[Spaceships] Living Cargo

scc · 06-16-2016, 03:15 AM

OK, for a couple of reason I'm curious about transporting living things aboard spaceships, specifically non-human living things. The two examples I can think of are livestock for live export or transport to a colony, and bioship fighters. For the former SS2:39 says: "The cargo requires habitat cargo space" so does that mean I divide the tonnage of animals by 5 to get the number of cabins I'll need for steerage cargo? And for that later (I'd assume I use the same rule for calculating # of cabins) does using this mean they need less food? And ballparks on how fast they can be transferred to Hanger Bays for launch?

And what about transporting these sorts of things in Hibernation Chamber?

Frost · 06-16-2016, 04:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scc

OK, for a couple of reason I'm curious about transporting living things aboard spaceships, specifically non-human living things.

... For the former SS2:39 says: "The cargo requires habitat cargo space" so does that mean I divide the tonnage of animals by 5 to get the number of cabins I'll need for steerage cargo?

This seemed a bit off to me but rereading SS2 I would be inclined to say that this is exactly how it works. At a guess this would imply that the mass given for the stock in the tables includes some sort of portable stalls. My first mental image was literally a livestock trailer mounted on a container frame.

If it does work this way then I wouldn't be surprised if the portable stalls were in fact hibernation chambers. Particularly in settings where starships don't land and goods need shuttling up and down, where they operate primarily or exclusively in microgravity or where flight times run to more than a week or so. In all of these cases conscious animals strike me as a very bad idea.

Varyon · 06-16-2016, 08:29 AM

First, you'll have to decide if the weight and price are for just the livestock, or if they include some portable living arrangements (like the mentioned livestock trailer). The latter is easy - you can just transport the livestock as-is in steerage cargo. For the former, you'll either need to transport the livestock in Cage* systems or purchase some amenities that will allow you to transform your steerage cargo into proper holding areas - which will basically mean retrofitting your ship to turn that steerage cargo into Cage systems.

If going with the former - and note the lack of rules for this in SS2 strongly imply the latter is more likely what was intended - needs for space, air, and food/water roughly scale by SM. An SM-2 animal needs half as much space and food/water as an SM+0 one, while an SM+2 animal needs twice as much of each as that SM+0 one. Being in a Habitat system covers the space, air and water requirements, but you'll need to either buy and carry food or have Total Life Support for your animals to keep them fed. Note the scaling also applies to hibernation chambers - a single cabin can be made into 8 SM-2 hibernation chambers, 4 SM+0 ones, or 2 SM+2 ones.

If going with the latter, as noted you just carry the livestock as steerage cargo, but you'll still need to feed them if you lack Total Life Support. I don't think SS2 gives guidelines on feed for livestock - if not, multiply tons by 0.8; this is the number of SM+0 equivalents you need to supply food for (for reference, this is calculated by assuming the livestock trailer functionally turns steerage cargo into cages; as every cabin can be turned into cages enough for 4 SM+0 animals or 5 tons of cargo, dividing tons by 5 to determine number of cabins and multiplying this by 4 should give us our number, and 4/5 is 0.8).

Carrying livestock in this manner for a long period of time isn't very good on the animals - the 1% die-off per week without intervention (Veterinary or similar) represents this, although arguably it may be rather lenient. Hibernation chambers should avoid this problem. "Housing" the animals in Open Spaces would work better for a lot of livestock, although that's likely to be less mass-efficient - as an entire SM+8 Habitat would house up to 24 SM+0 animals, I'd eyeball that each Open Space would be sufficient for around 12, but you'll likely need to supplement their food. This method would likely reduce the die-off markedly - perhaps 1% per month rather than per week.

*Technically, a good deal of livestock won't really need actual cages, but the difference in mass isn't really worth bothering with.

06-16-2016, 03:15 AM	#1
scc Join Date: Mar 2013	[Spaceships] Living Cargo OK, for a couple of reason I'm curious about transporting living things aboard spaceships, specifically non-human living things. The two examples I can think of are livestock for live export or transport to a colony, and bioship fighters. For the former SS2:39 says: "The cargo requires habitat cargo space" so does that mean I divide the tonnage of animals by 5 to get the number of cabins I'll need for steerage cargo? And for that later (I'd assume I use the same rule for calculating # of cabins) does using this mean they need less food? And ballparks on how fast they can be transferred to Hanger Bays for launch? And what about transporting these sorts of things in Hibernation Chamber?

06-16-2016, 08:29 AM	#3
Varyon Join Date: Jun 2013	Re: [Spaceships] Living Cargo First, you'll have to decide if the weight and price are for just the livestock, or if they include some portable living arrangements (like the mentioned livestock trailer). The latter is easy - you can just transport the livestock as-is in steerage cargo. For the former, you'll either need to transport the livestock in Cage* systems or purchase some amenities that will allow you to transform your steerage cargo into proper holding areas - which will basically mean retrofitting your ship to turn that steerage cargo into Cage systems. If going with the former - and note the lack of rules for this in SS2 strongly imply the latter is more likely what was intended - needs for space, air, and food/water roughly scale by SM. An SM-2 animal needs half as much space and food/water as an SM+0 one, while an SM+2 animal needs twice as much of each as that SM+0 one. Being in a Habitat system covers the space, air and water requirements, but you'll need to either buy and carry food or have Total Life Support for your animals to keep them fed. Note the scaling also applies to hibernation chambers - a single cabin can be made into 8 SM-2 hibernation chambers, 4 SM+0 ones, or 2 SM+2 ones. If going with the latter, as noted you just carry the livestock as steerage cargo, but you'll still need to feed them if you lack Total Life Support. I don't think SS2 gives guidelines on feed for livestock - if not, multiply tons by 0.8; this is the number of SM+0 equivalents you need to supply food for (for reference, this is calculated by assuming the livestock trailer functionally turns steerage cargo into cages; as every cabin can be turned into cages enough for 4 SM+0 animals or 5 tons of cargo, dividing tons by 5 to determine number of cabins and multiplying this by 4 should give us our number, and 4/5 is 0.8). Carrying livestock in this manner for a long period of time isn't very good on the animals - the 1% die-off per week without intervention (Veterinary or similar) represents this, although arguably it may be rather lenient. Hibernation chambers should avoid this problem. "Housing" the animals in Open Spaces would work better for a lot of livestock, although that's likely to be less mass-efficient - as an entire SM+8 Habitat would house up to 24 SM+0 animals, I'd eyeball that each Open Space would be sufficient for around 12, but you'll likely need to supplement their food. This method would likely reduce the die-off markedly - perhaps 1% per month rather than per week. Technically, a good deal of livestock won't really need actual cages, but the difference in mass isn't really worth bothering with. Last edited by Varyon; 06-16-2016 at 08:38 AM.*