Greg, all,
ObTrav:
At 04:54 AM 1/2/2016, you wrote:
<SNIP>
I picked oxygenthough because Doug's ship design was for a cargo
application, and that was likely to involve near orbit operations of
Human-inhabited planets at some stage, so oxygen, evenin trace amounts,
was an inevitability.
Would cargo ship owners do regular and thorough outer hull maintenance?
Depends... :-) (I'm thinking classic tramp ocean steamers)
I had a personal bad expereince with cement corrosion quite
recently...H2O was responsible for getting at the
steel first though. It took 30 years.
So the free trader with a 200 or 300 year-old unstreamlined (for those
who want to see how LEO or deeper space corrosion works) or streamlined
(for those who want to speed the process a bit) small trader who isn't
that keen on scrubbing and coating the hull (would this be called
careening - not because the captain's hauling the ship out of water but
because it's similar in concept?) might have to deal with outside
corrosion. And not dealing with it actively might lead to dealing
with it reactively e.g. "What do you *mean* we sprung a
leak?!?!?"
Works for me!
This is one of the things I love about this list: Anything and everything
that gets brought up turns into a kinda neat discussion - with thoughtful
input - that provides nuggets for my game.
Thanks - and keep at it!
Bill Rutherford
xxxxxx@comcast.net