posted
Well I was in a book store the otherday and I saw the space station of Masao's gracing the front cover. VERY nice Masao - and that's so awesome that you've got your work assigned to semi-officialdom!
Tell me, did you also design the blueprints/station plan on the inside plates of that book?
Congratulations, again.
Andrew
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
Yeah it's sweet- did you see the pull-out of the station poster in the book's rear cover? I wanted to turn to the guy next to me and say "I talk geek stuff with this guy!"
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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I only did the 2-D schematics, which were reprinted in the fold out. I don't do any 3-D modeling. The cover artwork is by Doug Drexler.
I've already received the cover art for the next Vanguard novel from Marco Palmieri, the editor at Pocket Books. It features the space station and another ship. (Can't say more than that)
-------------------- When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum
Registered: Oct 1999
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-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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posted
The USS Trinculo? The USS Discovery? On subspace you say? The USS Helen Keller coming in for repairs to her sensors again?
Is it one of your original designs, Masao? Models of your Predator class are featured at the SSM gallery this week, you know.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
The Trinculo!!! That would be a hell of an acid trip...
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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posted
I actually bought that book because of its cover. The story was okay-good enough that I'd like to read the next sequel, anyway. The station's design seems kind of like a mix between the K-7 station and the stations later seen following Star Trek III.
-------------------- "Having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."
Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
The obvious K-7 element is the "sombrero hull", but its engineering rationale seems different in Masao's design and in the original which borrowed from this Douglas Corp. study. SB 47 is a solid structure that maximises horizontal deck area, but K-7 features these segments of slightly differing radii that slide within each other for launch (in the Douglas model) or perhaps to reveal internal cargo spaces (in the Trek interpretation that probably was not "launched" at all).
Of course, with SB 47 as big as it is, there could still be segments of varying radii - so slightly varying that we can't really see the seams. A collapsible hull might help with towing the structure in place; there wouldn't be any air resistance to fight, or any tight canals to navigate through, but there might still be a warp field within which to ride...
...Although the novel itself suggests the SB 47 construction took place in situ.
quote:It features the space station and another ship. (Can't say more than that)
But can you tell whether you designed/helped design that ship?
Timo Saloniemi
Yes, I can. No, I didn't.
quote:Originally posted by Timo: [QUOTE]Of course, with SB 47 as big as it is, there could still be segments of varying radii - so slightly varying that we can't really see the seams. A collapsible hull might help with towing the structure in place; there wouldn't be any air resistance to fight, or any tight canals to navigate through, but there might still be a warp field within which to ride...
I know about the basis of the original K7 (of course!) but I don't know if Marco Palmieri does. Regardless, he didn't ask me to incorporate any suggestion of collapsibility into my station design. For a station of that size, engineering enormous pivoting sections would probably be more trouble than just building the thing in place. They'd probably flex quite a bit and be subject to differential contraction and expansion. You could, however, have pre-fab sections (like slices of orange peel) that might be stacked to save space. However, I suspect a typical plank on frame construction method, as presumably used for starships, was envisioned.
-------------------- When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum
Registered: Oct 1999
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