Specifications of the ‘INS Fridtjof Nansen’

Necho-class exploration frigate (TL10^ superscience)

Description

This is an interstellar naval vessel designed to carry a small multidisciplinary team of planetologists and social scientists on ‘first contact’ missions with non-starfaring cultures and exploring previously-unsurveyed habitable worlds. It is lightly armed and armoured, mostly for self-defence, but its tech edge might make it suitable for a little light gunboat diplomacy.

The Necho-class frigate is built in a 3,000-ton unstreamlined hull 64 metres 'high' and 42 metres in diameter. Artificial gravity was not available to the designers, and the habitats were clustered in the core for safety, so that spin gravity was not practical. When not under acceleration, the ships are intended to be occupied in free fall. So that it remains habitable while under acceleration, this vessel is laid out as a ‘tail-lander’, with decks perpendicular to the acceleration axis and the drives in the “basement”, pointing down.

Necho-class frigates have a limited-superscience antimatter plasma torch drive giving 1 gee of acceleration, and allowing 3 gee of emergency thrust when antimatter-boosted water from a special tank is used as propellant. They are capable of landing on and takeoff from any habitable planet under emergency thrust, but are not intended to do so because their drive exhaust would be immensely destructive. They therefore carry two ram-rocket-powered orbital shuttles for landing and recovering explorers with their gear.

Armament is light. The main weapon is a single 300 MJ improved laser, preferred over a longer-ranged UV laser so as to be able to offer orbital fire support to a landing party. There is a 32-cm torpedo launcher intended mostly for launching probes, but also capable of firing up to a 2.5 megatonne anti-matter armed torpedo. And thirty very-rapid-fire 100kJ improved lasers for point defence against torpedos and orbital junk.

Interstellar performance is modest: Necho and her sister-ships were intended to proceed on their exploration circuits by a series of short hops from star to star.

Stats according to ‘GURPS Spaceships’

Systems

  • Forward hull
    • [1] Hardened nanocomposite armour, $30M, —
    • [2] Hardened nanocomposite armour, $30M, —
    • [3] Split system
      • Hangar bay (30 tons capacity, 20 tons/minute launch), $0.1M, —
      • Cargo hold (50 tons), $ negligible, —
      • Cargo hold (50 tons), $ negligible, —
    • [4] Split system
      • Hangar bay (30 tons capacity, 20 tons/minute launch), $0.1M, —
      • Cargo hold (50 tons), $ negligible, —
      • Cargo hold (50 tons), $ negligible, —
    • [5] Open space (2 areas, garden), $0.2M, —
    • [6] Habitat (20 cabins specialised rooms), $3M, —
  • Midships hull
    • [core] Habitat (20 cabins accommodations), $3M, —
    • [1] Hardened nanocomposite armour, $30M, —
    • [2] Halved system
      • Habitat (10 cabins accommodations), $1.5M, —
      • Power plant, half-sized fusion (1 power, 200 years), $15M, —
    • [3!] Split system (three SM+9 weapon systems)
      • SM+8 major battery: turreted 300MJ improved laser (RoF 2, 3d×5(2) range S/L), $ 6M, — [note 4]
      • SM+8 major battery: turreted 32cm missile launcher, $6M, —
      • SM+8 tertiary battery: thirty turreted 100 kJ very-rapid-fire improved laser (@ RoF 200, 1d(2), range C/S), $6M, —
    • [4] Tactical array, $30M, —
    • [5] Defensive ECM, $30M, —
    • [6] Engine room, $1M, 2
  • Aft hull
    • [core] Control room (Complexity 8, comm/sensor 8, 6 control stations), $6M, —
    • [1] Hardened nanocomposite armour, $30M, —
    • [2!] Stardrive engine, $30M, —
    • [3] Fuel tank (150 tons antimatter-boosted hydrogen), $1M, —
    • [4] Fuel tank (150 tons antimatter-boosted hydrogen), $1M, —
    • [5] Fuel tank (150 tons antimatter-boosted water), $1M, — [note 1]
    • [6] Reaction engine, antimatter plasma torch (1 g), $30M, —

