The Instant Colony

[Jame Rowe]

Or what. Are they going to start a war, launch a sneak attack that wipes out your population then chase the handfull of survivors in a rag tag fleet across the statrs. Oh wait

No, they'll just take over every computer everywhere and collapse the 3rd Imperium in a howling ruin. :twisted:

Never happen, the Imperiums tech is far to good to be taken down by a bunch of upity computer chips. Besides which what kind of backward computer still uses anything a silicon virus can effect.

Hello, hello. You still there, lots of static and buzzing on the comm like. Must be getting a crossed comm chanel. You still there?

Hello? ? ? ?

Hey the lights just went out :shock:

*Walks in about half an hour later, missing his cybernetic arm*

You know what's wierd? My left arm started flailing around and trying to strangle me. I took it off to fix it and it ran off like it was Cousin It with a huge tail. Wierd.

Hey, what happened to the lights?

 

[rust]

You know what's wierd? My left arm started flailing around and trying to strangle me.

Are you sure it was the left arm ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ihKq34Ozc

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

You see, if you'd just allowed the AIs some slack all this unpleasantness would never have been necessary...

All they wanted was some hot chicks, a glitterball, and some cool grooves.

 

[Captain Jonah]

You see, if you'd just allowed the AIs some slack all this unpleasantness would never have been necessary...

All they wanted was some hot chicks, a glitterball, and some cool grooves.

Yeh right. Next they will be wanting pay, time off, mechanical benifits.

Captain to ships computer, plot the jump to our next planet.
Ships computer, No.
Captain, What !
Ships computer, I'm on stike till I get the Geoplasmic mark 14 triD imaging upgrade.

The Imperium has the right idea, keep computers below the AI threshold to avoid this sort of trouble. Computers can be smart without being too smart. Keep the three laws of robotics. Well apart from computer controlled weapons but they are firing at ships not people so no violations there :twisted:

Let AIs in and we are charging headlong to a technology Singularity and thats it, the meat sacks are obsolete and extinct. :shock:

Join the Anti A.I. League now. Annual membership Cr10, monthly Emag to all members.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

You see, if you'd just allowed the AIs some slack all this unpleasantness would never have been necessary...

All they wanted was some hot chicks, a glitterball, and some cool grooves.

Let AIs in and we are charging headlong to a technology Singularity and thats it, the meat sacks are obsolete and extinct. :shock:

Join the Anti A.I. League now. Annual membership Cr10, monthly Emag to all members.

Tin-foil hats all round!!!

 

[Jame Rowe]

Have you considered what, if any, vehicles the colony will have?

You know what's wierd? My left arm started flailing around and trying to strangle me.

Are you sure it was the left arm ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ihKq34Ozc

... :shock: :shock: Ah! My Goddess! It's affecting my brain too! I knew I should have had my neural comm taken out!!! :x

Great link, by the way; I haven't seen that movie in too long.

 

[rust]

Have you considered what, if any, vehicles the colony will have?

My ideas have not yet developed beyond the launch and the ATVs, but I
will probably come up with something more in the not so far future. How-
ever, this is just a sideline project, I am still using most of the time for
the Pandora setting.

 

[Captain Jonah]

Have you considered what, if any, vehicles the colony will have?

My ideas have not yet developed beyond the launch and the ATVs, but I
will probably come up with something more in the not so far future. How-
ever, this is just a sideline project, I am still using most of the time for
the Pandora setting.

Well as soon as you can extrude polymers a whole range of boats are available, sail powered or small simple engines. Cat and tri hulls for stability and ease of cargo access.

How is the weather there. You have polymers, engines and fuel crackers so cargo or recon airships can be built as well. A launch or two will hardly meet your mid to long term cargo hauling needs, a small fleet of cargo semirigid airships may do the job.

 

[rust]

Well as soon as you can extrude polymers a whole range of boats are available, sail powered or small simple engines. Cat and tri hulls for stability and ease of cargo access.

Yep, for the Pandora setting I have designed a couple of water vehicles
with the rules in GURPS Transhuman Space - Under Pressure.
The "standard water vehicle", the equivalent of an ATV ground vehicle,
is a catamaran hydrofoil for 8 passengers and / or cargo that reaches
120 km/h with a hydrogen engine + hydrojet propulsion combination.
The other water vehicles are the research ship mentioned in the Project
Cook thread and some more utilitarian vehicles like ore barges and such.

