GURPS Spaceships, in use!

[robertsconley]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

The space shuttle uses a very expensive, thick, and heavy set of ceramic tiles to protect the underside from the extreme heat of aerobreaking. It could probably be considered DR100 (Fire/Heat only), while being considered ablative when subjected to other kinds of damage. Other space capsules use an ablative heat shield, designed to disintegrate on reentry.

The Shuttle's tiles have a very low DR against anything other than Fire/Heat DR 1 or 2 at best. However underneath is the skin of the space shuttle itself.

Also remember the only "armored" part of the shuttled is the pressure shell which is only the forward part of the shuttle where the cockpit and mid-deck are.

Mercury was the only manned spacecraft that was built that was built entirely around a pressurized shell.

Vostok/Voskhod, Soyuz, Gemini, Apollo had significant portions of the spacecraft outside the armored pressure shell.

Every spacecraft except for the suborbital mercury and the space shuttles uses abalitive heatshields. The suborbital mercury spacecraft used a solid disk of beryllium as a heat sink.

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by Mgellis

Quick question...

I'm seeing things like dDR 6 ( = DR 60). Does that mean DR 100 as the normal minimum for spacecraft hulls has been abandoned?

Mark

That was mostly only a standard in some of the 3e modular design systems because the weapons were very powerful. Most real-world spacecraft have hulls only a few mm thick, and even the heat shields are very fragile. (Spaceships lets you buy a heat shield via a soft landing system if unstreamlined or assumes it's weight is included if streamlined if you make sure you armor at least one section to "surf" on as you come in for a landing). .

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Shrale

Cool ! If you get bored, try Faye Valentine's Red Tail from Cowboy BeBop.

MonkeyFist says "Here."

Faye Valentine's Red Tail. Now, I've never watched Cowboy BeBop so I'm just going by what the ship looks like.

TL 9^
Ship: Red Tail
Skill: Pilot (High-Performance Spacecraft)
dST/HP: 20
HT: 12
Move: 2G / 10 mps
Hnd/SR: 0/4
LWT: 30
Load: .5
SM: +5
Occ: 1SV
dDR: 3
Cost: $2,990,000

Front:
[1] Armor, Advanced Metal Laminate (dDR 3)
[2] Defensive ECM
[3!] Medium Weapons Battery (2x 20mm fixed very-rapid-fire Electromag cannons; .5 tons cargo)
[4!-5!] Major Weapons Battery (Fixed 100mm Electromag Cannons)
[6] Tactical Array (Level 5)
[core] Control Room (Complexity 7; Comm/Sensors 3)

Center:
[1] Armor, Advanced Metal Laminate (dDR 3)
[2] Defensive ECM
[3-5] Fuel Tanks (Hydrogen; 3 tons; 5 mps delta-V)
[6] Fission Reactor (1 pp)

Rear:
[1] Armor, Advanced Metal Laminate (dDR 3)
[2] Defensive ECM
[3-4] Fuel Tank (Hydrogen; 3 tons; 5 mps delta-V)
[5] Nuclear Saltwater Rocket (2g Acc each)
[6] Fission Reactor (1 pp)
[core] Fission Reactor (1 pp)

Features:
Emergency Ejection; Streamlined Hull; Wings

Weapons:
Weapon; Damage; sAcc; Range; Rcl; Shots
20mm VRF Electromag Gun; 3d(2); -8; S; 2; 1,000
100cm Electromag Cannon; 3dx5(2); -7; S; 3; 70

[Vampire-X]

TL 11 Laser Fighter

This is my first attempt at a spaceship. It is designed to be brought to battle in a carrier, which I will post later.

TL 11
Ship: Laser Fighter
Skill: Piloting (High-Performance Spacecraft)
dST/HP: 20/20
HT: 12
Move: 1G/3.24
Hnd/SR: 0/4
LWT: 30 tons
Load: .1 ton
SM: +5
Occ: 1SV
dDR: 7
Cost: 3.27M

Front Hull
[1] Nanocomposite Armor
[2] Tactical Sensor Array
[3] Defensive ECM
[4] Defensive ECM
[5] Defensive ECM
[6!] 10 MJ X-Ray Laser
[core] Control Room

