[gurps] Slow warp drive setting

[Onno Meyer]

Dataweaver wrote this a couple of days ago, but I had to read 
Spaceships 5 first: 

> 40 days at 10G is nearly 2000 AU; 13 days at 10G is approximately 200
> AU; and 4 days at 10G is approximately 20 AU.  Every planet in the
> solar system is within ten days' travel of every other one; and
> everything within the orbit of Saturn is within four days' travel.
> In-system ships are more likely to be designed for four days and ample
> safety margins, rather than 40 days.

I think I had the unspoken assumption that interstellar trips
in small ships would be from one habitable world to the other,
while outer-system-but-still-insystem flights would be from 
the mainworld to some bleak rocky outpost, and back again. 

In 3E Vehicles, four days are roughly the point where full 
life systems become more efficient than limited ones. I'd 
always take full life support as the main system, but an 
insystemer might use limited life support as a backup (one
advantage of limited life support is the lower power use, 
so it can run on emergency power).

> Hmm... true.  Spaceships 5 gives guidelines for how much of a hazard
> interstellar gas is at various fractions of lightspeed; but I have no
> idea how much of a hazard it would be for a warp bubble ship.  

I don't think the rules can be made applicable, since damage 
seems to go up with the square of velocity.

> The first issue is whether or not dangerous speeds are attainable in a
> year or so; if they are, armored hulls would be necessary for all
> interstellar journeys.

The bubble must provide some mitigation, so why not make it 
full protection? 

Onno