Quick Jump Turnaround

[Terry Mixon]

@Hardwire asked this in the Ship Design Thread and I think it deserves its own thread, so I’m reposting it here.

What was asked:

Hello all, I am looking for information as to the cooldown of jump engines. If a ship has enough fuel to make 2 jumps how long must they wait after exiting one jump before they can enter another jump? I seen it somewhere but can't find it now. If you know what book and page this is discussed on I would appreciate it.

 

[CordwainerFish]

First place I'd look is both of the Starship Operator's Manuals and The Imperial Navy, which should return somewhere between two and four answers.

 

[Terry Mixon]

First place I'd look is both of the Starship Operator's Manuals and The Imperial Navy, which should return somewhere between two and four answers.

So true.

 

[Condottiere]

You tend to want to look around first, and take stock of your (current) situation.

You probably want to confirm that you are where you wanted to be, and that should eat up a couple of rounds.

As regards to the cooldown period of your jump drive, it's already had a week.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I can give you the CT answer easy enough:

"It is possible for a ship to make another jump almost immediately (within an hour) after returning to normal space, but standard procedures call for at least a 16 hour wait to allow cursory drive checks and some recharging."

 

[rinku]

At the very least, the Astrogator is going to need time to fix position and do their thing. But that's also concurrent with any drive stuff the engineer needs to do.

If the second jump doesn't need to be particularly accurate (say, a jump to somewhere unobserved in the target system) you could probably pre-plot it in Jumpspace, though. If it turns out you arrived wildly off course and it can't be used, no harm - just means doing what you would have done normally.

 

[AndrewW]

At the very least, the Astrogator is going to need time to fix position and do their thing. But that's also concurrent with any drive stuff the engineer needs to do.

That's assuming the astrogator isn't the same person as the jump engineer.

 

[CordwainerFish]

That's assuming the astrogator isn't the same person as the jump engineer.

And also assuming the engineer's tasks do not rely on the results of the astrogator's, which is not what I always envisioned.

 

[rinku]

I was just referring to unrelated tasks, like checking for damage, discharging tachyon buildup, replacing quantum, and whatever else gets done between jumps that they usually have a week to sort out. And of course - if the astrogator is also the engineer the tasks will be consecutive.

Whatever the engineer needs to do once the plot is ready and the ship is where it needs to be to jump, happens normally.

 

[Hardwire]

What is quoted as from CT is the closest that comes to what I was looking for. And truthfully that may be where I seen it.

I am trying to develop a system and I am looking for a drawback that would prevent the over use of it.

Let me see if I have how jump drives work. The drive rapidly burns fuel building a charge, then releases that charge to envelop the ship in a bubble of Hyperspace allowing the ship to move faster then light outside of normal space.

 

[rinku]

I don't yet have the MGT Starship Operator's Handbook, but the MegaT one goes into it in some detail, I think, and has all those useful MegaTraveller detailed tasks. I'll have a look.

Edit: Nothing there.

 

[Hardwire]

I don't yet have the MGT Starship Operator's Handbook, but the MegaT one goes into it in some detail, I think, and has all those useful MegaTraveller detailed tasks. I'll have a look.

Edit: Nothing there.

Looked in the Starship Operator's Handbook and even though it has a lot of stuff it didn't cover this.

 

[rinku]

There might be something in TNE or MegaTraveller proper. I'll check those.

 

[Hardwire]

Ok I have come to the conclusion that there isn't any official rule so I will just go with that fact. If I need something I will have to come up with it.

But thanks all for sharing your thoughts on this.

 

[rinku]

Nothing I could find in TNE. The MGT2e22 CRB only has this, which is similar to text going back to CT:

"If haste is called for, a ship may refuel at a gas
giant immediately and re-jump right away. This allows
the ship to make one jump per week but makes no
provision for cargo, passengers or local stops."

Since frontier refueling, or even docking at a starport and getting fuel there takes a certain amount of time (100D to fuel point, 100D to jump point), any between jump jobs would likely just be done in that timeframe.

Might as well use Sigtrygg's CT quote, wherever that comes from (I haven't found the source yet, but it sounds familiar).