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Description

High Res Download Available

The Traveler Class Deep Space Exploration Vehicle was developed as a follow on class to the USS Cygnus, a one of a kind starship now lost in space. The Traveler is a reaction to the costly failure of the Cygnus, and as such must be seen in the light of its predecessor to best understand what came after. Cygnus was enormous, in fact the largest interstellar explorer ever built, with a large staff in the hundreds of scientists, explorers, and the necessary ship's force of human and robot crew to operate and maintain such a large vessel for extended surveys of five to ten years away from support. It was extortionately expensive to construct, costing nearly $300 billion - more than double the price tag of the Island-3 O'Neill Colony (capable of sustaining 40,000 full time residents in comfort) at Earth-Luna L4, and triple the cost of the next largest explorer, the French starship Sahara Module 53. The Artificial Gravity and Inertial Compensators alone cost as much as the entire Japanese Pluto Four mission craft. Even with an extensive regenerative life support system and a massive volume dedicated to hydroponic crops for the crew, Cygnus demanded more consumable supplies per ton of displacement than any interstellar explorer before or since.

Many critics of and commentators on the Deep Space Program have directed the majority of their criticism with the Cygnus at its greatest lobbyist and eventual commander, Doctor Hans Reinhardt. Reinhardt's charisma and relentless enthusiasm for a grand starship leading humanity (and in the eyes of the U.S. Congress who were being asked to fund it, United States leadership) to the stars was all consuming, and ultimately successful. With the failure of the Cygnus to return, and all contact lost, cooler heads have since prevailed.

A new class of Deep Space Explorers was constructed in almost total opposition to the design and mission principles that drove Cygnus. These ships would be tiny, much smaller than other nations' explorers, with a crew of 5 or 6 plus a sophisticated V.I.N.CENT type robot. Their mission profile was for a maximum 24 month endurance, including time spent traveling to and from the Frontier. No artificial gravity and minimal inertial compensation systems would be included. The crew would subsist on renewable life support, including 95% of their calories provided by spirulina algae and krill produced on board, with the balance being freeze-dried foods for special occasions such as birthdays and holidays.

The Space-Time Catapult Drive was the most expensive part of the ship's equipment, as speed and reliability were considered paramount with the overall design. Catapult jumps of up to 5.1 light-years could be reliably plotted if the local space-time was well understood, though in practice a maximal jump was only undertaken if it placed the vessel well outside any system boundaries, while a shorter, much more accurate catapult plotted for actual penetration into the local system space. The ship was not expected to expend much in the way of reaction mass as it made its pass through the target system, though it was capable of 'wilderness refueling' its tanks from asteroidal or cometary bodies of water. Sensors included full spectrum IR-VIS-UV telescopes with a dual purpose spectrograph and defensive laser armament, radar and radio detection equipment, LIDAR arrays for close range imaging, X-Ray calorimetric gear, gravitic anomaly detector, and a host of standard drones and probes. Laboratory and medical facilities were minimal, and their lack greatly bemoaned by the scientific staff.

In short, the approach to the Traveler class was that you could build dozens of them for the price of a single Cygnus, covering far more of the Orion Arm for the same time frame even with the shorter mission durations, and if a ship or two is lost to malfunction or misadventure, the casualties, while regrettable, were minimal. Living conditions were beyond spartan on board the Travelers, with individual 'private' space comparable to the earliest days of low-orbital and lunar habitats. Were the crew convicts in a prison, their conditions would have been found Cruel and Unusual Punishment by the courts. Naturally, they were all eager volunteers.

Because of the small crews, only 2 or 3 scientists were available to run the sensors, plan surveys, and compile the data for the entire mission. There was bitter complaint within the scientific community when many Traveler missions included an embedded journalist instead of another one of their own on the voyage. The USDSEA justified their decision by pointing out that taxpayer (and thus Congressional) support for deep space exploration was critically low after the USS Cygnus disaster, and that some good PR was sorely needed if any further exploration was going to get done. The most famous example of such an 'embed' is Harold Booth of the New York Times, presently aboard USS Palomino.

