Near Future Traveller

[Condottiere]

Going by The Expanse, clearly identify actions, and items, that mitigate the effects of high acceleration, and to what extent.

Going by High Guard, if you restrict acceleration to two and nine tenths gee, you can go about your business, citizen.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I am not going by the Expanse, I am going by Traveller rules as found in the core books.

Seated and in a g-suit up to 2g can be tolerated for combat at TL7, 3g at TL8, stretching the rules you could allow a g-suit to allow toleration for the hours long 2g or 3g burns. But the long term effects of 5 or more hours of 2g or 3g are likely to heart damage and increased likelihood of strokes and the like.

g-tolerance drugs don't kick in until TL9, but I am starting to consider a TL8/TL9 boundary setting.

No gravitics, but g tolerance drugs and the jump drive invented...

At TL9 the 1-3 reaction drive reduces to 1.75% fuel, the 4 to 6 is now 2%.

g-drugs and a g-suit would allow for trained crews to flit about 3g routinely, with up to 4g being tolerable...

remote/robot with disadvantages TL9 reaction engines could go all the way to 15g (1 disadvantage, 25% increased fuel use) or even higher 16g (2 disadvantages, 50% increased fuel use). Even more useful in combat search and rescue...

the setting is starting to write itself.

 

[Condottiere]

Going by High Guard, no penalties (for humans), upto factor/one and nine tenths acceleration.

Automatic pass for pilots and flyers upto factor/two and nine tenths acceleration; easy pass for everyone else, or, if failed, minus one task penalty.

At this point, you start evaluating mitigating factors.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Going by High Guard, no penalties (for humans), upto factor/one and nine tenths acceleration.

Automatic pass for pilots and flyers upto factor/two and nine tenths acceleration; easy pass for everyone else, or, if failed, minus one task penalty.

At this point, you start evaluating mitigating factors.

That's for combat, not for 10 hours of acceleration per trip for years on end.

 

[Condottiere]

That, I figured out quite a while back.

Between seventy to one hundred forty percent Terran gravitational norm.

I tend to stick to seventy percent, when I'm squeezed on engine performance, and/or fuel capacity.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Since I am fixated on the 10g hours, using 0.5g thrust will give you thrust gravity for 20 hours, I wonder what the lowest would be that still gives a benefit to normal physiology, would 0.33g for 30 hours be better for long duration travel on ships with no spin gravity?

 

[Condottiere]

A third is Mars norm, so whatever is recommended for that.

 

[rinku]

If civilian ships are routinely taking off from dirtside, booster services would make sense, though it's probably more sensible to employ shuttles in the first place. Launch ramps may also be worth looking at, and there's also the lift effect airframes provide that may let the ship gain enough altitude to make orbit (highly dependent on local conditions).

Lack of gravitics makes orbital stations a lot more attractive (in standard Traveller it really doesn't make much difference if there's a highport or not.

Also... just because a civilian ship doesn't usually thrust harder than 1G doesn't mean they wouldn't consider 2G drives, especially if they ARE making planetfall a lot. If the alternative is paying someone to boost you to where you can continue, or carrying a shuttle, maybe it is worth installing a larger reaction drive. You won't need to run the jump drive during liftoff, so the extra power points are probably there on a starship. A 1.5G reaction drive might also suffice - in this sort of setting I would DEFINTELY bother with fractional thrusts and extend the travel tables.

With larger ships you can also generate spin gravity simply by spinning the whole ship, cheaper than hamster cages. Sleeping quarters are next to the outer hull, but portholes may not be advised... beds and floors can be set up to adjust to whatever the current acceleration vector is.

You also need to look at how long it is before low gravity health issues kick in. If following the default one week in jumpspace (no G unless you spin) followed by one week of gravity (either thrusting to or from jump point, then on a planet or rotating station), you may not need much special attention to the matter, or rule that people need to exercise while in Jump. There's also the possibility that in this setting medical science has come up with something to help out.