Pathfinder and Ark class Jumpships (primitive jumpships)

[Liam's Ghost]

Pathfinder/Ark class Jumpship

The grandfather of interstellar society, the Pathfinder was the first manned jumpship ever created. Launched in 2108 and making its historic first extrasolar jump to Tau Ceti in December of that year, the Pathfinder heralded mankind's explosive expansion across the stars.

The proven success of the Pathfinder quickly spawned additional ships built on the same lines. New Pathfinder class vessels, as well as their half sister Ark class ships, were under construction within months of the Pathfinder's second voyage to Tau Ceti, despite the tremendous expense and difficulty inherent to jumpship construction at the time. The first of these ships began entering service in 2116, and were establishing the first true interstellar colony in a matter of months.

Improvements in manufacturing techniques, exploitation of new sources of critical raw materials in the asteroid belt, and significant private research (the plans for the original Deimos Core, the jump core design used by the Pathfinder and Ark classes, was intentionally released into the public domain to encourage such involvement) saw the cost of jumpship construction free fall in the next few years, fueling a massive boom in shipbuilding, and by extension, colonization. Within a few short decades of the Pathfinder's first voyage, mankind had laid claim to over one hundred new worlds, with hundreds of jumpships roaming the void.

The Pathfinder and Ark class jumpships held two different, but complementary roles in the early colonization effort. Pathfinder class ships were designed to serve as survey vessels, investigating and evaluating newly discovered worlds with their on board complement of advanced sensor systems, laboratories, and scientific teams. Once an ideal colony site was located, the more numerous Arks would follow, bringing the colonists and supplies necessary to establish the new colony. A single Ark class ship was designed to transport hundreds of colonists, as well as enough machinery, food, and other critical supplies necessary to sustain them while the colony was established. Once their charges were on the ground, the Arks would return to already settled territories to pick up additional settlers and supplies, while the Pathfinders would head further out into unexplored space to identify new candidates.

Though some of the most well known ships of their day, the Pathfinder and Ark classes enjoyed only a relatively short time in the spotlight. Within forty years, the newer, much larger Aquilla began to appear in service, and its obvious superiority allowed it to quickly supplant the older types in less than a decade (despite technical upgrades put into service in the 2150s). The Pathfinder and Ark fell out of production by the 2170s.

Though these original designs would die out before the next century, a part of them would continue to live on. With the plans for their jump core being freely available to any who wanted them, numerous parties would use the core (with some additional refinements) as the basis for whole new designs, ranging from small tramp freighters to military gunboats. These Pathfinder derived ships would continue to regularly show up until the advent of the modern jumpship.

Type: Primitive Jumpship (2108)
Mass: 50,000 tons
Transit Drive: 6000 tons
Thrust Capacity: 1/2
Fuel: 3000 tons (15,000 points, 19.54 tons per burn day)
Pumps: 60 tons
Structure: 500 tons
Structural Integrity: 10
Jump Drive (primitive, 15 light years): 25,000 tons
Drive Integrity: 3
Jump Sail: none
Sail Integrity: n/a
Control System: 312.5 tons
Crew: 11 officers, 54 men, 389 tons
Heatsinks: 122
Armor: 10 tons
*Primitive Armor: f/a:2, fl/fr/al/ar:1
*Standard Armor: f:4, fl/fr/al/ar/aft:2

Equipment:
(Pathfinder Class)
1 Dropshuttle Bay, 11,000 tons
50 Second Class Passengers, 350 tons
20 Escape Pods, 140 tons
Lab Space, 100 tons
High Resolution Imager, 2.5 tons
Infrared Imager, 5 tons
Look Down Radar, 5 tons
3,126 tons of Cargo

(Ark Class)
10 small craft bays (2 doors), 2000 tons
500 Second Class Passengers, 3500 tons
100 Escape Pods, 700 tons
8528.5 tons of cargo

Upgrade notes
*Ships built after 2151 featured an improved transit drive, command deck, and superior fuel efficiency. This increases fuel points to 17,647 (16.609 tons per burn day) and grants an additional 962.5 tons of cargo space (4088.5 tons for the Pathfinder and 9491 tons for the Ark).

[Daryk]

I'm sorry, did I just hear William Shatner say "...to explore strange new worlds..."? :)

[Liam's Ghost]

I'm sorry, did I just hear William Shatner say "...to explore strange new worlds..."? :)

It's the first generation, though, so I'm pretty sure what you're hearing is Faith of the Heart.  :P

[Liam's Ghost]

Bonus! A couple pseudo-generic designs!

