[TML] Space Traffic Control (was Re: War rules)

[shadow at shadowgard.com]

On 1 Jun 2008 at 18:58, Knapp wrote:

> I was reading all that bit about what would happen to a ship if it
> hit some poor planet. I started thinking about what would happen to
> the planet if some great ship hit it, or even some little cargo ship
> that was loaded and had a long vector. 


Rough rule of thumb. At 3 km/sec, a ship will impact with an energy 
of roughly the same mass of TNT. This goes up linearly with mass (ie 
ten times the mass is ten times the boom) and goes up as the *square* 
of the velocity (ie at ten times the velocity you get 100 times the 
boom).

So at 300 km/sec, a 100 ton *mass* (not 100 dT!) ship will impact 
with roughly one megaton of blast.

That's bad news near the impact point but not so nad even a dozen 
miles away (the fallout won't be radioactive unless the ship was 
carrying nukes).

But planets are big. And unless it's got an insane population density 
the odds of hitting anywhere important are low.

> So if I lived on that planet I would have rules about what vectors were OK,
> they would have to be vectors that, if the ship failed, would give people at
> least 3 weeks go find aid or maybe less if aid was always in system. This
> goes double for war ships and war. Say you are fight for or even against a
> plant, loose ship control and then clash into the major city or really harm
> the planet. What good is the fight then? Seems to be that it would be a war
> crime to take such a vector in the first place.

I covered this several times over the years. This falls under the 
general responsibilities of "Space Traffic Control" or STC (much like 
ATC/Air Traffic Control here on Earth).

In wartime, all bets are off. Surving the battle is more important 
than where your ship might end up if you lose control.

Good examples are all the planes that crashed into cities *by 
accident) (ie loss of control or got shot down as opposed to kamikaze 
type stuff) during WWII. And all the antiaircraft fire that hit 
civilians. 

Classic example of that last is Pearl Harbor. A lot of the shells 
fired at the attacking planes weren't properly fused and landed in 
Honolulu. Nobody got in trouble for that.

In peacetime, you'll be given a course that does not intersect the 
planet (except on landing approach) or any other ships or space 
installation (unless preparing to dock).

This will include not merely your projected path under power, but 
also your path if you *lose* power at any point. 

The three weeks bit is totally silly as with normal Traveller drives, 
you can leave the star system in 3 weeks. 

In 3 weeks at one g you can travel almost 110 AU (without doing 
turnover). And you'll be travelling at 6% of c!!!

Anyway, STC will contact ships that come out of jump and are "near" 
the planet. If you emerge in the middle of nowhere (ie well away from 
any planet of station having significant space traffic), you may get 
hailed by system control and asked what you areplanning to do and if 
you need help.

If you are outside of any STC control center's area of operations, 
you'll be pretty much on your own. They'll ask for your intended 
destination and suggest where and when you should enter your 
destination's controlled flight area (if they have an STC).

If they don't (say a non-mainworld with some mining installations or 
the like) you'll probably just get given the unicom frequency(ies) 
for your destination and get fed an update on any local traffic 
hazards. (this is analogous to flying into a small airport or private 
field here in the states)

If you are heading for controlled space (or already in it, as some 
worlds may have controled zones that extend past their 100 diameter 
limit) you'll get assigned a transponder squawk and a channel to talk 
to STC on. 

You'll then get given some exacting course instructions on that 
channel once you are in or near the controlled area. 

If you follow the instructions, you'll likely not get contacted again 
until it's time to make a final approach to the station or planet. 
Unless of course, someone *else* screws up and you have to be re-
routed or dodge.

If you don't follow instructions, you'll get a warning or two (if you 
are at a relatively safe distance or vector). They you'll hear a 
"change course or be fired upon" by the local COAC (Close Orbit & 
Aerospace Command). And they *will* folow thru on it.

If you are too close and on a dangerous vector they'll go straight to 
the COAC warning. Or even skip that and start shooting if you are 
really close and on an intercept vector.

Unless you can prove equipment failure, your pilot may get his 
license jerked. Likewise, the Captian (if he wasn't the one piloting) 
may have his Master's papers at risk.

And if it was equipment failure, the Captain will have to answer. Not 
sure if they'd go after the chief engineer as well or let the 
Captain/owner deal with that on their own.

STC is very serious about this. About as serious as airport security 
is about a bomb threat.

ps. I'd like to expand on this, so anybody with experience operating 
a plane or running ATC *especially* outside the US, please feel free 
to talk to me.

And I could use some illustrations to show controlled vs uncontolled 
space in a system and maybe some examples of good vs bad vectors.



--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com