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Flat bed cargo ships

jasper

SOC-12
Most the ships I see still look streamlined. What do think of a modular ship similiar to train with flat beds. Bridge.flat bed repeating then engine. Cargo would either be clamped to flat bed. Or if regular sized cargo boxes just clamp the boxes into the bed. If making a multi star delievery run. Load all cargo on Star A. At Star b drop containers a, b, d, z by releaseing the clamps activate home beacon drop down a few hundred meters. cargo master and pilot recalulate for lighter load. Jump to star c drop of containers c, f, y. Recalulate and jump.
Look like this
Bridge________________Engine the _ look this from top
I---Ic.........cI---I
I-wall
- interior
c clamp
cross brace
 
Some cargos may require storage in a protected enviroment to avoid vacuum or temperature damage. While the cargo hold of a freighter may not be as controlled as a stateroom, very few cargos would be damaged therein, whereas cargos secured external to the ship would face great extremes of temperature (possibly as much as 500 C difference between sunlight and shadow, more for certqin star types and close orbits).

Aside from that, it sounds like a good idea. If you assume a standardized shipping container, it could easily be insulated and pressurized, requiring only minimal support from the transporting vessel.
 
Additionally, depending on how jump technology works in your Traveller game, the cargo containers would require a lanthanum grid and a connection to the ships' Jump drive to charge the grid. This would be an added expense to the cargo container's cost. Old or damaged containers with faulty grids would increase the chance of misjump.

Just my .02 credits
 
Yes basically a fed ex business( with a couple of standardized containers) based in spaces.

What type grid? Is lanthanum grid mention in D20 verison and if so what page did I missed?
 
I believe you are envisioning something along the lines of the modular bulk carriers in the X-Wing and TIE Fighter games. Cargo containers are attached to the exterior of the ship along a re-inforced spine built to handle the stresses of the added mass...or visually like the ship from 2001
http://members.fortunecity.com/tolikman/starwars/htrans/ctransport/info.htm (page is in Russian)
The rebel transport ship in Empire Strikes Back also had cargo containers that attached externally.
http://massassi.yavin4.com/sw/ac_trans.htm

As previously stated, it will greatly depend on how you work hyper in your universe. Mine does not require the jump grid, but instead requires field emitters placed along the hull. I use the base formula of tonnage/20 to determine number of emitters. They only need to be roughly equidistant to each other along the hull. This leaves a lot of leeway to place external mounting points and cargo containers and the containers don't need a grid on them.
 
Don't forget the Tugs and Cargo pods from Star Trek (original TV show) ;)

Another thought is a Larger style of the Modular Cutter. I am thinking along the lines of how they transport Shipping containers. The ones that are offload from the ship on to a semi trailer frame and the truck hooks up and drives off.

We need ship that holds a large number of modular cutter (or something similar) cargo pods. The ship hops in drops off and loads up with different containers. Modular cutters then hops off to the final destination with the cargo.

Just my thoughts

Dave
 
Modular cutter pods are a good idea, but if I understand correctly, they are round, making for an ineffective use of cargo space.

On the other hand, if you assume external docking for the pods it would not have nearly as much waste space between pods as it would inside a regular cargo bay (one made for retangular cargo containers).

It looks to me like the mechanism of having external docking available for small craft make possible external cargo pods. Since this would be mosr useful on a regular schedualed run, I think I see a new design ahead for the subsidized merchant...
 
There have been a large set of threads discussing LASH (lighter aboard ship) designs, which is more or less what you are talking about. There were a number of discussions on various ideal sizes for the cargo elements, self-propulsive versus inert, colliers/lighters and their design, and transfer station feasibility/desireability.

You might ransack the COTI archives using some of these keywords.
 
Not to bring up another gaming system... but in GURPS, there are modular freighter that fit very close to your idea. They could be easily converted to T20, or any other system for that matter.
 
two options..

three bits to ya ship.

A, command module
B, long thin stick
C, engineering module

strap cargo modules to the stick..

OR

the 'tie-fighter' cargo ships.

A simple ship, with two massive strap on cargo modules making up the sides of the craft.

The modules in all cases are more than just containers, cus they are big and have to survive hard vac. thus are designed as small crewless unpowered spacecraft
 
May I direct your attention to Supp-9, pp 22-23.

The Jump Ship. It is a 5000 Ton ship designed to carry (tow) cargo, raw material, passengers, etc, in modules behind it. Using "special field cables" attached to the rear of the ship extend the Ship's jump field to include this additional cargo. Ore, asteroids etc can be carried directly in the mesh. Less robustr material needs to be in a module. Each module displaces 1000 tons.

The description also includes various standard modules. Cargo Pod displacing 1000T with 950 ton cargo. Passenger Pod, 225 staterooms. Low Pod 1900 low bearths. Each 1000T module lowers the jump drive by one number. SO in theory it could carry 5 modules Jump-1. SO Sorry it isn't a design with the engines at the back, the whole thing is in the front. More like the Tractor end of a Tractor Trailer than a Flatbed truck.(Though I suppose it is the same as a flatbed truck still has evreything in the cab. (Though the back end does have some brakes.) YOu can see pictures of this ship in Sup-9, The common Imperial Transport in MT's Rebellion Sourcebook is similar in appearance and I know I have seen it since, someplace.
 
What about a ship with a Large open Bay for Cargo containers. Give several 5G Fast Boats with magnetic or mechanical Clamps on external or internal bays depending on there shape. When the Cargo Ship Leaves a large door Strong Armoured door (matching the Hull) closes of access to the the Cargo bay zone. As the Door itself is part of the ship your J-Field is sorted out allready. The only thing is space for the door and how big you would like the door. Best only have half of, the cargo wall/ceiling/floor, area as the door and the other half the space for the door to slide down.
 
Didn't FASA do some 15mm deck plans for a "barge"? IIRC it was a 5 or 6 deck ship that attached itself behind 0 to 3 similarly sized brick-shaped cargo pods. Performace varied depanding on how many pods it was pushing.

Then there was a MT book that had a "Common Imperial Transport" ... IIRC it was a large cylindrical cargo pod with a ship that attached to the front (engine pods extended out each side of the ship).

Regards PLST
 
It was in Rebellion Sourcebook. It was basically an upscaled Jumpship from Supp-9. (I found where I saw it recently, there are several pictures in the GT Starport supplement.)

Originally posted by Hemdian:
Didn't FASA do some 15mm deck plans for a "barge"? IIRC it was a 5 or 6 deck ship that attached itself behind 0 to 3 similarly sized brick-shaped cargo pods. Performace varied depanding on how many pods it was pushing.

Then there was a MT book that had a "Common Imperial Transport" ... IIRC it was a large cylindrical cargo pod with a ship that attached to the front (engine pods extended out each side of the ship).

Regards PLST
 
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