Ship Design Philosophy

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

L. This drive can jump 10% closer to a gravity well than normal ...

M. Early Jump implying a reciprocal action on transition.

N. Useful, when confronted with gigantic gravity wells masking potential approaches.

O. Overall, I don't think it's quite that useful, on a cost analysis.

P. Since you could make up the difference with a faster manoeuvre drive.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

Q. Since we are on barriers erected by gravity wells.

R. It's permeable on exit, since, in theory, you could jump from within a hundred diameters.

S. And, it would seem, it's properties within the jump drive that create that gravity well barrier.

T. Since, refining the jump drive technologically, allows you to jump closer to a gravity well, before bouncing off.

U. Or, so, the customization rules tend to imply.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

V. Which leaves us with the stealth option for jump drives.

W. Available for a very advanced model, so it's only a quarter more expensive.

X. Together with fuel economy, and drive deflation, probably completes the trinity of usefulness.

Y. It's better to be unseen, than trying to outrun hostile forces.

Z. Jump stealthily in front of a planet, then drift into it's gravitational field.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

1. You only need ten tonnes for the jump drive, six tonnes for a small bridge, two tonnes for a half stateroom (life support for one crewmember), and ten to twelve tonnes for fuel allocated to the jump drive.

2. Increasing the size of the hull from one hundred to one hundred twenty, yields an extra eighteen tonnes.

3. You could consider thirty tonnes as the core of the starship.

4. Early fusion is available at technological level eight, so pretty much an off the shelf component which can be sourced from another supplier, and doesn't need to be separately researched, developed, and/or manufactured.

5. Potentially, you have ninety tonnes left over, so actual output isn't so much a factor, for power plants.

6. Though, with a week in transition for every jump undertaken, fuel consumption would be.

7. Fuel consumption at ten percent for a month, in any efficiency, is a lot more attractive than times a factor of ten, over a fortnight.

8. Even technological level six prefusion reactors are a feasible option.

9. Chemically powered generators are pretty niche.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

A. Coincidentally, modules and drop tanks cost both twenty five kilostarbux per tonne.

B. Sort of indicates both are defaulted to standard configuration, and are ungravitated.

C. Assuming someone thought of the drop tank concept in the Twenty First century, you could add a twenty tonne fuel hump to the starship.

D. You maintain a primary hull of a hundred tonnes, permitting a minimal volume for a smooth transition, in the event that added volume isn't attached, for any particular reason.

E. In theory, you could replace the hump drop tank with a twenty tonne module.

F. Drop tank mountings should be eighty kilogrammes, at forty kilostarbux.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

G. The hundred tonne primary hull allows normal application of hull armour.

H. If that isn't a primary consideration, you could install component in smallcraft sized hulls, and somehow attach them together.

I. The primary hull only has to contain the core components of the starship.

J. Which we have established are thirty tonnes.

K. Since the rest of the components tend to scale, if you drop the other secondary hulls, your manoeuvre drive's thrust has less volume it needs to push.

 

[Condottiere]

Ascrowgator

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

L. If you think about it, the Venture would be a test bed for jump drives, in general.

M. You would have sensors, telemetry equipment, and onboard laboratories.

N. Probably, two loads of fuel, for there and back again.

O. Deep Space Vessel Venture.

P. Experimental may remain at the originating technological level seven early prototype.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

Q. The (extended) Venture family of starships may be tied together by the installation, and usage, of the Venture Drive.

R. Rather than, more specific design characteristics.

S. Since there could be a rather wide range of performance parameters, hull configurations, design aesthetics, and mission/roles.

T. The one common feature would be a cap on range, one parsec, and parsec tonnes, one hundred twenty.

U. As well as being the cheapest possible default customized jump drive.

 

[Condottiere]

Couldn't really improve, in accordance to current High Guard customization rules.

I usually don't calculate quantity discounts, to prevent future confusion - essentially, rules say it would cost eight and one tenth megastarbux after ten percent for bulk purchase.

Considering the venerability of the design, low technological base threshold (level nine), the fact that it was budget orientated, no patents, industrial secrets, and/or copyrights - I think we could drop the off the shelf cost to a flat eight megastarbux.

Added costs might be due to transportation.

There's also the possibility a hobbyist might want to build an example from scratch.

Presumably, dead simple to maintain, comparatively.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

V. It was sort of a toss up which direction this might go, Porsche's Volkswagen, or Eberhard's Tesla.

W. Considering recent events, it might not matter.

X. The Venture Drive continues to exist separate from the platforms it would be installed on.

Y. It's quite easy to have it motor a one hundred twenty tonne luxury (mini) yacht, that the owner could quite easily operate on his own.

Z. Just as much as a short range reconnaissance vessel, where the naval commander wants to know what's going on over the next adjacent parsec.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

1. It's quite possible that at some point, in their distant past, some Vilani engineer designed a Venture Drive.

2. Obviously, no historical record has survived to indicate this.

3. It's quite possible that Vilani authorities suppressed all knowledge of this development.

4. First of all, for them it would be more efficient to manufacture type Ay alphabet drives with two hundred parsec tonnes at technological level eleven, keeping their scout class starships with double range as any other.

