tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post4253595183056404549..comments2024-03-26T04:58:54.326-04:00Comments on The Wandering Gamist: Scarcity, Traveller, and Starcraftjedavishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08586249502818922886noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-66158683428633111432018-03-17T23:18:47.345-04:002018-03-17T23:18:47.345-04:00Hm, interesting - when you said oxidizers, I assum...Hm, interesting - when you said oxidizers, I assumed fertilizer because that's a pretty common civilian oxidizer. The timing thing with the C-5 bomb transport is also maybe Traveller-relevant.jedavishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08586249502818922886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-87062814121391975182018-02-17T20:27:20.977-05:002018-02-17T20:27:20.977-05:00Thanks for the shout-out to your old man. Just to ...Thanks for the shout-out to your old man. Just to clarify, however, we don't often (ever, I'd say) carry fertilizer. It takes up way too much volume and weight for what it costs. Likely that would go by sea. The economy of air freight is based on value for weight. I've hauled loads of diamonds from South Africa to Amsterdam, but never a load of coal. iPhones and Formula One race cars go by air in one day; Legos and Crocs leave China in a ship for the 30 day transit. Not sure how that would translate to an interstellar economy. Maybe the distinction would be more along the lines of Express / Courier (as in direct routing / dedicated carrier) versus an amalgamated carrier making multiple stops with extended unload/offload/refuel times at each stop.<br /><br />To go by air, hazmat still has to be valuable enough to justify the expense. As an example, when OEF kicked off, the AF hauled loads of bombs in C-5 transport jets from the US to Diego Garcia for the bombers to drop on Afghanistan. Meanwhile an ammo transport ship left California for the month+ journey. Once it reached Diego with more bombs that a fleet of aircraft could ever hope to haul, the planes started carrying more prosaic cargo and the frequency dropped off significantly. The value of those initial bombs was only relative to their immediate need, not any intrinsic value like the aforementioned diamonds. <br /><br />There are 9 major hazardous material classifications, and some of those have subgroups. They range from Explosives like ammunition, blasting caps, bombs, etc. to radioactive material, corrosives, flammable gasses, flammable solids (those damn lithium ion batteries!) and even airbag and life raft inflators and beyond. Magnetic material must be labeled as such so it can be placed on the plane in a location that won't interfere with aircraft systems even though it's not inherently hazardous. As you mentioned, there are specific segregation, separation, and location criteria of the different types so that a problem doesn't cascade into a greater crisis. An example of how this can go very wrong occurred on a military transport in 1984. The US Navy had mislabeled some cargo, so it was placed in a position it should not have been on a U.S. Air Force transport. Here's the story from Wikipedia:<br /><br />(As an explanatory note, the C-141 is a high wing transport, so the fuselage sits below the wing and thus between the engines, unlike commercial low-wing aircraft.)<br /><br />On 12 July 1984, C-141B 64-0624, experienced an uncontained failure of its number 3 engine immediately after takeoff from NAS Sigonella, on the Italian island of Sicily. Ejected debris caused number 4 engine to also fail. Debris also entered the cargo compartment and started a fire in a pallet containing paint. The cargo fire produced thick poisonous smoke which made visual control of aircraft extremely difficult. The aircraft entered a steep bank and crashed just over three minutes after takeoff. All 8 crew men and a passenger on board were killed. Post crash toxicology indicated the crew had received potentially fatal levels of cyanide poisoning from the smoke, prior to impact. Subsequent to this accident, smoke goggles were added to crew oxygen masks. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_C-141_Starlifter)Jimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10588964635142841490noreply@blogger.com