Re: [Traveller_TNE] Life Support, Weekly Maintenance and Berthing Fees

On 23 Dec 2007 at 15:42, rogerclarktopaz wrote:

> I sat down last night and wrote down everything I used for a week
> that could be considered to be expendable, and I was surprised at
> how few a things there were. I might have missed a few things but
> here is the list: Food, Water, Electricity, Medicines, Heating Fuel,
> Laundry Soap, T-Paper (VERY necessary), Gasoline. To this I added
> what I would need on a Star ship: Air. As a star ship has a nuclear
> power plant Electricity and Heating Fuel can dropped. I also drop
> Gasoline as my air raft uses LHyd.
> Weekly maintenance, what does this entail? Me I can see repairing
> minor breakages like light bulbs, blown fuses and doing things like
> checking the oik and water under the hood. I also can see cleaning
> the air filters once a week.

The air filters are more than just particulate cathcher (ie dust
traps). They need to remove excess CO2 (lithium hydroxide is used on
the Shuttle and the ISS) and excess water (again you can use various
chemicals or you can use an overgrown dehumidifier if the ship is big
enough)

Carbohydrate matabolism runs roughly:

Cx(H2O)x + x(O2) -> x CO2 + x H20

So we produce a *lot* of CO2 and water.

You also need chemical filters (or some interesting "scrubbers") to
remove trace gases that build up. Sruff like formaldegyde and a host
of others.

The first attempts at a long term sealed environment (back in the
50s) had to be ended after less than a wekk when this srt of thing
built up enough to make the occupants sick.

The Shuttle and ISS use activated charcoal. That'll likely be the
choice in the future, too, unless you are big enough to use tricks
like superheating the air to cause the impurities to burn..

> If the weekly maintenance was funded from this Cr2000 per week along
> with food, water, medicines, T-Paper and laundry soap then the
> Cr2000 begins to make some sense. Imagine how much it costs to do
> maintenance on a 747, the closest thing to my Firfly.
> This will work if you are going from port to port every two weeks,
> but if you are going into the wild on a recovery run the ship
> captain will have to pack extra food and maintenance parts on board
> possibly turning one passenger stateroom into a pantry. This is why
> I asked "How much food could a low berth hold?" It would be the
> ultimate refrigerator.

Freezer maybe. But the likely temps aren't likely to be those that
are "best" for food storage.

BTW, a week's food doesn't take up all that much room per person.

> PS anyone have any idea what happens if you land on the farmer's
> field instead of the starport?

Depends on local laws.

Maybe nothing (if the farmer is ok with it, but frankly, unless it
was a field that was laying fallow, he's gonna be *real* pissed about
the damage to the crop. And the way you've packed down the ground,
making it a pain to run the tractor thru).

On the other hand the fines for landing in an unauthorized area could
break you....

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com