SPACE HABITATS
IN TRAVELLER
There are many reasons why a world might choose to build space habitats. Population pressure is one. A world might find itself in need of new agricultural land, but lack suitable worlds within its system. A world might wish to take advantage of the unique space environment to bolster its economy. Such activities might range from processing of high-tech materials in zero gravity to construction of large solar power arrays capable of transferring great amounts of energy to a planetary surface (via microwave or laser beams).
TYPES AND DESIGNS
There are two types of space habitats: rotating habitats and gravitic habitats. Rotating Habitats (TL8 to TL 14): Rotating habitats are large, hollow bodies, usually in the shape of a sphere or cylinder, that are set to rotating to provide artificial gravity along the interior surface. These contain atmospheres, and admit light through transparent sections of the exterior. The inhabitants live on the interior surface. Rotating habitats can be built in any size from .5 km to 100 km across. As they are simple to construct and non-mobile, they are quite inexpensive.
Gravitic Habitats (TL 15+): Gravitic habitats are flat, sometimes dome-covered habitations which can be built at high tech levels. Gravitic habitats generate gravity with gray plates imbedded in the habitat's base structure. Small gray habitats require domes to retain their atmospheres; larger ones can retain it through gravity alone. Gravitichabitats can be built in almost any size or configuration as their gray structure makes them effectively massless — they are flying cities in the literal sense of the term. They are, however, extremely expensive. Also, engineering difficulties make them practical only at the highest tech levels.
The most common type in the Imperium is the rotating habitat. Gravitic habitats are limited to Ancient ruins and a few experimental facilities in the Imperial Core. Only rotating habitats will be covered in depth in this article.
CHARACTERISTICS
Space habitats will have UPP characteristics similar in many respects to those of planets, i.e., an 8-digit alphanumeric string. The first digit is starport/spaceport type; the second represents size. Any habitat of size F or greater (see below) may have a starport of type A, B, or C. Smaller habitats will have a type F spaceport for interplanetary ships. It is possible for a space habitat to have a better starport type than that of the world that constructed it. Size of a habitat is represented by a letter from A to Q. Spheres range from A to N, cylinders from D to Q. The third characteristic, configuration, determines the habitat's type cylinder (C), or sphere (S)• Other shapes could be built, but they are not covered in this article. Atmosphere codes are identical to that for planets, though generally those atmospheres most comfortable to the inhabitants (5, 6, and 8 for humans) are present. Note a start-up period of three years before any actual construction can begin (at double cost for the first habitat). Thereafter, construction proceeds at a rate of .1 ton per inhabitant per year, or about 100 times the shipbuilding capacity of that world's starport (because of the relative simplicity of space habitats compared to jump capable starships). Thus a world with a population of 9 (1 to 9 billion) could construct space habitats totalling 100 million tons per year.
Constructing a habitat requires forfeiting 1 ton of shipbuilding capacity per 100 tons of habitat built. Even at this seemingly staggering rate, the agricultural colony mentioned above would take six years to complete! Note that the cost per citizen would be a mere Cr20 per year, however.
ADVENTURES
Adventures in space habitats can bevery different from those on planets. They can offer an opportunity for the referee to create a unique new environment for the players. For instance, the fact that habitats can be custom-made regarding climate, agriculture, and culture enables the referee to create environments as diverse as Tahiti, Anchorage, Manhattan, or rural England all in the same star system. One colony might be a corporate facility involved in high-tech manufacturing, another might be a resort for the world's wealthy, another an exclusive utopia for a future breed of Puritan or religious cult. These could all be a short trip from each other and the mother world.
Space habitats make the referee's job somewhat easier in that he need not create a whole world with all its facets. He need only create a small extension of it—a habitat the size of a single city, for example. Even in a habitat of only 10,000 people, there is plenty of roomfor murder, intrigue, and all that other skullduggery that makes for exciting adventures.
Another possibility is exploration. A party may come across an abandoned or regressed colony of some lost race or civilization, and have to explore it. This brings forth the possibilities of ruins, outof-control wildlife, and the degenerate descendants of the builders.
Even paramilitary adventures are possible. A militant group might decide to take control of an established habitat, and use it as a base for their nefarious deeds. The adventurers may have to get in and flush out the no-goods, possibly risking fatal damage to the habitat's pressure system in the process.
It remains to the referee to flesh out the myriad possibilities.
