Drop Capsule

A Drop Capsule is designed to facilitate military landing operations on a hostile world.

• These come in two primary variants, manned and unmanned.
• It is a type of Ship Equipment.

Description (Specifications)

Manned capsule: The manned capsule carries one Battle Dress-equipped soldier and combat equipment through an atmosphere to a set of pre-programmed ground coordinates, piloted by the flight computer. On the trip down, the capsule executes evasive maneuvers using its thruster package, and deploys decoys as necessary. An ablative heat shield protects the passenger from the heat of reentry.

After passing through the upper atmosphere, the outer shell splits away, leaving the passenger in a small framework that acts as a shoulder harness for a steerable parachute. After a period of free-fall, the passenger deploys the parachute and glides the remaining distance to the landing zone. This free-fall can be long or short in duration, depending upon the tactical demands for low-altitude parachute opening (ODLO, orbital drop, low opening) or high-altitude opening (ODHO).

Upon landing, the framework that held the parachute forms a missile launcher.

The manned capsule can carry one passenger, and up to 680kg of additional equipment, which usually needs to include the mass of the battle dress.

Unmanned Capsule

The unmanned capsules are intended to be used in support of the manned capsules, either for cargo carriage or armed decoys. The capsules are piloted by the same flight computer as the manned capsules, and performs the same or similar maneuvers.

Decoy Capsule

These capsules cover the other capsules during descent by providing additional targets for ground fire and additional decoy protection.

"Iron hand" Capsules

These capsules provide suppression of planetary aerospace defenses (SPAD) - "top cover" for the attacking force. Each capsule carries a anti-radiation targeting missile on a parachute. The missile becomes active when reaching the opening point, descending on the parachute, and looking for active scanning targets.

Cargo Capsules

These carry additional supplies for a raid, and accompany a raid down, shedding decoys, maneuvering, and landing as normal drones. The capsule contains an inner canister which descends beneath a parachute. The canister's cargo capacity is limited by a combination of parachute load-carrying capacity and the nature of the cargo. Cargo capacity for normal equipment is 1,236kg, and can be as high as 5,070kg for extremely rugged equipment and no reserve chute.

History & Background (Dossier)

No information yet available.

Market Value

Costs:

• Manned capsule: TL-10, Cr354,079, 7000kl, 7 tons
• Unmanned capsule: TL-10, Cr360,418, 7000kl, 7 tons, plus cost of cargo or armaments.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This article is missing content for one or more detailed sections. Additional details are required to complete the article. You can help the Traveller Wiki by expanding it.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Gary L. Thomas. The Travellers' Digest 15 (Digest Group Publications, 1989), TBD.
• Dave Nilsen. Reformation Coalition Equipment Guide (Game Designers Workshop, 1994), TBD.
• Frank Chadwick, Mark Gelinas, Dave Nilsen. Smash & Grab (Game Designers Workshop, 1994), TBD.
• Frank Chadwick, Dave Nilsen, Loren Wiseman. Path of Tears (Game Designers Workshop, 1994), TBD.
• Robert Pearce. Starship Geomorphs (Pearce Design Studio, 2018), TBD.
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science