Container shipping in Aurora

Player Questions
1

I can’t be the first to think about container shipping in Aurora.

The basic framework is simple:

Space Sations of a standard size consisting of cargo modules with minimal other stuff.
Manned cargo containers. Aurora is fun. :slight_smile:
Replacing cargo with civilian missile racks, cryo berths, fuel tankage or terraform modules while keeping size fixed enables the use of one standard type of tug.

Since a tug can only tow a single module at a time, I would need lots of those. That can become a bit of a bottleneck, since tugs take forever to build - about 25 times the build time of a simple cargo module.

Size would depend on the expected distance of the run.
With transnewtonian shuttle technology each shuttle/day means 8640 tons of cargo gets moved (if I have the formula straight).
In that time a tug with 1000kps loaded speed goes 86.4 million kilometers.
With Mars in close position (~54m km), the tug would be back in 30 hours and about 10000 tons of cargo would have been processed or a 5000 ton container unloaded and loaded again.
With Mars in far position (~400m km), the tug would take a little over 220 hours and allow for 80000 tons of cargo to be processed.

If I go with 40000 ton containers I could progressively add more modules (which would all be handled at the same time) until I have 17 modules in play at the close position (8 being handled on Mars, 8 being handled on Earth and 1 being towed.
As Mars moves away, up to 14 of these become superfluous (thank Ford those are cheap and can just loiter in orbit) until far position is reached and the trip time gets shorter again.

Edit: This of course assumes a constant flow of cargo both ways.
Something that is not always the case.
Obviously, if the stream of cargo only goes one way, you can use twice the size of module (twice the size of tug too) and tug back an empty every time.

So far, so good.

Do any of you have experience with such a setup?
Is there an actual advantage over just using conventional freighters or would I end up in micromanagement hell?

Obviously with interstellar trips, where the distance doesn’t change quite as much, I’d have more stable routes and could use bigger modules too, due to the greater distances involved.

2

I’ve done it with tugs, but ultimately I ended up just having the tug attached to the container all the time. It definitely saves on micro if you just leave the tug attached.

It has major advantages even if you leave tugs attached. You never design a new freighter, only tugs. Tugs are faster to build because they’re smaller. You don’t redundantly build cargo components for your tugs, you just keep using the ones you already have. Also, should you need something different towed (a stranded ship, an orbital mine), you have lots of tugs around to do it.

I actually recommend it.

It’s probably best to have 3 varieties, 5k, 25k, and 125k. Don’t forget cargo shuttles on them. Your tugs won’t have them.

Optionally, you can select “No armour” on the cargo containers. Then you can build them either with shipyards or industry, though honestly, mine are usually built with instant points at the start of the game.

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3

I usually see the tug + barge configuration with this, but you could also do a commercial carrier that has the freight (or colonist or troop…) containers land within it. It would be less mass efficient but you could put multiple different containers inside the same ship, and also use it to transport smaller spacecraft.

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4

I also do tugs with barges. I like my barges to be of the no armor kind. But I also use tugs for hauling transformers, fuel harvesters, constructors, and orbital habitats. More often then one might think I end up using tugs to pull ships that have run out of fuel and or have had maintenance failures.
In theory I would use tugs to pull gate stations for jump drives also but more often I just build a gate.

5

My Tugs not very fast to build, coz they need to tow 2.5m tonns terraforming stations with reasonable speed and have not similar size bonus to building speed. Still i like this logic, m.b. apply it in future runs.

6

A damn, yes. Commercial carriers. I forgot about those.

I could always build a carrier module to attach to my tugs though…