Re: Tugs & Firing Arcs

On Thu, 11 Nov 1999, What else is on this list of things you're not
supposed to tell me? wrote:

> Fine. In addition to the other suggestions given (additional
engines/thrusters
> on barges, either end of space freight train, etc), why not make the
barges
> themselves kilometers long?  :-)  Save on that 'flexible connection' a
bit,

You wouldn't save on it. The thing about intermodal transport is that
you 
have very little "infrastructure" invested in the container. Keep in
mind 
these containers are going to get dropped, bumped, smashed and
gennerally 
abused. Do you want drive thrusters that some yaahoo on Enders World 
stuffed garbage down on your port beam? Assuming they initially show as 
damaged, then you have to troubleshoot those thrusters. If the Container

is bad, you have to unpack the container, repack another spare container

and then reattach it. Your customer isn't going to be happy. His
shipment 
is late and he is pissed. Lets not talk about that incident where that 
dodgey contianer thruster failed when you were trying to avoid crashing 
into that Military Training vessel. Talk about a mess. 

The real life modern contianers are just big metal boxes with numbers on

them. The semi-trailers have all the control systems on them (brakes, 
tail lights, etc). The only ones that have any systems are those that 
reqire cooling. Those get hooked up to the Containership's power to keep

the cooling going. 

> no?  :-)  And allow you to pack more into one container. (however,
losing

How does having no spinal section allow you to pack more into a 
container? The container now has power conduits, fuel pipes, Insulation,

control lines and Thrusters. Sounds like your container just got more 
complicated and smaller inside. Not bigger. Good luck keeping all those 
containers fixed and running. You've complicated something that the 20th

century got simplified. 

> one container to pirates would hurt; where's your optimum 'cut-off'
point
> for length of cargo pod/barge vs risk to being lost to some
situation?)

Which is why it now makes more sense to mount sensors/weapons on the
Hull 
of the vessel (no matter how big it is). They are independent of the 
containers. Or you could even have wartime containers that eneable a 
container ship hull to be fitted out for combat duties or be at least 
self escorting (ie Arapaho concept). 

Also, the longer your "train" the more difficult it is to turn. Remember

its harder to turn a big long mass than a short round masss. 

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- Ryan Montieth Gill	  NRA / DoD# 0780 (Smug #1) / AMA / SOHC -
- ryan.gill@turner.com	    I speak not for CNN, nor they for me -
- rmgill@mindspring.com 	     www.mindspring.com/~rmgill/ -
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