New Equipment: Copterpack

ChrisDonovan's picture
ChrisDonovan
January 4, 2016 - 7:30am

Copterpack

 

Purchasing

Manufacturer:

Various companies

Cost to Own:

16,000 Cr

Rental Cost:

50 Cr plus 50 Cr/day

Transmission

Propulsion Type:

Thrust/VTOL

Top Speed:

290m/t (175kph)

Turn Speed:

85m/t (50kph)

Acceleration Speed:

70m/t (40kph)

Deceleration Speed:

70m/t (40kph)

Power

Powerplant:

x1 Type 2 Parabattery

Range:

1,000km

Fuel Economy:

1 SEU/km

Capacity

Crew:

1

Passengers:

0

Cargo Limit:

none

Armaments:

None or 1 laser rifle equivilant + up to 4 micro-missiles (grenade equivalent)

Armor:

None

Other Equipment:

Radiophone (500Cr option) cameras, scanner/detectors, etc


The Copterpack is another option in the field of 1-man mini-vehicles available for use on planets all across the UPF. Small, agile, it is fairly energy efficient, and perfect for scouting and patrol operations.

Copterpacks consist of little more than a power source, engine, rotor, and canopy mounted on a semi-articulated, rigid frame that supports the pack when not in use on a pair of skids. The whole system collapses down into an area of less than 2 by 2 by 2 meters for storage.

Exploration teams use Copterpacks as often as they use jetpacks or paragliders because they offer greater stability than a jetpack, decent range, and are fairly easy to operate, even by untrained pilots.

The pack is flown primarily by the pilot shifting his weight within the frame. The gyroscope notes the change in body position and the pack's systems adjust accordingly. Two small joysticks built into the “arms” of the articulation frame are available for ultra-fine control and as a backup.


Standard equipment for a copterpack includes a radiotelephone capable of interfacing with any other similar system, or with any chronocom or videocom in range. Optional equipment includes still and video recorders, a chest frame mounted laser rifle equivalent, and up to four mini-missiles with damage equal to that of a hand grenade and a maximum range of approximately 700 meters.

 

Copterpack stowed position

Copterpack in stowed position

Comments:

jedion357's picture
jedion357
January 4, 2016 - 7:49am
Like this, I would advocate that they went with a type 1 parabsttery for wt and space savings. And a double set of rotors over head to cancel out the rotation to the pack. 
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
January 4, 2016 - 7:51am
Civilain models for rent tend to have none of the extras, military, police and search and rescue models have IR scanners as standard. 
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
January 4, 2016 - 8:48am
I'm not sure I'd want rocket flare so close to my feet and shoulders...
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

ChrisDonovan's picture
ChrisDonovan
January 4, 2016 - 9:18am
jedion357 wrote:
Like this, I would advocate that they went with a type 1 parabsttery for wt and space savings. And a double set of rotors over head to cancel out the rotation to the pack. 


I'd already thought of the double rotor thing, but there's only so much modding I can do to the image.  I might try it later and see what I can do.

As for the Parabattery, a Type 2 by my calculations should only be about 13x13x13 cm.  That's 5x5x5 in.  Assuming that all parabatteries store energy at the same density that is.  Even doubling the size would only make it about the size of a car battery.

As for the worry about missiles firing off that close, the game already has rockets firing off that close or closer (gyrojets).  Apparently they've developed a "cool" burning fuel of some kind.  You could say they burn that, or that they have a 1st stage that does before a more powerful burn is ignited after it's travelled a few meters.  If that doesn't satisfy, then maybe they do a "drop and burn" launch like some missiles we use today do.

ChrisDonovan's picture
ChrisDonovan
January 4, 2016 - 9:57am
Editing the images turned out to be easier than I thought it would be.

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
January 4, 2016 - 12:00pm
Cool...


 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

TerlObar's picture
TerlObar
January 4, 2016 - 3:38pm
Just a comment on the parabattery.  If it's only 13cmx13cmx13cm and weighs the 50 kg that the rules say it weighs, then it has a density of 22.76 g/cm^3.  Which is unbelivably high.  Even nickel-iron, compressed above its "normal density" of ~8.2 g/cm^3 by the mass of the earth at its core only has a density of about 12-13 g/cm^3.  It would probably really need to be at least 4 times larger (say 13x26x25) or more likely 6-8 times larger to have a realistic density at that mass.

Otherwise, very cool. 
Ad Astra Per Ardua!
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Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
January 4, 2016 - 4:28pm
ChrisDonovan wrote:
As for the worry about missiles firing off that close, the game already has rockets firing off that close or closer (gyrojets).  Apparently they've developed a "cool" burning fuel of some kind.  You could say they burn that, or that they have a 1st stage that does before a more powerful burn is ignited after it's travelled a few meters.  If that doesn't satisfy, then maybe they do a "drop and burn" launch like some missiles we use today do.

