How much do limpets weigh?
- Thread starter CMDR X
- Start date
Keep in mind...
Presuming you're asking about Limpet weight because you're planning out what type of cargo holds to install on your ship?
You can always Synthesize more Limpets, so long as you have the materials necessary to do so.
This way, you'll never "run out" of Limpets when you need them.
I always leave for an exploration expedition, with at least a couple dozen already in my hold... and when those run out, presuming I've needed to use them after getting a little too close to a scoopable star, or take a hard landing... and I use up all the Limpets that I started with, then I just synthesize more.
This way, I can keep the smallest sized cargo hold installed on my exploration ship, for the least amount of weight, to maximize jump range.
Presuming you're asking about Limpet weight because you're planning out what type of cargo holds to install on your ship?
You can always Synthesize more Limpets, so long as you have the materials necessary to do so.
This way, you'll never "run out" of Limpets when you need them.
I always leave for an exploration expedition, with at least a couple dozen already in my hold... and when those run out, presuming I've needed to use them after getting a little too close to a scoopable star, or take a hard landing... and I use up all the Limpets that I started with, then I just synthesize more.
This way, I can keep the smallest sized cargo hold installed on my exploration ship, for the least amount of weight, to maximize jump range.
IIRC, FD dropped the ton/tonne identifier some time ago and now use a cargo unit (apart from; 1. Pirates, who are stuck in the old ways and probably still insist on measuring rum in pints, and 2. Players).
Everything fits into a cargo canister from gold to slaves. Presumably, there is some exotic formula that uses mass and volume in some mysterious way to resolve the physical conundrum that is cargo.
Perhaps it's as simple as 1 cargo canister = 1 tonne.
It's a strange universe.
Yet, every "unit" or cargo decreases your jump range by the amount of 1 ton extra weight. So they can name it whatever they like, it's still 1 ton for all practical purposes.
Yes, even that Hutton Mug weighs 1 ton. So there.
"There's the massive payout I'm looking for"
Carrying 2 lifepods..
Carrying 2 lifepods..
It's not one Hutton Mug, it's an entire shipping container full of Hutton Mugs.
Same with everything else. It's an entire container full of gold, biowaste, Lavian brandy, water, slaves, whatever. The game even states that the standard container is equipped with variable environmental systems to maintain the "cargo" correctly, whether it be livestock or perishable goods, or something that needs to be vacuum-sealed.
It's funny because different densities make 1 ton take vastly different amount of space. 1 ton of gold is a cube with a side length of about 37 cm. I would imagine 1 ton of produce, or whatever, would be a cube with a side length of well over 1 m. 1 ton of people, even if we considered each weighting 100 kg on average, would be 10 people, which would require a transportation facility several meters along each side.
Although I suppose one could perhaps make up some in-universe lore about weight distribution: If you put 100 tons of gold in the same cargo container were you would normally put 1 ton of people, good luck maneuvering your ship.
Zero weight in space, that's what weightlessness means.
Mass and displacement tonnage are different things from weight.
Limpets will weigh more or less on bodies with higher or lower gravity.
Mass and displacement tonnage are different things from weight.
Limpets will weigh more or less on bodies with higher or lower gravity.
It makes far more sense to me that cargo should be treated in terms of mass, rather than volume or nebulous "units". Payload mass is going to be a critical factor in spacecraft operations in all but the most fantastical of circumstances.
Ah, the old question of "what is a tonne of cargo, anyway". Been discussed in numerous old threads that I can recall.
The best answer, consistent with both the lore, and what we actually physically observe:
A standard cargo canister is roughly 1 metre by 2 metres. A standard cargo canister also weighs exactly one tonne. This also means that "1 tonne" of any given cargo is actually going to be less than 1 tonne net weight of goods, depending on what kind of packaging is going to be required.
1 tonne of bauxite doesn't need much protection from the elements, but neither does it need 2 whole cubic metres of space. So it's going too be packed with plenty of air. Assuming the cargo container itself weighs about 50 kilograms, this would give you 950 kg of actual bauxite in the 1 tonne canister.
1 tonne of perishables (fruit, meat, etc) is going to be considerably less than 1 actual tonne, because it will need climate control (refrigeration/heating) and probably pressurization (lest the cargo explode in vacuum). So, maybe 800 kg of perishables, and 200 kg of containment.
1 tonne of gold requires much much less than the allocated 2 cubic metres of volume. I imagine it sitting as a small cube of gold enmeshed in the middle of the canister, surrounded by beams of aerogel locking it in place so it doesn't rattle around inside. So again, about 950 kg of actual gold, and 50 kg of packaging.
