General Emergency Lifeboats?

[kilemall]

Not. Necessarily.

There are lichens, at least, that can survive exposure to vacuum conditions for at least 18 months:

Lichen Vitality After a Space Flight on Board the EXPOSE-R2 Facility Outside the International Space Station: Results of the Biology and Mars Experiment - PubMed

As part of the Biology and Mars Experiment (BIOMEX; ILSRA 2009-0834), samples of the lichen <i>Circinaria gyrosa</i> were placed on the exposure platform EXPOSE-R2, on the International Space Station (ISS) and exposed to space and to a Mars-simulated environment for 18 months (2014-2016) to...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Looks like lichen may be more suited to hydrogen production then oxygen.

Lichen Symbiosis: Nature's High Yielding Machines for Induced Hydrogen Production

Hydrogen is a promising future energy source. Although the ability of green algae to produce hydrogen has long been recognized (since 1939) and several biotechnological applications have been attempted, the greatest obstacle, being the O[2] -sensitivity ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[spank]

Looks like lichen may be more suited to hydrogen production then oxygen.

Lichen Symbiosis: Nature's High Yielding Machines for Induced Hydrogen Production

Hydrogen is a promising future energy source. Although the ability of green algae to produce hydrogen has long been recognized (since 1939) and several biotechnological applications have been attempted, the greatest obstacle, being the O[2] -sensitivity ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Ultimately however I think that a Traveller life raft will not focus on providing oxygen, food or water.
One of two solutions will be implemented, either a bunch of low beths, or a bunch of fast drug for all the people inside.
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TNE had some good life boat designs, a 3 dTon and 5 dTon liferaft with room in emergency low berths for either 4 or 8 people. And a 10 dTon lifeboat with room for 12 in 3 emergency berths.

 

[Condottiere]

It's deadweight, until it isn't.

The problem with life support and lifeboats isn't that it's not important, it's that you need to be able to extend it until rescue, hence the easier solution to provide an alternative to it.

 

[mike wightman]

Start with hydrogen, which is ubiquitous in Traveller.
Combine with the CO2 and a catalyst, get water and methane.

Magic wand? How as in the actual machinery not the chemical reaction.

Then I read you next post.

An oxygen candle version of a carbon dioxide scrubber, not a full on industtrial plant.

Although I still subscribe to the consensus reached years ago that staterooms are emergency refuges.

 

[spank]

It's deadweight, until it isn't.

The problem with life support and lifeboats isn't that it's not important, it's that you need to be able to extend it until rescue, hence the easier solution to provide an alternative to it.

Looking at it, the best way to extend your life support is with the Fast drug.
You are always going to have some residual life support just to get where you are going. You are not going to pull into port with 0 days life support remaining. The question is how far from port are you going to be when trouble strikes.
If you are relatively far away, say Pluto for example, and If you have worst case, only 1 days life support. You can easily extend this long enough for rescue to arrive. 1 does of the Fast drug per passenger will turn your 1 day of life support into 60 days. If rescue is coming it will be there to long before then.
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Assuming you want to have a 1 year dedicated stock of emergency life support you'd need 6 doses of the Fast drug which would turn 1 weeks supplies into 420 days. That would mean 20 liters of water, 7 liters of 0xygen, and ~ 3 liters of survival rations. So a survival kit massing 30 liters would be enough to sustain 1 person for 1 year of you use the Fast drug. You could pad it to 50 liters to account for insulating the Oxygen.
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Assuming that 50 liter survival kit, you'd need 1,000 liters to supply a crew of 20. Or 1 cubic meter. Or about 0.07 dTons. Far less than the space that those same 20 passengers will take up.

 

[kilemall]

Fast drug is problematic for survival. You’re going to have to do a lot of cleaning up by someone not on Fast as their immune systems slowed down but virus/germs/parasites do not. Those things really should have a medical survival roll like cold berths.

I offer Fast Tickets IMTU, but they require medics and stewards. Really the sort of thing that only really pays off for colonization or other mass long trips.

If there is another vacuum breach, quite possible on a heavily damaged ship, getting them suited up or moved quickly enough is going to be daunting or impossible.

Fast should be near last resort, although I understand the attraction as RAW.

 

[spank]

Fast drug is problematic for survival. You’re going to have to do a lot of cleaning up by someone not on Fast as their immune systems slowed down but virus/germs/parasites do not. Those things really should have a medical survival roll like cold berths.

I offer Fast Tickets IMTU, but they require medics and stewards. Really the sort of thing that only really pays off for colonization or other mass long trips.

