Ship Design Philosophy

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tom Corbit space cadet 50s tv

1. No guns - that part is unbelievable.

2. Proto Star Trek.

3. Hand cranked instruments - actually, if electronic gadgets do become energy efficient, might actually be possible.

4. Originally, corn flakes were invented to be bland, to suppress the sex drive.

5. Can't figure out why they need studded suits.

6. Seems dialogue didn't change from the Thirties.

7. More paunch till launch.

8. I don't recall gyms mentioned in the deckplans.

9. Mini telescopes.

 

[Condottiere]

Inspiration: Mission Stardust (1967) |Full Movie | Lang Jeffries | Essy Persson | Luis Dávila

A team of astronauts is sent to the moon to rescue an alien who is seeking help to save her dying race. They are attacked by a force of bandit robots and discover that enemy spies are out to kill the alien.

Well, at least they did have a go at making a Perry Rhodan movie.

Though, I think I only liked two episodes, where a cadet was sent with a secret diplomatic message and was kidnapped on the way by Hanseatic heavy worlders, and the other when they hijacked a mile wide dreadnought from Arkon, by infiltrating as colonial troops.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls and Planetoids

V. In theory, stables are self contained, including waste collection.

W. You could divert waste collection to an external port.

X. Or, the power plant.

Y. They have integral air scrubbers, but no mention of potable water, nor climate control.

Z. I suppose, if you collect the waste and let it decay, you can generate methane gas.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Fuel, and Natural Gas

1. Liquid waste can be directly routed to the power plant, as unrefined fuel.

2. Puts a new spin on clearing out the gunk during maintenance.

3. Solid organic waste of any kind could be stored in a prepared cargo hold.

4. You add microbes and other stuff that breaks them down.

5. Eventually, it should generate methane gas.

6. And heat.

7. I don't know how much that would be, but it should supplement the gas bill.

8. How much methane would it take to keep the power plant gassed up?

9. You could combine this with onboard biospheres.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls and Planetoids

1. One hundred twenty tonne planetoid is four hundred and eighty kilostarbux.

2. Ninety six tonnes usable is a quarter megastarbux for a small bridge.

3. Computer/five is thirty kilostarbux.

4. Basic sensors is free.

5. Hardpoints and firmpoints are free.

6. But. logic dictates that unless they're located in the cargo hold, or anywhere else you can juggle tonnage, you're going to have to pre allocate volume to installation of weapon systems.

7. You could also allocate tonnage for an auxiliary spacecraft, but to minimize cost, not include one.

8. As they say in the Navy, fitted for, but not with.

9. I'd say that three quarters of a megastarbux, or, more precisely, seven hundred sixty kilostarbux.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls and Planetoids

A. Engineering would be the big ticket item.

B. If you don't mind not being unarmed.

C. Smallest, cheapest jump drive is budget/inflated at ten tonnes, one hundred twenty parsec tonnes, and costing nine megastarbux.

D. Cheapest manoeuvre drive factor/one is one and half tonne budget/inflation, costing one and four fifths megastarbux.

E. Power budget twelve points for the manoeuvre drive, nineteen and one fifth point for basic systems, twelve points for jumping.

F. All out, forty three and one fifth power points.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls and Planetoids

G. We'll take an early fusion reactor, since we'll assume Colonial Cookers would be intended for really low tech easy maintenance.

H. Also, same cost per megawatt.

I. Technological level eight budget/inflation would be eight power points per tonne, at three tenths of a megastarbux.

J. Six separate units would provide forty eight power points, for default energy requirements,

K. Provision could be made to add more for upgraded component energy requirements, or just install the bare minimum to keep the brick aloft.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls and Planetoids

L. Aftermarket addition of extra power plants would be a major refit.

M. You could make provision for these additions.

N. Or, you could replace them with more energy dense variants.

O. Keeping them as monotonne units simplifies installation, and cost.

P. Provision for additional units would be the same as weapon systems, likely out of sync with cargo.

 

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Startrucks: Hulls and Planetoids

Q. Usable volume at ninety six tonnes means default nineteen and one fifth power points to energize basic systems.

R. Minimum half is nine and three fifth power points.

S. Switch off the artificial gravity, and you have four and four fifths power points, to keep everything else running.

T. Once a fuel tank is empty, you can turn off power to it.

U. Cargo hold might really depend on contents.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls and Planetoids

V. One tonne of fusion reactors requires hundred kilogrammes of fuel per month.

W. Since this seems to vary between twenty eight and thirty days, depending on the reader's interpretation, let's just times it by twelve, and make it annual consumption.

X. That would be one and one fifth tonnes for three hundred sixty five days.

Y. Daily usage, 3.287671232876712 kilogrammes, or 46.02739726027397 litres.

Z. Or, 1.917808219178082 litres per hour.

 

[Condottiere]

Inspiration: Space Milkshake (2012) | Full Movie - Kristin Kreuk, Amanda Tapping, George Takei

Four blue collar astronauts are stuck together on a Sanitation Station after they bring a mysterious device aboard their ship and all life on Earth disappears. Discovering what happened to civilization is only the first of many galactic-level crises the astronauts will have to face as they are about to come under attack by a mutating rubber duck named Gary, who wants to open a portal to his evil dimension and take over the Universe.

