[Spaceships] TL10^ multipurpose orbital shuttle

[Agemegos]

Type 64 MkI orbital shuttle (TL10^ limited-superscience)

This is an orbital shuttle designed for landing parties from an exploration vessel on the surface of a habitable planet and returning them to rendezvous with their ship in orbit. Built on a 30-ton streamlined airframe, it is a winged design 45 feet long, with a fusion-powered ram-rocket intended more for atmospheric cruising than for making an important contribution to reaching orbit. The winged design allows the shuttle to fly with the ram-rocket at low throttle, which is reasonably inoffensive near settled areas.

Besides sporting landing wheels, Type 64 MkI shuttles are designed for a water landing. They are fitted with a refining plant for wilderness refuelling. Each will carry ten passengers in acceleration couches and nine tons of cargo. The manufacturer offered "fuselage tanks" that could be fitted in the cargo hold to carry an extra eight tons of water, but in practice these only ever used for conveying cargoes of fuel to the mother ship.

Forward hull

[1] Armour, nanocomposite (dDR 5), $150k, —
[2–6] Passenger seating (10 acceleration couches), $60k, —
[core] Control room (comp 6, com/sen 4, stations 1), $60k, —

Midships hull

[1] Armour, nanocomposite (dDR5), $150k, —
[2–6, core] Cargo hold (9 tons), — , —
[wings] $150k

Aft hull

[1] Armour, nanocomposite armour (dDR5), $150k, —
[2] Refinery (0.5 tons/hour), $30k, —
[3] Fuel tank (1.5 tons water, 5 mi./sec. @ 3 g), $10k, —
[4] Fuel tank (1.5 tons water, 5 mi./sec. @ 3 g), $10k, —
[5] Reaction engine, fusion torch (1.5 g with water), $300k, —
[6] Reaction engine, fusion torch ram-rocket (1.5 g with water), $1.5M, — [note 1]

Basic Stat block

PILOTING/TL10 (HIGH-PERFORMANCE SPACECRAFT)
TL: 10^
Spacecraft: Type 64 Mark I exploration shuttle
dST/HP: 20
Hnd/SR: +4 / 6
HT: 12
Move: 3 g. / 10 mi./sec. (air speed 3,450 mph [note 1])
LWt.: 30 tons
Load: 9 tons
SM: +5
Occ.: 1+10 SV
dDR: 5 / 5 / 5
Range: 0
Cost: $2.57M
Refuel: $60

Notes

1. Air typically has an average molecular weight of about 29 AMU, giving 3.8 times the thrust of hydrogen (and 0.26 times the delta-v) for the same reason that water gives three times the thrust of hydrogen. That means that the Type 64's ram-rocket gives 1.9 gee of acceleration in air and an air speed of 3,450 miles per hour (nearly a mile per second towards orbital velocity). At least in a breathable atmosphere it does. In the hydrogen atmosphere of a gas giant it would produce only 0.5 gee and 1,770 miles per hour.)