I read about fuel bladders and collasible tanks.

Dave Chase

 

[phavoc]

Fuel bladders today are simply over-sized rubber bags holding diesel, gasoline or jet fuel. They are extremely low-tech as far as Traveller would be concerned. All you need is a space to lay them out and a place to connect your hose and viola! Your fuel storage is ready.

Now you can get a little more fancy if you want to create a framework to hold the bladder in a specific area, and maybe a portable fuel pump to pump it from tank to tank, or if you don't have the requisite machinery available to you in your ship.

Though a more generalized question would be about the fuel itself. Unrefined fuel can be derived from sticking your hose in a water source, which makes it easily handled since its liquid. Though when you are diving into a gas giant with your fuel scoops open, I'm assuming that the gases are compressed and the hydrogen pressurized and cooled to make it a liquid?

 

[Colin]

Unrefined fuel is hydrogen cracked out of water, with possible impurities. All starship fuel in Traveller is liquid hydrogen, requiring cryogenic storage. The bladder wouldn't work, but some sort of super-insulated collapsible tank might.

 

[BP]

High Guard (*and the free SRD) contains half a page on Drop Tanks (p43). There is also a paragraph on 'safer' non-liquid hydrogen Metal Hydride Storage with modified damage rules.

For bladders, extra plumbing, cryo stuffs would be neccessary - so some tonnage loss. This thread had some ideas...