Museum Station

[Thomas P]

I started on this and now need to start figuring some of the details.

http://www.concept40.com/galleries/sciartpost/10182001/m1.jpg
http://www.concept40.com/galleries/sciartpost/10182001/m2.jpg

[Masao]

Wow! You sure didn't waste any time! Looks good so far. Please feel free to mess around with the alignment of the discs: I show them offset, but they might be better aligned. The cones at the end were supposed to be like those on K7, so should have some windows and maybe a shuttle bay or two. The recesses at the equators of the discs should have all sorts of greebles, windows, ports, etc. Ships could dock there as well. As for markings, I'm figuring it has UPF/Starfleet Museum as I've shown in the schematic, but probably also has historical and Starfleet emblems and the UFP emblem somewhere.

I'm really really really looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

[Thomas P]

Masao, you have mentioned that the 'observation' rings that are along the connecting tube are 4 decks high. I am curious if that is correct as in comparision to the K-7 station, when referring to Bernd's material, the top-bottom dome structures should have between 20-22 decks. The observation decks would be more like 10 decks high based on the drawing, yes?

[thomas7g]

I really like this station! Much better than the starbase in the Franz Joseph Tech Manual.

I have a small suggestion: The docking level might look nicer if you moved it further out and made it a hollow ring instead of a solid piece. That would also make more sense incase you had a helmsman who was a little slow on the breaks. ;)

[Masao]

Thomas7g:The docking ring was similar to how it was on the original sketch, but I added 3 more arms. (The original also had Galaxy's docking at the backs of their discs) One reason I chose these 6 pointed star shape rather a complete ring was that it allows docking at two depths (I thought it looked interesting) and allows some sort of transport system straight to the central hub. If there's a ring connected only with a few spokes, you'd have to take a few turns to get to the center.

The fellow who sent me the sketch also pointed out that Federation ships usually have their docking points at the sides of the discs rather than the front, so the spokes would allow docking at the sides (of course the inner docking points would only allow nose docking). A ring might be better for that, though.

Well, there could well be variations of this station with different types of docking arrangements. Feel free to modify it for use as Starbases or trading stations. I'm actually working on some variations myself.

ThomasP: Yeah, you're right. I lined up some Connies and those window are slightly more than 4 times the height of the primary hull disc, which is 2 decks high. So, maybe they're sort of unrealistic in their present form, eh? You might try either making them shorter or could simply chop the band into a few smaller sections of a circle. Maybe there's a very large green space or arboretum behind the window, sort of like FJ's orginal? If this was originally the headquarters of Starfleet in space, who knows what it might have?

[thomas7g]

I meant keep the docking level as is, just make it larger slightly so you can have a circular whole in the middle. Then you can add interconnecting arching structures. But its just an idea. One that may not be someoneelses esthetic. :)

[Masao]

Okay, I see what you mean. Rather than having the docking star hugging the central core, make it a suspended donut connected with a few spokes. That would work. Maybe the other Thomas will be so kind as to model a few variations.

[Thomas P]

:)

[thomas7g]

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