On Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at 4:33 PM, C. Berry <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

I've done a lot of thinking about what trade infrastructure would look like in the developed parts of the 3I. Basically, it looks a lot like modern container shipping. Economically significant systems will have a huge "port" area in deep space, well beyond the 100d jump limit, defined by orbital elements as much as by physical volume, and littered with various sorts of maintenance and cargo-handling facilities. Picture a really big container port, like the Port of Long Beach near where I live, but spread out in three dimensions over a huge volume. It wouldn't appear cluttered from inside it; space is big, Traveller makes in-system movement nearly free, and safety and navigation concerns would argue for very wide separation between operational nodes.

Fast long-haul shipping would be handled by modular freighters. The arriving ship would decouple from its freight and head off for refueling and maintenance. Meanwhile, a jump-ready modular freighter would couple with the freight and jump out. You could easily get the turnaround time to a couple of hours, most of that being taken up with moving the freighters around, docking, and doing safety checks to make sure the load is coupled properly before jumping.

Loads in-bound for the nearby world would just be left at an assigned spot in the port zone; lighters from the planet would then pick them up and downship them, and drop off outbound loads in other designated places.

The port control hub would probably be a very busy place, with truly impressive holographic displays to keep track of all of this.

And having been on the driving/dispatching end of things, the frieght managers are going to experience stress. Ships only make money when they are loaded, and cargo sitting in port isn't making any money. Which leaves a dire need for good scheduling to make sure that x tons of carrying capacity is at y to carry contracted cargo to z.

This would require a good communication system. Which would work through the cargo carriers themselves. Take Oberlindes Lines. Every time a OL frieghter jumps into a system with a company broker, they share information on what every other station and ship is doing. This lets the borker develop a feeling for the local situation. Which allows him to big on cargos for the ship while it refuels. A good broker will be able to see that while the big cargo is going to Alpha, he can slap on a container going to Beta, where a cargo is waiting for Gamma, both of which are on the jump route to Alpha.

So where do the Free Traders come in? They are in the secondary cargo market in the big ports, either snatching up cargo contacts that the big guys can't fulfil, or bigging on cargo offered for sale. Independent brokers, the guys who run on a hand computer out of a Startwon bar, might even be better informed than the big boys, as they hear from everyone. You need to keep your brojer happy, after all.

I really like the idea of the deep-space port, although I might move it just inside the 100-diameter limit to keep lunatics from popping out right on top of the thing. And I love modular frieght ships. There was just such a thing in Ships of the French Arm for 2300AD. My standard design for merchant vessels now.

Douglas Berry
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