02-18-2022, 11:59 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Hamilton, Ont. CANADA
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[Query] Turley Starport Size
I am planning to use GURPS Traveller: Starports to design the starport for the planet Turley in the Empty Quarter sector. Its port size on the Imperial Encyclopedia site is 6 (which makes sense for a class V port on a major trade route). Unfortunately that route is the Saeghvung-Turley-Exile Run which is a chain of Deep Space stations spanning the Lesser Rift. Each of these stations has an estimated "annual flow of 15,000 passengers and 300,000 dtons of cargo" typical of port size 5 (which would be Turley's natural port size if it wasn't on a trade route). Should I use the official port size or the calculated one?
Dalton “was T:ST used for the official port stats?” Spence
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02-19-2022, 12:41 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Re: [Query] Turley Starport Size
Size 6 with size 5 maintenance budget because someone was overoptimistic?
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02-19-2022, 06:37 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: [Query] Turley Starport Size
The traffic tables in Far Trader (from which the ones in Starports are drawn) were deliberately grainy, to make it possible to calculate by hand and because the whole thing is really just an estimate with a substantial degree of fuzziness. Nevertheless, it's possible to look "under the hood" and see what went into the final numbers:
A traffic level of 300,000 dton/yr is actually closer to size 5.5; the minimum for size 5 is 100,000 dton/yr. If Turley receives 100,000 dton/yr in system traffic (i.e., with Turley as destination or origin) plus 300,000 dton/yr in transient traffic (i.e., just passing through along the route), the combined 400,000 dton/yr amounts to size 5.6. If Turley's size 5 is closer to the maximum (e.g., 800,000 dton/yr, size 5.9), or there are other routes that send transient traffic through it, the port could easily break into size 6 (> 1,000,000 dton/yr). |
02-19-2022, 11:11 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Hamilton, Ont. CANADA
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Re: [Query] Turley Starport Size
Quote:
Dalton “good thing Turley has plenty of water” Spence
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02-20-2022, 11:47 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Hamilton, Ont. CANADA
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Re: [Query] Turley Starport Size
Okay. I bucked up my courage to consider the tanker issue. From my notes on Deep Space Station requirements:
Quote:
The 5,000 dton jump tanker I designed will deliver one-third of the weekly shipping traffic's fuel requirements. Therefore in addition to the 21,000 tons of shipping the station has to handle 15,000 dtons of tanker traffic per week. Since each tanker requires 3,400 tons of fuel per mission (the payload plus two jumps' worth) the electrolysis unit at the Turley downport would need to produce 6×3,400 = 20,400 tons of hydrogen per week for the neighboring stations plus 4,200 tons weekly to be delivered by 7 daily trips of an 800-ton Oiler (T:FT p. 137) to the highport for the through traffic. (Let's round this up to 150 tons/hour so the Oiler can make one extra trip per week. ;) ) This is all without accounting for the system traffic related to imports and exports. FWIW my "tanker" carries any fuel it isn't currently using to Jump in its cargo bay using collapsible tanks. As a result when each ship has delivered its payload to the station and refilled its hard tank for the return trip it has enough cargo capacity to carry 1/3rd of the station's expected cargo traffic with 400 dtons left over. (How about that! ;) ) Dalton “how big would the electrolysis unit have to be?” Spence
Last edited by DaltonS; 02-21-2022 at 08:06 AM. Reason: Added FWIW. |
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02-22-2022, 07:22 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Hamilton, Ont. CANADA
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Re: [Query] Turley Starport Size
Having mentioned the Jump Tanker/Freighter I designed above I thought it only fair that I shared the specs with you. Here they are, lovingly translated to BBCode from the HTML output produced by the ancient (2000) GURPS Traveller Ships program by Thomas Bont. (I've looked hard for something more recent to design GURPS Traveller ships by the old rules but couldn't find anything. ;) )
Quote:
Dalton “still looking for more data on Turley” Spence
Last edited by DaltonS; 02-25-2022 at 11:23 AM. |
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