Freelance
TravellerEarth Alliance Salvage Shuttle
This article originally appeared in the October 2012 issue of Freelance Traveller.
| Earth Alliance Light Shuttle (Salvage Shuttle Variant) | Tons | Price (MCr) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 90T Distributed |
Hull 1 Structure 1 |
90 | 1.71 |
| Armour | None | 0 | 0 | |
| Manoeuvre Drive | sP Reaction Drive | Thrust 4 | 3.5 | 7 |
| Power Plant | sG Fusion Plant | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| Cockpit | 4 Crew | 6 | 0.4 | |
| Computer | Model 2 | Rating 10 | 0 | 0.16 |
| Electronics | Basic Civilian | -1 DM | 1 | 0.05 |
| Weapons | None | 0 | 0 | |
| Fuel | 19.75T + 0.25T (Fusion Plant—7 days endurance) | 20 | 0 | |
| Software | Manoeuvre/0, Library/0, Intellect/1, Intel. Interf./1, Expert/1, Remote Ops | 0 | 0.0031 | |
| Extras | Airlock, 4 Firmpoints, All-Terrain Landing System, Salvage Module | 18 | 5.3 | |
| Cargo | 38.5T | 38.5 | 0 | |
| Total Tonnage and Cost | 90 | 20.6231 | ||
The Earth Alliance Salvage Shuttle is a purpose-built standard light shuttle that has been optimised for the salvage of debris and destroyed spacecraft. The shuttle is a short-ranged vehicle, designed to operate from Space Stations and specialist Salvage ships, recovering salvaged items that otherwise might be a hazard to navigation. Originally built before the Dilgar War, demand for them increased as Earth Alliance began using them to recover Dilgar and League technologies from combat areas. They were also used in the aftermath of the Battle of the Line, to recover damaged spacecraft, fighters and their crews.
Features
Firmpoints: Each shuttle is equipped with two pairs of firmpoints (0.5T, 0.2 MCr per pair) which can be used to attach different types of modules to the shuttle. Each pair of firmpoints are on either side of the shuttle and must use the same type of attached module (for example, you could attach two fuel modules to the front pair and two cargo modules to the rear pair). If you have any modules attached to a shuttle, the hull counts as being distributed rather than standard. The two most common modules used are 5T cargo and fuel modules (not interchangeable – you can’t use the cargo ones for fuel and vice-versa), which cost 0.01 MCr empty, have negligible mass and hold either 5T of cargo or fuel respectively. On the Salvage Shuttle, the rear pair are permanently used to hold the Salvage Module and are unavailable for any other module.
Salvage Module: The Salvage Module is a permanent fixture on the rear firmpoints of a Salvage Shuttle. It consists of a large drone retrieval gantry which also supports two grappling arms and two pods – each holding a standard probe drone and four 1T salvage drones (repair drones optimised for salvage recovery). The module takes up 15T of space and costs 4.5 MCr.
Landing Struts: The STG-19 Shuttles are designed to operate from ships, stations and prepared landing areas. Because of this, the landing struts are unsuitable for landing on unprepared or uneven ground. An ‘All-Terrain’ extendable landing pad system is available – it takes up 1T of cargo space and costs 0.2 MCr. This is fitted as standard on a Salvage Shuttle due to the extensive salvage module.
Other Features: Each salvage shuttle is usually equipped with two or more lockers for EVA suits (located near the airlock) for two of the crew to perform EVA manoeuvres, as well as many small storage compartments located in the overhead area.
Deck plan key.
1. Cockpit/Control Cabin.
2. Main cargo or transport cabin.
3. Airlock with fold-down powered ramp and ceiling access to Power
Plant.
4. Engines (access panels located in airlock area).
5. Sensors and Computer/Electronics (access panel located in crawl-space
under co-pilot control console).
6. Main cargo area (open through main and lower deck, with sliding doors
for external access on each side of lower deck.
7. Drone Storage Pod (each with 1 Probe and 4 Salvage Drones).
8. Drone retrieval gantry and Grapple Arms.
L. Lockers.
W. Landing strut well.