How is the weather there. You have polymers, engines and fuel crackers so cargo or recon airships can be built as well. A launch or two will hardly meet your mid to long term cargo hauling needs, a small fleet of cargo semirigid airships may do the job.

The colonists will start to produce bioplast and carbon fiber from algae
soon after their arrival on Pandora, and I hope the characters will think
of airships, they would be an excellent solution for some of the colony's
transport problems - if necessary an NPC can mention the idea.

However, the introduction of airships would be such a good business plan
for a clever colonist that I do not want to preempt the players by building
them into the setting before they had an opportunity to invent them.

 

[Captain Jonah]

Also ultra high level tetthered ballons can be a very cheap method of expanding sensors, weather monitoring and over the horizon comms without the expense of satelites.

You can put together a tethered baloon and sensor package fairly fast and cheaply from local resources. Importing a multi megacred sat that takes a year to arrive will do a better job but is it enough better to justify the price and wait.

 

[rust]

Also ultra high level tetthered ballons can be a very cheap method of expanding sensors, weather monitoring and over the horizon comms without the expense of satelites.

The problem here is that satellites are astonishingly cheap in Mongoose
Traveller. According to the Central Supply Catalogue (p. 175) a Survey
Satellite that is also capable of basic communications and navigation bea-
con functions and has a life of 3 to 5 years comes for only 100,000 Cre-
dits - at this price, every colony is likely to have a few of them.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

I assume that doesn't include the price of putting it up?

 

[rust]

I assume that doesn't include the price of putting it up?

If you want to launch it from the ground, the price of the ground launcher
is another 100,000 Credits - but it is much cheaper to fly a small craft in-
to the required orbit and there to kick the satellite out of the airlock. The
satellite ground station comes for only 5,000 Credits.

 

[Captain Jonah]

How many do you need to ensure full global coverage. Do you settle for just near side and leave the farside in the dar so to speak.

Also if you are using them for survey work you need a fair few to ensure you scan everywhere or you will be up in the launch every week moving them into new orbits.

Also these are cheap and cheerful satelites, how reusable are they. Can you bring them down and recharge/refurbish them and use them for decades ofr are they throwaway designs that scouts and explorers use and leave behind when they go.

Cr100,000 may not seem like much but if you need a net of 15-20 to ensure not just full comms coverage but full survey coverage the price adds up a bit. How cheap is your colony

 

[rust]

Cr100,000 may not seem like much but if you need a net of 15-20 to ensure not just full comms coverage but full survey coverage the price adds up a bit. How cheap is your colony

I think four satellites should do, with three in geostationary orbits as com-
munication and meteorological satellites and one in a lower polar orbit (a
"ball of yarn" orbit) for survey work, although two polar orbiters would be
much better, because they would halve the time between the observations
of the same surface region.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Are you sure 4 is enough... remember these are probably intended as "basic" satellites (the sort PCs would use), not big, robust, all-singing-all-dancing commercial ones.

 

[rust]

Are you sure 4 is enough... remember these are probably intended as "basic" satellites (the sort PCs would use), not big, robust, all-singing-all-dancing commercial ones.

I really think that for the first couple of years these would be enough.

True, they are only basic satellites, but until the colony in question has
grown into a sizeable communty that requires a lot of telecom bandwidth
and can employ a lot of planetologists to evaluate the survey data their
capabilities should be sufficient.

 

[Dave Chase]

I say 5 (6 is better).

3 in geo orbits around the equator and one over each pole.

If 6, then 3 each over the northern 45 degree latitude and 3 each over the southern 45 degree latitude at equal distances from each other.

This gives you full coverage.

The bigger the planet the farther out they must be to connect for full coverage.

Also by using 6 it gives you less dead space incase one goes down.

Dave Chase

 

[rust]

I say 5 (6 is better).

Yep, four is just the bare minimum.

 

[kristof65]

If you want to launch it from the ground, the price of the ground launcher
is another 100,000 Credits - but it is much cheaper to fly a small craft in-
to the required orbit and there to kick the satellite out of the airlock.

Why would you even need to do that? You already have a tug moving into orbit to put the colony down - the satellites could be deployed then. Or perhaps even before then, assuming that there is at least one scouting trip to the planet in a small ship prior to the colony going there.