Starship Economics

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Starship Purchase

A finance company demands a deposit of at least 20% of the purchase price and monthly repayments of 1/240th of the purchase price per month for 480 months (40 years). This means someone who buys a starship ends up paying 220% of the purchase price over the life of the loan.

Starship Expenses

Fuel costs Cr100 for unrefined fuel or Cr500 for refined fuel. Consumption is based on the size of the ship's power plant and jump drive. Using unrefined fuel in a power plant or jump drive not equiped for it can cause a mis-jump.

Each occupied stateroom costs Cr2000 in life support. Staterooms can be double occupied but this doubles the life support costs as well.

Annual maintenance takes two weeks at an A or B class starport and costs 1/1000th of the purchase prices of the starship. Owners must make arrangements to handle the loss of revenue and crew wages at this time.

Crew salaries are generally paid monthly and crew receive an additional 10% for skills above level 1.

Position   Min.Skill  Salary
---------- ---------- ----------
Pilot      Pilot-1    Cr6,000
Navigator  Navig-1    Cr5,000
Engineer   Engineer-1 Cr4,000
Steward    Steward-0  Cr3,000
Medic      Medic-1    Cr2,000
Gunner     Gunnery-1  Cr1,000

Berthing costs are Cr100 for the first six days and Cr100 per day after that. Some locations may increase this fee and some local governments may waive the fee entirely.

Trade and Revenue

Cargo comes in two basic types: haulage and speculation. Haulage is charged at Cr1,000 per ton with an additional fee if special arrangements are required such as supplementary radiation shielding, etc. Speculation involves the ship owner deciding that he or she can buy a commodity at a low price on one world and sell it for a higher price at another. Speculation is a very risky business.

Passengers are sold tickets based on the destination rather than the number of jumps required. A jump-3 liner charges the same price as a Jump-1 tramp freighter for a three-parsec journey. The jump-3 liner, however, makes the trip in one jump whereas it takes the tramp freighter three jumps and greater expense.

Passage comes in three classes: High passage costs the passenger Cr10,000, Mid passage costs Cr8,000 and Low passage (suspended animation or cryo-sleep) costs only Cr1,000. There is a chance that a passenger will undetectably die while in cold sleep and never awake on arrival at the destination. Only the desperate travel Low.

Subsidised merchants may receive mail delivery contracts. Such a contract permanently commits five tons of cargo to postal transport at a rate of Cr5,000 per ton. These ships must have a regular route, be armed and have a gunner on the crew.

Miscellaneous Information

Shuttle services between a world's surface and an orbital station are generally Cr10 per ton of cargo and between Cr20 and Cr120 for passengers.

Charters are generally paid at Cr1 per ton per hour for a minimum of 12 hour for non-starships and Cr900 per ton of cargo space and low berth, and Cr9,000 per high passage for starships.

The Low Lottery is a custom in which the captain of a ship donates Cr10 out of each low passage to a lottery in which each low berth passenger guesses the number of low passengers who will survive the trip. The winner takes the money. If the winner does not survive, the captain keeps the cash.

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