New thought about the course of Traveller

[Carlobrand]

The only reason for going down to a planet to unload and load goods would be because it is either faster or cheaper to do so (or your client pays you better for the service)
right?

Dude! Shore leave! Don't you get tired of looking at walls and stars after a while?

...I like your notion about letting a non-streamlined hull do over just mach-1. ...

Eh?? A streamlined hull does over mach-1; tops out a bit over mach 3 actually, for a 6G ship. A partially streamlined hull is limited to 300 kph, which is something like mach 0.25. A nonstreamlined hull shouldn't enter atmosphere without supports or protection of some sort.

The actual speed's a bit tricksy, because it depends on how you figure a 1G ship manages to take off from a 1G world (MT postulates an overdrive ability), and different size worlds have different levels of local gravity. Consolidated CT Errata 07 (is that the most current one?) has Striker errata with a speed table based on G's over local gravity. You can grab that for a table - and probably should since it supercedes the original Striker stuff.

Slightly sideways: does anyone know how long it takes to go ground to orbit? Only reference I know of is the CT bit about 120KPH air rafts needing 1 hour per UPP size and 1200 KPH (mach 0.98?) speeders being able to do it in a flat hour. I imagine atmosphere must play a small role, and I could probably run numbers, but I'm curious if there's any other canon bits.

 

[Blue Ghost]

See? This is why I always stuck to basic Big black book starship economics and combat, and never fell victim to HG and all of its high falutin ramifications.

Seriously, well;
V = a * t
Earth = 1g
Orbit = depends on how fast you want to go, but according to Princeton U, from surface to 2000km high.

X = (1/2) * a * t^2
For X = 2000km = 2000000 meters
for a = 9.8 m/s^2

Therefore t = 638.9 seconds = ten minutes at 2g. 1g to negate Earth's pull, 1g to push you forward.

Someone correct my rusty physics if I'm wrong.

 

[mike wightman]

Where to start

More seriously you have a fairly accurate first guesstimate there, useful for most gaming situations.

Other factors to consider would be:

Lift provided by hull or are you doing it like a rocket and using thrust alone?

Air resistance.

Gravity falls off with distance from the surface, so the proportion of thrust propelling the ship increases as the gravity decreases.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Air resistance can make things dicey. And yeah, gravitational pull drops off the further away you get.

At 6Gs...hmmm it would take approximately 5 minutes (just under actually). That's moving. o:

Back to my original point; to be honest I never liked he look of the Far Trader or Safari ship. The Far Trader looks like a 1930s spaceship minus the flared fins and stylized paint scheme. But that's just me. The Safari ship just looks like a blatant rip off of the flying sub from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

I don't have too many gripes with any of the ship designs, but it would be nice to see some other variety. Stuff that doesn't look like a derivative of a jet fighter or race car.

 

[JimMarn]

The only reason for going down to a planet to unload and load goods would be because it is either faster or cheaper to do so (or your client pays you better for the service)
right?

When your shipmates are having a conversation with a metal bulkhead, it may already be too late for shore leave !

We did 20-25 days maximum aboard the destroyer I was on, it had only 300 people, and wasn't very big. Aircraft carriers stayed out longer, but they had more people you could talk to, no need to talk to the wall or something.

Shipboard Movie Nights get stale to, especially if the move is older than the people watching it.

Shore leave can solve, and create, lots of problems.

 

[Garyius2003]

When your shipmates are having a conversation with a metal bulkhead, it may already be too late for shore leave !

We did 20-25 days maximum aboard the destroyer I was on, it had only 300 people, and wasn't very big. Aircraft carriers stayed out longer, but they had more people you could talk to, no need to talk to the wall or something.

Shipboard Movie Nights get stale to, especially if the move is older than the people watching it.

Shore leave can solve, and create, lots of problems.

A three G shuttle can land from the highport to the downport a whole lot quicker than a one G free trader can land.

 

[Blue Ghost]

But does it look like the space shuttle Columbia or the Millenium Falcon. That's the question.