Oolite Bulletins

I have noticed that it is possible to make the pilot of a vessel launch his escape pod, but leave a ship intact.

This opens up the opportunity for stealing a ship.

Could it be possible to create a much more powerful tractor beam, which would be available as an upgrade for larger ships.

That tractor beam could be used to tow an abandoned ship to the nearest space station, and either have it re-fitted, or simply sold.

For a space pirate, that would be a great opportunity.

The ability to tow various beacons away from their usual orbit is also an interesting possibility.

"Wonder what would happen if I put this witch-space beacon in the sun?"

Think the idea of a special missile that sticks into the ship with a tow-line is being considered.

The missile idea sounds good.

However, I would think that creating a missile which installs a 'slave circuit' aboard the other ship is more feasible.

A tow line would be limited, and unless the ship being hijacked is stationary, it could cause untold havoc.

Just my thoughts.

Unmanned ships will coast for a short while, then come to a stop.

I want less powerfull tractorbeam and I also don't like idea of prize-ships If I cannot put them in my hangar-bay.

Why would unmanned ships stop?

Either the computer would follow last instruction and keep going or the ship would drift...

OR are we now working with the Torus Jump Drive theory, where the ships are inertialess due to the way the drive works?

They just do.
I'll leave the technobabble to someone else.

The cockpit controls includes what train drivers in the 20th century used to call a "dead man's handle".
You have to rest your elbow on it, otherwise the brakes come on automatically.

I thank you.

Or rather: the drive has such a switch.

(as the entire bridge-section is often ejected as the lifepod. )

Hmmm... in terms of my technobabble in that other thread, the drive deformation has its own elasticity. Without power to maintain the deformation, it gradually returns to its static state, where no displacement occurs.