Zentreadi Re-Entry Pod, checking PB's Math and other things

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ShadowLogan
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Zentreadi Re-Entry Pod, checking PB's Math and other things

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Per the 2E Palladium Robotech SB for the Macross Saga (manga size): a Re-Entry pod has a height of 43.1m and a diameter of 110m. It also carries 8 Giant Crew, plus either 160 Giant Infantry or 90 Power Armor (Male or Female) or 80 Pods (a mix of Glaug Officer and Regult-types). Based on 8-man crew and the heavist possible Mecha (Regult and accounting for the pilot), the craft would have a payload capacity of ~5,384 metric tons.

Quick Note: for the purposes of this tread I am treating the Palladium Robotech RPG (both editions) as their own self-contained (individual) universe, so what is written in those books is what I am using as reference material here and other sources need not apply. The focus will be on the 2E version, though it is applicable to 1E.

1st Edition PB RPG Note in Spoiler
Spoiler:
The 1E Palladium RT Main RPG Book lists the diameter at 230m (length and width technically), but does not list the height. It also has contradictory statements about capacity 24BP/48GI or 480BP/960GI. With the available diameter and 1E size for the Regult as they are also slightly different, and for simplicity (and speed) I just reused 2E's Infantry size. But based on the area of the Re-Entry Pod it could not hold the 480/960 option if it only has 1 deck, Infantry option can likely be done if one adjusts the amount of floor space down from the "roomy" size I went with for each giant to require. I could not do volume w/available info.

Overall the 2nd part should still be applicable to 1E, but due note that 1E sizes and 2E sizes and capacities are different so if you are still using the 1E version you will have to make various adjustments on your own. A short quick way though would be to multiply the 2E numbers by 480/80=6x for capacities and such.


Questions:
1. Can the Re-Entry Pod actually fit the specified quanity of troops given the dimensions as outlined in 2E PB?
2. How might humans adapt the Re-Entry Pod post-Rain-of-Death? This means the UEDF: RDF, UEDF: ASC, UEDF: EF (UEEF, REF in 1E), independents (like the EBSIS in 1E)?

Results for Question 1 Re-Entry Pod Verification:
By Circular Area of the Pod (110m diameter), and treating a Giant Infantry as 11m tall (and using that for length/width since we don't want to pack them in like sardines), and the other listed Mecha by the 2E PB RPG dimensions for Length/Width and put them all into a square in terms of space occupied on deck...:
~78 Giants Infantry (if one is willing to reduce the area required by each individual..., for example if the length/width is reduced to 5.5m instead the result is ~314)
~95 Male Power Armor
~47 Female Power Armor
~117 Regults (I did not bother with the Glaug since it would be mixed with the Regults)

Now the results are actually mixed. You can get all the Regults and Male Power Armor with room to spare, but the Infantry and Female Power Armor have issues IF there is only 1 deck for troop carriage. By the Height of the Re-Pod there should be room for a second deck. Now we also have to subtract out area for various systems/features fo the vessel, but it would appear that yes you can fit them by area in most cases easily enough (the FPA is the only one that would really push the limit and require a second deck as the required space for the infantry was probably being overly open in terms of occupying space).

Now for Volume consideration I treated the Re-Entry Pod as a Cyclinder for simplicity, technically it's closer to a frustrum, but calculating the Volume of a Frustum is not possible with available measeurements. So some volume should be considered lost due to the change to the actual shape and to other ship systems:
~307 Giants can fit (size is 11m cube on each side, though as mentioned above 11m width/length can be shrunk down)
~251 Male Power Amor
~109 Female Power Armor
~248 Regults (using the maximum avaialble size from the various types mixed together)

So yes, by Volume you can fit everything the 2E RPG says is supposed to fit with generally a large margin except for the Female Power Armor (which takes up over x2 the volume of an Male Power Armor or Regult). Once you start accounting for ship systems and a more precise shape it becomes questionable if you could really sqeeze in 90 Female Power Armor in (honestly I would suggest cutting the quantity in half so they would occupy the same rough volume as the other mecha).

Results for Question 2 Zentreadi Re-Entry Pods used by humans
The most obvious answer is to just use it as a simple troop transport by any of the 3 Earth Govt Military Organizations. And what a Troop Transport it could be, payload capacity by mass (as calculated previously) gives out before volume capacity (with the Monster Destroid for example with just 15 units the mass capacity would be exceeded by just the Dry Mass of the mecha, but there is still enough volume remaining for 1 more unit, and that unit has over 10x the dry mass and 5x the volume of all the human mecha/vehicles I considered), which technically has some margin as the Volume being considered is only the amount occupied by a Regult and not taking into consideration any margins between mecha (and various bulkheads). Now deck space might be another factor that limits how many of a given type of mecha/vehicle could be transported, but since the vast majority of human mecha/vehicles (Monster Destroid being the only exception) are shorter than the tallest Regult configuration, some times drastically so, one could in theory retrofit in an additional deck (just based on Regult/s height, possibly an additional deck depending on the built in margin between the Regult and the height of the deck).

