Ship Design Philosophy

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: The First Space Settlement

One day humanity will settle space, but what will that first settlement be like and where will it be? In Orbit? The Moon? Mars? Or somewhere else entirely?

We did not land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us.


If you build a large enough space station, outside of hundred planetary diameters, it would be an independent political entity under the (in)direct control of the Imperium.

 

[Sigtrygg]

No, the space habitat becomes a member 'world'.

 

[Condottiere]

More in the sense that any inhabited worlds insystem cannot exert sovereignty.

While anything within Imperium space is considered by default Imperium property.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Canon says otherwise. An asteroid settlement with people on it can declare sovereignty and petition for Imperial membership.

 

[Condottiere]

Asteroid belts tend to be beyond a hundred planetary diameters.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Armaments and The Soviet Rikhter R-23 Space Cannon

Developed in the late 1950's, the Rikhter R-23 cannon was specifically developed for use on Soviet air bombers, rumored to be able to hit a target from more than a mile away using only manual sights for aiming.
But in 1974, a Rikhter R-23 was attached to the Salyut-3, a Soviet Space Station, in order to see whether it would be possible to fire rounds at targets from space, making it the first known experiment of its kind.

Essentially, a ground scale weapon.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Minimum Viable

So the minimum is a five tonne hull.

There appear to be no minimums for gravitational or reactionary drives, nor tank volume for reaction drives.

Chemical power plants may not have minimum tank volumes; other power plants, require a minimum of one tonne.

There appears to be no minimum tonnage for power plants.

You could have four options for bridges, the smallest three tonne one, single cockpit, double cockpit and virtual; no indication how long you can survive just breathing bridge air.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Minimum Viable

Default cost per hull tonne is fifty kilostarbux.

Lighten it, and it's thirty seven and a half, at a ten percent hull point penalty.

Degravitate that, and it's eighteen and three quarters kilostarbux per tonne.

Basic ship systems require half the power, ten percent of hull tonnage, and in emergency conditions, halved again.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Minimum Viable

Still have stables, which however you look at it, is still better than installing portapotties in the cargo hold and lighting oxygen candles.

If you basically just use it as a sleeping facility, and rotate the inhabitants to recreational facilities, you can probably pull it off, in keeping their sanity and enthusiasm.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Staying Sane in Space

Space is deadly and our spaceships and stations are cramped and thin-protected environments, placing enormous stress on those who journey there. So how to we keep from going crazy while we explore strange new worlds?

1. Pharmaceutical solutions.

2. Lowered air pressure.

3. Maybe lowered gravity?

4. Hot showers.

5. Hot meals.

6. Creation of natural (Sol) sunlight.

7. Filtration of bad smells.

8. Noise dampening.

9. Ban social media.

A. Zip tie cuffs.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Minimum Viable

You can apply the same half off rule to degravitate a planetoid, but at a mere two kilostarbux per tonne discount, it probably isn't worth it.

It does make you think how much the cost price is for gravitational tiles.

Chances are, with a twenty percent organic hull, planetoids probably don't need gravitation beyond five kilotonne volumes.

Speaking of big rocks, the fifty kilotonne planetoid monitor's armour is off, I was trying to figure out why.

Then I came to the realization that it actually matches the concept I had worked out some time back, that armour volume is actually dependent on the usable tonnage you're actually trying to protect.

 

[Condottiere]

It does also seem to have removed the loophole, where armour cost is dependent on total hull cost, sans armour, which was when I was more than happy to completely armour the rocks at a fracture of the cost of other hull configurations.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Minimum Viable

... very large ships can be built in a modular fashion allowing simultaneous construction. This means the total construction time can be reduced by up to 90%. This is typically done only on ships exceeding 50,000 tons.

Typically doesn't mean only.

Also, you have to expand, if only for fifty kilotonne plus vessels, exactly how the reduction is measured, plus assembly time (and maybe cost).

I can imagine that ninety time percent reduction could have the vessel components split evenly into about ten percent parcels, that are then gathered at a central spaceyard and welded together.

Another aspect o consider that major components are ordered way in advance, such as engineering and armaments.

Capitol ship sized guns and their turrets needed a lead time of around two years, which was why the British fifteen inchers were such a gamble, and why you couldn't switch the armament of the Kay Gee Vees.

 

[Condottiere]

Speaking of fifty kilotonne vessels, they can reduce their crews by fifty percent, while hundred kilotonne vessels can do so by two thirds.

It seems obvious that most commercial freighters are going to be decimegatonners, and navies somewhat concerned with either crewing or paycheque issues, might be aiming for that as well.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Minimum Viable

Fission power plant has the same energy output as the early fusion reactor, at two technological levels lower.

However, no idea how much the fuel costs, or how long it lasts.

 

[Condottiere]

Or come to think of it, if it requires extra storage space, rather than the likely highly shielded fission reactor itself.

 

[Condottiere]

Other power plants require fuel tankage equal to 10% of their size (rounding up, minimum 1 ton) per month of operation. This provides enough fuel for the power plant for a month (four weeks).

Doesn't seem compatible to uranium.

 

[Condottiere]

And since I have no frackin' idea how fission reactor works in High Guard, I reluctantly let go of the idea.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Minimum Viable

We move on to solar coating and panelling.

Coatings output one tenth of the energy from that of a panel, for the same cost, and you can only apply that to forty percent of the hull.

Ideally, either standard or spherical; close and dispersed halves output. Presumably, streamlined doesn't, you just might not want to make an atmospheric reentry with it.

No word on planetoids.

Five tonnes would make that two tonnes available for coating, giving us two fifths of a power point per turn output.

Basic is one point, degravitated half, emergency one quarter power point.

Zero fifteen is thirty percent gee for five tonnes.

I guess, this is where we seventy five percent efficient thrusters springs in, which would give us one hundred twenty percent gee thrust.

I'm going to see how far thrusters can be overclocked.

 

[Condottiere]

A high-burn thruster is an auxiliary chemical rocket designed to give a temporary speed boost to a ship. This is done by adding a reaction drive whose Thrust is cumulative with that of the ship’s regular drive system. A reaction drive used as a high-burn thruster should require far less fuel than a ship that uses reaction drives as its main source of thrust because typical applications are designed to provide thrust for a limited amount of time. For example, high-burn thrusters might be used to reach jump point faster, run a blockade or elude pursuers.

Note that high-burn thrusters do not include inertial compensation for a higher thrust rating than that of a ship’s manoeuvre drive. Therefore, Travellers in a ship that is accelerating with a high-burn thruster are subject to the effects of its gravitational force equivalent, also known as G-force.


A high burn thruster is an auxiliary chemical rocket designed to give a temporary speed boost to a ship. This is easily mounted on a ship by adding an additional reaction drive. Ship architects should note that a reaction drive used as a high burn thruster is likely to require far less fuel than a ship that relies on a reaction drive alone for thrust. The effect of a high-burn thruster is cumulative with that of the ship’s regular drive system.


While there seems to have been the usual amount of copy and pasting involved, it would appear that the writer was going somewhere with this, and then left us stranded in the Sahara.

High and dry.

High if you're on a sand dune.

So exactly, what's the fuel, what's the cost, how much quantity, and what's the time duration?