Hello Jeff Zeitlin,
First thank you very much for Freelance Traveller which I greatly enjoy reading.
Today's International Airports I think are ports that primarily service large corporations. They also have service areas that are suitable for small companies and individual private craft. The entire facility allows maintenance to be performed since all craft landing there are legally bound to ensure the craft meet safety standards to be flight worthy.
From Peter L. Berghold's description I believe he is referring to small companies or individuals who take on jobs that the big boys are not covering.
Thank you for the link to your Freelance Traveller article that I did read in the May 2013 issue. My broadly painted concept of starports depends on the age of the planet.
In order for us to get into space we are launching from a ground facility. Currently we only have a space station as an orbital facility. Most of the science fiction stories I have read start with space stations orbiting the world and at some point construct orbital facilities that are tethered to the planet's surface.
Traveller's starports have been around for a long time. However, I feel that those built by the inhabitants starting on the ground and developed from there into the current Traveller ports and by your more detailed material, which I have used to flesh out some ports I've worked on.
Colonies start by having a ship bring the settlers to a new planet. If the colony ship is designed to land then there probably will not be a orbital facility. Another method would be the ship remains in orbit and the settlers and everything else is shuttled down. The first ground facility will be very basic and be improved over time. If things go well the orbital and ground facilities will eventually grow to a Traveller Class A.
In Robert Buettner's book "Overkill" the world starship's orbit the planet taking on and dropping off passengers and goods. The planet has three shuttles one shuttle goes up and picks up the stuff being delivered and dropping off the material and passengers being sent to other locations. The second shuttle is being serviced and the third is held in reserve for emergencies.
Douglas Ian has written the Star Carrier series which has orbital facilities tethered to Earth and Mars. Three of the orbitals around Earth in Traveller terms would I think be Class A. One of the orbitals around Mars is probably a Traveller Class A too. However there appear to be many more that cover Classes B and C. At the base of the tether ground facilities are present that provide a hub for business in moving people and cargo around to outlying areas.
The books mention that on one planet there is an orbital station being used to terra form the world.The world was attacked and taken over by hostile forces. Two years a star carrier battle group kicked the hostile forces out, freed survivors, and then destroyed the station. The battle group had another system to attack inside the enemies space.
Another world which was not terra formed the author did not mention orbital facilities only ground facilities. Of course the world in question was under attack and the ground facilities and any ships, combatant or non-combatant, and orbital facilities were taken out first.
Again Traveller starports have had time to mature and as described in the write-up frequently have ground facilities and orbital facilities at least in the top three facilities. Class D and E are the beginning unless of course things don't pan out.
Respectfully,
Tom Rux
From: "Jeff Zeitlin" <xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com>
To: "TML" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2017 5:51:09 PM
Subject: Re: [TML] Looking for a word to replace "General Aviation"
On Sun, 27 Aug 2017 15:43:04 -0400, "Peter L. Berghold"
<xxxxxx@berghold.net> wrote:
>In some writing I was doing I am describing a portion of star port
>where instead of large corporation berthing this area is where non-
>corporate ships craft and smaller starships capable of making landfall
>would be berthed. This would be every type of berthing from a piece of
>tarmack to a walled off area with a lockable gate (hatch?) registered
>to the craft's owner.
>
>In today's terms that would be (at least in my mind) the General
>Aviation section of an airport.
>
>Anybody have a word that is an equivalent that they use for such?
> Right now in the story I'm writing I'm using General Aviation as a
>placehodler until I find a better term.
I would call this "Unscheduled Services", analogously to AOPA's definition
of GA. Given the way you've described it above, I'm assuming that you're in
the US (or Canada).
Someone else in the thread (Mr Rux) described his view of the various
classes of starport. I disagree somewhat; I've described my view in
"Extending the UWP: Starports" (Freelance Traveller, May 2013, p.4;
http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/rules/expuwp/starports.html).
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