Vacuum rated cargo haulage

[Condottiere]

It's only an issue for less than seventy cubic metres, otherwise, there are ready made options.

I suppose you could borrow a submarine hull for that.

 

[hopsnbaer]

Not losing all the air in the cargo hold or allowing into air that is not human breathable is another reason.

Yeah, but as long as you have Iris valves to other parts of the ship, you can always vacc the air and transfer the cargo as long as the cargo won't be damaged by Vacuum.

 

[phavoc]

I designed external cargo pods like this for exactly this reason. They can be loaded with whatever and the interior is under life support and protected by a proper hull.

That brings up a bit of a conundrum. IF your external containers include grav plating and life support (even limited) then your costs and complexity go up. Containers benefit from standardization, so one would assume then that all space-rated containers would have life support and grav plating plus external power adapters. None of this is a big deal, but the added complexity does make that space-rated container more expensive. 10X might not be sufficient (if it's just heating/cooling that should be cheap, but full life support to provide breathable air/water shouldn't be too cheap. And grav plating isn't cheap either).

10X might not be enough for such a souped-up container.

 

[Terry Mixon]

That brings up a bit of a conundrum. IF your external containers include grav plating and life support (even limited) then your costs and complexity go up. Containers benefit from standardization, so one would assume then that all space-rated containers would have life support and grav plating plus external power adapters. None of this is a big deal, but the added complexity does make that space-rated container more expensive. 10X might not be sufficient (if it's just heating/cooling that should be cheap, but full life support to provide breathable air/water shouldn't be too cheap. And grav plating isn't cheap either).

10X might not be enough for such a souped-up container.

True. In the flip side, swapping pods with ones waiting for them makes the turnaround very short, so over the long term I suspect they would be attractive.

 

[Vormaerin]

Yeah, but as long as you have Iris valves to other parts of the ship, you can always vacc the air and transfer the cargo as long as the cargo won't be damaged by Vacuum.

One of the issues with the standard Type A deckplan is that the cargo hold is between the bridge/crew quarters and the engineering section. So if they did ship the hold in vaccuum, they'd have to put the crew in vacc suits because it's just iris valves between the old and the inhabited sections. And you can't leave them shut the whole journey because people need to pass back and forth.

 

[MarcusIII]

One of the issues with the standard Type A deckplan is that the cargo hold is between the bridge/crew quarters and the engineering section

Yes, true. My ship designs put the cargo hold "alone" pretty much. No need to pass through. Intentionally by design

 

[Vormaerin]

Yeah, since we have no real world constraints on anything, it's easy enough to do. Most inconveniences IRL (not all, of course) have (or had) a reason for them being done that way.

But RPG ship designs are as much about what people expect as anything that makes sense. No one is piloting a starship by mark 1 eyeball, so there's no actual reason the bridge in always in the nose of the ship. And we have space magic drives that don't generate reaction exhaust, so there's no reason the engines need to be in the back.

 

[MarcusIII]

No one is piloting a starship by mark 1 eyeball, so there's no actual reason the bridge in always in the nose of the ship.

Right. IMTU there are no windows and the bridge is where it makes sense based on other components. Warship bridge/CIC is at or near the center of the ship as is other vital things like the P.P. No manned turrets either.

 

[Vormaerin]

IMHO, if the jump drives actually produce a jump bubble of a certain radius (which is not the version I use, but seems to be a popular conception), then the jump drives ought to be in the center of the ship and most ships should be spherical or some variant of that to maximize the volume.

 

[Condottiere]

Jump drives scale to the volume they're designed to transition.

 

[Vormaerin]

Yes, but that doesn't say anything about where the ideal placement on a ship or what the ship's design would be like. It just means bigger ship needs bigger engine, which is generally true of engines in general.

 

[MarcusIII]

IMHO, if the jump drives actually produce a jump bubble of a certain radius (which is not the version I use, but seems to be a popular conception), then the jump drives ought to be in the center of the ship and most ships should be spherical or some variant of that to maximize the volume.

IMTU the Jump Grid in the hull creates the bubble about 2 meters out from the hull. J Space only cares about total displaced space not shape. So the J Drive is several parts. a) the hull grid, b) the power distribution & grid control network & c) the jump generator which is typically in the engineering space near the P.P.

 

[Vormaerin]

Oh, I prefer the grid in the hull by far. It does lead some people to get whiny about hull repairs, but I don't generally care about that level of detail. And T5 has rules on patching hulls and what effects it has on jump grids if I never did decide to care

 

[MarcusIII]

And T5 has rules on patching hulls and what effects it has on jump grids if I never did decide to care

I'm going to have to break down and buy T5 just for all the possible juicy bits in the tool box

 

[phavoc]

IMHO, if the jump drives actually produce a jump bubble of a certain radius (which is not the version I use, but seems to be a popular conception), then the jump drives ought to be in the center of the ship and most ships should be spherical or some variant of that to maximize the volume.

An easy side-step to this is to increase the bubble radius so that it could be centered on the jump drive and encompass the entire ship. This would, of course, require either some repositioning of some ships jump drives if they are overly long, or else handwavium. I personally prefer less handwavium and more consistency.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

An easy side-step to this is to increase the bubble radius so that it could be centered on the jump drive and encompass the entire ship. This would, of course, require either some repositioning of some ships jump drives if they are overly long, or else handwavium. I personally prefer less handwavium and more consistency.

Alternately the mass automatically causes the bubble to change shape to match the shape of the mass.

More likely considering the existence of Jump Nets the hull and jump net has something that causes the shape of the bubble to conform to that of the mass. Brings you back to hull grids. Docking clamps must also have this "something" though why there wouldn't be a cheaper docking clamp for non Jump ships is a mystery.

 

[Condottiere]

Maybe you could configure jump bubbles.

If so, if I were the captain of a Tigress, I'd make it skin tight.

But, I suspect, the volume remains the same, and it just conforms more to the hull configuration.