Basic Stat block

PILOTING/TL10 (HIGH-PERFORMANCE SPACECRAFT)
TL: 10^
Spacecraft: Necho-class exploration frigate
dST/HP: 100
Hnd/SR: -1 / 5
HT: 13 [note 2]
LWt.: 3 000 tons
Load: 215 tons
SM: +9
Occ.: 56 ASV
dDR: 60H / 30H / 30H
Range: 1x
Cost: $292.4 M
Refuel: $54M [note 3]

Crew

  • Control crew: 6
  • Technicians: 2
  • Small craft: 2 shuttle pilots, 2 turret gunners
  • Medical officer

Fit-out

Cargo holds

  • 60 tons assorted spare parts for ship repairs [note 2]
  • 60 tons assorted camping, construction, survival, and security equipment
  • 20 tons assorted scientific instruments
  • 10 tons assorted medical supplies
  • 50 tons assorted trade goods

Hangar bays

Forward habitat section

  • 1 – 10 Operations centre for 20 researchers (+1 to Research)
  • 11, 12 Briefing room (double size, seating for twenty)
  • 13 Office (ambassador)
  • 14 Office (captain's day cabin)
  • 15, 16 Lab (Biology), 2, $1M
  • 17 Stowage (5 tons steerage cargo)
  • 18 Miniature robofac, $0.5M [note 2]
  • 19, 20 Armoury (10 tonnes steerage cargo)

Core habitat section

  • 1 Office/auxiliary controlroom (XO & buffer, damage control centre)
  • 2 Single cabin (captain’s night cabin)
  • 3 Single cabin (ambassador)
  • 4 Single cabin (dean of Survey)
  • 5 Double cabin (head of social sciences, head of planetary sciences)
  • 6 Double cabin (1st lieutenant & chief engineer)
  • 7 Double cabin (counsellor & spokesman)
  • 8 Bunkroom (intelligence officer, surgeon, astrogator, 2nd engineer)
  • 9 Bunkroom (astronomer, 3rd engineer, midshipman, Ambassador's "aide")
  • 10 Bunkroom (4 Survey experts)
  • 11 Bunkroom (4 Survey experts)
  • 12 Bunkroom (4 Survey experts)
  • 13 Bunkroom (buffer & shuttle pilots)
  • 14 Bunkroom (‘A’ watch & #1 shuttle mechanic/gunner)
  • 15 Bunkroom (‘B’ watch & #2 shuttle mechanic/gunner)
  • 16 Bunkroom (‘C’ watch & relief shuttle mechanic/gunner)
  • 17 Bunkroom (Marines ‘A’ team)
  • 18 Bunkroom (Marines ‘B’ team)
  • 19, 20 2-bed sickbay

Midships habitat section

  • 1, 2 Establishment (wardroom)
  • 3, 4 Establishment (civilians' common room)
  • 5, 6 Establishment (naval rating's mess)
  • 7, 8 Establishment (marines' mess)
  • 9, 10 Establishment (gym)

Magazine

  • 5 of 32 cm missiles with 2.5 Mton antimatter warheads $10M
  • 15 of 32 cm missiles with conventional warheads $15M

Notes

  1. I assume that a given antimatter plasma torch engine can run on either antimatter-boosted hydrogen or antimatter-boosted water without modification. If not, all tanks carry antimatter-boosted hydrogen, and Speed is 1 g. / 360 mi./sec..
  2. I assume that neither the spare parts in the cargo hold nor the minifac in the forward habitat section will give the bonus to HT that a factory would give.
  3. The Necho-class was designed for a setting in which limited-superscience production of antimatter provides antimatter-boosted fuels for $120,000 per ton at TL10^. At book prices for antimatter a ship such as this is not economic, and the class should be re-designed with a fusion torch engine, which would raise the cost of the ship to $301.5M, and alter its Move to 0.5 g. / 45 mi./sec., or to 0.5 g or 1.5 g / 37.5 mi./sec.
  4. GURPS Spaceships p.65 implies that UV lasers are capable of ground fire from orbit through a breathable atmosphere, but GURPS Ultra-Tech and physics suggest otherwise. I'm going with physics. INS Fridtjof Nansen carries a visible-wavelength improved laser rather than the longer-ranged UV laser that would be possible, in order to be able to provide orbital fire support at need.