Ship Design Philosophy

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Inspiration: Total War: Warhammer 40,000 – Announce Trailer

There is no peace amongst the stars.

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Starships: Engineering and Reactionary Rockets

1. I was designing the Roccoon class.

2. Current configuration is matching the Venture Drive, with a set of reactionary rockets for propulsion.

3. Comparatively, while a reactionary rocket requires double the space of a manoeuvre thruster, but five times the cost for a given acceleration factor.

4. But, the actual issue is power plant energy draw, and fuel consumption.

5. For a hundred tonne volume at factor/one acceleration, the default thruster is one tonne, costs two megastarbux, requires ten power points from a one tonne early fusion reactor, consuming 0.0001488095238095238 tonnes of fuel per hour.

6. For a hundred tonne volume at factor/one acceleration, the default rocket is two tonnes, costs two fifths megastarbux, requires zero power points, consuming 2.5 tonnes of fuel per hour.

7. That's two and a half megastarbux versus two fifths megastarbux, difference two and one tenth megastarbux.

8. Two tonnes plusish, versus four and a half tonnes, difference a tad under two and a half tonnes.

9. For the first hour, and that difference widens, two and a half tonnes for every subsequent hour, if accelerating at factor/one.

 

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Starships: Engineering and Reactionary Rockets

A. We could make the rockets budgetter.

B. Unfortunately, saving one tenth of a megastarbux, changes fuel consumption to 3.125 tonnes per hour, at full acceleration.

C. Not accounting for lost opportunity cost for displaced cargo space, two and one fifth megastarbux is the equivalent of 14'666.66666666667 tonnes of raw fuel, at one hundred fifty starbux per tonne.

D. 4'693.333333333333 hours of acceleration, though not all on one tank.

E. That's one hundred ninety five days, thirteen hours, and twenty minutes.

F. If you can minimize acceleration to a couple of hours every fortnight, you can probably draw this out over forty years.

 

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Starships: Engineering and Reactionary Rockets

G. Assuming a starship changes hands at fair market value, the accounting clock is reset.

H. Though, a little investment could extend that.

I. Highly technologize it at technological level ten, you can reduce fuel consumption by sixty percent.

J. That would be three sixths megastarbux, difference one and nine tenths megastarbux.

K. 12'666.66666666667 hours of acceleration, at one hundred fifty starbux per tonne.

 

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Starships: Engineering and Reactionary Rockets

L. Primitive hulls cannot install jump or manoeuvre drives.

M. They can, however, install probably anything else.

N. Though, currently limited to rockets, plasma drives, and solar sails.

O. Hop and skip is unclarified.

P. However, they could be attached to a non primitive hull.

 

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Starships: Engineering and Reactionary Rockets

Q. Ships with streamlined or dispersed structure hull configurations cannot use external cargo mounts.

R. But, apparently, planetoids can.

S. Landing a ship requires a Difficult (10+) Pilot check.

T. Detach the external cargo mount, and park it in orbit.

U. And speaking of landing, exactly how do you land on retro rockets, that makes more sense than the reverse of taking off in Traveller?

 

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Starships: Engineering and Reactionary Rockets

V. Minimums are six tonne small bridge, ten tonne jump drive, two tonne stateroom, one tonne manoeuvre drive, two tonne early fusion reactor, and thirteen tonne fuel tank.

W. Thirty four tonnes, twelve and a half megastarbux, not counting the hull, and attachments.

X. Optionally, turn the small bridge in a jump specialized control centre, and add a one and a half tonne monocockpit, for an additional ten kilostarbux.

Y. That, obviously, caps primary hull size to fifty tonnes.

Z. And leaves open fourteen and a half tonnes, for interior design.

 

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Starships: Engineering and Reactionary Rockets

1. Planetoid hull would extend to sixty two and a half tonnes, usable fifty tonnes.

2. Buffered, 76.92307692307692 tonnes.

3. Since there would be a jump drive installed, have to use an unprimitive hull variant.

4. That would have an organic artificial gravity field.

5. Sixty two and a half tonne unbuffered planetoid hull would be a quarter of a megastarbux.

6. Balance would be thirty seven and a half tonnes for a total of a hundred tonnes.

7. And, fifty seven and a half tonnes for one hundred twenty tonnes total.

8. External cargo mount is a kilostarbux per cargo tonne.

9. Ten kilogrammes of interplanetary jump net at a kilostarbux, per cargo tonne capacity.

 

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Starships: Engineering and Reactionary Rockets

A. Obviously, you can squeeze more cargo out of the external cargo mount, which surprisingly, doesn't take up volume on it's own.

B. Though, it's uncertain whether the rated amount is added on, regardless whether the capacity is filled, or not.

C. But, the cargo will be static, unlike that that would be slung in the jump net.

D. And, you could position airlocks and hatches, to directly access the interior of the external cargo mount (contents).

E. The cost of the jump net remains the same, regardless if used to capacity.

F. But, capacity variations would have a direct effect on primary hull performance.

 

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Starships: Engineering and Reactionary Rockets

G. However, what the external cargo mount, and the jump net, does, is provide potential cargo capacity.

H. Cargo, especially fragile ones like humans, need vacuum proof packing.

I. Unless they are mined space rocks, you have to add spacecraft hull (costs).

J. An alternative would be a docking clamp.

K. Junker rules tend to view welding on extra hulls as an extension of the primary hull.

 

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Starships: Engineering and Reactionary Rockets

L. Without the cockpit, the fifty tonne cap falls away.

M. Tonnage then either becomes less than fifty, one hundred, or one hundred twenty tonnes.

N. One hundred twenty tonnes is the simplest, but requires that cargo is internal.

O. One hundred tonnes is a compromise, that allows twenty tonnes latitude, and ensures that the Roccoon can jump with the basic hull.

P. Less than fifty tonnes will be what's minimum size, plus what can be eliminated or scaled downwards.

 

[Condottiere]

Inspiration: Falkenberg’s Legion (The CoDominium Years & The Mercenary ) by Jerry Pournelle 1 of 2

Funny thing about Pournelle, is that he tended to foretell a lot what has happened.

Even, what I had not thought possible, the birth of the CoDominium, meant to suppress the Europeans and Asians.

 

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Inspiration: Falkenberg’s Legion (The CoDominium Years & The Mercenary ) by Jerry Pournelle 2 of 2