Travis asked:
> Why would space freighters be significantly different from modern long
> distance trucking and shipping?
Hello Travis,
I can think of a couple of reasons, most or all setting-dependent.
- These days, we have easy global communication and navigation. In
space, that might not be the case. What if communication travels
at the speed of ships, and navigation has some uncertainty? The
coordination of transport networks becomes more difficult, for
one, and it becomes more attractive to have smaller ships on
point-to-point routes.
- How scattered are system populations? If there is just one
population center per system ("It rained on Planet Mongo")
the distribution grid could be truncated.
- How proportional are transport costs and distances? There could
be settings where distance doesn't matter much, once you switch
the FTL drive on. Getting to the point where FTL drives can be
used is the expensive thing.
- How long is each flight? If it takes years to go from star to
star, the incentive rises to bring your family along.
- Are crew salaries a significant factor? If you have reaction
engines with lots of reaction mass, the cost per ton could be
significant, but big tanks don't need much crew.
Regards,
Onno
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