Time to speak of many... Re: Gas Skimmers, Wings and Things

Schoon, the man, said:
~~~
Robertson, Brendan <Brendan.Robertson@dva.gov.au> wrote:

>*****
>Hydrogen Refinery Station "Red Eagle"
>Orbitting gas giant Caelum Iota VIII
>0830 hours.
>*****

Generally a very nice job Robert.
~~~

And I say:
Agreed! People, and Los in particular, shame me on my meagre attempts at
writing. But, not enough to stop trying... ;->=
~~~

Then Schoon, the myth, said:
>Everything was ready, as he finished strapping into the flight deck.
>All that was required now was flip the release & head for the gas giant
>floating below him like a giant, multi-coloured marble.   A deadly
>marble at that, 3 pilots & ships hadn't come back last week.

Three ships lost in a week seems excessive to me. Not even hardhat
divers,
experimental pilots, or even high risk miners loose that many people.
Look
at the economics as well. For the ships alone, that's a 264 MUcr loss.
Idoubt they'll make that up with sales.
~~~

And I, the base reality say:
Had the same feeling, though, we don't know how many are involved in the
'mining'. Or, how strategic this site is. Perhaps it's the only
scoop-able
gas ball in several light years. Or, we can pretend he meant the three
pulled up stakes and headed for simpler locals...
~~~

Then Schoon, the legend, said:
>*****
>Model XIV Aeroglide Gas Skimmer
>Mass: 40 (4,000 metric tons)
>Cost: 88 (88 MUCr.)
>Hull: Very Weak (Fully Streamlined)
>FTL: none
>Main Drive: 10
>Damage Track: 4; [o/o/o/*]
>Crew: AI + 1 pilot
>800 ton compressed gas storage tanks

I'd consider increasing the hull integrity. If operations in the
atmosphere
are that dangerous, I think they want something that could withstand a
"bump" or two.

Schoon
~~~

You ain't lied yet, bro. Though the term weak hull doesn't necessarily
mean
unable to take punishment, I'd be assuming at least the cabin would be
built like a brick s**t house (crude American aphorism that I've heard
at
least three Brits use).

This has certainly gotten me thinking about my Texacoan Free State Navy.
My
idea was that the interstellar corporation Texaco was one of the big
losers
in the corporate wars, and that small group of company loyalists would
make
a thriving colony-state out of some out-of-the-way holdings. What I need
is
some physics/astronomy insights: do deuterium and tritrium still figure
in
high grade fusion reactions? Would the heavier isotopes be more or less
common in older, and pre-nova-salted, systems? Ok, not needed for
gaming,
but useful in fluff.

On another topic, totally, can I get some pointers on the
Wings-and-Things
packet? When I bought it, I thought it made specific variants on
standard
GZG figs, but now I'm not so sure. Not a problem, I have plenty of
ideas,
including one or two pieces being ships themselves, but does anyone have
ideas, either official, Jon/KR/Nic, or likely suggestions, rest of list?

The_Beast