Archipelago Class

Design by Robert Heckadon

Type: Antimatter refinery
First commissioned: 2229
Length: 197m
Width: 45m
Height: 127m
Decks: 22
Complement: 35 officers + 215 crew
Armament: 2 - 20 megawatt; 120 megavolt phase modulated hyper-electron particle beam discharge canons; AKA laser cannons
Defense: Magnetic shields; cast rodinium shields
Embarked craft: Personnel shuttles

“You can settle for less in ordinary life, or do you feel you were meant for something better? Something special.” - Captain Christopher Pike

The Archipelago class is an antimatter fuel refinery built to replace the aging Arrakis class refinery first built in the late 21st century. To generate antimatter, the space station uses a quantum charge reversal device to replace the 470 megavolt electron fusion and verteron catalyst techniques used on Arrakis. The 40 metre long, 15 metre diameter unit located in the refinery section on the upper hull reverses the quantum charge of hydrogen. Replacing the positive charge in the nucleus with a negative charge found in electrons. The unit is capable of generating 7.2 cubic units of antimatter per hour.

The antimatter is stored in 16 detachable storage bottles on either side of the refinery section. In the event of a breakdown of the bottle’s magnetic shield, standard procedure calls for transferring the antimatter into an empty bottle and allowing the defective bottle to be repaired. If the breakdown is eminent, the bottle can be ejected and propelled away by rockets on the bottle before the shielding breakdown. In the event of a catastrophic failure of the entire antimatter system, the habitat section located below the refinery separates from the refinery and escapes using an antiproton enhanced impulse engine.

Altogether, the Archipelago class is powered by solar energy. 2 pairs of photovoltaic collectors (solar panels) over the refinery section collects photonic energy from the sun to power the station’s life support systems, artificial gravity, and other primary systems. The refinery systems is fuelled by plasma energy expelled from the sun.

The Archipelago class collects the plasma with a modified Bussard ramscoop and stores them in a fuel cell, inspired by the Xindi fuel refineries. Spears on the solar collectors gathers the electrons expelled from the sun through electrostatic attraction. When the electrons through the spikes flows towards the fuel cell, they generate electric current. When the electrons reaches the fuel cell, they de-ionize the plasma release photoelectric energy.

The de-ionized fuel is then vented at the back of the refinery module. The pressure of the venting then spins a series of turbines to generate additional power for the antimatter generator. Since the amount of energy released from plasma fuel cells is only 5 times greater than hydrogen fuel cells, the station collects and processes an average of 20 times its volume of solar plasma per minute. This also requires the space station’s orbit to be relatively close to its star.

Rather than using an external heat exchanger to cool the station, the Archipelago class uses a series of internal heat exchangers to remove the heat generated by both the sun, power generators and other sources and transfers them to the plasma venting system which heats up the de-ionized plasma, increasing the pressure to generate more power from the venting system. Though the added thermal energy to the venting releases barely enough to power the heat exchangers, it is enough to keep the space station cool.

Based upon the hybrid lights of the 21st century, a series of parabolic mirrors focuses the sun’s light into a series of optical cables which distributes the sun’s light throughout the station. Concave mirrors on the habitat section focuses the sun’s light directly into the station’s greenhouse, which recycles the station’s air and produces food.

With the high value of antimatter, the refinery is defended by a pair of 20 megawatt, 120 megavolt phase modulated hyper-electron particle beam discharge cannons, commonly known as laser cannons, on the habitat section. The lasers uses 120 megavolts to accelerate electrons so close to the speed of light, their mass increases by 234 times due to relative physics, thereby increasing the kinetic energy level of the particle beam. The electrons are then designated as hyper-electrons. Though much of the damage is caused by the physical impact of the particle beam, secondary damage is caused by the deceleration of the electrons from the impact releasing their kinetic energy storage in the form of a coherent beam of X-rays, or an X-ray laser from which the particle cannon’s common name is derived from.

Though an electron beam can be diverted by a magnetic field, the amount they are deflected is largely based upon the both the momentum of the particle beam and the intensity of the magnetic field. The station’s plasma collectors protects the habitat section from intense radiation from the star.

The station is protected by a powerful magnetic shield for plasma based weapons and cast rodinium shields for other particle weapons and projectiles. Power for the shields and weapons comes from a single nuclear fusion reactor in the habitat section.

The space station’s appearance has changed over many decades through refit and commissioning of new refineries, but the overall design remains the same and retaining the class name of Archipelago. Many of the changes ranges from replacing the laser canons with phasers, ramscoop design, and so forth. During the Dominion War, these stations have been targeted by the Jem’Hadar to cripple the Federation. With the war over, only 27% of these stations survived and are among the highest priority list for rebuilding. And during that time, the Rigel Iota antimatter fuel refinery was built in a secured location in orbit around Rigel to supplement the antimatter supply until the restoration is completed. The rebuilding of these stations were further hampered by the Borg’s blitzkrieg in 2381.

