Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl
One item does not make a TL, as you can development experimental technology through the normal invention rules, which can be a TL ahead of the baseline technology. A TL8 ion drive for a SM+4 vehicle (six times as large as Dawn) should cost only $30k. The ion drive on Dawn ended up costing as much as 100x as much, meaning that it is experimental technology, so you could just as easily say that it is a TL8 experiment from a TL7 technology.
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Spaceships dramatically understates the costs of spaceship components to make them more affordable to characters (although the resulting ships
still aren't very affordable), but part of this is because it assumes mass production, and space hasn't been something we interact with enough to justify such.
As for the experimental nature of ion drives, I'd say that would be appropriate for the ones tested in the 60's (which was indeed TL7), but the modern ones are sufficiently mature to be called a part of the current TL.
I certainly do agree we'd be more advanced than we are now if we'd invested more in space travel, but that's more along the lines of things being cheaper and us potentially having access to some of the technology
Spaceships defines as TL9... because GURPS defines TL's up to 8 by what
actually happened/existed, rather than by what could have happened/existed given different parameters. I'll admit
Spaceships does do a bit of the "could have been" exploration with giving stats for non-experimental tech that I don't think ever got beyond experimental (or even just theoretical, like the Orion as I understand it).