Small interplanetary freighter.

In Service Manufacturer Class Configuration Tonnage Cost Tech Level
-500 Terran Origin Freighter Block 140 dt 1,942,166.667 Cr 9

Late TL 9 freighter with experimental plasma drive. The crew quarters are placed as far from the drives as possible, to reduce the radiation hazard. The hull itself is very light, and easily damaged by micrometeorites. It's total length is 40m, though much of this is the thin neck. The main bulk of the ship is 9m wide.

Thrust

2.1 g

DeltaV

34 km/s

Size

22

Soak

5

Cargo

55 dt

Health

1

Agility

1

Though ion drives were great for getting about a solar system, they were terrible for leaving planetary orbit, requiring complicated orbital manouevering to overcome even a small planet's gravity. The advent of the plasma drive improved things, but early versions were rare in non-military craft due to expense and also their perceived risk.

The Swallow was one design which tried to make use of the early plasma drive designs to allow fast orbital insertion and escape. Compared craft such as the Albatross, it could simply point away from the planet and thrust. In order to achieve this though, the Swallow sacrifices maximum speed and also durability - the design is stripped down to the bare essentials in order to reduce mass to a minimum.

Hull & Structure

Light (0): O O O O O O O O O
Moderate (-10): O O O O O O O O
Heavy (-25): O O O O O O O O
Crippled: O O O O

Basic soak: 5 Armour: 0

Secondary Statistics

Internal Volume: 133 dt
Signature: 22
Sensors: 2
Computers: 2
Air speed: 458 m/s
Repulsor speed: 0 m/s
Unused space/area: 0 dt / 22
Drive type: Low Impulse Plasma
Drive fuel: 60 dt

Crew and Passengers

Capacity Volume
Bridge: 2 (Cabin) 1dt
Cramped: 4 2dt

Total life support capacity: 6
Required bridge crew: 2
Engineering workload: 12 hrs/Week