Re: The THS Spaceship Thread
 

That may be realistic -- not being a fusion drive engineer, I can't really say -- but the TS spacecraft design system allows you to buy a 1-ton fusion drive, and even with a higher lower limit, SDVs are one of the larger classes out there, so one could still reasonably expect that smaller engines would be available than one enormous SDV-sized drive.

Spacing several drives far apart shouldn't imply any larger mass than one centrally located. Maybe less so, considering that the effective weight of the craft will be borne at several points rather than just one.

As to magnetic effects, I think that if there's enough engineering nous available to build a 1-ton drive, there should be enough to design the fields so that they don't interfere with each other, maybe just by making sure that they aren't all on for the same 0.001 second period of pellet ignition. (Actually, I think the effective ignition period is less than that, but I can't find my Project Orion book just now....)

Re: The THS Spaceship Thread
 

Another spacecraft design. This time an AKV, a little competition for the ubiquitous Nanodynamics SIM-7 Predator. :)
Numbers and values are checked and should be in order.


System Technologies spaceship construction sub-division Astrion had been founded as part of the consolidation of the transnational. The first spaceship design it created was the MRF-1 Griffin (or Greif) which was ready for sale from 2096 on, and is meant as a direct competitor for the famous Nanodynamics Predator. Compared to this AKV the Griffin has a slightly improved sensorsuite and higher maneuverability at the cost of overall armor protection.
The Griffin design is a smoothly streamlined, slightly flattened cylinder (to fit better onto external cradles), 43 feet long with an average diameter of 10 feet, the foldable radiator wings are 30 feet times 25 feet in area. The size proved to be somewhat of a problem: the Griffin is about 15% larger than the Predator (five and a half feet longer) and the AKV holding bays of many military spaceships are designed with the exact size of the Predator in mind. The usual payload of a Griffin AKV is 9.5 tons (one coilgun ammunitions pack, either KKMP or XLMP).


System Technologies Astrion MRF-1 Griffin (Greif)

Crew:
Unmanned. Infomorph uses Astrogation, Electronics Operation (Communications), Electronics Operation (Sensors), Gunner (Railgun) and Piloting (High Performance Spacecraft). Infomorph occupies the mainframe in the unmanned controls.

Design:
Streamlined cylinder hull (10’ x 43’, 6.88 spaces, nanocomposite, extra-heavy frame, smart); cDR/cPF 70/5F, 5/1S, 10/1B (nanocomposite armor). Hull radiators (1.25 ksf), folding radiator wings (30' x 25', 1.5 ksf). Chameleon surface.

Modules:
New unmanned controls; small fixed ladar [F]; small fixed radar [F]; small PESA; coilgun [F]; 3.5 compact HT fusion pulse drive; 1.5 tanks (ultralight, nuclear pellets).

Statistics:
EMass 75.35t. CMass 93.85t. LMass 102.85t. Cost 32.08 M€. cHP 90. Size Modifier [Hull] +2/+5, [Radiators] +4. HT 12. Maintenance Interval 7.06 hours. RRA 2.5.

Performance: sAcc 0.45 G. Burn Endurance 1.79 hours. Burn points 2900. Delta-V 8.8 mps. No airspeed.

Re: The THS Spaceship Thread
 

Some very minor observations:

The cradles take 8 ksf and the weapons around 2. So I think that should be around 20 ksf, not that it affects the stats.

I get around 4000 mph.

Is that cDR including the extra 40% from streamlining? If so I get about 3 tons lighter than you, otherwise about 3 tons heavier.

Re: The THS Spaceship Thread
 

Are you saying you found a mistake? Not enough surface left for the radiators? I will check that again.

The Griffin is not intended to enter an atmosphere. So no need for an airspeed. Its the same with various craft of THS and SSS, they are streamlined but the description says "no airspeed". But thanks for calculating it.

It's calculated with the factor 1.4 for streamlining. Not that it matters: streamlining means that the front area has to be multiplied by 1.4, increasing armor weight an cost by that amount. But you may also armor increase the armor cDR value for the front side of an streamlined cylinder by 1.4 (THS page 189) so actually it does not make a difference for armor-mass, armor-cost and cDR wether your cylinder hull is streamlined or not.
Streamlining a cylinder DOES make a difference when it comes to the structural cost of the hull however. And, of course, the respective ship may enter an atmosphere, for whatever that's worth.
In the end it means, that it does not really make sense for an SDV or an AKV to be streamlined. Actually, the only advantage is that you could skim the atmosphere of a gasgiant for braking purposes...a dangerous maneuver which is seldom, if ever, undertaken. The Angel/Archangel class ships could be a lot cheaper if they weren't streamlined, and with the Fomalhaut class I did forgo the streamlining to save money (to save weight, I even used a diamondoid structure, which would be incredible expensive if streamlined). In the case of the Griffin I simply followed the trend set by the Predator (which also is overpriced because of streamlining, just look at the very cost effective Amazon AKV).
I guess it just looks better. :)

Re: The THS Spaceship Thread
 

Yep, you are right. I spent more surface area than the LSDV-7 has. The hull radiator area has to be reduced to 19 ksf. But even with this, the overall radiator area is still 69 ksf, which is well within the required radiator area of 62.5 ksf. Other stats are unaffected. (If something with the radiator wings had been wrong, I would have been in trouble. Puuuh.)
I plan to add some things to the LSDV-7 description anyway, I will correct that when I do so.

