Re: [OFFICIAL] Freighters/Merchants question....

--- Edward Lipsett <translation@intercomltd.com> wrote:
> on 04.11.11 10:26 AM, Bill Brush wrote:
> > 
> > Thinking about this, I can foresee some fairly serious
> > design issues.  The biggest, is  how do you stop the 
> > string once you have it in motion?	Conservation of 
> > momentum is going to be a real thorny problem if you've 
> > got a string of containers a couple miles long let alone 
> > a couple of hundred.  There might not be any gravity to 
> > worry about, but mass doesn't change just because your 
> > out of the atmosphere.
> 
> The cost in deltaV is the same in either case... And the
> sphere (or other hull) costs more in materials. The rest 
> is just an engineering problem (he says glibly)...

Ah, yes... and, speaking from personal experience (not, alas,
with insterstellar cargo hauling, but personal experience
nonetheless) engineers so *love* to hear that phrase. <grin>

My vote would be for a structure; coming in loose as a string
gets into too many potential messes.  Doesn't have to be *much*
of a structure (certainly not completely enclosed), but a
'backbone' at least.  That's about the only reason I don't see a
sphere; while a cylinder isn't as volume efficient, you're also
reducing your forces on the outer components by a lot, keeping
them in tight with the axis of thrust for reaction drives.

Well, okay, 'a lot' is relative, I know; but still and all...
the reason some ships may be restricted to certain thrust levels
might not just be engine power.  (Which I think has been
reflected in some 'overdrive' varient rules in the past.)

'Til later,
			   Aaron Teske
			   mithramuse@yahoo.com

		
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