Re: How big is a troopship? [DS/FT/SG2] (and what it all means)

Tom Anderson wrote:

> > The population of the NAC capital, Albion, grew from zero to
"almost as
> > large as England" (assuming that the English population doesn't
> > stagnate very much in the FT future, that's at least 50 million) in
35
> > years,
> 
> i can't argue with canon.
> 
> > and much or even most of this growth was due to immigration. 
> 
> now hold your horses - where do you get this idea? 

Straight out of the canon. Quoting FT timeline, 2135 entry: "...Albion,
which now has a population almost as large as England thanks to massive
immigration and engineered population growth programmes."

The "one brigade-size transport a day" immigration only moves about 30
million people. The rest still have to be born on the planet (the
massive engineered population growth programmes); a 40% (20+ million)
increase in two generations or less is rather impressive :-/ The canon
timeline doesn't say whether or not 25+% of Albion's population are
children in 2135, but it'd pretty much have to be.

Also note that the 50 million level assumes that England's population
doesn't increase noticeably in the future, in spite of England being
one of the few places not direcly hit by warfare (which would make it a
rather attractive place to immigrate to).

> > Assuming that the equipment necessary to survive on an alien world
is
> > no less bulky than the military equipment of the brigade, Albion
saw on
> > average at least one such Brigade-size colony unload its cargo EACH
AND
> > EVERY DAY during those 35 years...
> 
> Singapore currently has 700 000 000 gross tonnes of shipping go 
> through it each year; that's about 2 million tonnes a day. i would
guess 
> that this is more than a brigade. 

It sure is. But supertankers, large RORO ships etc aren't exactly
uncommon on Earth today - certainly not as uncommon as Thomas suggests
large FT freighters to be.

> > So, either colony ships of this size or larger (which would most
likely
> > be drafted as troop carriers when the need arose) are rather common
in
> > the GZGverse, or people in cryo (and most of their equipment) takes
a
> > *lot* less space than Thomas's calculations suggest.
> 
> i'd agree. i think that freighters, liners, transports, etc, must be
far
> larger than warships, which is very much at odds with the picture in
FT.

Either that, or one Mass can carry considerably more than 25 people in
cryo.

Regards, 

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry