[gurps] Tinker's Starship?

[Onno Meyer]

> >  Will the expensive factory spend months idle in transit or can
> >  it travel fast enough to be kept busy working on the basic load
> >  of on-board raw materials?
> 
> I think it would be difficult to make much in transit since most of
> the cargo is "additives"  (rarer elements).  Probably enough common
> material for repairs.

Spend the transit time making low-mass, high-effort parts. Even for 
a nanofac, an uniform metal structure with tolerances in the millions 
of atoms (the hull) will be faster than intricate TL13 electronics 
(photonics? quantum electronics? whatever ...). 

Do you know Excession by Iain M. Banks? The details would be a 
spoiler :-)
 
Onno