Typical Small Transport

This might be considered representative of the wide variety of small transports constructed using the plans for the Deimos jump core. Though major trading cartels preferred larger craft, these ships flourished among independents, minor political entities, and the denizens of the rim, and were more often than not a new manufacturer's first taste of the complexities of shipbuilding.

Type: Primitive Jumpship (2151)
Mass: 50,000 tons
Transit Drive: 5100 tons
Thrust Capacity: 1/2
Fuel: 1000 tons (5,882 points, 16.609 tons per burn day)
Pumps: 20 tons
Structure: 1000 tons
Structural Integrity: 20
Jump Drive (primitive, 15 light years): 25,000 tons
Drive Integrity: 3
Jump Sail: none
Sail Integrity: n/a
Control System: 250 tons
Crew: 11 officers, 55 men, 396 tons
Heatsinks: 116
Armor: 20 tons
*Primitive Armor: f/a/fl/fr/al/ar:3
*Standard Armor: f/a:4, fl/fr/al/ar/:5

Equipment:
4 Small Craft bays (1 door), 800 tons
10 Escape Pods, 70 tons
16,340 tons of cargo (2 doors)

Weapons:
FL/FR
3 machine guns, 100 shots, 4 tons

Upgrades
These designs went through multiple improvements over time which generally resulted in changes to cargo capacity and fuel efficiency, as well as the addition of a jump sail. Stat changes are documented below
*After 2201, fuel points increase to 7142, tons per burn day decrease to 13.678, heat sinks decrease to 109, and cargo capacity increases by 650 (16,990 tons). The ship gains a jump sail that masses 325 tons and has an integrity of 18.
*After 2230, the jump sail mass is reduced to 163, and integrity is 9, cargo mass increases to 17,152.
*After 2251, a new transit drive increases thrust to 2/3, and the increasing reliability of jump sails results in the removal of half the fuel tankage (increased efficiency results in five hundred tons of fuel providing 4545 points of fuel and 10.747 tons per burn day). Heat sinks increase to 126, and cargo tonnage actually drops to 15289.5 tons
*After 2260, the jump sail mass is reduced 82 and has an integrity of 5. One machine gun is removed from the fore left and fore right arcs and replaced by an AC-5 with 20 rounds of ammunition. Cargo capacity increases to 15,354.5 tons.
*By 2300, still more upgrades sees fuel points increase to 5000, tons per burn day decrease to 9.77, sail mass drop to 33 and integrity to 3, heat sinks reduced to 122, and cargo capacity increase to 16,016 tons.


Typical Early Gunboat

Though the Terran Alliance started building a fleet of combat jumpships barely four years after the first extrasolar colony was established, for the majority of humanity, the first century of jumpship travel was largely a peaceful endeavor, more out of necessity. Most civilian ships were armed, of course, and pirates were roaming the void almost from the beginning of interstellar travel, but what weapons were available outside of the Alliance navy were of only limited utility. Thus, truly armed vessels wouldn't begin to proliferate until the middle of the 23rd century, when the first modern high velocity, rapid fire autoloading cannons became commonly available.

Though a typical small gunboat was well armed and protected for an era of converted merchant ships, it was still more of an armed transport than a dedicated combat vessel, intended more to show the flag and put boots on the ground to deal with small brushfire conflicts. When pressed into combat, they were usually able to handle the average transport, armed merchantman, or privateer with little trouble, however against larger combat jumpships, especially those equipped with rapidly proliferating naval weaponry, the smart gunboat captain knew to run, scattering mines behind him to slow down pursuit.

The beginning of the WarShip era had a drastic affect on naval tactics, as ship to ship action became more and more prevalent. The Terran Alliance's Type 51 gunboat was the first to embrace this new reality, equipped with its own naval weapons for direct ship to ship combat. As a result, older gunboats would be gradually phased out with the major states, either scrapped, refitted as full time transports, or sold off to lesser entities. They continued to persist out on the rim, often refitted with additional weaponry, and proved especially popular among pirates, privateers, and mercenary companies.

