I've recently purchased GVB, and have been playing around with it. My most recent idea was to see if I could put together a design with the criteria: TL8, no superscience, carrying at least two people in a luxury suite from the Solar System to Alpha Centauri. To make it more interesting, I wanted to do so in as little time as possible - which, effectively, means maximizing the delta-vee.
After some experimenting, the drive that seems to offer the most delta-vee per pound of fuel at TL8 is the Orion... but so far, my best design has a flight time of around 500 years. (Fully-loaded LWt times burn time giving a delta-vee of 3,204,600 metres/second.) I was really hoping to get something under a century, but my Vehicles-fu doesn't seem to be up to the task... am I going to have to go to a higher TL, maybe throw in a ramscoop, or am I missing some obvious optimization trick? I'll paste my current working draft: -----8<----- TL8 interstellar Orion 470 years to Alpha Centauri... Crew: 6 total. 3 crew stations covering 3 vehicle maneuvering systems, 6 communicators, 6 navigation aids, 12 sensors. 3 medics. Subassemblies: Vehicle +13, Body +13. P&P: 300,000 sf solar cell [Vehicle], three 2,000-kW fission reactors (2 year duration; long term access), orion engine (1 BPS 1,000 kiloton yield; long term access). Fuel: 500,000 1,000-kiloton yield orion drive nuclear bombs. Occ: three roomy crew stations (bridge access, crashweb, g-seat), two luxury extra space cabins (2,000 cf extra total), 20 cabins, three 24-man total life support systems Cargo: 30,000-cf cargo hold w/cargo density 20-lbs/cf Armor F RL B T U Body 4/250 4/250 4/250 4/250 4/250 Equipment All: self-sealing hull. Body: three complete workshops; three full fire suppression systems; fissionables processor (10 lbs. per hr processed); operating room (three tables w/full stabilization); three emergency support units; six AESAs (scan 29, 1,000-mile range; LPI); six PESAs (scan 29, 1,000-mile range); cartography program (C3); computer navigation program (C2); +2 damage control program (C2); datalink program (C1); full personality simulation program (C5); routine vehicle operation program (piloting-15, C5); three mainframe computers (complexity 5; hardened, high capacity, neural net, robot brain); three computer terminals; three inertial navigation systems; three sets of precision navigation instruments; three advanced radiation detectors; three extreme range laser communicators (200,000-mile range; scrambler); three extreme range radio communicators (100,000-mile range; scrambler); set of astronomical instruments; geology survey array; laser chemscanner (100,000 yd. range); life detection package; magnetometer; high resolution planetary survey array; three 2-man airlocks (shower); three science labs; metal armor volume. Statistics Size: [LxWxH] 726'x182'x90.8' Payload: 510,600,600 lbs. Lwt.: 611,898,343 lbs. Volume: 11,966,754 cf Maint.: 1.39 hours (68.8 mh/day) Price: $205,738,353 HT: 5 HP: 47,087 [Body]. Space Performance: sAccel (unloaded) 0.654 G, ( 0.654 G), sDecel 0.654 G, sMR 0.654, sAccel 13 mph/s. Design Notes: TL8 robotic super light frame very cheap materials (Using greater of volume or surface area) [Vehicle]. TL8 DR 250 cheap metal [Vehicle]. Payload Cost: $510,000,000,000 Vehicle Features: computerized controls, 2xduplicate controls, no streamlining. Body: total compartmentalization. Volume: 11,966,754 cf [Body]. Area: 313,908 sf [Body]. Space Performance: Payload 0; ----->8----- Thank you for your time, -- DataPacRat VA3BOS "You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself. I have given you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brain, and you are responsible for using them." -- Qur'an 17:36. _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
