[IW] The Economics of Crosstime Travel

[AlexanderHowl]

According to GURPS (Infinite Worlds, p. 28), the basic cost of a subquantum conveyor is $10M plus $10M per ton of mass capacity (minus 10 lbs per ton for the generator, minus 1000 pounds per ton if the conveyor carries its capacitors, minus the unspecified mass of the hull [I will assume 90 lbs per ton of mass capacity]). If you have a subquantum conveyor with a mass capacity of 10 tons that carries its own capacitors, it will cost $110M and will probably have a cargo capacity of 9000 lbs, meaning that it will cost around $12,222 per pound. If you assume capital repayment and O&M at 0.5% per month each, you will be spending around $122.22 per pound per month. If you can make 600 trips per month (using automated systems going from two set points and a recharging station at each set point), you can make a healthy profit from charging $0.25 per pound shipped ($500 per ton).

At $500 per ton, the shipping cost is too prohibitive for most private companies to trade common commodities (such a iron, oil, wheat, etc), so what are they actually shipping to and from other timelines? Since Homeline tends to restrict contact with TL6+ timelines, the economics suggests that traders trade items produce by the advanced metallurgy of Homeline for uncommon or rare commodities from the other timelines (uninhabited timelines can just be exploited). In any case, private companies will only ship the products that can make them money. What do you think that private companies from Homeline will ship?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

At $500 per ton, the shipping cost is too prohibitive for most private companies to trade common commodities (such a iron, oil, wheat, etc), so what are they actually shipping to and from other timelines?

Is it? It's cheaper than air freight, and roughly the cost of trucking something across the US, which companies do occasionally pay for, though they'd certainly prefer a rail option. It also depends on what you are paying at the source - $500/ton of oil is about $68 per barrel, which isn't a price it hasn't reached on occasion, so if you can get it for free....

Conveyers aren't exceptionally cheap transport options that put all Homeline producers of everything out of business, but they aren't ridiculously expensive either. Well in the range that other circumstances can make or break the profitability decision.

[PTTG]

You're right, most commodities can't be shipped profitably. But a little bit of gold or neodynium extracted from untouched alternate deposits makes lots of sense. Bioluminescent blue apples from the next world over, or a couple crates of Firefly Seasons 2-20 DVDs make even more.

But they do still ship iron ore and wheat from time to time. And the reason that's profitable is because of the sacks of Nose Candy brand premium cocaine, sourced from the Libertarian Confederacy of Utah, buried in the pile.

[Curmudgeon]

According to Conveyor Operation (B530), the pulsed power plant (200 kJ/ton; $50 & 5 lb./kJ) accounts for about half the mass of a conveyor, leaving a typical [average] conveyor with 500 to 2,000 lb. usable for occupants and cargo payload. This puts the mass capacity of the average conveyor at 2 tons rather than 10 tons. A 2-ton conveyor’s mass capacity would cost $30,000,000 and weigh 30 lbs. while the 400 kJ pulsed power system would cost $20,000 and weigh 2,000 lb., leaving a payload weight of 2,000 lb. The fuel cell probably isn’t that big as it delivers on the order of 223 watts [a bit more than 2 x 100 watt light bulbs, for comparison].

A conveyor requires a half hour to recharge and ten minutes calibration for local conditions. The fuel cell would be used up on return, so it needs to be removed for recharge and a fresh fuel cell installed before the next trip is made. I’d assume removal, replacement and quick recharging also takes up 30 minutes, so a round trip takes one hour and twenty minutes. If we assume that you can only operate a twelve-hour day, you can get in nine round trips each day, for 270 round trips in a 30-day month.

If we assume 1,000 lb. of the payload can be used for cargo, we can move 270,000 lb. of cargo a month. At 5% budgeted for operation and maintenance, we need to collect $30,020,000 x 5%/270,000 = $5.55/lb. or $11,100/ton. Our unit costs would be lowest if we were to carry numerous small, relatively dense products, such as minimally packaged Blu-ray discs. That said, there is another consideration to be factored in.

Private corporations are likely to use capsule conveyors as opposed to mobile conveyors. A mobile conveyor would be likely to require multiple custom jump programs, each such program adding 5 to 10 days and $1,000,000 to $20,000,000 to start-up costs. (How many jump programs you want to pay for depends on how far you’re willing to drag an immobilized conveyor before getting it back to a jump site it's programmed for.) Consequently, you also having whatever the local shipping costs are to get the items to you and from you to your market.

[Tyneras]

Hmm, that's far less economical than I had thought. I'd always assumed that the power system could be external to the conveyor and that's what bulk cargo companies used. ISWAT and such obviously need self contained conveyors.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

According to GURPS (Infinite Worlds, p. 28), the basic cost of a subquantum conveyor is $10M plus $10M per ton of mass capacity (minus 10 lbs per ton for the generator, minus 1000 pounds per ton if the conveyor carries its capacitors, minus the unspecified mass of the hull [I will assume 90 lbs per ton of mass capacity]). If you have a subquantum conveyor with a mass capacity of 10 tons that carries its own capacitors, it will cost $110M and will probably have a cargo capacity of 9000 lbs, meaning that it will cost around $12,222 per pound.

Where this "capacitors" stuff coming from? Incidentally that 10 pounds per ton probably is the hull.

[AlexanderHowl]

No, the 10 pounds per ton is the paratronic field generator (Infinite Worlds, p. 28). Anyway, the hull would need to mass much greater than 10 lbs per metric ton because 10 pounds would not give enough structural strength to support one ton at 1g. The pulsed power generators (the capacitors) are likewise listed on p. 28 in Infinite Worlds (200 kJ of pulsed power per ton, with a cost of $50 and a mass of 5 pounds per kJ of pushed power, meaning that the pulsed power system costs $10,000 and masses 1,000 lbs per ton of capacity).

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

No, the 10 pounds per ton is the paratronic field generator (Infinite Worlds, p. 28). Anyway, the hull would need to mass much greater than 10 lbs per metric ton because 10 pounds would not give enough structural strength to support one ton at 1g.

Support it? Why would you need to, rather than gust resting flat?

[AlexanderHowl]

You have to have it contained with a physical structure (floor, walls, and roof) because the field is not a force field, it extends through the circuitry incorporated within the conveyor. Otherwise, you have a projector rather than a conveyor.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

You have to have it contained with a physical structure (floor, walls, and roof) because the field is not a force field, it extends through the circuitry incorporated within the conveyor. Otherwise, you have a projector rather than a conveyor.

That's why I think it's the hull.