[Spaceships] TL10 Space RV

[DataPacRat]

I want to throw together a relatively low-cost craft, for a wealthy biont to get from Earth to orbiting the other planets, as they see fit. (And to land on Titan, and anywhere under 0.1G surface gravity.) I'm a little nervous about pushing at the edges of Spaceships' simplifying assumptions, since I don't know where they start breaking; has anyone got any details on that? For example, is it really feasible to launch a craft with wings and a 0.1G drive from Earth's surface? (SS1 p39 says that it would take 2 hours 36 minutes.)

The setting is approximately THS, roughly TL10 with only a couple of pieces of superscience: a low-thrust reactionless drive (call it around the stats of Spaceships' Rotary Reactionless Drive, 0.1G per space) and as a spinoff of that tech, what's effectively a vacuum-energy power plant (though it uses completely different technobabble; call it SS7's Perpetual Motion Machine, 1 PP per space). Though if any non-superscience doodads get the job done for less investment, I'm open to using them instead.

(By the way, does anyone know how those two Spaceships systems compare to 3e Vehicles' "TL9 reactionless drive" and "TL10 zero-point energy generator" (the latter described as an NPU with +25% cost and unlimited lifespan)?)

Quickie design sketch: SM+4, streamlined, TL10 (mostly non-superscience).
- Design switches: Advanced Computers (as TL11), Exposed Radiators, Slower Industrial Systems
- Winged: $50k
- 1 spc: Armor, nanocomposite, dDR 3 (1 per facing), $50k
- 4 spcs: Cargo Holds, 2 tons
- 1 spc: Control Room, $20k
- 1 spc: External Clamp, $1k
- 10 spcs: Habitat: 1 SM+6 space: bunkroom for 2, total life support: $100k
- 1 spc: Power Plant, Fission Reactor, 1 PP, 75 years: $30k
- 1 spc: Reactionless Drive, rotary, accel 0.1 G, req 1 PP, $50k
- 1 spc: Weapon, central turret, improved laser, rapid fire: Major SM+4 battery (300 kJ, dDmg 1d+2, RoF 20/20s, rng C/S or 300/1000 mi), req 1 PP: $100k
-- Total cost: $401k
-- LMass 10 tons, length 10 yards, dST/HP 15, HT 12, Hnd/SR -1/4, dDR 1, Occ 2ASV.
-- Air performance: 800 mph. Hnd/SR 3/5.

? Self-Healing: +$200k, regenerate 1 dHP per 6.66 days?
? replace external clamp: Robot Arm, +$99k?
- Power Plant refueling: $3k every 75 years

How many cost-cutting corners can you think of, or other improvements that seem reasonable? (I'm open to using any of the SS books, or Pyramid articles offering more options.)



(In case you're wondering: Yes, I'm biting the bullet that such drives can be used to accelerate to high fractions of light-speed and impact a planet with devastating effects. I'm postulating a large-scale mutual-defense treaty that runs large numbers of UltraTech's non-superscience gravscanners as a detection net, and just one of the layers of interceptors being around 15,000 32cm missiles around a third of an AU from Earth. I currently plan on mentioning the existence of these two platforms as being public knowledge, and that there are further defenses that either aren't relevant to the game or are not-widely-known military secrets.)