What got my looking hard at the contragrav units was the 400 ton Subsidized Merchant only pulls 1.03g with it's 158.38 dTon hold full of cargo weighing not more than 791.88 sTons.
It is VERY important to remember that a GURPS: Traveller dTon is a ton of liquid hydrogen and not water.
A hold full of water would weigh 2,470.65 sTons and reduce acceleration to a mere 0.47g.
Ain't doin' no VTOL take-off with that.
So I wondered...
Reduce the cargo ever so slightly (0.5 dTon) by adding a contragrav unit to the ship. The Akkigish already costs 57,250,000 Imperial Credits; what's another 150,000?
The CG unit doesn't increase the acceleration any, but it does mean that I don't have to counter the planet's gravity and can apply my full thrust to getting to orbit.
And that's worth it!
For the record. Adding more maneuver drive to make a ship with 1.01g with that hold full of water drops cargo space to 126.38 dTon. That'd be a 2.01g ship with the standard break-bulk cargo assumptions. It raises the price of the ship to MCr 62.37 though.
Contragrav is definitely more cost effective than more engines. Especially since the 0.47g with CG gets you to orbit faster than 1.01g without it.
And another thing!
The ubiquitous air/raft is a CG vehicle! CG is common throughout the Third Imperium, so why would they stop using this useful, common, technology at TL10 just because the maneuver drives make more thrust?
It is VERY important to remember that a GURPS: Traveller dTon is a ton of liquid hydrogen and not water.
A hold full of water would weigh 2,470.65 sTons and reduce acceleration to a mere 0.47g.
Ain't doin' no VTOL take-off with that.
So I wondered...
Reduce the cargo ever so slightly (0.5 dTon) by adding a contragrav unit to the ship. The Akkigish already costs 57,250,000 Imperial Credits; what's another 150,000?
The CG unit doesn't increase the acceleration any, but it does mean that I don't have to counter the planet's gravity and can apply my full thrust to getting to orbit.
And that's worth it!
For the record. Adding more maneuver drive to make a ship with 1.01g with that hold full of water drops cargo space to 126.38 dTon. That'd be a 2.01g ship with the standard break-bulk cargo assumptions. It raises the price of the ship to MCr 62.37 though.
Contragrav is definitely more cost effective than more engines. Especially since the 0.47g with CG gets you to orbit faster than 1.01g without it.
And another thing!
The ubiquitous air/raft is a CG vehicle! CG is common throughout the Third Imperium, so why would they stop using this useful, common, technology at TL10 just because the maneuver drives make more thrust?