Drop ship carriers

[The Hawk]

A Jumpship massing 50,000 tons will have a core massing 45,000 tons, but can carry a 100,000 ton Dropship.  So you have a total of 150,000 tons being jumped by a 45,000 ton core, for a ratio of 3.33 times the core tonnage.  So a regular core can bring through a jump 2.333 times its mass.

A compact core on that same vessel will mass 22,625 tons, so 150,000 tons divided by 22,625 is 6.63 times the tonnage.  A compact core brings through a jump 5.63 times its own tonnage.

So it's a fluff estimation of the one collar per 50,000 tons limit (and a not-terribly-accurate one at that).  OK, I'm comfortable with that.

I'll note that if you can get around the complexity of loading and unloading them as cargo, 186 Vampires can fit in a single Behemoth's cargo tonnage, which my back-of-the-envelope calculations tell me would be able to carry somewhere north of two divisions of jump infantry.  The bigger issue, I would think, is volume rather than mass, since DropShips which expect to fly independently are not generally built to maximize their density as an aerospace fighter might be.  The Vampire might be an exception in this regard, since it is specifically noted as being confused with ASFs and not being very comfortable to fly in for long periods.

[Medron Pryde]

I do find the idea of a "DropShip Carrier" to be a very interesting idea, and one that could maximize JumpShip usefulness.

Imagine if you will that a JumpShip has a DropShip Carrier assigned to it.  Let us say it is the size of a Behemoth with Overlord-sized docking bays inside of it.  The Overlord or smaller ships dock inside each of these bays, the DropShip Carrier docks with the JumpShip, and then the JumpShip moves everybody to the next system.

[sillybrit]

Let us say it is the size of a Behemoth with Overlord-sized docking bays inside of it.

Called it!  ;D

I understand your point of view of looking at Leopards, but undoubtedly somebody else would take the concept and use it to ship Overlord-sized vessels in a Behemoth-sized carrier, for example.

A further thought about the DropShip Carrier concept and the problems it presents. I already mentioned my concerns that it breaks the current interstellar transport model, but there's also the issue of the further Pandora's boxes that could be opened. The OP's concept started with Leopard-sized DropShips being carried, and as we've seen it's trivial to extend the concept to larger models such as the Overlord, but what's next?

If the carrier is meant to be nothing more than a container for smaller DropShips during the jump, then obviously you can afford to design it to have a bare minimum performance, making the carrier little more than a frame with the smallest possible engine, saving as much mass as possible for the carried DropShips.

The next logical thought would be, why does it have to be a ship at all? Why not a structure with no engine, thereby saving even more mass. Small Craft tugs could be used to dock and undock the structure. Obviously we're going a little beyond the DropShip model in rules terms, but this is thinking in in-universe terms.

For the next potential step, if the purpose of this structure is to do nothing more than contain DropShips during the jump, then why not permanently attach it and save all the docking/undocking time? The JumpShip doesn't need to use its thrust engines much anyway, right? And what if we replace the mass used for one of those DropShip bays for weaponry, or some other equipment? And right there we've opened up a whole can of worms.

[Medron Pryde]

Engines are needed to keep the ships in position so they don't drift out of the jump point.  And I think they would be needed for the DropShip Carrier as well for the same reason.  And since it would need to be mobile to stay in the jump point, even if it never did anything else, it could not be a true "space structure" of the type noted.  It would have to be rigged for acceleration and movement, and thereby need to have a reinforced structure.

As for the idea of permanently installing them to a JumpShip, I would think not.  Let us say that you jump into a star system and the ship now has seven days before it can jump again.  But there is another ship either ready to jump or only a day away.  The DropShip Carrier could pull away slowly and attach itself, thereby giving all carried DropShips a much quicker transit to the next system.

On the "gunship" idea...yeah...that would be fun...erm...bad...;)

One of the things I did for Human Sphere universe was some ships that used "pod mount" cargo bays, basically starship omnipods.  Some were pure cargo, some where AeroSpace, BattleMech, or infantry carriers.  Some were weapons pods.  You never knew what you were going to meet when you met one of those.  ;)

[sillybrit]

As for the idea of permanently installing them to a JumpShip, I would think not.  Let us say that you jump into a star system and the ship now has seven days before it can jump again.  But there is another ship either ready to jump or only a day away.  The DropShip Carrier could pull away slowly and attach itself, thereby giving all carried DropShips a much quicker transit to the next system.

But given that the other waiting JumpShip should also be a bulk carrier type - after all, their advantage over current canon JumpShips is so massive that the latter can't compete, and it should be something that could be a modification of an existing JumpShip and not a new build - then all the carried DropShips could just undock and fly over at a much higher thrust, so nothing is lost.

[Archangel]

So I guess that means no guild heighliners.

[Medron Pryde]

But every time you turn on the engines it requires a massive amount of maintenance for every unit that brings up its drive.  Having the single DropShip Carrier move would allow every DropShip captain to not have to wear down his or her ship.  And then instead of a dozen or more DropShips zipping around you have one big bugger sliding around slowly and sedately.  Local traffic control would be very happy...;)

[idea weenie]

I'd argue that docking and undocking from a larger vessel would take similar amounts of time, but would it also be subject to one ship at a time undocking/docking?  So if you have a Dropship carrier, the Dropships undock sequentially, rather than simultaneously.  Since they are being carried internally, they should take more time than a Dropship docking/undocking from a Jumpship.

Even more fun, a Jumpship could set up a small spin, and disconnect the Dropships that way.  The spin would be slow enough to avoid stressing the core from lopsided undocking, and to keep the Dropships in effectively zero-G.

Hmm, assuming a .01 G, and the Merchant Jumpship looks about 64 meters in width (it looks 1/5 the width compared to the length, and the length is 320 meters).  So the radius of the circle is 32 meters.

To get a negative .01G at 32 meters (I'll assume .1 m/s^2 to make the math easy) you'll need a speed of ~1.8 m/s.  With a radius of 32 meters, that means a circumference of 201 meters, for a rate of roughly half a rotation per minute.  When the Dropships are released, they will drift away at a rate of 1.8 m/s, which assuming you want a 100 meter distance before lighting engines, they will cover in one minute.  The fun part is this can be done for all the Dropships, simultaneously, meaning Dropship undocking will be faster than unloading.

[Knightmare]

****** yea science! O0 Seriously, that was a fun math exercise to try and confirm. Although, I wonder if 100 meters is far enough from the JumpShip?...