Had some house ideas about mounting more scanners to increase range of sensors, where installing 4* as many sensors gives you 2* the detection range.
Then I read the rules about detecting Vessels Jumping in-system, where the detection range penalty is equal to half the distance in AU (FRU).
I also read the rules about detecting Drive emissions where you get a penalty for every 5,000,000 km range, or fraction thereof.
LNCSS =
Large Naval Comm-Scanner SuiteAssuming the Terra-Zenith point is 10 AU, that means you need to multiply the detection range by 16 in order to detect anything up to 15 AU away. This gets the LNCSS +2 bonus to detection, not the range multiplication.
Drive Plume Detection is 5 million km normally, and with LNCSS is 15 million km. However 10 AU is 1,500,000,000 km, or 100* as far, meaning you have a +100 penalty on your 2d6 roll to detect a drive plume at that range.
This is where the fun would come in. 4* as many LNCSS gives you 2* range, so now you are at +50 penalty to detect. Repeat this until you are only at +2 to detect Drive Plumes, and you get this boondoggle:
System Monitoring Station
Mass: 2,500,000 tons
Bridge & Control Systems: 2,500 tons
Structure (SI: 1): 25,000 tons
Station-Keeping Thrusters: 30,000 tons
- Free Heat Sinks: 289
Fuel: 10,000 tons
Fuel Pumps: 200 tons
Standard Crew Quarters (5t/) * 49,687: 248,485 tons
Officer Quarters (7t/) * 8283: 57,981 tons
Grav Deck (>250m diameter): 500 tons
Escape Pods * 9664 (5t & 6 people per): 48,320 tons
Large Naval Comm-Scanner Suites * 4096: 2,048,000 tons
Cargo: 29,014 tons
Max Bay Doors: 42
Unit Cost: 5,134,569,945,000 C-Bills
The Cargo was because I wasn't sure what else could be safely put on it.
Armor? (It can handle up to 8333 tons)
Maintenance (if 1%, it needs 25,000 tons)
Point Defense equipment (1 Gunner for every 6, plus officers, means more escape pods needed)
More personnel (a few 10-ton First Class Quarters for visiting Admirals?)
Small Craft bays to allow people to arrive and leave a bit easier?
49,152 of the crew are just for the LNCSS, with 8192 officers for them.
No on-board HPG as the emissions would blind its sensors for 1 minute.
Capabilities:
Can detect Emergence waves within 15 AU with only a +1 penalty, aka 50% farther than if you were just needing to see the arrivals at the Z/N jump points.
Its Drive Plume Detection divisor is 960 million km, meaning it can track vessels under thrust at up to that distance with only a +1 distance penalty, and vessels up to 1.92 billion km with only a +2 distance penalty. Terra Zenith/Nadir points are (IIRC) 1.5 billion km from Terra.
These numbers mean it can also keep track of arrivals and maneuvering units at Saturn's orbit
It can also track the rate of jaw dropping as the Terran Congress sees the price tag for this thing.
(If you want a cheaper version, you only need 1024 LNCSS, and you get a +2 penalty to detect Emergence Waves, +4 pt penalty to detect drive plumes at Z/N jump points distances. That would cost about 3.8 Trillion less, need ~36,000 less crew, 6000 less officers, free up ~227,000 tons of crew Quarters, and need 7000 fewer escape pods. But that would not provide the sensor capability of this monster.)
