Starship

A starship is a spacecraft equipped with a jump drive, essentially allowing it to travel at (roughly) 150 times the speed of light (or faster). Please note that very early (STL) spacecraft did not employ FTL drives. Due to the greatly enhanced travel speed of the jump drive, sophont species with the technology will use it.

• AKA starcraft
• q.v. spaceship.

Description (Specifications)

Starships are designed to carry people from one star system to another, for the purposes of exploration, survey, trade, patrol, raiding, tracking, information gathering, conquest... in a word, adventure.

Typically, starships have a large percentage of their volume dedicated to fuel, because the jump drive requires a huge investment in energy to transition to jumpspace. This limits the available space for other uses, severely in the case of ships able to jump long distances, or rejump repeatedly (which is a lifesaver if you can afford the space). Some ships greatly enhance capacity without sacrificing safety by mounting external tanks to the ship known as droptanks.

• Please see Civilian Starship Types or Military Starship Types for more information.

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Please refer to the following AAB library data for more information:

• Starship
  • Starship Types
    • Trader (A)
    • Cruiser (C)
    • Defender (D)
    • Escort (E)
    • Freighter (F)
    • Frigate (G)
    • Ortillery (H)
    • Prospector (J)
    • Touring Ship (K)
    • Lab Ship (L)
    • Liner/Jumpliner (M)
    • Surveyor (N)
    • Corsair (P)
    • Merchant (R)
    • Scout/Courier (S)
    • Transport/Tender (T)
    • Packet (U)
    • Barge (W)
    • Express (X)
    • Yacht (Y)
    • Unclassified (Z)
  • Speed of Travel
    • FTL
    • NAFAL (STL)
• Jump Drive
  • Jump Drive Key Resources
    • Lanthanum
    • Zuchai Crystal
  • Jump Drive Lore
    • Droptanks
    • Jump Bridge
    • Jump Damper
    • Jump Dimming
    • Jump Drive History
    • Jump Projector
    • Jump Space
    • Misjump

Military Starships

Military starships are starships designed to defend a state against aggressors. This typically means that their design requirements are based on performance and survivability under attack.

Capital Ship Combatants			Escort Combatants			Military Smallcraft				Support Ships
Battleship	Cruiser	Carrier	Destroyer	Escort	Frigate	System Defense Boat	Fighter	Assault Transport	Smallcraft	Auxiliaries

Commercial Mercantile Ships			Non-Mercantile Commercial Ships		Non-Commercial Ships			Civilian Smallcraft	Highports & Satellites
Merchant	Liner	Transport	Commercial Industrial	Commercial Ships	General	Research	Private	Auxiliary	Orbital Complexes	Satellites

Astronics

What avionics are to aircraft, astronics are to starships.

Relativistic Drives

Relativistic Drives are starship engines uses in normal space for maneuver and propulsion. They are different than the jump drive.

Jump Drives

Please see the article Jump Drive for more information.

History & Background (Dossier)

No information yet available.

Interstellar Travel Motives

The first interstellar ships, while crude in light of more modern FTL jump drives, nevertheless have revolutionized every sophont society that developed them. Two motivations tend to drive the push for interstellar travel:

• 1. Colonization (population pressure)
• 2. Curiosity (exploration)

Some sophont species tend to also be driven by a fear of the unknown, a third common motivator. And yet others possess a religious, ideological fervor to bring their ideas and philosophies to the rest of Interstellar space, a fourth common motivator.

• 3. Fear (paranoia)
• 4. Belief (proselytism)

The K'kree, for example, while driven by several factors are strongly motivated to bring an ethos of vegetarianism to Charted Space.

Starship Representative Sampling

• Battleship (Military)
• Cruiser (Military)
• Far Trader (Civilian)
• Free Trader (Civilian)

References & Contributors (Sources)

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.

• Classic Traveller Library Data (N-Z)
• Periodical: Challenge 72 in article: "Sublight Drives" by: Dave Nilsen & Frank Chadwick
• Traveller5 Core Rules
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science