5. Also, the inexpensiveness of the manufacturing process might have been too competitive, especially if the merchants from their client states starting leveraging their cost effectiveness.

6. Even the Terrans soon caught on to their dead end development potential.

7. After initial surge of enthusiastic entrepreneurs, Terran merchants quickly modernized, and enthusiastically adopted factor/three jump drives, to quickly, and deeply, penetrate the virgin Vilani markets.

8. While the the Venture Drive was still utilized, and manufactured, during the Rule of Man, this was done more in the rimward backwaters of empire.

9. The longer distances between systems, also tended to favour factor/two ranged merchantmen.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

A. Ironically, the Long Night preserved a lot of these pre Second Imperium industrial artefacts, as Terran colonized planets scrambled to maintain interstellar links and trade routes.

B. Maintained production lines have long since been amortized.

C. The Confederation Navy recognized their military utility during the War of Imperium Aggression.

D. As well as their continued value in trade and communications at the low intensity end of commerce.

E. Currently, there's usually one production line per subsector maintained throughout the Confederation.

F. And quite a number of small workshops specialized in maintaining them, usually one per starport.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

G. Production lines not evacuated and relocated from occupied territories were mostly lost and/or destroyed, during and after the War of Imperium Aggression.

H. The exception seems to have been one that's currently on Mars, Sol system, apparently a centre of yacht production.

I. A family run business purchased Venture Drive industrial tooling and production equipment that survived in the Occupied Territories; even scrapped items recovered from scrapyards.

J. Their clientele are mostly hobbyists, and Imperium aristocracy who believe they are edgy.

K. Few examples are known to be coreward.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

L. Inflated manoeuvre drives would be available at technological level nine.

M. Budget variant would be one and a quarter percent per factor, and at one hundred twenty tonne thrust, one and a half tonnes.

N. That would be one and four fifths megastarbux.

O. Twelve power points at full thrust.

P. Probably rather specifically designed for this hull volume.

 

[Condottiere]

If you're still going for manoeuvre drive vectored thrust, it seems you're likely to end up with monomodule configuration.

Even if you figure that contravening thrust internally won't screw with the manoeuvre drive, that might not be the case when you cross beams with one, or more, manoeuvre drive modules.

Current practice with vectored thrust appears to be external to the engine itself, which sort of kiboshed my idea of nine modules, assuming that you can vector thrust one hundred eighty degrees through the manoeuvre drive, and the crew cabin.

You probably could operate more than nine manoeuvre drive modules simultaneously, on the same hull.

What I had originally in mind was taking what appeared minimally possible canonical, five tonne thrust for factor/one on a five tonne spacecraft, default fifty kilogrammes, and collect twenty four of them on the rear for one hundred twenty tonne thrust, capped at factor/one.

In the event that one manoeuvre drive module needs to be replaced, you only need to major refit that one.

Budgetted inflation would be sixty two and a half kilogrammes, at seventy five kilostarbux each.

Technological level nine would be off the shelf; at technological level eight, proof of concept would likely use larger fuel tanks and reactionary rocket option.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

Q. At technological level eight, you have early fusion reactors available.

R. Ten to twelve power points for the jump drive.

S. I don't think it actually mentions when you have gravitated hulls available, but that would be a minimum of ten power points for a hundred, to a full twenty four for one hundred twenty tonne hull.

T. Non gravitated would be five to twelve power points.

U. Redundancy would be to have one hundred fifty percent requirement, in at least three separate power plants.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

V. I tend to minimize maximize component/performance, mostly due to cost grounds.

W. But you're sort of screwed, if you run out of energy mid transition.

X. Jump drives either work, or they don't, for those initial six minutes.

Y. If they don't, you're still in Einsteinian space.

Z. And being shut off during the rest of the transition, not a cause for any subsequent failure or misjump.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

1. Actually, energy generation might be the most important aspect of spacecraft design.

2. Life support doesn't really function without power.

3. And human crews tend to require life support.

4. It also tends to help spacecraft energize propulsion, that moves them from point ay to point bee.

5. All things considered, in Traveller, energy generation can be relatively cheap.

6. Commercial shipping could, and should, be able to function on half power.

7. You divide the energy generators into three separate, but equal, power plants.

8. Make them half required energy budget, each, and three gives you double redundancy.

9. Since there's no overhead, like with jump drives, it doesn't really cost you extra, except, possible, added plumbing, and potentially more supervision and maintenance.

 

[Condottiere]

Startrucks: Hulls, Planetoided, and Modularization

A. Going by my own home grown rule - below seventeen and a half tonnes engineering, you can get away without having someone with engineering knowledge onboard.

B. Ten tonne jump drive, and one and a half tonne manoeuvre drive leaves five and a half tonnes for power plants.

C. Four and a half tonnes of power plants, budgetted/inflated, gives us thirty six power points, at 1'687'500 starbux.

D. Divide that by three, and you have three power plant modules delivering each twelve power points.

E. Twelve power points is enough to run jump drive, manoeuvre drive and possibly a gravitated one hundred twenty tonne hull, simultaneously.

F. If not, motored down starship, transitioning.