[gurps] [VEHICLE] of the week 759 - OHI Automated Heavy Lift Shuttle

[Onno Meyer]

David wrote:
> 3000 tons (These are normal 2000 lb tons, right?)  is only about 100
> shipping containers.  given this is an osekmoi ship, it's going to be
> usually carrying containerized cargo.  Star ship containers in this
> setting are nominally 20mX10X10, and will hold smaller (roughly ISO
> sized) containers if that makes sense for the cargo.  This shuttle
> looks like it would carry four or five of them.  With suitable cargo
> handling equipment on the ground, it would only take a couple hours to
> unload them and then load new ones.  (breaking them down into their
> component containers would take a while, but that doesn't have to
> delay the ship.)

600 or more tons per container? That requires a big crane, which 
implies a big starport. Many smaller containers could be faster 
to load.

Chris wrote:
> Now I'm really confused.

I blame that weird non-metric system, and the fact that runway
lengths are usually given in feet while GURPS landing runs are
given in yards. Oh, and the hours I'm working these days.

Stall speed is 400 (mph) and gDecel is 10 (mph/s). The landing 
run is 4,000 yards = 12,000 feet unless gDecel is increased by
some design option. It could be brought to 2,000 yards = 6,000
feet without too much trouble.

The landing run of the current design (4,000 yards) is slightly
more than current 'full size' runways, while an improved design
could make do with slightly less - either way, it needs a major
runway rather than a small town cropduster field.