Thanks.

Re: The THS Spaceship Thread
 

As I understand it, and as the existing TS ships were designed, the ships get a 40% increase in front armor rating due to the sloping effect of streamlining without an increase in armor mass or area. Why you couldn't acheive the same with sloping and no streamlining is a rules artifact.

That rankled with me as well. But it is a way to get higher cDR out of the same mass and therefore better performance and I could just believe that some military _might_ be persuaded to pay for it, especially if the hull fabrication plant was in the approving ministers constituency.

Re: The THS Spaceship Thread
 

The rules say about the surface area of cylinder hulls (THS p 173): "Surface Area: [...] Front Area equals Back Area, but multiply by 1.4 if streamlined."

According to this you have an increase in area, and therefore in mass and cost if you armor it.

Re: The THS Spaceship Thread
 

Doh! It's been so long I had forgotten that - and it has exposed a long time bug in my spreadsheet from when I applied a 20% increase to the combined F+B areas for SL and then split them out and left it as 20%. Oops. I hope that hasn't affected any published designs I checked.

That explains my difference.

Re: The THS Spaceship Thread
 

One more:

Since some military forces showed an interest in spacecraft that could transport small groups of soldiers or cybershells, System Technologies sub-division Astrion developed the MRF-5 PDV "Störtebeker" (pronounced "Sturtebeker", the "u" similiar to the one in "burn"; PDV stands for "Personnel Deployment Vehicle"), which was ready in 2098. The MRF-5 is a smoothly streamlined, slightly flattened cylinder, 50 feet long with an average diameter of 12 feet. It can be used to ferry military personnel, for example boarding teams, to other spacecraft or space stations. It is also able to land on most solid celestial bodies in the solar system, with the notable exception of Earth and Venus. Technically it could land on Mars, deploy a group of soldiers, and, after picking them up again, fly back into an orbit. (Since the MRF-5 is equipped with a fusion drive, this would be illegal, though).
Passenger interior arrangements of the MRF-5 (seats, banks etc) can be easily reconfigured to accommodate normal humans, battlesuited troops, cybershells, or any mix thereof.
Although designed to be controlled by an informorph, the Störtebeker spacecraft features a cockpit with a full set of controls. It is separated from the passenger and cargo area with a solid door, although not with an airlock.
The combat mass below has been calculated with a payload of 8.1 tons in mind, which would represent a force of something like 15 to 20 fully equipped battelsuited troopers along with 10 heavy cyber infantry shells similiar to the Ridgway, 10 lighter combat cybershells like the Combat Naga and some hundred kilograms of other equipment crammed into the PDV.

The Störtebeker is equipped with a light laser. The fusion drive is not able to power the laser and the full sensor array at the same time. To compensate for this, a battery system provides energy for up to 4000 seconds of constant laser and sensor usage. In cases of emergency, an unmanned MRF-5 can be used as a pretty decent AKV.


System Technologies Astrion MRF-5 PDV "Störtebeker"

Crew: Pilot or unmanned. Pilot or infomorph use Electronics Operation (Communications), Electronic Operation (Sensors), Gunner (Beams), and Piloting (High Performance Spacecraft).

Design: Streamlined cylinder (12' x 50', 11.52 spaces, nanocomposite, heavy frame, smart hull); cDR/cPF 21/2F, 5/1S, 5/1B (nanocomposite armor). Hull radiators (2 ksf), folding radiator wings (1 ksf). Chameleon Surface.

Modules: New cockpit; small ladar; small radar; small PESA; 3.5 compact HT fusion pulse drive; 1.7 tanks (ultralight, nuclear pellets); 1 2.5MJ light laser [F]; 2 passenger seats; small robot arm; small entry module; 0.1 battery; 1 cargo space (5t).

Statistics: EMass 85.97t. CMass 104.27t; LMass 114.47t. Cost M€ 34.97. cHP 66. Size Modifier [Hull] +2/+6; [Radiators] +4. HT 12. Maintenance Intervall 6.76 hours. RRA 2.5.

Performance: sAcc 0.4 G. Burn Endurance 2.02 hours. Burn Points 2909. Delta-V 8.89 mps. Air Speed 330 mph.

Re: The THS Spaceship Thread
 

Added some corrections to the LSDV-7 design description.