So what other roles could the Re-Entry Pod play:
1. Mass Evacuation from a Disaster Area. One Pod has the mass/volume capacity to transport ~59,000 humans (each occupying a 1.77m cube), plus have capacity for the crew/responders. This WILL require retrofitting in additional decks which will reduce the actual capacity (deck thickness and head room are not factors in the figure). Without those extra decks you are looking at only ~3000 people (1.77mx1.77m square) (or put another way each deck could hold this number of people in terms of how many decks you will need).
2. Mobile Disaster Response Facility to respond to hurricanes, tornados, or earthquakes. They can fly in fresh supplies, assorted equipment, and manpower. Plus be used as a temporary disaster shelter to house small scale communities (see point 1 for capacity).
3. Mobile Field Bases. As previously noted, the capacity is huge. So much so that I think you could use them as a sort of proto-GMU (actually going to the 1E RPG's GMU might be a step down), capabile of even transporting a squadron of helicopters or jet fighters (from the books), though these will not be able to take off from inside the craft, nothing really would prevent them from being taxied/towed out of the craft to launch from outside, though takeoff conditions might be a factor (not so much the helicopters/VTOL-jets) requiring additional time and work to prepare aircraft strips to take-off and land. Some capacity would likely be lost to support infrastructure (admin, C&C, quarters, mess, medical, repairs, logistical storage for ammunition/fuel/parts/consumables, long duration power generation, etc).
4. Non-Flight worthy units could be retrofitted into surface and underwater facilities similar to #3, only without being able to relocate. Given time they might also setup permament structures around them. Underwater facilities will requie an airlock to avoid flooding the entire hold.
5. Non-Operational Units could be used to provide an environmental protection from the elements for a small villiage. A Male Power Armor occupies ~99m^2 (A Regult is ~81m^2), which should be more than large enough for a multi-level home (ignoring levels in the US average home size is ~225m^2, which is large compared to the UK's 76m^2), and probably some small buisness establishements (which likely need more realestate). Water, Power, and Food are going to need to be sourced to. This likely would be used to hide a community's actual location, though some of the supporting infrastructure likely is going to be hard to hide (example farm fields). Though this style could also see use by rebels/bandits.

To Give an idea of Troop Lift Capacity here are some scenerios on what 1x Re-Entry Pod could be Retro-Fitted to Carry in 1x trip (any mecha/vehicle includes its full crew being transported on the Pod, but not in their Mecha/vehicle):
-the RDF could transport the combined compliement of every VF-1 (96x) and R4/7 Destroid (108x) from a Prometheus-class AND Deadlus-class (1x each), plus most of their Air Wings (no VC-33, and reduced to half numbers of Sea Sergents, Commancheros, and Cat's Eye), leaving you with ~50 metric tons of lift capacity margin to be used elsewhere (enough volume for 500x extra humans, which will reduce the available mass down to 4.7metric tons). You would need a 2nd to bring in their Monster Destroids and remaining Air Wing (no VC-33 still), and you'd still have capacity left over on the 2nd craft.
-the ASC could send in 2000x humans infantry to support with 54x Battloids, 96x ASC Power Armor, 54x VHT-1s (could trade 1x VHT-1 for 2x VHT-2s), 48x Logans and AGACs each (unlikely combination), 12x Falcon and Specter Fighters each, 48x Janissary APCs, 12x AHR-15 Phantom Recon Units, 6x Arbalist, 12x Hovertrucks and Hovercycles each, and still have ~83 metric tons of lift capacity and plenty of extra room
-the UEEF could transport a mix of 100x Alpha VT/Condor ntB/UEEF-Zentreadi-Pods, 100x Silverback, 1,500x Cyclones (or it's nt-PA variant), 100x ATT-30, 100x M-70 Kodiaks, 75x R5/8-Class Destroids/UEEF-Bioroids, and have ~40metric tons of capacity left over (supplies).
-alternatively, the UEEF could reduce the number of of AAT-30s and M-70s down to 10x each, and increase the Cyclones to 2,000x and bring along 46x Betas (or VHTs), this though reduces the left-over mass capacity down to ~1.9metric tons
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