Snow Cats (Under construction)

by Tom Verreault

A Vehicle Report

The snow cat tracked vehicles for Star Frontiers were designed to handle soft terrain and are ideal for snow and marshy ground. The treads and wheels are often made of rubber or aluminum and the overall construction is geared toward reducing weight. The cabs are sealed against environmental extremes and hazards. Life support and environmental controls are standard.

There are three basic sizes: personal (1-2 occupants), car body (4-6 occupants), and truck body (6-12 occupants). The vehicle descriptions list range, which is an estimation of their range with a full parabattery. Some vehicles are further modified to carry an extra parabattery and the truck body can have a generator added in order to extend their range.

Snow Lynx

The Snow Lynx is cramped inside but well insulated such that its environmental systems don’t drain much energy and reduce it range. The body style is an enclosed cab with one door.

Snow Puma

The Snow Puma’s environmental systems have an impact on the puma’s range. It only travels 900 km with its parabattery. The body style of the puma is 4 passenger doors and a hatch to the cargo compartment.

Snow Lion

The Snow Lion’s environmental systems have more to regulate as the entire cargo areas is usually given over to living and work areas for the crew. If the Snow Lion is just a truck cab and cargo areas where the cargo area is not environmentally regulated then reduce passengers to 3 and extend range to 1800 km. Most Snow Lions come with an open interior with space used for living and working. It will usually have one door on each side of the vehicle and a roof hatch. Occasionally some have a small walled off compartment at the very back with a generator and fuel to recharge the parabattery on extended expeditions.