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Static Galaxy-class spaceframes at UP's surface base?
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by FawnDoo: [QB] [QUOTE]Originally posted by Lee: [qb] That's daft. No, sorry, but it is. Building a ship on the surface of a planet makes no sense whatever. Why build these massive structures designed to exist in space in a gravity field, which would require some heavy shoring-up to counteract gravitational forces acting on it in on direction only? And not all the planets they might build ships on would have Mars' one-third gravity; and we don't really know what level the Martian atmosphere has reached by that time. Never seen anything to indicate Mars is now a shirtsleeve environment. [/qb][/QUOTE]Daft? Why thank you! I almost always aim for daft but never quite manage to hit it, nice to know my aim was true here. Daft. I like that. I should use that more in meetings. Has a nice ring to it. The Federation has the ability to maniulate local gravity conditions: we have seen that time and again on Star Trek. They can generate artificial gravity, have antigrav technology and obviously have some pretty serious game when it comes to manipulating spacetime. For a culture that has developed as far as the Federation has technologically, I would think that making an area zero-g would be easy enough. Therefore, they would set the gravity within the shipyards to whatever level they need it to be: microgee, or whatever. If the planet had a breathable atmosphere then fine. If not, enclose an area with forcefields (which seems to be a standard use of the technology, from what we have seen) and pump in the air. Easier to get the construction crews to and from work: no need to use energy transporting them up, shuttling them up or maintaining extensive orbital facilities to house them for long periods of time. Same for raw materials and fabricated components. And all the time the construction crews don't need to work in a dangerous, inhospitable and insanely lethal environment like space. So...given the Federation's level of technology I would think that whatever planet they build on they could set the local gravity conditions to favour their construction efforts. Note that I'm not saying that there wouldn't be a space-based side to the shipbuilding as well - that would be daft, wouldn't it? - there will be components that will need to be fitted in space, probably because of testing conditions or other technical issues. Still, the bulk of the "grunt work" - building the frame, assembling the internal structure, putting the major pieces together...no reason why they shouldn't take place on a planet if the Federation's technology makes it safer and easier to do so. Of course, they might well build the whole thing in space. I just think that they might have a ground-based side to it. Wasn't there a DS9 novel featuring a starship being built on the surface of Bajor? Usual canon issues apply of course, but it at least hints at the point that someone else out there has toyed with the idea, loved the inherent daftness and ran with it. If memory serves me the ship was an Ambassador class and was going to be called the [i]Opaka[/i]...wish I could remember the name of the book now. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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