A 2 person crew plus a V.I.N.CENT unit were considered the 'core crew' of the spacecraft, plus the science/journalism staff of 3 or 4. All members of the crew were extensively cross-trained in each other's jobs, and even the 'embed' had to demonstrate proficiency in damage control operations as well as obtain and hold a basic UN 3rd Officer ticket to stand flight deck watch during quiet periods. In this way the primary crew would be relieved from having to stand port and starboard watches for two years without a break.

The Traveler class' strongest point is its flexibility. It was designed with sixteen modular payload bays that could hold additional supplies or survey drones, gear for 'wilderness resupply' of water, oxygen, and propellant for the reaction drives, relay beacons for communications, and raw materials for fabricating spare parts. Depending on the mission, these bays could be loaded out to extend certain capabilities and generate a successful voyage. Sixteen dedicated drone bays housed a combination orbiter and atmospheric probe with lander. If a promising world was located, the drone combo would be launched to it. The orbiter would stay in low orbit and act as a relay as well as its survey work, the atmo probe would detach after entry and inflate a hot hydrogen balloon to stay aloft, while the lander touched down, conducted its own surveys, and explored with a small autonomous rover.

The Travelers are not capable of setting down on worlds with significant atmospheres or worlds with gravity wells greater than 1G. Their mission is to survey as many star systems as possible, and mark promising worlds for a follow-on in depth examination by a more capable explorer such as the Liberty class DSEV. Despite the class' many short comings in range, accommodations, and minimal scientific facilities compared to earlier explorers (the Cygnus not least), the Travelers have made good on their promise of rapid, inexpensive, low risk operations at ranges more than a thousand light-years from Earth.

TRAVELER CLASS DATA

Height (Top of Mast) - 30.425 meters
Height (Top of Pressure Hull) - 20.835 meters
Maximum Diameter (Pressure Hull) - 15.0 meters
Minimum Diameter (Pressure Hull) - 9.0 meters
Maximum Overall Diameter - 25.0 meters
Dry Mass - 335 metric tons
Fully Loaded Mass - 875 metric tons
Crew - Command Pilot, Pilot, Science Officer, 1 or 2 Scientists, 1 Journalist embed in place of Scientist, plus 1 V.I.N.CENT unit.
Mission Duration - 730 days normal maximum endurance. Additional 30 day extensions per Payload Bay allocated.
Propulsion Systems - 3 General Astronautics GA-300 Inertial Confinement Fusion Drives (285 kN thrust each, ~ 1.0 G of acceleration at 20% propellant expended); SSTE Class III Space-Time Catapult Drive
(5.1 light-year max runout); Microwave-Water RCS jets (eight in two rotation rings.)
Defensive Systems - Weyland Mark IV Magnetic Screen Generator (1.50 T maximum field strength); Two 40 cm dual purpose telescope/laser turrets (primary use as sensors and specrographic analyzer, but can
vaporize aluminum to a depth of 1.5mm per second at 100 kilometers); 12 W-191 Casaba Howitzer Submunitions in four launchers (nominal yield 50 kilotons, maximum effective range ~ 500 kilometers)

Ships of the Class

USS Traveler (DSEV-08)
USS Bucephalus (DSEV-09)
USS Mustang (DSEV-10)
USS Pegasus (DSEV-11)
USS Palomino (DSEV-12)
USS Cincinnati (DSEV-13)
USS Nelson (DSEV-14)
USS Marengo (DSEV-15)
USS Comanche (DSEV-16)
USS Silver (DSEV-17)
USS Trigger (DSEV-18)
USS Stallion (DSEV-19)
USS Gunpowder (DSEV-20)
USS Shadowfax (DSEV-21)
USS Rocinante (DSEV-22)
USS Tencendur (DSEV-23)
USS Snowmane (DSEV-24)
USS Arion (DSEV-25)
USS Epona (DSEV-26)
USS Hengroen (DSEV-27)
USS Skinfaxi (DSEV-28)
USS Phaethon (DSEV-29)
USS Sterope (DSEV-30)

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All the fluff you can stand, and maybe some you can't.

Palomino concept is from Walt Disney Pictures, the model and the fluff are all my fault.

