Trillion Credit Squadron - History Questions

[Nathan Brazil]

Two parts of the Island Cluster struck me on page 115
"All three of these were hollowed out asteroids, coated internally with hull plating and filled with power plants, oxygen gardens and most importantly the cryo-pods that would carry the men and women involved in each project to the stars."

"Detecting the cluster of stars that would eventually become the Island Clusters the three ships split up and began their deceleration, slowing the great vessels from the percentage of The Island Cluster light speed they had managed to gain with their ion drives."

What are stats for
oxygen gardens
cryo-pods
ion drives

Or can someone point out what book this equipment is in? I think I think I saw oxygen gardens in Starports. Are ion drives another name for the standard maneuver drive?

 

[rust]

What are stats for oxygen gardens, cryo-pods, ion drives ...

This is Solomani (actually, ESA) low tech used at the very
beginning of the interstellar endeavours of Earth humans,
incredibly primitive compared to the Traveller equivalents,
and therefore probably not described in more detail.

Ion drives are designed according to this concept, they ha-
ve little more than the word "drive" in common with Tra-
veller's maneuver drive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_drive

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Yes, thanks rust, just wanted to make sure.

On the other part then, I am still looking for stats for this equipment or shipbuilding options. My pet project is the Interstellar Wars period from the Treaty of New York in 2025 to the collapse of the Ziru Sirka in 2302. I have to go redesign my ESA colony ships at the least to reflect the "10 times" living space for growth the asteroids had.

 

[rust]

Hmm ... 2300AD has data for ion drives and primitive low
berths, and Outer Veil has data for hydroponics modules
which supply a spacecraft with oxygen (and food). I think
I would borrow the stats there, because I very much doubt
that more useful informations can be found in any of the
mainstream Traveller publications.

 

[locarno24]

Lower tech hardware can be found in the Universe Of Babylon 5 and Cthonian Stars settings, if you can get them. Things like Rotational gravity and long-endurance sublight ships....

 

[barnest2]

I'm afraid I must hang my head and admit that I used pretty sci-fi names rather than Traveller equipment for that write-up

 

[rust]

I'm afraid I must hang my head and admit that I used pretty sci-fi names rather than Traveller equipment for that write-up

So we will need pitchforks and other farming tools, torches,
tar and feathers to show you the error of your ways ... :twisted:

 

[GypsyComet]

Back of the envelope calcs, with numbers pulled from various internet sources, indicate that an additional "small stateroom" (2 tons) dedicated to air processing via plants, would probably be able to keep up with the oxygen needs of one person. There are also chemical ways to go about it, and those would probably be used in tandem with plants since plants can get sick, most are seasonal, and swings in CO2 content can affect their O2 output.

By the time you hit normal Traveller space-faring TLs this is all automated and mostly chemical, and most ships are getting a planet-side air change every two weeks anyway.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Rather then worry about the low tech equipment, I would really like to know why the ESA ships passed over THOUSANDS of closer star systems to settle in the middle of the Great Rift?????

 

[rust]

Rather then worry about the low tech equipment, I would really like to know why the ESA ships passed over THOUSANDS of closer star systems to settle in the middle of the Great Rift?????

Stuff like this happens all the time when the British engineers
use Imperial measurements and the French ones use the Me-
tric system ... :roll:

 

[barnest2]

Rather then worry about the low tech equipment, I would really like to know why the ESA ships passed over THOUSANDS of closer star systems to settle in the middle of the Great Rift?????

Hi. I'm the author. I like fiats. Sit down :lol:
Honestly, Rusts explanation is the best one :lol:

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I appreciate that you had to use the history from the original CT version, but it always struck me as weird that they would send a Slower-Than-Light mission so many hundreds of light years away when there were so many great planets and clusters closer.

Since this was before the discovery of the Vilani, they don't even have that excuse to use for why they passed over so many closer worlds.

OH WELL...

 

[Nathan Brazil]

I appreciate that you had to use the history from the original CT version, but it always struck me as weird that they would send a Slower-Than-Light mission so many hundreds of light years away when there were so many great planets and clusters closer.

Since this was before the discovery of the Vilani, they don't even have that excuse to use for why they passed over so many closer worlds.

OH WELL...

From a story standpoint, The Islands Cluster first appeared in the original Trillion Credit Squadron in 1981 with a vague map reference in the first library data supplement. So ya, the trip looked cool. Atlas of the Imperium did not appear until 1984. So story came first before the map. I plotted out the route from Terra to New Home using the Atlas and they do pass some high Pop systems along the way.
As the game has gone from version to version, the voyage becomes more plausible in some ways and more outlandish in others (and I love it, Interstellar Wars is my favorite era).

How could the asteroids keep running for two thousand years? MgT finally solved this for me. Game rules-wise, old fashioned fission reactors have fuel requirements for power plants are in YEARS not weeks. Add this to standard maneuver drives allowed in Core Rules and High Guard and you can eventually accelerated to the about .28c necessary to make make the ~170 parsec trip in ~2400 years (I will have to go back to my worksheets.). Combined with solar panels, the ships could do it assuming maintenance is kept. I have made write ups for the ships. Now having thousands of displacement tons of radioactives for fuel onboard these ships, well thats the outlandish part (costs, safety and so on). But it can be done!

The big problem is that the story in some version state that they used reaction drives not standard manuever drives darned it and life support. The life support issue is now solved...

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

While the drive system was never mentioned in the original, I have always assumed some kind of Bussard Ramjet that allowed a reaction drive to operate at low acceleration. The Ramjet concept uses a magnetic field to capture interstellar hydrogen which can be used for fuel. Thus you have no need to carry the fuel with you.

The design does require that you be travelling at about 1% of the speed of light for it to work, but after that, free fuel!

This is not a discussion about Bussard Ramjets though (my limited understanding of the current concepts are that the design is probably not workable, but in the early 80s it was considered a viable drive system).