Forgive me if I was not clear, but what would the impact be on the power systems of the ship holding the escape pods? Would escape pod power supplies pretty much always be too trivial to make the additional wiring cost-effective, or is using power supplies of docked escape pods as a backup/supplement a viable cost-saving approach?
On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 11:28 AM, Onno Meyer <[email protected]> wrote: > Travis replied to me: > > Question: >> As RTG life-spans are unaffected by usage, would escape pods with RTGs >> usually be hooked into the station power system either as a supplemental >> or >> backup power supply? >> How much impact would this likely have on the power systems of either >> stations or ships?(I suspect it could range from trivial for large cargo >> haulers to massive for cruise ships) >> > > If RTGs at this tech level are traditional isotope batteries, then it > doesn't help not to use them. The isotopes decay and produce heat. Their > endurance is 14 years, so one would swap them out every 12 or 13 years. > That averages $3k per year. > > And the pods will have almost no power use while they are docked. No > thrusters, life support powered down, no radio, minimal electronics. > > Power management gets more problematic for the escape capsules which I > posted some weeks ago. They have cryonic capsules which could be used for > years at a time, so the safe decision would be to swap the RTG every two or > three years. Alternatively, use a house rule that RTG output gets reduced > after 14 years instead of stopping it completely. > > _______________________________________________ > GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> > http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l > _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
