Chaps,
I don't really do much gearheading these days, but this idea popped into
my head on my drive home this evening and I was rather taken with it.
Any comments or criticism welcome, as always.
I'll repeat that (as it's rather hidden in the ASCII below) I've stuck a
couple of renderings, along with a copy of this writeup at my
oh-so-classily laid out temporary web garden shed. They may be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/nickbradbeer/traveller/jumptorpedo.html
Cheers,
NickB
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Teller Mk-10 Jump Torpedo
I've always liked the idea of Jump Torpedoes (message carriers, not
weapons - don't panic), although I realise they don't really gel with
the Canon setting. Much more fun for the players if the most reliable
way to send a message is with a small courier vessel...
Canon design does make it tricky to design a worthwhile torpedo. I've
always felt that the 100-ton limit for jump is rater silly - even if the
smallest they can make a jump drive is a Type-S's, why can't I strip off
all the extraneous bits of a Type-S (hangar, cargo, turret, crew) and
fire the resulting 80-ish ton package into jump? But for the purposes of
this design, we're going to assume that you can't do that. It's got to
be 100 tons to jump.
Nobody wants to waste a hundred tonnes of cargo space lumping around an
unmanned message drone. If you're going to that effort, why not carry a
Type-S? Much more useful. So, I present the TELLER Mk 10 INFLATABLE JUMP
TORPEDO!
Suitable for carriage in a cruiser class ship, the torpedo takes up 10
tons of space in a hangar when stored. Roughly half of this volume is
the jump drive, a quarter is power and systems, and the remaining
quarter is a set of collapsible fuel bladder tanks. In order to deply
the drone (unless you have a LOT of space in your hangar), you'll need
to winch it out onto an external grapple big enough to take a hundred
tonne ship and plumbed for fuel (all FFS grapples are, but FFS2 has
cargo grapples which aren't). The drone extends its grapple spine,
folding passive array and laser comm, at which point it looks rather
like a 20m sea urchin. Once unfolded, there is sufficient clearence
around the drone to begin pumping fuel into the fuel bladders. Ninety
tonnes of fuel is required, which lumps the drone up to the full
100-tons displacement and allows three consecutive jump-3's. Once fully
deployed, the launching ship uploads the required jump calculations into
the drone's computer, unlatches the grapple and manoeuvres away. When a
safe distance has been reached (hundred diameters of a starship?) the
command to jump may be transmitted.
The drone is a simple beast. It has a manoeuvre drive, but the fuel
bladders have no structure and no ability to withstand acceleration,
precluding its safe use while they contain fuel. Furthermore, the craft
has but a single computer, which is fully required for the jump
calculations. Once all required jumps are completed, the computer may
purge the jump calculations and switch to manoeuvring control. Even
then, the available delta-vee is pitifully limited.
Basically, all the drone is really capable of is performing up to three
serial jump-3's (with progressively increasing likelihood of a breakdown
as its spends weeks away from maintenance), then looking for a friendly
target (or taking star sights to line up on a beacon) and beaming a
laser comm message over. Given its inability to manoeuvre, the chances
of recovery are slim unless the launching captain made some very good
jump calcs and took pains to give the drone the right initial vector. At
25 million credits a pop, that's an expensive one-shot message. But if
you're a rift cruiser twenty five light years from home and you've just
suffered a jump drive failure, it just might be worth having one or two
along.
Design Notes:
* This was designed as a carried craft for my upcoming Northman
class rift cruiser, and therefore an Imperial Navy design.
* TL-13 was chosen because that just worked out the cheapest. FFS1
has silly costing rules.
* This used strict FFS1 - with one exception - because this is the
TNE-RCES list. Using FFS2 (my usual rules) allows it to be built much
cheaper.
* The exception is the sizing of jump fuel, which uses traditional
Trav 10%/parsec rather than the more liberal TNE values. If you want to
use the TNE calc, the craft is almost exactly the same except that she
can jump 13 parsecs rather than 9.
* There are renderings available of the geometry. (Yes! They're on
this page!) Not great quality, but they show the layout.
* Yes, I suppose this is bending the spirit of the collapsible fuel
tanks rules. But Claude Murdoch has done it before, and if it's good
enough for him then it's more than good enough for me.
General Data
Displacement: 100 tons (deployed) 10 tons (folded)
Hull Armor: 10 (Superdense)
Volume: 1,400 m3
Price: 25.93 MCr
Configuration:Unstreamlined Open Frame
Tech Level: 13
Mass (Loaded/Unloaded): 375.5 / 224.2 tonnes
Engineering Data
Power: 3MW Fusion Power Power Plant, (300 litres of internal LH2
gives 1 year of power)
Jump Drive: TL-13 Jump-3 Drive
Jump Fuel: 3 x jump-3's (1,260 m3 fuel in 9 x 140m3 Collapsible
Tanks)
Manoeuvre Drive: 0.125 G HEPlaR (2.34 MW t full blast)
Manoeuvre Fuel: 0.25 G-hours (i.e 2 hours at 1/8 gee), 1.17 m3
internal LH2 fuel
Maint: 55 - don't forget to roll for breakdowns! And preload up
on that preventative maintenance...
Systems
Computer: TL-13 Standard computer (0.45 MW), TL-13 Flight
computer (0.045 MW)
Commo: Laser (1000 AU; 0.3 MW),
Avionics: None
Sensors: PEMS Folding array (4 hex; 0.15 MW),
Controls: No consoles, High Automation
Crew: Nil
Collapsible Fuel Tanks: 63m3 (as 5% of fuel capacity)
Damage:
Hardly worth even doing damage tables. Any hit should guarantee
destroying at least one fuel bladder. I'd suggest 1d6 for a minor hit
and 2d6 for a major hit. On top of a hit to the AV10 hull, which is
roughly 40% jump drive, 30% fuel systems and 30% electronics. She's
unlikely to survive a hit, although the computers might be salvageable
if you're lucky.
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