Description

High Res Download Available

The Traveler Class Deep Space Exploration Vehicle was developed as a follow on class to the USS Cygnus, a one of a kind starship now lost in space. The Traveler is a reaction to the costly failure of the Cygnus, and as such must be seen in the light of its predecessor to best understand what came after. Cygnus was enormous, in fact the largest interstellar explorer ever built, with a large staff in the hundreds of scientists, explorers, and the necessary ship's force of human and robot crew to operate and maintain such a large vessel for extended surveys of five to ten years away from support. It was extortionately expensive to construct, costing nearly $300 billion - more than double the price tag of the Island-3 O'Neill Colony (capable of sustaining 40,000 full time residents in comfort) at Earth-Luna L4, and triple the cost of the next largest explorer, the French starship Sahara Module 53. The Artificial Gravity and Inertial Compensators alone cost as much as the entire Japanese Pluto Four mission craft. Even with an extensive regenerative life support system and a massive volume dedicated to hydroponic crops for the crew, Cygnus demanded more consumable supplies per ton of displacement than any interstellar explorer before or since.

Many critics of and commentators on the Deep Space Program have directed the majority of their criticism with the Cygnus at its greatest lobbyist and eventual commander, Doctor Hans Reinhardt. Reinhardt's charisma and relentless enthusiasm for a grand starship leading humanity (and in the eyes of the U.S. Congress who were being asked to fund it, United States leadership) to the stars was all consuming, and ultimately successful. With the failure of the Cygnus to return, and all contact lost, cooler heads have since prevailed.

A new class of Deep Space Explorers was constructed in almost total opposition to the design and mission principles that drove Cygnus. These ships would be tiny, much smaller than other nations' explorers, with a crew of 5 or 6 plus a sophisticated V.I.N.CENT type robot. Their mission profile was for a maximum 24 month endurance, including time spent traveling to and from the Frontier. No artificial gravity and minimal inertial compensation systems would be included. The crew would subsist on renewable life support, including 95% of their calories provided by spirulina algae and krill produced on board, with the balance being freeze-dried foods for special occasions such as birthdays and holidays.

The Space-Time Catapult Drive was the most expensive part of the ship's equipment, as speed and reliability were considered paramount with the overall design. Catapult jumps of up to 5.1 light-years could be reliably plotted if the local space-time was well understood, though in practice a maximal jump was only undertaken if it placed the vessel well outside any system boundaries, while a shorter, much more accurate catapult plotted for actual penetration into the local system space. The ship was not expected to expend much in the way of reaction mass as it made its pass through the target system, though it was capable of 'wilderness refueling' its tanks from asteroidal or cometary bodies of water. Sensors included full spectrum IR-VIS-UV telescopes with a dual purpose spectrograph and defensive laser armament, radar and radio detection equipment, LIDAR arrays for close range imaging, X-Ray calorimetric gear, gravitic anomaly detector, and a host of standard drones and probes. Laboratory and medical facilities were minimal, and their lack greatly bemoaned by the scientific staff.

In short, the approach to the Traveler class was that you could build dozens of them for the price of a single Cygnus, covering far more of the Orion Arm for the same time frame even with the shorter mission durations, and if a ship or two is lost to malfunction or misadventure, the casualties, while regrettable, were minimal. Living conditions were beyond spartan on board the Travelers, with individual 'private' space comparable to the earliest days of low-orbital and lunar habitats. Were the crew convicts in a prison, their conditions would have been found Cruel and Unusual Punishment by the courts. Naturally, they were all eager volunteers.

Because of the small crews, only 2 or 3 scientists were available to run the sensors, plan surveys, and compile the data for the entire mission. There was bitter complaint within the scientific community when many Traveler missions included an embedded journalist instead of another one of their own on the voyage. The USDSEA justified their decision by pointing out that taxpayer (and thus Congressional) support for deep space exploration was critically low after the USS Cygnus disaster, and that some good PR was sorely needed if any further exploration was going to get done. The most famous example of such an 'embed' is Harold Booth of the New York Times, presently aboard USS Palomino.