Emory Erickson Class

Design by Robert Heckadon

Type: Transporter station
First commissioned: 2257
Length: 183m
Width: 178m
Height: 1258m
Decks: 16
Displacement: 225000t
Complement: 82 officers + 518 crew, evacuation limit: 3000
Defense: Cosmic ray magnetic shields
Embarked craft: Docking shuttles

“The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.” - Mark Russell

In the second quarter of the 22nd century, Emory Erickson built Earth’s first teleportation device simply referred to as the molecular transporter. In 2257, the first Emory Erickson class transporter station was commissioned.

The Emory Erickson class station is a Starfleet built, civilian operated transporter station used to beam people from one point on the Earth and then beams them onto another point on the Earth. The space station is used by business persons, vacationers, archaeologists and scientists, and people who simply live on one part of the Earth and work on another part. The space station is also used to transport cargo and goods from different points on the Earth, as well as dedicated site-to-site transporters for emergency situations. People even uses the space station just for the purpose of spending a few hours in orbit to see their planet below.

The Emory Erickson class doesn’t just use the standard 6-person transporter chambers, but multiperson chambers similar to the 22-person escape transporters used on the Constitution class. These range from 10 person to 25 person transporter chambers. As people are beamed up all a mass to the space station, they individually move to another transporter to beam them down to their destination. This is because that though they may have the same starting point, their destination are quite often different. As well as though the people have the same destination, their starting points are also quite often different.

Within the station, though the station contains turbo lifts that can transfer people to certain parts of the station, they are incapable of mass transit within the station. And so the station uses escalators for the travellers to transfer from one transport deck to another.

With the amount of power used by one, 6-person transporter, the Emory Erickson uses 120, 1098 square metre photoelectric panels to allow the transporters to be powered by solar energy. The number of solar panels on the Emory Erickson class is considered heavy for a space station of its size classification. The solar panels rotate on the station’s axis to keep the collectors facing the sun continuously. During the 40 minutes the space station falls under the shadow of the Earth cutting off its solar energy, the space station is then powered by 5 rechargeable plasma fuel cells. To reduce the power loads on the space station, normally no more than 5 transporters are used simultaneously, and a delay of at least 30 seconds from the completion of one transport activity to the activation of another transporter to allow time for the space station to recharge. The space station uses a matter stream transmitter/receiver array, pointed at the Earth, to beam people to and from the Earth.

Aside from deck separations, the internal coordinates of the space station are colour coded, based upon an native North America medicine wheel, for increased ease of finding their way around the space station. Yellow for east, red for south, black for west, and white for north. The station’s running lights are arranged in the same way, only with blue replacing black for visibility on space. Since the space station orbits the Earth from west to east, for a person to is travelling west, they are beamed up by an Emory Erickson station west of the departure points location, and transports them west. The Emory Erickson class orbits the Earth at a distance of approximately 6400 km over the surface of the Earth. At this orbit, it takes the space station only 4 hours to complete one orbit.

Since transporters require line of sight transmission, this gives the Emory Erickson class a maximum range of just over 11000 km, even with the transporters having a standard maximum range of nearly 25000 km. This is because the transporters cannot beam through solid rock more than 1 km thick, and therefore cannot beam through the Earth. But even then, this allows the space station to beam anyone in a 140 million square kilometre area on the Earth, out of over 500 million square kilometre area on Earth, including the ocean areas.

Critics have asked why not use a transporter relay satellite in orbit instead of an actual space station? The concept of a transporter relay satellite was deemed far too risky and dangerous, and with a projection of a fatality rate of at best 87%, with about 12% with significant deformities.

Critics have said that the Emory Erickson class station is unnecessary cause most orbiting space stations, including kilometre long space docks, have transporters and thus the population can use those transporters instead. Ironically the Emory Erickson class was developed because of the critics who question Starfleet’s status. As well, the space station’s transporters cannot handle continuous use, nor the mass transport. As well the power requirements would be staggering to the space station.

Critics had a field day with a condition known as transporter psychosis, which was first diagnosed in 2209 on Delinia 2. Transporter psychosis affects the body’s motor functions, autonomic systems and the higher reasoning centres of the brain. And critics maintained that routine use of the transporter would only escalate the damage. However even with heavy transporter usage, only 1 in 20 million people are susceptible to transporter psychosis. And with early detection and prevention kept the number of cases down to a minimum.

In 2322, the Emory Erickson class were replaced with manned site-to-site transporter stations for more flexible teleportation transits.

Although many studies had been produced by Starfleet’s Advanced Starship Design Bureau over the years for potential missions for small, stealthy, torpedo-armed spacecraft, up to the 2240s reactor limitations had prevented the realization of these theoretical studies. Once such reactors became, Starfleet decided to test the space fighter concept, with a new "through-deck cruiser" design chosen for development as a base ship.

Initial authorisation was for three ships only (in keeping with the class’ role as a proof-of-concept testbed), making use as far as possible of the tooling and dockyard facilities developed as part of the Constitution-class starship development project. The first ship of the new class, USS Illustrious, NX-1760, launching from the San Francisco Orbital Yards in late 2248.

The main feature of the Illustrious-class is her long, capacious hanger deck. A half-cylinder in cross-section, the deck stretches the length of the ship, resting for much of its length along the dorsal surface of the primary hull, with large hanger bay doors at fore and aft. The deck is unobstructed along its length, allowing embarking craft to "wave-off" a hazardous approach and "abort-to-space" by flying straight through the ship to egress through the bow doors.

The ship's primary hull features a large ventral 'bulge' containing hanger and repair facilities for an air-wing of up to 15 fighters and other auxiliary spacecraft, as well as sufficient munitions and fuel for a nominal tour-of-duty of up to 2 years un-replenished, or 10 weeks of intensive (wartime) operations.

The warp reactor was also housed in the bulge, feeding two nacelles. In addition to her pioneering role as a space carrier, Illustrious also had the distinction of being the first ship to be fitted with the up-rated unified-field space energy/matter matrix warp nacelles, which would be retro-fitted to the Constitution-class in the 2250s. Her impulse engines were located at the rear of the primary hull, split either side of the landing deck.

Initial trials of the Illustrious-class were promising, with the ships exceeding almost all of their original performance requirements, and demonstrating an unprecedented ability to support large numbers of auxiliary spacecraft sorties. Illustrious, Concordia, and Pegasus were all commissioned into active service in the early 2250s, and were well-liked by their crews. Unfortunately, the weak link in the concept proved to be the fighters.

Illustrious’ initial air wing had consisted of 15 "Sparrowhawk" star-fighters. Little more than a modification of Starfleet's standard two-person shuttle-pod of the time, the Sparrowhawk was designed to attack over ranges of a few light-years at warp 5 or better, mounting six modified photon torpedoes and a single forward-facing phaser. It quickly became apparent that they were underpowered and under-armed for a space-to-space engagement against enemy warships, and also proved terribly vulnerable to beam weapons, with their compact shield generators unable to withstand more than a few seconds of fire from a cruiser-class ship. They did perform better against ground targets, where their small size and ability to operate in an atmosphere enabled them to sneak up on enemy facilities, flying beneath any anti-starship defences that might be deployed to hit the target with a hypersonic pass. However, this type of engagement was not widely undertaken by Starfleet, and the limited requirement that did exist could easily be met by the three hulls already in service. Therefore Starfleet decided against procuring more ships of the Illustrious-class.

With the failure of the Sparrowhawk, Starfleet largely abandoned the "space carrier" concept after this point, preferring to concentrate resources on a succession of powerful multi-role cruisers that were equally adept at defence and scientific missions.

The Illustrious-class were retired from Starfleet in 2295 and sold into civilian service as freighters. The final surviving ship, SS Coridan Star (ex-USS Pegasus, NCC-1762), was finally scrapped at Vulcan in 2361.

Kaneda Class

Design by M. Christopher Freeman

Type: Destroyer
First commissioned: 2204
Length: 252m
Width: 132m
Height: 53m
Decks: 14
Displacement: 680000t
Complement: 30 officers + 180 crew
Speed: Warp 5 (cruise), Warp 7 (max.), Warp 8.5 (max. emergency)
Sublight speed: 0.5c (max.)
Armament: 2 dual-mounted dilithium-focused laser cannon banks (1 forward dorsal, 1 forward ventral), 2 single-mounted dilithium-focused laser cannons (1 portside aft, 1 starboard aft), 2 photon torpedo tubes (forward ventral side)
Defense: Deflector shield array
Embarked craft: 6 Type-D3 shuttlecraft

Development notes A fleet workhorse of the early 23rd century, the Kaneda class destroyer was designed and built as a small, fast, escort vessel for larger ships or for use in Starfleet battle groups. But also due to its speed and size it was ideal for scout or picket missions.

Though mostly assembled from tested and well-established Starfleet parts and design standards of the time, the Kaneda class had a couple of features that were considered revolutionary; the warp core output injectors and the first field ready dilithium-focused laser cannons. Warp core output injectors – a later version of the NX class warp core output transfer junctions – along the twin engine fairings were designed to constrict and accelerate the plasma flow coming from the warp core to increase the efficiency of the drive. In field tests it was also found that they allowed the engineering team on board much more control over the regulation of the plasma flow.

Kaneda was the first Starfleet vessel armed with dilithium-focused laser cannons. These lasers use a polished dilithium crystal to refocus and amplify the beam fired from a standard high-energy laser. The amplification creates a much more powerful beam than previously used before the advent of plasma and early phased energy weapons. Early tests showed dilithium to be too unstable when exposed to laser light but it was discovered that by modulating the frequency of the laser at very specific wavelengths a stable beam could be established through the dilithium crystal matrix. These lasers replaced the standard phase cannons of previous ships. This technology would be adapted and used for all Starfleet beam weapons until they were eclipsed by the phaser, an evolutionary merging of the early phase weapon technology and the dilithium-focused laser.

Kaneda class vessels served in Starfleet until 2265.

Lineage of the Kandea class The Kaneda class had an initial construction run of 13 ships. The space frame was designed to last upward of 35 years (or more), and expected to be refit at least once. The last surviving Kaneda class vessels, the U.S.S. Watanabe, U.S.S. Kaori, and U.S.S. Yamagata, were decommissioned in 2265.
NCC-366, U.S.S. KANEDA (2204)
NCC-367, U.S.S. TETSUO (2205)
NCC-368, U.S.S. AKIRA (2205)
NCC-371, U.S.S. KIYOKO (2207)
NCC-373, U.S.S. MASARU (2208, refitted 2212)
NCC-378, U.S.S. TAKACHI (2210, refitted 2220)
NCC-379, U.S.S. KEI (2210, refitted 2220)
NCC-385, U.S.S. RYUSAKU (Kaneda II, 2213)
NCC-387, U.S.S. MIYAKO (Kaneda II, 2213)
NCC-390, U.S.S. WATANABE (Kaneda II, 2217)
NCC-399, U.S.S. NEZU (Kaneda II, 2219)
NCC-402, U.S.S. KAORI (Kaneda II, 2223)
NCC-403, U.S.S. YAMAGATA (Kaneda II, 2224)

Designer's notes The Kaneda is a play on the Akira class, a design which I really like. It started as a funny little distraction to kill time in a very strange temporary living situation after I'd evacuated from New Orleans preceding Hurricane Katrina. For anyone not familiar with the movie Akira, for which the Akira class takes its name, Kaneda is Tetsuo/Akira's best friend. The Kaneda class symbol on the mission patch is a stylized version of the pill image on the back of Kaneda's jacket.

Khams Class

Design by James Donovan

Type: Light cruiser
10 vessels built
In service: 2221-2266
Length: 260m
Beam: 162m
Height: 35m
Decks: 10
Mass: 145,000mt
Speed: Warp 6 (std.)

No description

Kobayashi Maru

First design by Harry, ASDB Member
Second design by Kris, ASDB Member

Type: Class III neutron fuel carrier
Registry: Amber, Tau Ceti IV
Master: Kojiro Yance
Crew: 81
Passengers: 300
Dead weight: 147,943t
Cargo cap.: 97,000t
Length: 237m
Beam: 111m
Height: 70m
Max cruise speed: Warp 3
Max emergency: Warp 6

The famous Kobayashi Maru from "Star Trek II" was never seen on screen (at least not in the Prime Universe), although we may assume the ship exists. It is probably not a Starfleet vessel, but a private-owned tanker. The specs are taken from the movie, the design is a modification of a drawing by Roger Sorensen (later published in Jackill's Starfleet Reference Manual, Vol. III). The Shiku Maru, mentioned in TNG: "Darmok", may be of the same design.

Kubrick Class

Design by Robert Heckadon

Type: Mobile observatory
First commissioned: Stardate 6122.5
Length: 271m
Width: 140m
Height: 80m
Decks: 19
Displacement: 1100000t
Complement: 35 officers + 215 crew, evacuation limit: 200
Speed: Warp 6 (cruise), Warp 8 (max.), Warp 8.5 (max. emergency)
Sublight speed: 0.2c (max.)
Armament: 4 paired phased proton canons, 4 photon torpedo launchers
Defense: Cast rodinium shields
Embarked craft: Standard shuttlecrafts

“Someday, the children of the new sun will meet the children of the old. I think they will be our friends.” - Dr. Heywood Floyd

The Milky Way galaxy, home to 400 billion stars. So fast that if a ship were able to travel instantly from one star system to another and remain in that system for only 1 second, it would take over 12000 years to visit every single star in the galaxy. To coordinate the mission of exploration and maximize resources, Starfleet uses as its tool, the Kubrick class starship.

The Kubrick class is a mobile observatory that travels through space and scans the cosmos at different vantage points with incredible detail. The ship scans the cosmos with an observatory nacelle located atop of the ship. Aside from stellar phenomenon and oddities, the Kubrick class typically scans for water and M-class environments, valuable minerals and resources such as dilithium, and most importantly radio and subspace radio signals that typically indicates the presences of intelligent life. They then send their findings to Starfleet Command who then sends a ship for a more detailed analysis.

The Kubrick class explores Earth’s constellations, traveling to the stars in those constellations as seen from Earth. Meaning if a ship were exploring the constellation of Ursa Major, also known as the Big Dipper, then the ship travels to the stars that make up the Big Dipper from nearest to Earth to farthest from Earth. With the exception of the prototype ship, the USS Kubrick, the Kubrick class ships are named after Earth’s constellation, and those ships explore the constellations that they are named after. The USS Ursa Major explores the constellation of Ursa Major.

Though having enough room for more than 400 people, the ship has a crew complement of 250. This is because that though it has the same range as the Constitution class starship, but it has less opportunities to reach a safe harbour and layover. The added space is then used for more spare parts, fuel, extra room for crew privacy, and a larger oxygen and vegetable gardens than those used on most starships. As well as room for a nursery, based upon the boomer ships of the 21st and 22nd centuries. Though structurally capable, the ship is not designed for long term combat.

The mobile observatory concept was first tested out with after the death of Admiral Rittenhouse and his failed attempt to take over the Federation with the Star Empire, Starfleet’s first Federation class dreadnought. To ease public concerns, the remaining dreadnoughts which were largely completed were then heavily refitted with the removal of most of its heavy artilleries, and the replacement of its tertiary nacelle with an observation module. But with the Federation class coming under fire from the public and critics even after the refit, Starfleet decided it was best to build a whole new ship, and then commissioned the Kubrick class, named after Stanley Kubrick, the director of the space epic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

These ships were then replaced with the newer Constellation class starships.

To Arthur C. Clarke, best of hopes to you in your final journey.

Somalia Class

Design by Robert Heckadon

Type: Famine relief station
First commissioned: 2251
Length: 451m
Width: 391m
Height: 206m
Decks: 65
Complement: 50 officers + 450 crew
Armament: 12 phasers, 2 photon torpedo launchers
Defense: Level 7 deflector shields.
Embarked craft: 7-person shuttles and cargo shuttles

“We don’t need another hero.” - Tina Turner

Even in the 23rd century, where poverty, disease and war on Earth became all but extinct for over 150 years, ravaged by global wars or massive natural disasters, famine still exists on other planets in the galaxy. In order to feed 100 million people, it would require over 50,000 metric tonnes of food per day, depending on species. Rather than sending in large scale shipments of food to the starving planets, it was deemed better for both security and economic reasons to have a space station orbit the planet to feed the starving millions below. In 2251, the first of 10 famine relief stations were built.

As with many deep space outposts, the retro looking space stations were based upon the Space Island Projects prior to the Eugenics wars. The famine relief stations were constructed well within Federation space and transported by tug ships to bring them to the planet and assembled. And later disassembled when the mission is over. The station is composed of 3 modules. The vertical module is the stations command module. It is here where the command centre, living quarters, personal transporters, primary life support, and primary solar collectors are located. The 2 horizontal modules are the manufacturing facilities were food is made and water is recycled.

Even if significant bodies of water are available, during a famine, the water is usually undrinkable cause of bacteria, biohazardous material, and other pollutants. After being beamed up, fresh water is extracted by electrolysis. Breaking water down into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen and oxygen are then reformed into distilled water in fuel cells that also provides additional energy to the electrolysis systems. Thereby saving energy for transporters and food processors. The remaining material is then sterilized by intense X-rays, and separated into organic and non-organic groups. The organic now sterilized are then sent to the food processing areas of the module while the non-organic are then recycled on spot.

The stations manufactures food by first of all, searching and gathering dead or expendable bio-matter, such as grass clippings, twigs and dead leaves, from the surface of the planet. Then this bio-matter is beamed up to the station where they are non-chemically converted into foodstuff using protein resequencers, and beamed back down to the surface to feed the millions. Protein resequencers can manufacture many forms of fruits, vegetables, meat, nuts and so forth depending on the diet of the species. But due to lack of time and power, everyone receives the same food at each delivery, and often adds some variety to the meals.

Due to strict environmental regulations, the planet below must have a stable ecosystem and expendable bio-matter, since the station is not capable of generating bio-matter, just converting it into foodstuff. Since methods such as mass deforestation is not an option. That would cause more harm in the long run. Starships and space stations uses hydroponics and chemosynthesis to generate food stuff and oxygen. But in order to generate that much for millions, nearly a dozen space stations are required, along with an enormous solar array to power the transporters to beam up the tonnes of water and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This is one of the reasons why the space station wasn’t used on Earth colony Cygnia Minor when it was threatened with famine in 2266.

One of the reasons why a space station is a better choice is because of security. Large scale shipments of food can be intercepted by aliens, rogue governments, or pirate that may benefit from the starving populations. Even on a humanitarian mission, the station is heavily armed and shielded, almost equivalent to a Constitution class starship, to protect itself. And the station also is more economically viable for savings on fuel and transportation costs.

The station has been labelled as being very cramped and uncomfortable. Often averaging one toilet for every 5 crew members and 1 shower for every 10. But often that is one more shower and toilet more than what the famine victims have. Finding crews for the stations surprisingly has not been a problem with many of them being from organizations outside of Starfleet. This include the Kir’Shara group of Vulcan, the Vaz’Xolraz of Denobula, and UNICEF of Earth.

Critics have questioned as to why keep the space station in orbit instead of putting the facilities on the ground. One reason is also a security issue, terrorism. Though a high 90%, often reaching 99%, are grateful for having a meal and drinking water, there is a small percentage that views the Federation with suspicion. And a few extremists willing to allow their people to die of starvation instead of having them “roll over and play dead” for the Federation.

Another reason is access to bio-matter. If one side of a planet whose economy and ecology has collapsed, while the other side of the planet has more then enough bio-matter to sustain them, it makes more sense for a space station to orbit a planet every 2 hours, depending on the size and conditions of the planet, to beam up the material while the station is overhead and beam down the food that has been process while over the population, rather than using up resources and time to shuttle bio-matter from one side of the planet to the other.

The station can synthesise many common pharmaceuticals ranging from Hyronalin, an anti-radiation medicine, to Retnax 5, a common eye-lens softener for the treatment of Presbyopia. Which can be grown in the station’s limited hydroponics bays.

Over their 150 year life span, the space stations were upgraded on a routine basis. Replacing the old protein resequencers with replicators, and adding on a holodeck for the exhausted crew members.

Prior to the Dominion war, the famine relief stations have only seen action once. A rogue Klingon D7 battle cruiser attacked the station and was destroyed by a standard patrol ship that are constantly seen with the stations. However, during the Dominion wars, 5 of these 10 stations were attacked and destroyed. Now the wars are over, Starfleet is not only replacing the 5 destroyed stations, but are also building 10 more to combat the aftermath of the war.

http://www.beyondtomorrow.com.au/stories/ep31/babyboomer.html 
http://www.spaceislandgroup.com/home.html 
http://www.unicef.org/ 
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/nemo/explorer/concepts/chemosynthesis.html 

Space Island Class

Design by Robert Heckadon

Type: Peace keeping starbase
First commissioned: 2241
Length: 459m
Width: 658m
Height: 330m
Decks: 83
Displacement: 2100000t
Complement: 125 officers + 1125 crew, evacuation limit: 6000
Speed: Warp (cruise), Warp (max.), Warp (max. emergency)
Sublight speed: 0.001c (max.)
Armament: 12 phasers, 2 banks each; 4 photon torpedo launchers, 250 photon torpedoes.
Defense: Cast rodinium shields, magnetic radiation shields
Embarked craft: 10 standard shuttles, 4 cargo shuttles

“For he is a man who can stop the world from blowing up, but it is up to the people to keep the world from blowing up.” - Why The World Needs Superman by Lois Lane

In the early to mid 21st century, the Space Island Project used the external fuel tanks of space shuttles to construct relatively large scale space stations in Earth’s orbit. In the mid 23rd century, this concept of a new class of fully manned space stations that are needed to stabilize a region of space, but the region of space is deemed too unstable to risk a fully manned space station. Thus enter the Space Island class starbase.

First introduced in 2241, the Space Island class is a modular space station designed to stabilize a region of space by giving different worlds a place to work out their differences peacefully. Aside for being a home for 1250 officers and crew, and over 1000 diplomats, businesspersons, and explorers, it is designed to be transported in separate modules by standard tug/transport ships and assembled within a matter of days. And in the event that the situation goes so critical that it is totally unsafe for a Starfleet presence, the space station can be disassembled and returned to Federation space in a matter of days.

The Space Island class is divided up into 12 modules, which are constructed safely in Federation space and transported to their destination outside of Federation space by standard tug/transport ships, including the Ptolemy class, Sachsahuaman class and Fisher class transport ships. Once there, they only require as little as 6 days to set up the starbase. Assembling the modules into the space station takes only 24 to 48 hours, often averaging 37.7 hours. And the remainder of the 6 days is spent bringing the station’s 2 matter/antimatter reactors online, full diagnostics of all key systems, crew orientation, current situation analysis, and the installation of the station's solar collectors.

In the event that the political situation deteriorates beyond recovery, the station can be disassembled and returned to Federation space in only a matter of days, while only sacrificing the station's solar collectors. To this date, this has yet to happen. Though there have been incidences of these space stations being in combat.

The stations modules are based upon the 200 metre long, 40 metre diameter transport containers for both the ease of construction and transportation of the disassembled space station. The station has 12 modules, 1 command module, 1 engineering module, 2 service modules, and 8 habitat modules.

The command module is essentially the heart of the whole station. Along with the main command centre located at the top, the command module houses offices and administrative support, tactical stations and situation analysis, as well as meeting rooms for commercial and political negotiations. And as expected, more than half of the profanity usage on the station occurs here. The engineering module houses the matter/antimatter reactors and the fuel, as well as the power and system control rooms. Before the journey, the engineering module is attached to the command module on the bottom for easier transit and reduced assembly time. The stations solar collectors are attached to the bottom of the station, and they require special transport. The 2 service modules, which extends on either side of the command module, contains the station’s shuttle bays, cargo holds, fabrication centres, recycling and the primary artillery. The station’s total firepower is listed as being over 3 times that of a Constitution class starship. The 8 habitat modules, 4 on each of the service modules, provides living quarters and suites for the guests, crew, and general population. They also contain entertainment and recreation for the entire population of the station. Starship docking ports are located on the habitat modules.

After a region of space has been stabilized, the Space Island class then coordinates the set up of refuelling stations and other space stations in the region, then coordinates the construction of larger starbases, including the Watchtower class, in other star systems in the region of space.

The Space Island class has also inspired other modular, transportable space stations including the Somalia class famine relief station, the Arthur C. Clarke science station, and Deep Space 1. Critics have stated that the Watchtower class starbase, like Starbase 47, Vanguard Station, is more suited for the task of stabilizing a region of space. However the political situation can change drastically within a matter of weeks, and it takes about 4 years to properly build a Watchtower class starbase, and 2 years if it were rushed.

The number of new Space Island class space stations dropped drastically when Excelsior class starships became as much of a frequent site as the Constitution and Enterprise class use to be. And the numbers finally ceased with the introduction of the Ambassador class starship.

Notes Since the solar collectors can pivot a full 360 degrees on the X and Y axis, the dimension of the space station are with the solar collectors perpendicular to the service modules, and parallel to the command module for maximum XYZ dimensions of the space station.

Designer's note This space station is free for anyone for non-commercial use, including fan sites, fan fictions and so forth. Commercial use requires permission.

The Vega-class was developed to fill the gap in Starfleet capabilities between the Constitution-class cruiser and the Saladin-class destroyer. Its primary role was intended to be as a follow-up to initial explorations made by the Constitutions, making diplomatic port calls to newly-contacted races, and providing general support to early phase-one colony planets in the outer regions of Federation space.

Smaller than the Constitution, the Vega-class uses a similar warp core and nacelles, but has a thickened primary hull. The superstructure at the rear of the primary hull supports expanded scientific and diplomatic facilities, as well as the hanger deck. An enlarged impulse deck houses main engineering.

The relatively small secondary hull houses the navigational deflector, deuterium storage, and an expansive cargo deck, used to ferry supplies to the outer worlds. The cargo deck has a dedicated space door at the rear of the secondary hull, allowing large volumes of vacuum-rated cargo to be moved without use of the transporters. The cargo bay door can also be used to launch scientific satellites and probes, or to store additional shuttlecraft if the hanger deck is unavailable.

Two batches of Vega-class starships were ordered, in 2250-54 and 2258-60, with a total of fifteen ships commissioned. The last ship to be decommissioned, USS Cheleb, left Starfleet service in 2295.

The cruiser type was first launched in 2230, with an initial main role as deep space exploration and defensive cruiser. Its later roles: companion of Constellation heavy cruisers and frontier patrols.

The Yorktown was the first Warp-8 capable ship of the Federation. It initially failed to break the tme barrier (Warp 7.3) because the warp core not was capable of producing enough power to do it. Even with this flaw, the new cruiser was built in some quantities because it was the only ship in Starfleet that could match the Klingon D-6 battlecruiser (which changed the basic design of the ship to carry experimental weapons and better shielding), and that could be built quickly. When the Constitution class went into production, the Yorktown class was replaced by the Connie in deep space exploration missions. But after that, the class, and in special, the USS Yorktown still made history when finally in 2236 before a refit in the warp core (eight series Mk Ia warp core), the time barrier was broken for the first time and Warp 8 was reached.

