Goal: To design a new ship that is compatible for Star Frontiers with the help of this forum. 

Rules:  I am willing to alter, change and add decks if this forum believes I’ve missed something in the design.  My drawing use real world examples and concepts to make the ship believable, but due to my drawing ability some things are represented so the floor plans can be used in a gaming setting. Remember, redesigns take time and I do have a day job.  I’m not a gear head and have been out of gaming since 1987.  Stats for this ship will be proved by members of this forum.   Such discussion should be limited until all decks have been approved by the forum.

General Information:  Due to my ability to draw the orientation of the decks don’t match the exterior drawing.  The deckplans however are in the correct orientation.  As we go through this process I’ll update the exterior to match the floorplans.  The drawings have not been cleaned up and still have their guide marks are still on them.

1.     Ground Deck:  The ground deck houses the 4 drives and landing gear.  A hatch is located at the base, in between the 4 drives, and center. This allows access to the engine monitoring systems and wiring harness.  For major repairs the hull plating must be removed to work on the engine.  The hatch to this compartment has security lock on it. This compartment is not air tight.

 

2.     Reactor Deck:  This deck contains the reactor. This deck cannot be accessed by the crew.  Repairs are done at an authorized shipyard.  At the top and bottom of the drawing is the monitoring equipment and power distribution systems.  To right and left are the heat exchangers and coolant systems for the reactor.  The reactor is in the center.  This compartment is not air tight.

3.     Engineering:  There are 2 workstations and the equipment necessary to monitoring the ship’s systems.  There are 4 batteries located here as well, which provide 20 hours of backup power (NE, NW, SE & SW locations on deck plans).  In the center of this deck is the central access shaft for the entire ship and common to all decks. Backup power is designed to keep the life support system, lighting and computers operational during times of crisis.  When the ship is on backup power only the maneuvering thruster can be used.

4.     Life Support Deck:  At the top of the picture is the computer for engineering. To the left is the air recycling system and to the right is the water recycling system.  At the bottom is a storage locker containing spare parts for the ship’s systems.  Computer room and storage locker have doors which can be locked.  There is an Iris Valve door here which separates the rest of the ship from engineering.  This door is closed at all times and can be locked if require.  The crew on the bridge can override the security lock if necessary.

Continued

5.     Aft Utility Deck:  At the top of this picture is the bot closet which contains 3 aerial drones similar to the four rotor type that are on the market today. The drones can be controlled by the workstations in the room or on the bridge through one of the two auxiliary workstations located there.  To the left and right are the aft scanner array used for navigation and planetary surveys.  At the bottom is a storage room that holds spare equipment used by the scouts.  Four maneuvering thrusters are located here as well (NE, NW, SE & SW locations on deck plans).

6.     Cargo deck: At the top and bottom of the pictures are the cargo holds. The cargo holds contain an extendable crane which lowers a pallet capable of holding 10 tons of cargo to the ground.  These pallets can be preload with equipment and switched out with easy.  Normally they are loaded with remote scientific stations and Quad type ATVs for exploration of a planet.  A loaded pallet can be lowered in winds up to 30 MPH and start swaying at 35 MPH, for every 5 MPH after that they begin to do damage to the hull. Empty pallet can be lowered in winds up to 15 MPH and start swaying at 20 MPH.  For every 5 MPH after that, they will do half the damage a loaded pallet would do.    To the left and right of the drawing are the extendable airlocks used to transfer equipment in space.  This deck is the only access point to the interior of the ship.

7.     Lab Deck: At the top is workshop that is capable of making minor repairs to the ship’s systems and equipment normally carried on board the vessel.  To the left is the science lab which can be used to study specimens brought on board the ship.  To the right is the Medlab which has two beds.  At the bottom is the meteorological, planetary cartography and stellar cartography lab.  Mounted into the hull is a very large and accurate telescope which can swivel 180 degree.  The center access is surrounded by two utility trunks for power, water, and heating.  This access truck continues through the living area of the ship.

8.     Center Utility Deck: At the top is the crew lounge. The lounge has a large flat screen monitor used to watch movies, there are bookshelves and a table for playing cards. To the NW is the weight room used to keep the crew in tip top shape.  To the NE is the Conference room used by the scientific team. To the SW is the pantry, this room is used to store food.  The room also contains a walk in freezer.  The room to the SE is the ship’s library used by the science team to do research.  At the bottom is the ship’s gallery which can seat 12 and has a full kitchen.

Continued:

9.     Crew Quarters:  8 room for the crew are located on this deck.  Each room has its own bathroom with shower and writing desk.

10.   Forward Utility Deck: Much like the Aft Utility Deck, this deck contains the forward scanner arrays and maneuvering thruster.  However, 2 rooms at the top and bottom have changed.  At the top is the Ship’s Command staff briefing room.  In this room there is a bathroom and a small kitchenette that is used by the bridge crew.  At the bottom is the ship’s main computer.

11.   Bridge:  There are 8 workstations on this deck.  Pilot, Astronavigation, Ship’s Captain, Communication officer, Engineering and Science officer each have a work station devoted to their tasks.  Two auxiliary workstations are provide as backup and perform of some of the ship’s tasks can be undertaken at these stations. The roof of this room is a glassiloy dome that allows the crew to look forward.

This is the entire ship as it stands right now.

Known Problem:  There are no weapons on this ship.  There is no access to the ground except by the cranes located on the cargo deck.  This could be viewed a a security measure since native spieces would have to climb the hull to reach the cargo deck which is technical 6 stories off the ground.  To add an entrance closer to the ground, I would need to add a deck since, I don't like the idea of goning through the reactor room and a hot engines to get to the ground in an emergency.  This would put the exit at 3 stories.

Places that need work:  I would like to put another crew deck in.  This would allow me to mount weapons and bring the crew up to 12 or 16.  I have another symbol for double bunks which would allow me to put the science team onboard.   The weight room room sucks and needs work as well.

At this point, I'm willin to entertain any thought or ideas you may have...

Changes to the ship:

I will edit the General Description on header post to reflect Jedion 357 suggestion that the ship have “atomic engines”.

While designing the Gun Deck, I went with an octagon shaped Utility trunk and tweak the Crew Deck and Center Utility Deck (Rec Deck) to match this change.

Gun Deck: At the top and bottom of this picture is the double occupancy Crew Quarters.  Just outside the door for these rooms are storage lockers for additional equipment.  To the left and right are the ball turrets, each are armed with 1 laser cannon.

My thought on the position of the gun deck:  It must be above the Cargo Deck since I have concerns about accessing to the ship.   If it is right above or below the cargo deck then the barrels of the laser could be used to block the access to the airlocks. The down side is if they are damaged then there is a grave possibility of the airlock not working.  Positioning them in front of the cargo bays would hamper the cargo crane operations.  If they are placed above the Lab Deck, then the only possibility of damage affecting important rooms on another deck would be to the science lab and the Medlab. Placing it above the Rec Deck would inflect the least about of damage to the ship but the crew losses might occur from surprise attacks. Turning the Gun Deck 90 degrees in either of these locations would cause one of the lasers to lose its ability to rotate to the rear or front because of the telescope. Without a major redesign I can only rotate the Center Utility Deck 90 degrees.

Center Utility Deck:  I cleaned up this deck.  I have changes the lounge which now has two entrances, cleaned up the Library, Pantry, Weight Room, and added octagon utility trunk.

Crew Deck:  Outside the addition of the octagon utility trunk, I have created three versions of this deck which will raise the number of crew on this deck from 8, 12, and 14.   With the 8 crew members on the gun deck, the crew for this ship could be anywhere from 16, 20 or 22 depending on your input.