Freelance Traveller - The Shipyard - MegaTraveller Designs

Scot-class System Probe

This article originally appeared in Issue #014, February 2011, of the downloadable PDF magazine.

The Scot-Class System Probes are the latest design for the Home County Scouts, and are built by Yorin Corporation. The autonomous probes are designed to survey planetary bodies in a system while the mother craft is undertaking other duties. The Scots are piloted by built-in robot brains in primary/back-up mode with the master brain functioning while the other is in hot standby in case of failure. All data is duplicated to the back-up which will take over instantly in the event of failure of the master. Sensor data is continually recorded and analyzed. Data can be stored on board or transmitted to the mother ship as required.

As the Scot is completely autonomous the number of probes that can be run simultaneously is limited by the supervisor’s capacity to oversee them. Scout protocol is that no more than 7 probes should be run by one supervisor.

The probe has 2G acceleration out to 10 diameters from a planetary body, dropping to 1G in open space.

With the expense of the probes and Home County having been quite extensively surveyed already very few probes have been produced to date. All Scot class system probes are produced in the Yorin factories on Home.

CraftID:  Probe, Type QN, TL10, MCr10.1166. UPP=AFx53x
Hull:     1/2, Disp=1, Config=0USL, Armor=40E, Unloaded=18.969t, Loaded=19.542t
Power:    1/2, Fusion=4.8Mw, Dur=47.38/142.14
Loco:     1/2, LowPowerH-GravThrust=40t, 
          Cruise=900kph, Top=1200kph, NOE=n/a,
          MaxAccel=2G, Agility=0
Comm:     Radio=System, Laser=System, Interface=Brain
Sensors:  PassiveEMS=SubStellar, ActiveEMS=FarOrbit,
          ActObjScan=Rout, ActObjPin=Rout, PasEngScan=Form
Off:	  Hardpoints=1
Def:      DefDM=+2
Control:  Robot Brain×2, Panel=Comp linked×2
Brain:    CPU=Linear×15,Parallel×35,
          Storage=Standard×30,
          FundLogic=LowData, FundCmd=LimitedBasic,
          Software=Communications-1, Navigation-2, Prospecting-2, Ships Boat-1, Survey-2
Accom:    None
Other:    Cargo=0klitres, Fuel=8.187klitres,
          ObjSize=Small, EmLevel=Faint,
Comment:  Construction Time=8 wks sing, 6 wks mult