- Joined
- 30 Mar 2008
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- Age
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I thought that if I were going to keep making models then I may as well make a thread for them. So here is my latest work, originally intended for the STO competition which I'm unfortunately not able to enter being from sunny ol' England and not the US of A. But anyway, here was my thinking:
Conventional wisdom had seen ships in the fleet get larger as time progressed. The theory was simple - the larger the ship, the more supplies/fuel/equipment can be stored on board. This made the ship more flexible, able to complete a wider variety of tasks, and undertake longer term missions.
The downsides to this are that a larger ship takes longer to construct. Also, the more complicated the ship is (owing to its multi-role nature) the more complicated the task of refit and/or repair.
This is important, because technology is always progressing. The Galaxy class was once considered the pinical of starship design, it was the largest and most versatle ship ever produced owing to its size and capabilities, and had a life expectancy of 100 years. However, technology marched on, and after only ten years many of the technologies making up the Galaxy class were obsolete, and needed upgrading. Whilst these upgrades were successfully implimented, they took a great deal of time and resources to accomplish.
Another important aspect to consider is role. The fleet has always aspired to the role of peaceful exploration and missions of diplomacy, however on far too many occassions the fleet has had to revert to a combat role. During combat engagements, large, multi-role ships have not always been as successful as may have been hoped, and when damaged they take time to repair or replace. As such, during wartime situations the fleet has expanded the availability of small combat ships - but conversly these are of little use during peace time ops.
The new concept sees ships that are designed to be easily re-rolable and refittable through the use of a common modular design. These would not be the size of the Galaxy class, but closer to that of the Ambassador. Combined with a modern warp drive this allows long range exploration missions whilst allowing refit at a wider variety of space docks.
The XXX class (again, I'm stumped for a name
) consists of a traditional saucer-two-nacelled stardrive configuration. The saucer can seperate to allow for greater operational flexibility.
The saucer section is made up of five interlocking segments mated by a common shell. The shell contains essential ship facilities that cannot be made modular, including the bridge module, impulse engines, weapons systems, auxilary power generation, stardrive docking connections, and the primary shuttlebay. The five segments are built to conform with a common mating interface. These segments can be designed to fulfil any role as long as they conform to the required interface, and can be mixed as the mission requires. Possible segment options include:
Extended Operations Module - includes expanded quarters and supply storage intended for long range exploration and diplomatic functions (image is of type in full diplomatic configuration).
Science Module - includeds enhanced scientific facilities, including additional external sensor arrays (image is of type in standard scientific configuration).
Combat module - includes two additional phasor arrays and associated power generation equipment to provide additional combat redundancy (image is of type in full combat configuration).
Propulsion Module - This is a double module that includes a small scale (but complete) warp drive system. Two of these modules are required on the saucer to create a symmetrical warp field. The system is also not optimised for efficiency and allows the saucer section to attain a maximum safe speed of warp 6 (image not yet available
)
Auxillary craft Module - This module contains a self-contained shuttlebay allowing for expanded EVA operations, including fighter operations if required (image is of type in combat carrier configuration).
The Stardrive section follows a more conventional system of ship design. It is designed to be capable of acting independantly of the saucer section and thus contains the following systems:
Secondary bridge module
impulse engines
warp drive
weapons systems
primary power generation,
saucer docking connections
the secondary shuttlebay
Primary and secondary deflectors
Whilst the stardrive section is not a segmented design like the saucer module, it is designed to be easily upgradable. The best example of this is the inclusion of secondary deflector arrays. Whilst the arrays are not strictly necessary for current operation, they have been included to allow easy installation of slipstream drive once the technology has been perfected.
Further images will be forthcoming soon (net connection permitting), and possibly some specs too if I get round to it.
Conventional wisdom had seen ships in the fleet get larger as time progressed. The theory was simple - the larger the ship, the more supplies/fuel/equipment can be stored on board. This made the ship more flexible, able to complete a wider variety of tasks, and undertake longer term missions.
The downsides to this are that a larger ship takes longer to construct. Also, the more complicated the ship is (owing to its multi-role nature) the more complicated the task of refit and/or repair.
This is important, because technology is always progressing. The Galaxy class was once considered the pinical of starship design, it was the largest and most versatle ship ever produced owing to its size and capabilities, and had a life expectancy of 100 years. However, technology marched on, and after only ten years many of the technologies making up the Galaxy class were obsolete, and needed upgrading. Whilst these upgrades were successfully implimented, they took a great deal of time and resources to accomplish.
Another important aspect to consider is role. The fleet has always aspired to the role of peaceful exploration and missions of diplomacy, however on far too many occassions the fleet has had to revert to a combat role. During combat engagements, large, multi-role ships have not always been as successful as may have been hoped, and when damaged they take time to repair or replace. As such, during wartime situations the fleet has expanded the availability of small combat ships - but conversly these are of little use during peace time ops.
The new concept sees ships that are designed to be easily re-rolable and refittable through the use of a common modular design. These would not be the size of the Galaxy class, but closer to that of the Ambassador. Combined with a modern warp drive this allows long range exploration missions whilst allowing refit at a wider variety of space docks.
The XXX class (again, I'm stumped for a name
) consists of a traditional saucer-two-nacelled stardrive configuration. The saucer can seperate to allow for greater operational flexibility.The saucer section is made up of five interlocking segments mated by a common shell. The shell contains essential ship facilities that cannot be made modular, including the bridge module, impulse engines, weapons systems, auxilary power generation, stardrive docking connections, and the primary shuttlebay. The five segments are built to conform with a common mating interface. These segments can be designed to fulfil any role as long as they conform to the required interface, and can be mixed as the mission requires. Possible segment options include:
Extended Operations Module - includes expanded quarters and supply storage intended for long range exploration and diplomatic functions (image is of type in full diplomatic configuration).
Science Module - includeds enhanced scientific facilities, including additional external sensor arrays (image is of type in standard scientific configuration).
Combat module - includes two additional phasor arrays and associated power generation equipment to provide additional combat redundancy (image is of type in full combat configuration).
Propulsion Module - This is a double module that includes a small scale (but complete) warp drive system. Two of these modules are required on the saucer to create a symmetrical warp field. The system is also not optimised for efficiency and allows the saucer section to attain a maximum safe speed of warp 6 (image not yet available
)Auxillary craft Module - This module contains a self-contained shuttlebay allowing for expanded EVA operations, including fighter operations if required (image is of type in combat carrier configuration).
The Stardrive section follows a more conventional system of ship design. It is designed to be capable of acting independantly of the saucer section and thus contains the following systems:
Secondary bridge module
impulse engines
warp drive
weapons systems
primary power generation,
saucer docking connections
the secondary shuttlebay
Primary and secondary deflectors
Whilst the stardrive section is not a segmented design like the saucer module, it is designed to be easily upgradable. The best example of this is the inclusion of secondary deflector arrays. Whilst the arrays are not strictly necessary for current operation, they have been included to allow easy installation of slipstream drive once the technology has been perfected.
Further images will be forthcoming soon (net connection permitting), and possibly some specs too if I get round to it.
.