Central Hull
[1] Nanocomposite Armor
[2] Super Fusion Power Plant 3 Points
[3!] 10 MJ Improved UV Laser
[4!] 10 MJ Improved UV Laser
[5] Fuel Tank
[6] Fuel Tank
[core] Fuel Tank

Rear Hull
[1] Nanocomposite Armor
[2] Nuclear Thermal Rocket
[3] Nuclear Thermal Rocket
[4] Fuel Tank
[5] Fuel Tank
[6] Fuel Tank
[core]

Weapon ; Damage ; sAcc ; Range
10 MJ X-Ray Laser ; 4D Burn* Sur (5) ; 0 ; S/L
10 MJ Improved UV Laser ; 4D Burn (2) ; 0 ; S/L

[Vampire-X]

This Ship carries the above fighter to battle. With a reconfiguring of the Habitats, I think it would be easy to make this a ship that would carry marines to planets and launch drop ships or drop pods as well.

TL 11
Ship: Laser Fighter Carrier
Skill: Piloting (High-Performance Spacecraft)
dST/HP: 150/150
HT: 14
Move: 2G/40
Hnd/SR: -2/-5
LWT: 10,000 tons
Load: 1000 tons
SM: +10
Occ: 54ASV + 20ASV Pilots
dDR: 7
Cost: $1167.05M

Front Hull
[1] Nanocomposite Armor
[2!] Spinal Mount 10 GJ X-Ray Laser
[3] Habitat Full Life Support
[4] Cargo Hold
[5] Cargo Hold
[6!] Fabricator
[core] Control Room

Central Hull
[1] Nanocomposite Armor
[2] Hanger Bay
[3] Hanger Bay
[4] Super Fusion Power Plant 4 Points
[5] Fuel Tank
[6] Fuel Tank
[core!] Spinal Mount 10 GJ X-Ray Laser

Rear Hull
[1] Nanocomposite Armor
[2!] Spinal Mount 10 GJ X-Ray Laser
[3] Orion Drive
[4] Fuel Tank
[5] Fuel Tank
[6] Fuel Tank
[core]

Features: Artificial Gravity
Total Hanger Capacity: 600 tons Launch Rate 100 tons
Total Habitats: 60 Divided up as follows
10 Luxury Cabins for Command crew
20 Cabins for Pilots
10 bed Sickbay (+2 Bonus)
8 Bunkrooms
2 Offices

Weapon ; Damage ; sAcc ; Range
10 GJ X-Ray Laser ; 4Dx10 burn* sur (5) ; 0 ; S/L

[Tommi_Kovala]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

Cost: $2,382,570,000,000

Good heavens.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Tommi_Kovala

Good heavens.

I would be hard pressed to come up with reasons for the whole planet to spend that much let alone the U.S. by itself.

[Tommi_Kovala]

At that TL, how many GURPS bucks could a nation (or a coalition of them) scrape together?

[Crispythemighty]

Originally Posted by Tommi_Kovala

At that TL, how many GURPS bucks could a nation (or a coalition of them) scrape together?

In the first two quarters of 2007 the government spent $146,686,063,788 on contracts and in the first three quarters of 2006 they spent $1,736,880,262,881 on grants (plus other expenses); so I'd say the government could spend a lot in a twenty years to build a super transport like the USS Glacier Bay if they really wanted.

Currently the United States national debt is about 9 trillion (3 times the cost of that ship) whats just a little more. ;p

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Tommi_Kovala

Good heavens.

It's not like they spent it over night. That ship took nearly a decade to build in space. $238 billion a year is a lot of money, but hardly the terrifying sum. Okay, considering that NASA's budget request for 2008 is $10.5 billion it's a little out there.

And, according to Wikipedia (where all human knowledge is stored!) the US has a current GDP of $13 trillion.

Don't forget that you're building a "unique" vehicle with highly advanced technology (for modern day). Also on p.34 of Spaceships there's even a section on Cost and limited production runs. Believe me, the Glacier Bay is a one-of-a-kind ship in its world. Her actual cost was $23.8 billion, but I added the x100 limited production multiplier.

Also, the cost of the Glacier Bay was a running gag between my sister and myself when I first built it in 1989. The joke was that the designers of the ship artificially inflated the price of the ship and pocketed the differences. They all retired exceptionally wealthy. In countries without extradition treaties.