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

[David Scheidt]

On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 1:30 PM, Onno Meyer <Onno.Meyer at gmx.de> wrote:
> 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.
>

My neighbors have a 300-something ton mobile crane, cost them a
million year 2K bucks, or so.    I'm sure there are much bigger mobile
cranes around.  A fixed one would be lots cheaper.
http://www.manitowoccranegroup.com/MCG_GRO/Products/UK/GMK6300.asp
is the one they've got.  If there's enough work around here for them
to have that, I suspect that such a crane would be available anywhere.
 Particularly at TL10.  Fully developed TL 10 worlds are *rich*.  Lots
richer than GURPS wealth rules imply.

 (My neighbor is a crane rental company....)



-- 
David Scheidt
dmscheidt at gmail.com