Pulsars and Starship Navigation

In the real world, many astronomers believe that space travel could be navigated by fixing on the beacons of millisecond pulsars... extremely dense, fast rotating objects that give off radiation “pulses”. These objects could act like a light house... accurately timed points of reference in the galaxy which starships could use; cross-referencing hundreds of pulsars to pinpoint their location.

In the galactic troubleshooting roleplaying game X-Plorers (and others), pulsar navigation could be one of the standard methods of assuring safe, accurate space travel. Different reference points in space would make it hard to navigate by the visible star layout, because it changes as one travels. However, pulsars would be the anchoring point for accurate star travel.

Possible causes of navigational error leading to misjumps:
Unknown and uncharted space objects, such as magnetars, wormholes, black holes and other gravitational anomalies may be a mechanic whereby a Referee could induce a misjump upon a space ship or to increase/decrease its travel time. This factor makes charting all findings during exploration of great value to a crew and to others that will follow after them into these previously uncharted sectors of space.
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Jeff's Home Brew Jump Rules:
After a jump in space, a ship's computer recalibrates to ascertain precise coordinate location of all known pulsars. If a ship jumps again before the computer has had time to do this a Navigator is at a -2 modifier to their navigation skill roll. This could cause a “misjump” to a location that was not the one intended by the navigator. This takes 10 hours minus one per level of computer skill of the character doing the recalibration. Even if the skill level of a character is 10, a minimum of one hour is needed to jump without this penalty.

If a misjump occurs, roll a d6:
 1 Ship arrives d6x4 hours sooner at plotted destination. It has undergone a random hyper-jump!
2-5 Ship arrives at plotted destination d6 days late. The ship has been affected by a gravitational anomaly.
6 - total misjump! Ship arrives at a random destination.
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For galactic troubleshooters, not all of the dangers in space lie at the destination... getting there might be just as much as a hazard!

-Jeff

See these and other sites for more information on pulsars and their types:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45153814/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.TrlJ4nFGzs0
http://www.universetoday.com/49440/new-pulsar-clocks-will-aid-gravitational-wave-detection/
http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/neutron_stars.html

Check out X-Plorers! http://bravehalfling.com/page7.html

More Rockets: Rocket Ads 1947 - 1974 & Missiles for X-Plorers

Click on Pic or text below to see linked article

 Rocket Ads, 1947-1974

After my previous post on Weird Retro Spacecraft,  a friend gave me this link to an article about rocket ads.

Since X-Plorers and other space RPGs hail from the 70's or some campaigns have a Retro feel about them, I thought it fitting to share this, also.

Any spacecraft that engages in combat may encounter planetary defense missiles, so these ads might be useful for stirring the imagination.

Here is my take on what this particular missile would be as a weapon in X-Plorers:

Viper Defense Missile
Range: may be used successfully against a moving target at a range of up to 3000 km.
Type: Planetary Defense Missile - Type I
Crew: unmanned
Missile Points: Can take 1 Space Combat Weapon Damage point before being destroyed.
Weapon Damage: A Viper missile causes 1d3 damage
AC 11 (because of size & speed)
Skill Throw for accurate hit (unless destroyed): 12
XP Value: 5
Cost Million Cr: 5

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 Cobra Defense Missile
Range: may be used successfully against a moving target at a range of up to 4000 km.
Type: Planetary Defense Missile - Type II
Crew: unmanned
Missile Points: Can take 2 Space Combat Weapon Damage points before being destroyed.
Weapon Damage: A Viper missile causes 1d6 damage
AC 11 (because of size & speed)
Skill Throw for accurate hit (unless destroyed): 12
XP Value: 10
Cost Million Cr: 10

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Python Defense Missile
Range: may be used successfully against a moving target at a range of up to 5500 km.
Type: Planetary Defense Missile - Type III
Crew: unmanned
Missile Points: Can take 3 Space Combat Weapon Damage points before being destroyed.
Weapon Damage: A Viper missile causes 2d6 damage
AC 12 (because of size & speed and armor plating)
Skill Throw for accurate hit (unless destroyed): 12
XP Value: 15
Cost Million Cr: 20

Enjoy! ... unless one hits your ship
-Jeff

Weird Retro Spacecraft

Ok, is it just me, or does this spacecraft look backwards? Whoever designed this made it for looks, but is the design functional?Unless it jettisoned a portion of itself after liftoff and it was out of the atmosphere, it must be designed to work on low/no atmosphere worlds like the one pictured.



This standard rocket design, typical of the 40's and 50's especially, sits right with me... but it is also predictable. The picture is enjoyable to look at and I can envision it happening, yet haven't we seen this a zillion times before? It makes sense; perhaps too much sense.

I find old drawings of space ships before the Space Race to be beautiful concept-wise, but they would be an engineers nightmare. I know it is Science FICTION, but some artwork depicting the vessels that would transport humans across the galaxy seems like someone was looking at the plans backwards (points to first picture above) or on some heavy psychedelics, like the person that did the pic below:



I sure hope the heavily drugged pilot of the spacecraft at the bottom of this pic isn't crashing into the futuristic building. I am getting visions of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure in Space" or "Hippie Trek".

Still, such radical designs could reflect advanced or alien technology we haven't dreamed of yet. Incorporating weird designs into a space game might be a challenge, but it could add to the effect. In the Star Trek universe, there were many culturally influenced designs that each galactic race had. You could tell who was who, generally, by their ship design, much like ships have been spotted and identified on the seas for centuries. Everyone had to do their own thing and we liked it!
I just thought I would share these images because they were out of the ordinary.

It would be interesting to see these on graph paper being designed for Traveller or some other space RPG. I love to design ships, but the balance between all of the factors you want vs mechanical needs can be hard to balance - it is part of the fun of most starship design systems for games. Whatever these designers wanted for the spacecraft depicted here,  functionality wasn't at the top of the list. However, they sure make mind-bending art!