If there is another vacuum breach, quite possible on a heavily damaged ship, getting them suited up or moved quickly enough is going to be daunting or impossible.

Fast should be near last resort, although I understand the attraction as RAW.

I agree, Fast should come with some penalties.
As written you can just pop a dose of Fast and 1 week jump becomes a 2.5 hour trip, Why even bother with low berth at that point?
While I do think there should be draw backs, I don't think disease would be an issue it should be slowed right along with the host. I think habitat would be a bigger issue, you are going to cool down/ heat up a lot more as the body has less time to thermo regulate. I would suggest some sort of "crash" afterwards similar to what the Slow drug gets,

 

[Condottiere]

I calculated that out years ago, and you add a sleeping pill that knocks a passenger out for the next ten or so days.

The plus side would be you wouldn't invest in a low berth, just some straps to stop the passenger from falling off their bunk.

Which makes it too easy, so I would guess there are unstated caveats in dispensing that particular drug.

 

[Grav_Moped]

The big reason to use Low Passage rather than Fast+Antidote is its cost, and the TL threshold for Fast Antidote.

Out-of-universe, there are two issues here. The first is that Low Passage is a clear demonstration that in Traveller, Life Is Cheap. The second is that Med Fast was not intended as a replacement for Low Passage (though it turns out to be a better, if more expensive, one) -- it's a game mechanic: a Potion of You Aren't Dead Yet, so You Can Be Saved Later. Useful when the nearest technologically-capable hospital might be a few weeks away....

 

[Condottiere]

It's technological level ten, and the antidote is the same cost, and supposedly same technological level.

You'd think that the drug's effect would wear out, but no mention is made of that.

 

[spank]

The big reason to use Low Passage rather than Fast+Antidote is its cost, and the TL threshold for Fast Antidote.

Out-of-universe, there are two issues here. The first is that Low Passage is a clear demonstration that in Traveller, Life Is Cheap. The second is that Med Fast was not intended as a replacement for Low Passage (though it turns out to be a better, if more expensive, one) -- it's a game mechanic: a Potion of You Aren't Dead Yet, so You Can Be Saved Later. Useful when the nearest technologically-capable hospital might be a few weeks away....

Low passage is 1,000cr.
The cost of the Fast drug varies from 2000cr in CT to 200cr in MGT. MGT Specifically states "Fast drug is normally used to prolong life support reserves or as a cheap substitute for a cryoberth."
But I definitely think it should come with drawbacks, especially considering Low passage cost more and is more deadly. Maybe it requires a steward to tend the slowed passengers, ensure they are warmed, cooled and appropriately cared for.Or a medic, or both. And maybe it should require a damage effect afterwards, representing bodily exhaustion from the ordeal.

 

[kilemall]

It's technological level ten, and the antidote is the same cost, and supposedly same technological level.

You'd think that the drug's effect would wear out, but no mention is made of that.

In CT I think the antidote is one TL up.

 

[mike wightman]

Close.
In 77->TTB fast is TL 9 while its antidote is TL 12
slow is TL 8 while its antidote is TL 10.

 

[Grav_Moped]

It's technological level ten, and the antidote is the same cost, and supposedly same technological level.

You'd think that the drug's effect would wear out, but no mention is made of that.

A dose of Med Fast (metabolic slowdown) lasts 60 days in CT.

Close.
In 77->TTB fast is TL 9 while its antidote is TL 12
slow is TL 8 while its antidote is TL 10.

Similar (if not the same) in LBB2'81 (p. 45.)
Fast: Cr2000 TL-9, available on 8+
Antidote: Cr 900, TL-12, available on 9+

 

[spank]

A dose of Med Fast (metabolic slowdown) lasts 60 days in CT.

Similar (if not the same) in LBB2'81 (p. 45.)
Fast: Cr2000 TL-9, available on 8+
Antidote: Cr 900, TL-12, available on 9+

The antidote should really only be necessary if you want to pull someone out of fast sooner than normal. IE if someone has been kidnapped and drugged, or when rescuing someone from a liferaft.
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Of course, you could rule that the antidote is needed to easy the effects of coming off the drug.

 

[Grav_Moped]

The antidote should really only be necessary if you want to pull someone out of fast sooner than normal. IE if someone has been kidnapped and drugged, or when rescuing someone from a liferaft.
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Of course, you could rule that the antidote is needed to easy the effects of coming off the drug.

If you're using it in place of a low berth, you probably want to wake up when you arrive, rather than napping for a couple of weeks after the trip.