So since it can move, slowly, it can park over a ground location and provide ortillery? It could also sit in front of an approach. I know its not going to stop an incoming force but it could force them into a landing point further away. It could also force them to keep moving their dropship or eventually risk it being attacked from orbit. That'd deprive the force of repair and resupply, as well as a secure place to rest. It could also delay their departure and risk being caught by vengeful ground forces. Even if they don't get caught, its a lot of stress on the attackers.
The station will only be overhead for 30 seconds, or one space turn. In Battlemech scale you only have to worry about ortillery for 3 turns, and if you are performing a raid you can just land 'behind' where the space station just passed over, and not worry for the next ~90 minutes. The station's orbit will be easily plottable, so you can tell the raider group that you will be landing at X location, moving to Y location at a certain time, then moving to Z location for pickup. Each location you move to is where the space station's ortillery footprint just went past, so the ortillery is effectively useless. You just need to tell the raiding group to not be in the open by HH:MM, otherwise they will be spotted and splattered.
Don't know off-hand the time needed to change the orbit of a space station, using the .1G thrust they are capable of. But plotting that would be the function of a
Longscan system, where it plots the maximum possible change for the space station, the resulting ortillery locations, and allows the Captain of the raiders to be outside that attack area. With the low acceleration of a space station, and only 90 minutes of advance prediction needed, this is fairly easy (scroll down to the Trumpet Bell Effect, and figure that as a rough estimate of the orbital path a space station will take as seen from 'above').
If it is a full attack needing dedicated ground repair/resupply, the space station should be fighting for its life against enemy ASF/Dropships.
I also don't mean it should try to patrol all of space. Just a point where the enemy needs to go through or go around. Going around takes more time that can be used by the defenders to prepare for their arrival. Going faster and the dropship uses more fuel and generates more stress on the crew and passengers.
Space is really big and empty. The space station's orbit will be fairly easy to spot. Intercepting at the jump Point (Zone) is practically impossible (unless you are using ASF/Small Craft/Dropships). Intercepting between either of the Jump Zones and the target planet means you have a 50/50 chance of being wrong, plus there is so much empty space that the Dropship can easily go around. Intercepting in orbit means that the space station has to be in the right orbit at the right time, and the Dropship can just observe the space station and stay behind it transmitting "Neener-neener"
So it's fast and well armored. Doesn't that takes away from weaponry?
Warships carry the same weapons as a space station, and can maneuver to focus fire on a single target while minimizing return fire. If the space stations cluster together for protection (an Empire State Formation), they are leaving the rest of the planet unprotected.
It does sound fun. >:D I don't know how you can increase a weapons range without changing the weapon or using Extreme and LOS ranges.
House rules are the only option I can see.
I don't know on that one. Other than size, what's the difference between satellite and space station? ???
From what I can see, there should be almost no difference. Tactical Operations mentions that Medium satellites can be manned for various operations, so habitability is not the issue. The 2.5 MTon CASPAR space station would be unmanned, so technically it could be either. Satellites built without engine systems can be built unmanned, but this limits what systems can be installed in them (i.e. anything that needs a human). But that still counts as a satellite, not a space station.
Perhaps a space station is designed as something that can keep a separate environment from the vacuum outside? This could be a dedicated gas chamber for detecting fusion reactors, to life support for humans, to an orbital aquarium. A CASPAR system needs a separate cooling environment for its main supercomputer, while basic targeting systems don't.
A satellite is not designed for making the separate environment, and adding that capability would increase costs (eventually it would be cheaper to make it a space station).
I would think they wouldn't want to escape when the only hatch opens to vacuum. Plus there's all kinds of noise abating equipment which would cut down on human contact.
Ah, you means putting the prisoner in an airlock, and disabling the internal door. I was assuming an internal cell/box,