Type: Primitive Jumpship (2260)
Mass: 50,000 tons
Transit Drive: 9900 tons
Thrust Capacity: 3/5
Fuel: 1000 tons (9090 points, 10.747 tons per burn day)
Pumps: 20 tons
Structure: 3000 tons
Structural Integrity: 60
Jump Drive (primitive, 15 light years): 25,000 tons
Drive Integrity: 3
Jump Sail: 82 tons
Sail Integrity: 5
Control System: 137.5 tons
Crew: 13 officers, 63 crew, 571 tons 
Heatsinks: 144
Armor: 60 tons
*Primitive Armor: f:10, fl/fr/al/ar/a:9
*Standard Armor: f/a/fl/fr/al/ar: 14

Equipment:
6 Small Craft bays, 2 doors, 1200 tons
200 marines, 1000 tons
40 Escape Pods, 280 tons
7389.5 tons of cargo, 1 door

Weapons
Fwd
6 Autocannon 5s, 240 shots, 60 tons
6 Machineguns, 200 shots, 4 tons

FL/FR
4 Autocannon 5s, 160 shots, 80 tons
6 Machineguns, 200 shots, 8 tons

AL/AR
4 Autocannon 5s, 160 shots, 80 tons
6 Machineguns, 200 shots, 8 tons

Aft
12 space mine dispensers, 120 tons

Upgrade Notes:
*After 2300, improvements in propulsion, control systems, and fuel efficiency increase fuel points to 10,000, reduce tons per burn day to 9.77, reduce heat sinks to 139, and increase cargo capacity to 8350.5 tons. In addition, sail mass is reduced to 33 and integrity to 3.
*Starting circa 2310, a number of gunboats would be upgraded with naval weaponry in an attempt to keep up in naval combat. Naval lasers were most popular due to their munition independence and reliability (knockoffs of naval autocannons had an unfortunate tendency to explode). A typical configuration (based on the post 2300 configuration) might have four naval laser 35s, with two occupying each of the fore left and fore right arcs (additional weapons could be mounted, but they were limited by the cooling and power distribution system). This adds one additional officer and three additional crew, and in total reduces cargo capacity to 5519.5 tons.

[DOC_Agren]

Interesting ships, please show us more

[kato]

Nitpick: The fuel reserve of the Typical Small Transport is pretty low. Without a jump sail its initial range is basically limited to an orbit-to-orbit transport over only three 15 LY jumps.

Pathfinder/Ark, operating from a jump point station at Terra, would have a Terra-Target-Terra range of 90 LY (105 LY for ships built after 2150), which while also low is in my opinion fine for their kind of mission envelope at their time - and a decent enough reason to cease production by the 2170s, when you had the first larger colony efforts going considerably beyond that range. The lack of jump sails before 2200 really is a limiting factor unless you design ships where half the deadweight goes into fuel.

[marauder648]

Once again, these are superb!  I wish these would be put into canon.

[Liam's Ghost]

Nitpick: The fuel reserve of the Typical Small Transport is pretty low. Without a jump sail its initial range is basically limited to an orbit-to-orbit transport over only three 15 LY jumps.

Pathfinder/Ark, operating from a jump point station at Terra, would have a Terra-Target-Terra range of 90 LY (105 LY for ships built after 2150), which while also low is in my opinion fine for their kind of mission envelope at their time - and a decent enough reason to cease production by the 2170s, when you had the first larger colony efforts going considerably beyond that range. The lack of jump sails before 2200 really is a limiting factor unless you design ships where half the deadweight goes into fuel.

Yeah, it's a pain. I imagine that the smaller transports mostly operate in relatively small areas and refuel regularly whenever possible. Even a small colony with a few fusion plants for power can stockpile hydrogen to sell to the merchants. On longer trips, they would have to partition off some of their cargo as supplemental fuel storage. This way, they can maximize the paying cargo they can carry on short jobs, and still operate longer distances if they need to.

I'm also almost certain there's a reference to the original Pathfinder carrying a huge tank of seawater so it could crack its own hydrogen, but I can't find it, and that seems a really inefficient way to carry your own extra fuel (maybe they were worried about fire?).

[kato]

The House Kurita SB mentions "seawater filled tankers for deuterium processing" stationed at jump points, and in the same paragraph seems to suggest that early jumpships would only carry fuel for a single jump quite often. "Expansion and Autonomy" around page 14. That section's also a gold mine for other lore on early jumpship operation btw.

The efficiency of that is relative. Single-jump jumpships mean they'd carry less than 20 burn-days in fuel.

So as a quick fix what we need is these Poseidon-class tankers.

Edit: Moved design to its own thread.