> On Oct 23, 2015, at 8:28 AM, xxxxxx@comcast.net wrote:
>
> The propellant chemicals are metallic hydrogen and antihydrogen?
> Missiles use contragravity thrusters that are set to overload, like a
> Star Trek phaser?
>
> IIRC, 6G6 is 18 G-hours of thrust (6G for 6 30 minute turns, right?)
>

Per the CT pdfs a turn is 1000 seconds, or just over 16 minutes.

"These rules are written for the standard starship combat scales in Traveller, and use those scales. Time is measured in turns of 1,000 seconds (or 16.66 minutes). Distance is measured with 100 millimeters equaling 10,000 kilometers. One G of acceleration for one turn moves an object 100 millimeters.”

from the SS3 Missiles (revised version)

I think what they REALLY mean is "sufficient fuel to move the missile 10,000km in 16 minutes, and do it over and over to the max G-turn number of the missile” which is a hella different thing than “1G thrust”.

They mean ‘constant velocity’ not 'constant acceleration’; not surprising, since this is all based on a tabletop wargame practice (100 mm per turn).

This also means ranges of missile combat are absurdly small on interplanetary scales <100K km. Practically eyeball.

> That gets you a terminal velocity of ~635km/sec for boosting all the way
> to the target…

Yep.

Here’s their description of the “standard” missile:

"For example, the standard missile in Traveller is a 5G6 continuous burn (36 kg, Cr3,600, TL 8), mass sensing (1 kg, Cr1,000, TL 10), proximity detonator (1 kg, Cr500, TL 6), high explosive (10 kg, Cr500, TL 6) warhead missile (all produced at their standard tech level), costing Cr5.600 and massing 48 kg. This price does not take into account tech level effects. At TL 9, this missile costs Cr5,540; at TL 12, it costs Cr4,480.”

Sounds all cool and sciencey but is purely numbers plucked from the air. 10 kg of TL-6 HE is precisely the warhead of the AIM-9 sidewinder. Does lots of damage (if lucky) to an essentially unarmored (by Traveller scales) aircraft, but against a starship would be sort of like shooting a destroyer in the hull with a RPG.

Note this is pretty much why TNE moved to nuke-det xray laser warheads, which also gave PC’s nuclear weapons, but hey what’s a few WMD among friends :-)

--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs