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--- ardanium_and_space_travel [2016/11/21 13:33]
drac
+++ ardanium_and_space_travel [2016/11/21 17:06] (current)
drac [In-System Ships and Space Stations]
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 Similar considerations exist with the ship's shape, the most economical shape is the one with the best volume/surface area ratio, which is a sphere.  However to maintain stability in the gradient the contact surface needs to be flat, so civilian freighter ships typically adopt a half to three quarter sphere shape with the ardanium surface being the flat edge. Passenger ships are usually more lozenge shaped for aesthetic reasons.
+==== In-System Ships and Space Stations ====
+These enjoy being massively cheaper due to the lack of Ardanium, but suffer from the lack of Gravity that comes as a side effect from the Ardanium plating.  Ardanium being much to precious to waste on something that isn't pulling a gradient.
+Whether to add gravity varies by function and by species, in general for long term civilian space stations and orbital facilities an element of gravity is considered nice, especially around the habitation sections, but with modern medicine and supplements to manage bone wastage its hardly essential.  Zero G for your docking area and cargo bays just makes life easier for everyone provided they remember to wear field suits: impact force from moving objects is based on mass, not weight.
+Military stations will often forgo gravity entirely - while rotation is fine for civilians, for a battle station a damaged rotating module becomes an enormous sheering force.  Some careful use of ardanium floor plates allows certain key areas to have gravity - doctors complain that it is hard enough to work already when the patient doesn't drift off the table. Stations that do have it will include the ability to slowly "break" the rotation should action stations be sounded, safe in the knowledge that thanks to the impossibility of gradienting next to planets, they will have time to come to a stop before trouble reaches them.
+In system ships both military and civilian tend to be gravity-free.  For the civilians the moving parts make the whole thing more expensive, for the military it's a huge target.  That's not to say that there aren't some nice luxury liners that will cruise you round Sol at a comfortable 0.75G on the outside as you rotate and take in the sights, but it's very much a luxury item.
+The Many are famous for ignoring gravity on their ships altogether, often even on ardanium equipped ships and just having webbing on all surfaces they can grip on to.