Gyrojet pistols/rifles use much smaller rockets and their exhaust is vented away from the shooter by the exit nozzle. Even the grand daddy rocket launcher is in a tube that vents the exhaust behind the shooter.

Now if it's a missile that can drop/ignite, totally different story.
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

ChrisDonovan's picture
ChrisDonovan
January 4, 2016 - 5:35pm
@ Teri: As seems to be typical, the "canon" information tends to contradict itself at times.  I am very aware of the problem of how small the Type 1 and 2 get if you use the existing information as a base to plot an extraction.  I hadn't factored in for weight (and hence density).

*Sigh*  Back to the proverbial drawing board, when I get time.

@ Shadow Shack: Well there you go then...problem solved :)

ChrisDonovan's picture
ChrisDonovan
January 4, 2016 - 7:16pm
Just out of idle curiosity, I did some checking into the size of a real life motorcycle battery (equivalent to a Type 1 parabattery).  I grabbed a battery supply website and went hunting for dimensions.

http://www.batteryspec.com/html/Motorcycles_Scooters.htm

The largest battery they sold was about 7x7x7 in (roughly 18x18x18cm).  That's with current tech.  The Frontier has tech that puts 20,000 jules of energy into a battery the size of a pistol magazine.

Make of that what you will.

jedion357's picture
jedion357
January 4, 2016 - 7:39pm
Don't sweat the picture, I'm sure I can work up a sketch, or we can locate one. Don't cycles in game use 1 type 1 parabsttery? I think keeping it in line with the other personal use vehicles is best but I suppose a copter might require more power than ground and hover cycles so a type 2 is probably not a big deal. On the other hand I also recall that in the Star questions published in Dragon one reader asked how far a robot could travel on his available power and the ruling was 1km/ SEU. Do you feel the 1km/SEU for the copter is in balance with this?
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
January 4, 2016 - 7:45pm
Oh yeah last thing any pilot is going to want to do is have a weapon system that drains the power that keeps the craft aloft. Perhaps swap out that laser. Also this isn't going to be armored so its hard to see it in an attack role, more than likely its a scout mission platform and covert operations platform. 
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

ChrisDonovan's picture
ChrisDonovan
January 4, 2016 - 7:58pm
I thought about that, but I can see at least allowing for a personnel scale laser.  There wouldn't be a problem finding enough storage for a dedicated supply of 1-200 SEU, given that you can fit 50 SEU into a pack the size of a medium fanny pack at the largest.

As for the chopper's energy supply, I realized I made a critical mistake.  I was trying to cram the power storage into the engine compartment, when vehicles store their energy is their FUEL TANKS.

So I went digging again.  Using a groundbike as an example, a big travelling bike can have a fuel tank up to about 7.5 gallons (29 liters) the physical volume is ~ 28,390 cubic cm.

Now, 7.5 gallons of gasoline (grade unspecified, I assume regular), carry 988,200 kj worth of energy.  That's at today's level of tech.

This is the part that keeps messing me up.  At the level of tech we assume for the frontier, how many cubic cm would it take to store that much energy in kJ?  That would give us the minimum volume for a Type 1 parabattery.

jedion357's picture
jedion357
January 4, 2016 - 10:48pm
Yeah, some of you all clearly like Math and that's nice, have fun with that. I retained enough Algerba to help me computer EXP in Advanced D&D. 
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

ChrisDonovan's picture
ChrisDonovan
January 5, 2016 - 12:36am
^Heh.  Hopefully Teri will chime in... :)

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
January 5, 2016 - 2:15pm
jedion357 wrote:
Yeah, some of you all clearly like Math and that's nice, have fun with that. I retained enough Algerba to help me computer EXP in Advanced D&D. 

AD&D?!? That's a complicated game system, more so if it's 3+e where you actually need a degree in math.
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

jedion357's picture
jedion357
January 5, 2016 - 7:32pm
Shadow Shack wrote:
jedion357 wrote:
Yeah, some of you all clearly like Math and that's nice, have fun with that. I retained enough Algerba to help me computer EXP in Advanced D&D. 

AD&D?!? That's a complicated game system, more so if it's 3+e where you actually need a degree in math.

Like I said the Algerba I retained was connected to stuff I needed to figure out for the game. 
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
January 5, 2016 - 11:09pm
That was more tongue-in-cheek comparing the simplicity of SF versus AD&D than the need for math. You know, as in attempting to make a simple game system complicated...like Zeb's Guide did. 

And you know how I can't resist taking a shot at Zeb's. Wink
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

ChrisDonovan's picture
ChrisDonovan
February 9, 2016 - 10:06am
I rewrote/expanded the text, renamed it, and submitted it to the wikki

http://starfrontiers.wikia.com/wiki/Rotorpack