1 tonne of hydrogen will need to be pressurized/liquefied, and no amount of magical hyperscience can shrink the physical requirements here. So maybe 750 kg of actual hydrogen and 250 kg of containment.
It is well established in lore that 1 tonne of slaves equals 1 slave. So that 1 tonne canister of slaves contains just one slave (80 to 100 kg), plus whatever life support is needed to keep them alive and healthy during transport.
It all sounds very inefficient - basically, wasting valuable space on board a starship shipping a bunch of boxes of mostly-empty-air around the galaxy, volume that could have been used to, I don't know, pack in some more cargo. But the critical factor of spaceships in ED is weight, not volume. And spaceship manoeuvring computers need to know the weight distribution within the cargo hold accurately. So a universal standard cargo system was invented and employed galaxy-wide, guaranteeing total weight of a canister to be precisely 1 tonne.
Of course, all this leaves unanswered the question of where all this mass to create empty cargo canisters in a refinery rig comes from - the hyperscience of converting milligrams of mats (iron etc) into the kilograms of structural material needed to make a cargo canister. Not to mention turning miligrams of mats into an entire tonne when you make a limpet.
The best answer, consistent with both the lore, and what we actually physically observe:
A standard cargo canister is roughly 1 metre by 2 metres. A standard cargo canister also weighs exactly one tonne. This also means that "1 tonne" of any given cargo is actually going to be less than 1 tonne net weight of goods, depending on what kind of packaging is going to be required.
1 tonne of bauxite doesn't need much protection from the elements, but neither does it need 2 whole cubic metres of space. So it's going too be packed with plenty of air. Assuming the cargo container itself weighs about 50 kilograms, this would give you 950 kg of actual bauxite in the 1 tonne canister.
1 tonne of perishables (fruit, meat, etc) is going to be considerably less than 1 actual tonne, because it will need climate control (refrigeration/heating) and probably pressurization (lest the cargo explode in vacuum). So, maybe 800 kg of perishables, and 200 kg of containment.
1 tonne of gold requires much much less than the allocated 2 cubic metres of volume. I imagine it sitting as a small cube of gold enmeshed in the middle of the canister, surrounded by beams of aerogel locking it in place so it doesn't rattle around inside. So again, about 950 kg of actual gold, and 50 kg of packaging.
1 tonne of hydrogen will need to be pressurized/liquefied, and no amount of magical hyperscience can shrink the physical requirements here. So maybe 750 kg of actual hydrogen and 250 kg of containment.
It is well established in lore that 1 tonne of slaves equals 1 slave. So that 1 tonne canister of slaves contains just one slave (80 to 100 kg), plus whatever life support is needed to keep them alive and healthy during transport.
It all sounds very inefficient - basically, wasting valuable space on board a starship shipping a bunch of boxes of mostly-empty-air around the galaxy, volume that could have been used to, I don't know, pack in some more cargo. But the critical factor of spaceships in ED is weight, not volume. And spaceship manoeuvring computers need to know the weight distribution within the cargo hold accurately. So a universal standard cargo system was invented and employed galaxy-wide, guaranteeing total weight of a canister to be precisely 1 tonne.
Of course, all this leaves unanswered the question of where all this mass to create empty cargo canisters in a refinery rig comes from - the hyperscience of converting milligrams of mats (iron etc) into the kilograms of structural material needed to make a cargo canister. Not to mention turning miligrams of mats into an entire tonne when you make a limpet.
Why does a mug require a 1-ton cargo canister?
Perhaps (to be a bit jocular) they fiddle with the density in order to equalise volume. So a "ton" of gold is liquid or gas.... with the necessary heat insulation
A cubic meter of platinum is 21,447 kilograms of mass. If it's on or near the surface of the Earth, it weighs 210,400 Newtons. That's 47,282 pounds, 23.6 US tons, and 21.447 metric tonnes.
Yes.Perhaps (to be a bit jocular) they fiddle with the density in order to equalise volume. So a "ton" of gold is liquid or gas.... with the necessary heat insulation
I was thinking gold etc could be cast into ~1 tonne billets that just fit into the canister and had an internal structure like an Aero bar.
The fact that they weigh 1t breaks my immersion.
If I am able to synthesize 200 limpets, 200 tons, that weight should affect my courier.
Unless it involves the higgs boson, in which case synthesis should take energy and produce heat as a byproduct.
I agree..