A 2 person crew plus a V.I.N.CENT unit were considered the 'core crew' of the spacecraft, plus the science/journalism staff of 3 or 4. All members of the crew were extensively cross-trained in each other's jobs, and even the 'embed' had to demonstrate proficiency in damage control operations as well as obtain and hold a basic UN 3rd Officer ticket to stand flight deck watch during quiet periods. In this way the primary crew would be relieved from having to stand port and starboard watches for two years without a break.

The Traveler class' strongest point is its flexibility. It was designed with sixteen modular payload bays that could hold additional supplies or survey drones, gear for 'wilderness resupply' of water, oxygen, and propellant for the reaction drives, relay beacons for communications, and raw materials for fabricating spare parts. Depending on the mission, these bays could be loaded out to extend certain capabilities and generate a successful voyage. Sixteen dedicated drone bays housed a combination orbiter and atmospheric probe with lander. If a promising world was located, the drone combo would be launched to it. The orbiter would stay in low orbit and act as a relay as well as its survey work, the atmo probe would detach after entry and inflate a hot hydrogen balloon to stay aloft, while the lander touched down, conducted its own surveys, and explored with a small autonomous rover.

The Travelers are not capable of setting down on worlds with significant atmospheres or worlds with gravity wells greater than 1G. Their mission is to survey as many star systems as possible, and mark promising worlds for a follow-on in depth examination by a more capable explorer such as the Liberty class DSEV. Despite the class' many short comings in range, accommodations, and minimal scientific facilities compared to earlier explorers (the Cygnus not least), the Travelers have made good on their promise of rapid, inexpensive, low risk operations at ranges more than a thousand light-years from Earth.

TRAVELER CLASS DATA

Height (Top of Mast) - 30.425 meters
Height (Top of Pressure Hull) - 20.835 meters
Maximum Diameter (Pressure Hull) - 15.0 meters
Minimum Diameter (Pressure Hull) - 9.0 meters
Maximum Overall Diameter - 25.0 meters
Dry Mass - 335 metric tons
Fully Loaded Mass - 875 metric tons
Crew - Command Pilot, Pilot, Science Officer, 1 or 2 Scientists, 1 Journalist embed in place of Scientist, plus 1 V.I.N.CENT unit.
Mission Duration - 730 days normal maximum endurance. Additional 30 day extensions per Payload Bay allocated.
Propulsion Systems - 3 General Astronautics GA-300 Inertial Confinement Fusion Drives (285 kN thrust each, ~ 1.0 G of acceleration at 20% propellant expended); SSTE Class III Space-Time Catapult Drive
(5.1 light-year max runout); Microwave-Water RCS jets (eight in two rotation rings.)
Defensive Systems - Weyland Mark IV Magnetic Screen Generator (1.50 T maximum field strength); Two 40 cm dual purpose telescope/laser turrets (primary use as sensors and specrographic analyzer, but can
vaporize aluminum to a depth of 1.5mm per second at 100 kilometers); 12 W-191 Casaba Howitzer Submunitions in four launchers (nominal yield 50 kilotons, maximum effective range ~ 500 kilometers)

Ships of the Class

USS Traveler (DSEV-08)
USS Bucephalus (DSEV-09)
USS Mustang (DSEV-10)
USS Pegasus (DSEV-11)
USS Palomino (DSEV-12)
USS Cincinnati (DSEV-13)
USS Nelson (DSEV-14)
USS Marengo (DSEV-15)
USS Comanche (DSEV-16)
USS Silver (DSEV-17)
USS Trigger (DSEV-18)
USS Stallion (DSEV-19)
USS Gunpowder (DSEV-20)
USS Shadowfax (DSEV-21)
USS Rocinante (DSEV-22)
USS Tencendur (DSEV-23)
USS Snowmane (DSEV-24)
USS Arion (DSEV-25)
USS Epona (DSEV-26)
USS Hengroen (DSEV-27)
USS Skinfaxi (DSEV-28)
USS Phaethon (DSEV-29)
USS Sterope (DSEV-30)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All the fluff you can stand, and maybe some you can't.

Palomino concept is from Walt Disney Pictures, the model and the fluff are all my fault.