Director: Armen Evrensel
Writer: Armen Evrensel
Stars: Kristin Kreuk, Amanda Tapping, George Takei

1. Beware rubber duckies.

2. Especially, Made In Japan.

3. They have ... appendages.

4. Ergonomic doorways.

5. You can't trust someone who wants to eat you.

6. If they actually went back, back in time, there should have been a second space station.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Engineering and Solid Fuel

1. Instead of storing the ship’s hydrogen fuel in liquid form at extremely low temperatures with a high risk of explosion if a leak occurs into the inhabited spaces of the ship, it is possible to store hydrogen at room temperature using a non-flammable metal hydride matrix.

2. Presumably, powdered.

3. This takes up more space but is safer.

4. If, however, we leave the hydrogen under enough pressure to solidify, in which case, you'd presume you can squeeze more inside.

5. Metal hydride storage replaces a ship’s normal fuel tankage but consumes twice as much space and costs MCr0.2 per ton.

6. Which appears to be the opposite.

7. You have to assume that the jump drive will accept non liquid fuel.

8. Likely in powder or corn form.

9. Presumably, in form that can easily be hosed into the jump drive.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Inertial Compensation Field, and Gravity

1. It seems to me that if you activate an inertial compensation field, under a building on Terra, the occupants would start to levitate.

2. Since factor/one would correspond, mostly, to Terran norm gravity.

3. As they would, presumably, no longer be falling towards the centre of the planet.

4. And being interrupted by the solid ground.

5. I suppose you could bolt down a fifty kilogramme factor/one in the basement, and activate it.

6. Of course, it's never been revealed how to calculate the dimensions of an inertial compensation field.

7. Let's assume, in this particular instance, it covers the ground, first, and second storeys.

8. Occupants, at a minimum, would no longer have traction with the floor.

9. Floating, in mid air, probably more due to Newton's Third Law of Motion.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls and Planetoids

1. Each five tonnes of (usable) volume needs one power point, default, to sustain basic services.

2. Presumably, this tends to be distributed under the deck, to each gravity tile.

3. How large is a gravity tile?

4. Maybe, one and a half metres by one and a half metres?

5. Height might not be more than ten centimetres.

6. In which case, you'd need to supply the gravity tile with one tenth's of a power point each.

7. Though, it could be one twentieth, and the gravity generator would still generate a gravity field.

8. The question would be, if it still be able to create, presumably, six gravities.

9. Or, if you could manufacture gravity tiles with one Terran norm gravity field, and it would be cheaper, and less energy intensive?

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls and Planetoids

A. There would be, by necessity, holes through gravity tiles.

B. Whether manholes or plumbing.

C. Since we'll assume there is a uniform pressure in the artificial gravitational field.

D. That field's individual generators would have to substantially overlap to cover gaps.

E. Yet, not differ from the stipulated gravity field in overlapping zones.

F. Which might be the same laws of physics that wouldn't allow two technological level nine factor/one manoeuvre drives to increases acceleration to factor/two.

 

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Spacecraft: Hulls, Docking Clamps, and Forced Linkage Apparatus

1. I've decided to mostly give up on docking clamps.

2. The most useful variant is the Victor, which at fifty tonnes and eight megastarbux, can hold anything above two kilotonnes plus.

3. That is far too useful to discard.

4. The problem is everything below that, which would require customization, to efficiently accommodate the hull sizes that I would design.

5. Number Two makes no sense, if the ratio is one to thirty.

6. Customizing a Number One to usability, means almost doubling it to one and three quarter tonnes, giving it a capacity of fifty two and a half tonnes, likely costing seven eighths of a megastarbux.

7. Then I'd need something for the really low end, for five on upwards tonnes, though there may be a minimum tonnage to allow the docking clamps to function.

8. Numbers Three and Four are alright, within there limited capabilities.

9. But docking requires about as much finesse as launching from a hangar.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Hulls, Docking Clamps, and Forced Linkage Apparatus

A. However, there is the forced linkage apparatus.

B. One obvious advantage would be, neither the linker nor the linkee need to heave ho.

C. Both can remain accelerating, with the caveat that the linker needs to accelerate one factor more than the linkee.

D. The ship attempting forced linkage must have a Thrust advantage of at least one over the opposing ship and may not be less than half the tonnage of the target ship.

E. And, can be half the size.

F. Which seems remarkable useful, if you want to recover your fighters during a hasty withdrawal from a system.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Hulls, Docking Clamps, and Forced Linkage Apparatus

G. Used by naval patrol ships, scavengers and pirates to board spacecraft, forced linkage apparatuses are close-range grappling devices that allow attempts at forced docking.

H. Which resolves the issue of whether this is possible.

I. After a successful grapple, the ship can be boarded or towed into port at leisure.

J. Which resolves the issue of whether the apparatus can handle the stated load, over any period of time.

K. Upto five kilotonnes.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Hulls, Docking Clamps, and Forced Linkage Apparatus

L. Grappling cables can be used to restrain a fleeing ship or stabilise a tumbling ship.

M. Optionally, you could use a giant harpoon.

N. Since we do have towing cables, it doesn't seem that those would break.

O. The weak point would be how to keep the harpoon attached to the harpoonee.

P. Or, prevent the turret getting ripped off.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Hulls, Docking Clamps, and Forced Linkage Apparatus

Q. At TL7 the apparatus is little more than a magnetic clamp on a retractable arm.

R. Minus two on the pilot check.

S. However, we can assume that in a cooperative environment, it should actually be neutral or positive.

T. At two tonnes for upto five kilotonnes, that's one helluva of a ratio.

U. Though double the tonnage of a Number One, it costs ten times less.