TABLES
SPHERE
Size Area Radius 8 9 10 11 12 13 Interior Shields
A .7854 .25 .016 .015 .014 .012 .010 .008 .156 .47
B 3.14 .5 .078 .072 .067 .06 .05 .04 .625 1.90
C 12.6 1 .375 .35 .325 .3 .25 .2 2.5 7.5
D 50.3 2 1.78 1.6 1.54 1.42 1.18 .95 10 30
E 113.1 3 4.4 4.1 3.8 3.5 2.9 2.3 22.5 67
F 314.2 5 14 13 12 11 9.2 7.3 62.5 187
G 615.8 7 30 28 26 24 20 16 123 367
H 1256 10 67 62 58 54 45 36 250 750
i 2827 15 167 155 145 131 112 89 563 1867
K 5026 20 295 275 250 208 167 1000 3000
L 11309 30 685 630 525 420 2250 6750
M 20106 40 1207 1005 805 4000 12000
N 31416 50 1662 1330 6250 18750
Formula: Mtons = r2.21 x Mtons for 1 km.
Area = 4 x 7r x r2. Units are Km2.
Structure weight in millions of tons, radius in km, area in km2. Multiply structure tonnage by gravity factor. Multiply structure tonnage by pressure factor (given in text).
CYLINDER
Size Area Radius 8 9 10 11 12 13 In t. Shields
D 15.8 .5 .39 .37 .34 .32 .26 .21 3.13 9.38
E 62.8 1 1.82 1.75 1.62 1.5 1.25 1 12.5 37.5
F 251 2 8.9 8.3 7.7 7.1 5.9 4.8 50 150
G 565 3 22 20 19 17.8 14.8 11.8 112.6 337.5
H 1570 5 70 65 61 56 47 37 312 937
J 3079 7 150 139 130 120 100 80 612 1837
K 6283 10 338 311 289 267 222 178 1250 3750
L 14137 15 830 75 720 664 553 443 2812 8437
M 25132 20 1480 1375 1269 1057 845 5000 15000
N 56548 30 - 3420 3159 2633 2106 11250 33750
P 100531 40 6035 5029 4023 20000 60000
Q 157808 50 8310 6650 31250 93750
Cylinders over 2 km radius must have rotating shields, otherwise as per spheres.
ENCOUNTER TABLES
Roll two dice to determine if space
habitats are present in a system.
# OR GREATER FOR HABITAT
Hyd% — planet size
Pop. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6+
6 12 11 11 10 10 9 9
7 11 11 10 10 9 9 8
8 10 10 9 9 8 8 7
9 9 9 8 8 7 7 6
10 8 8 7 7 6 6 5
11 7 7 6 6 5 5 4
12 6 6 5 5 4 4 3
DMs: Planetoid belt + 1 Gas Giant + 1
LOCATION (2 dice)
2-3 Low Orbit
4-5 Synchronous Orbit
6-8 High Orbit
9-10 Asteroid Belt
11 Gas Giant Orbit
12 Elsewhere in System
HABITAT SIZE (1 die)
1 C or less (S only)
2 D to F
3 G to J
4 K or L
5 M or N
6+ P or Q
CONFIGURATION (1 die)
1-4 Sphere
5-6 Cylinder
DM: Population less than 7, -1
NUMBER OF HABITATS (1 die)
1 1
2 2-5
3 6-10
4 11-20
5 21-50
6 51-100
There are many wheelworlds, cylwolrds, rings, troider habs, toroids, and numerous types of orbital cols available to be built in the Traveller universe, your mind is the only thing that hinders you. In addition, many space stations have various types of facilities listed below:
Access Port (large or non-standard)
AI Core
Armorplast (heavy armor for space stations)
Armory
Astronomical Research Center
Asteroidal Railgun System
Batteries/Bays of Weapons
Berth-Commercial (Long Liner, Modular Colony Ship, Passenger Liners, Sleeper Ship)
Berth-Non-Standard (Space Courier, Tug Station)
Berth-Warships (general)
Cargo Handling System
Cargo Holds-Large Commercial
Central Hub
Civilian Repair Slip
Courier Drone Bay
Damage Control Center
Dueterium Tanks
Electronic Warfare Bays (large)
Farming Facilities
Fighter Factory
Flight Deck
Fusion Rooms (large)
Gunboat Bay
Hospital (small, medium, or large)
Large Ship Bay
Large Spinal Weaponry
Lifepod System
Long Ranger Sensors
Machine Shops
Marine Quarters
Mass Driver Catapult and Control System
Minelayer Control System
Missile Factory
Naval Academy
Nanufactory
Orbital Refinery
Orbital Smelter
Orbital Spaceport
Orbital Warehouse
Phased Array Radar
Robot Maintenance System
Science Labs
Scrap Yard
Shipyards
Solar Panel Arrays
Space Guard Defenses
Flight Ops Center
Space Watch System
Terraforming Labs
Xenobiology Lab