 March 9, 2015 - 7:38am | How do you decide whether any given planet or moon has one or more starport? Is it just at the referee's discretion or is there a list somewhere that provides all of the details? |
 March 9, 2015 - 11:45am | Any world with an orbital station should have numerous starports. Worlds lacking a station should also have a place where shuttles and other small support craft can land, so it's safe to say any populated world should have at least one port on the ground. Even an outpost should have some semblence of landing facilities. |
March 9, 2015 - 12:28pm | I'm assuming that in general any port can support anything from shuttles up to HS 5 ships? |
March 9, 2015 - 12:33pm | Going by the parameters of systems ships capable of landing, that would be a safe assumption for a typical starport. Outpost worlds might beat to a different drum though, built to spec by those exploiting said world. |
March 9, 2015 - 2:51pm | Maybe it's dictated by the population classification as given in Zeb's Guide? |
 March 9, 2015 - 6:50pm | I've never really worried about it assuming any planet with any sort of population will have the facilities for ships to land and to refuel chemical engines (although it might be pricer on outpost worlds). Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 March 9, 2015 - 7:40pm | For comparison a list of major Space flight launch sites: 1. Vandenberg, California 2. Edwards, California 3. Cape Canaveral, Florida 4. Wallops Island, Virginia 5. Kourou, French Guiana 6. Alcantara, Brazil 7. Hammaguir, Algeria 8. Torrejon, Spain 9. Andoya, Norway 10. Palmachim, Israel 11. Plesetsk, Russia 12. San Marco, Kenya 13. Kapustin Yar, Russia 14. Baikonur, Kazakhstan 15. Sriharikota Island, India 16. Jiuquan, Inner Mongolia 17. Xichang, China 18. Taiyuan, China 19. Svobodny, Russia 20. Tanegashima, Japan 21. Kagoshima, Japan 22. Woomera, Australia Looking over the list we can image that on a planet in the Frontier with a world government you would possibly have fewer star ports than the above but the presence of mega corps on a planet could lead to the corporation having its own secure facility as well as a few facilities for civilian and a few more for military. Thus if Earth was a colony in the Frontier with a world government we'd expect that it would have 3-4 military starports, 3-4 civilian starports, and 1 for every major megacorp on the planet . In the real world you get things happening like at the Bangor, ME airport where its a commercial airport but the Air National Guard had planes there. This sort of thing would be more likely on a lower population world with a marginal economy. So a Moderate or Low population world would have fewer and if there was a military presence then you might just have a star port with a secure area for the militia. If a mega corp is listed as having a head quarters on a particular planet you can almost assume that it has its own star port as well on that planet. In the case of PGC which is headquartered at Port Loren, Gran Quivera, Prengular it also has a major presence on Laco since it fought and won the corporate war there with Streel for control of the Tetrarch pyramids. Zebs guide suggests that Laco became an industrial economy so it seems to me that PGC has located a significant production facility here and that will need a star port to move goods off planet. With the history of the Laco's War you could also have an abandoned Streel star port facility- no reason that a small atomic powered craft couldn't land there despite the lack of amenities and operational support facilities. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 9, 2015 - 7:51pm | Edwards has no "launch" facilities and actually little "landing" facilities beyond the lakebeds :) But that's a point as well. What constitutes a "Starport" in the first place? If it's official its probably the planetary government run and owned space station and maybe a cooperative facility on the surface. In the end it may simply be the nearest convienent "flat-spot" that a shuttle or ship can set down on and whatever local services are nearby. Depending on the worlds population and economy they may in fact not HAVE an actual "port" but a duel or triple use facility that "acts" like a port when a ship is on-world. "Y'all welcome to Blake's World spaceport and salt-flats race track! We're gonna have to charge you a bit extra to cover up that exhaust divit y'all made in the far turn as we've got a hot hoverbike race coming up on Saturday. Y'all is invited of course" :) Randy |
March 10, 2015 - 1:21am | As facilities, in some cases I can see them being run by private companies, who perhaps pay a tax or land rent to the local government. In turn, this company rents out space within or around the facility to other private businesses. Or, the whole port could be part of a nationalised company that does the same sort of thing. |
March 10, 2015 - 4:45am | IIRC NASA even built an emergency landing field on Easter Island for the space shuttle, just in case. We've all heard stories over the years about aircraft landing on highways and with the democratization of space travel in the Frontier you'd also get the same thing: star ships landing at airports out of necessity. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 10, 2015 - 7:15pm | IIRC NASA even built an emergency landing field on Easter Island for the space shuttle, just in case.
Actually the Space Shuttle was supposed to be able to land on Easter Island in an emergency. Then G. Harry Stine (as Lee Corey) wrote a novella (then full book) on the problems that would occur if the Shuttle actually HAD to do so and NASA and the AF put money into improving the runway (for which Chile thanked us) but no factilities. Then again, it was supposed to be able to abort to Aviano AB, Italy for a Cape Launch and if it came down there it's probably it would have been unable to leave. But in the general direction of the thread, the answer is yes :) Randy |
 March 13, 2015 - 2:11am | Baghdad Int'l Airport is open but, Iraqi Airways controls fuel, stairs, generators, etc. You pay a landing fee to the Ministry of Transportation and then pay Iraqi Airways for the services you need. So...you land on Laco and pay a landing fee and then PGC for services you need. |
 March 13, 2015 - 5:03am | DO not forget "ports" are different too on fees, I was watching a show a while back (can no longer afford TV here) and they have to travel a lot on this show, some observations... they traveled all over with their gear but at an airport in the USA they had to rent the carts that where free in most other airports including ones in third world countries, in fact in the USA they pretty much got nickeled & dimed to death at this one airport... fleeced would be the word. On the other hand in an African country that was paranoid about spies, they had all their batteries for their cameras confiscated... they had to jerry rig car batteries to their cameras, also the authorities straight up took their night camera, and some other equipment. I had a pocket knife taken from my luggage and mailed to me from Japan, here TSA would just take it and it is gonezo, I had my luggage searched in Japan because the Japanese Coke I was bringing back as a fun gift looked like a bomb... and customs is always fun no matter where your going.  I would think the ports might be different based on lots of factors. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
March 13, 2015 - 12:03pm | I suppose you could rate ports as X ammount of HS in total they can handle and maximum HS that could land there. have a mechanic that is so many d10 to determine how many HS is currently there High population worlds +Y HS and low population worlds -Z HS I like the idea of landing or docking fees paid to government but then the corporation nickles and dimes for its services. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 13, 2015 - 1:37pm | It's the price of doing business with less civilized worlds. Merchants can always adjust their prices accordingly.  |
