On 29Apr2023 1133, Christopher Sean Hilton - chris at vindaloo.com (via
tml list) wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 28, 2023 at 03:08:22PM -0700, Traveller Mailing List wrote:
>> Hello Jeffery,
>>
>> My understanding of CT LLB 2 1st ed 1977 is that a ship's jump drive used all the jump
>> fuel regardless of the actual jump made. A ship with a J2 drive can make a 1 parsec jump
>> but will use all the fuel. My understanding is based on the following guideline:
>>
>> CT LLB 5 Hg 1st edition 1979 p. 32 "Jump Governor: It is possible to procure a jump
>> governor for ships produced according to Book 2. It allows such a ship to utilize fuel
>> more efficiently; instead of consuming all fuel when performing a jump, regardless of the
>> jump number, the ship will consume fuel equal to 0.1MJn, where Jn is the actual jump
>> number used, rather than the maximum jump number available. Available at any industrial
>> world with tech level 10 or higher. Cost Cr300,000. Mass 1 ton. Ships produced according
>> to this boo already have the jump governor as part of their drives."
>>
>> Of course I could be out to lunch on my understanding.
>>
> So the early rules seem, especially the addition of Jump Governers from CT LBB 5, to support
> the idea that you can determine where you come out of Jump where you want to and that an
> "anchoring mass" at the other end isn't required. It's later rule sets that seem to talk
> about some sort of an "anchoring mass" in the form of a conveniently located brown dwarf
> star.
>
> IMTU I just assume that some technology is ubiquitous. Jump Governers and Fuel purification
> plants are in that category. Because from an economic perspective, their utility value is so
> much higher then their cost.
IMTU I assume that jump governors as a special features was a thing in
the long past. By the late Imperium and New Era they were simply part of
the jump system and nobody would think of them as anything special, or
even at all unless they broke down and needed repair or replacement
(just like any other component of the jump drive).

As for 'void' jumping - that too was something that was hard or
impossible in the long ago. In the 'modern' day it's still a bit tricky,
so most captains prefer to avoid it if possible. Due to the lack of a
good clean gravity well at the destination it's hard to 'land'
accurately in the void, which wouldn't really matter, except that you
need to know exactly where you are to be able to plot a course for the
next jump - the difficulty compounds over the jumps if there's no
'anchor' at one or both ends. For a skilled crew this isn't a big deal,
especially if they're not in a hurry and can take their time checking
and rechecking their astrogation. For a mediocre crew in a ship that
lacks a sensor suite good enough to find iceballs out in the Great Dark,
it's scary.

This is why the IN's fuel depots out in the rift are known as
'calibration points' - they're are not just a whole lot of fuel, but
even the ones that aren't located on or by some massive object  have
their location carefully surveyed, so if you jump from one you already
have your departure location precisely known, removing that uncertainty
from your astrogation task.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>