[Spaceships] statting life pods and drop capsules

[Adina]

Originally Posted by Brett

What sort of mission did you have in mind for this lifeboat? 0.15 mi./sec. is plenty of delta-v to de-orbit from a low orbit, but it might not be enough for a lifeboat on a ship on an interplanetary orbit. On the other hand the large acceleration is not much needed. High acceleration is useful in takeoff, and in combat. But in most operations delta-v is much more useful. I suggest that you put a TL10 fusion drive in this TL10 ship, perhaps even a small one with a small fuel tank. That'll give you 20 mi./sec. if delta-v (enough to get you out of the situations that TL10 spaceship operations put you in), and I doubt the low acceleration will matter.

This was aimed at getting down from orbit. Missed the bit about interplanetary orbits in all the talk about drop capsules.

I agree it doesn't need the high acceleration but chem rockets are cheap. As is you could build it at TL 8 or 9, the only change would be the electronics capabilities.

So for interstellar orbits it needs a fusion drive. Assuming fusion drives can scale down to 0.5 tons.

jeff