These ships kept the Klingon forces from initiating a war before of 2243, plus it was the main ship class of Starfleet in the second conflict which the H’gerians. Later, they had a great performance in the Hapspear war of 2243, were working in battle fleets which Saladin class destroyers and Tiberius class frigates or in groups of three ships, two Yorktowns and one light cruiser, managing to keep the front lines static and to make the Klingon strike fleets withdraw. After the war, with more Constitutions in the fleet and with the mighty D-7 K't'inga battlecruiser in play, this class was relegated to work initially like a companion of the Connies and finally was retired beginning in the 2270's to be replaced by the new Mirandas.

Venkman Class

Design by Robert Heckadon

Type: Positron refinery
First commissioned: 2210
Length: 142m
Width: 1383m
Height: 207m
Decks: 18
Displacement: 2200000t
Complement: 5 officers + 105 crew
Armament: 4 phase-modulated laser cannons
Defense: Level 5 deflector shields, magnetic radiation shields

“Maybe now you'll never slime a guy with a positron collider, huh?” - Bill Murray, Ghostbusters

Positrons are the antimatter counterparts of electrons. Positrons are normally found orbiting antiprotons, and both together are used as fuel for warp engines in the form of antimatter. However small ships, such as shuttlecrafts, are too small to safely react matter and antimatter. Regulated with dilithium and electrons provided by deuterium, positron/electron reactions releases enough annihilation energy to power warp capable shuttlecrafts and ships below a certain tonnage. In the Earth year of 2210, the Federation commissioned a series of space stations to meet the demand for positron fuel, the Venkman class fuel refineries.

Unlike antiprotons that are manufactured with dense nuclear isotopes such as Ununpentium, element 115, the Venkman class refinery manufactures positron by harnessing solar energy, which is then converted into positrons through a standard energy/matter conversion systems within the refinery, located directly below the main saucer body. One hundred solar collectors are used to collect the energy of suns and stars. And each solar collector measures 2000 square metres, giving the station a current total of 200000 square metres of solar collectors.

Each collector has 10 layers of solar cells laminated on top of each other. When high energy gamma and X-rays hit's the outer layer of the solar cells, each photon transfers some of its energy to the cells. When it hits the second, more energy is transferred to the cells. The third, fourth, and so on. Often the 9th and 10th layers display a red hue, the weakest end of the visible spectrum. And with each cell sensitive enough to collect energy from infrared radiation, this brings the effective total surface area of 2,000,000 square metres of solar cells.

After the positrons are generated with solar energy, they are transferred to 8 magnetic fuel tanks that protrude out from the refinery section. Each tank can be disconnected so that it can be transferred to a fuel tanker or disconnected in the event of a breakdown of the magnetic shielding.

Since these refineries orbits stars at relatively close distances, 30 million kilometres in the Sol system for example, the Venkman class doubles as a solar observatory. The primary sensor dish is located on the “hot” side of the station. On the opposite side from the observatory is the stations shuttle bay. The “east” and “west” sides of the main saucer contains the solar power matrix system, where the stations solar collector support structures are attached to the station.

The station has a normal crew of 110. 20 scientists, 15 security personnel, 5 administration, and 70 refinery workers, engineers and support technicians.

The station is protected by the sun's ion and particle radiation with a dense magnetic field that bends the particles away from the station and tanker ships stationed near it. And due to its proximity, it gives a visually spectacular “Van Allen's belt“ radiation field. In the event of a solar eruption or a massive solar flare from the sun, all of the stations solar energy is transferred to the magnetic shield, converting it into an old style M2P2 electromagnetic sail to escape from the flare, and then can be repositioned later by a starship.

With the value of positron fuel in the open market, the station is defended by 4 phase modulated laser cannons, or simply referred to as lasers, augmented with solar energy. However due to the enormous size of the stations solar collectors, deflector shields are concentrated for the main saucer and refinery only, putting priority on the survival of the station's personnel. Old style hull polarization techniques are used to both help protect the initial 100 metres of the solar support booms and close the gaps in the stations shields.

Positrons are not restricted to fuel warp engines of shuttlecrafts and small ships. They are also used in manoeuvring thrusters in heavy cruisers and starships, fuel for portable power generators, and as an explosive used in old style spatial torpedoes and plasma warheads. However, though releasing as much energy as an equivalent mass of antimatter, the energy isn't as potent. Comparable to soft ultraviolet light from positrons to heavy gamma rays to antimatter (FOR COMPARISON USE ONLY, NOT TO SCALE). So antiprotons are preferred for larger scale starships, including the Constitution class. The refineries remained operational until 2301 when they were gradually replaced with the Trinia Utu solar platforms, that uses solar flare energy, after the Xindi joined the Federation.

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/positron_drive_pluto.html 
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