They're roughly based on Revs hex design, with minor modifications. I wanted to see what would crop up when putting them in an environment, and it gave me further ideas which we might or might not implement one day. They're 20m across at maximum width, and about 3.5m high. I used a tongue and groove idea, with the indent on the top mirrored by an identical bit jutting out below which would act as feet when just on a surface. This means they would fit well together, and connectors could easily be lined up and automated.
Some of the things I thought about when looking at this picture were...
Lights It needed spots so people can find their way in the dark when in the vicinity, and to light the surroundings.
Shutters What if there were sandstorms or a breach in the window? Security even?
Stairs On some planets you could fit external stairs without the need to waste space inside.
Foundations Self leveling legs? special platform? Concrete?
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Registered: Jun 2003
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For a foundation you'd need something that would be able to distribute the weight for long-term settlement. Feet aren't really useful unless you're directly on a rock formation or something like a salt flat (not where you'd want to start a colony). You'd need a platform of some sort to spread out the weight or drive piles to support the structure.
Which wouldn't be a bad idea to have as an option, as eventually with expansion or changing weather conditions your pods might end up in a swamp or on soft soils.
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Registered: Mar 1999
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Inustrial replicators might be sent down to a planet first to create a foundation- or even a habitat dome prior to the ship parts landing. It would likely establish sanitation and water pumping/reclimation/irrigation basics as well. The Industrial replicator would probably become the center of "town" with initail modules arranged roughly around it.
Lights and shutters ae excellent ideas- the shutters might have been heat/radiation shielding for planetary entry when in ship mode and might still serve in that capacity. Never know when that solar flare is gonna cause troubles. A minor settlement shield is probably a good idea and could be made from the ship's deflector grid- nothing to stop planetary bombardment mind you, just something to keep the weather at bay during initial construction and occasional tornados/hurricanes.
hmmm....I wonder if the cargo pods on those cardie freighters are made for deployment from orbit- kinda a quick colony resupply from space: just drop a bunch of cargo pods which expand the colony's infrastructure while resupplying it- the empty pods become new building materials, etc. It's also possible that the cargo/landing pods themselves are specialy designed to feed the industrial replicator(s)- possibly even with layered protien molecules in the pod's cobstruction.
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quote:I think if we go inserting half a dozen big pillars, a spiral staircase and winches in every room, it's going to eat up a lot of valuable space and also rather compromises the integrity of the engineering. I think simple flat connectors or rising linkages (like the saucer connectors on the Ent-D) would allow reasonable security without eating into room space and penetrating the walls more than you need to. From the look of them they could be stacked to a fair height without crushing the lower rooms anyway.
Well obviously you take the winch down after you're done moving your equipment upstairs. It'd just be a simple block and tackle arrangement that hooks onto a couple of fixing point built into the roof, or a tripod setup on top of the module, with the skylight open. As for the pillars, they'd form the vertical load bearing members of the structure and as for the impact on the internal arrangment, they'd be a good place for the vertical light strips and they'd form alcoves into which can be inserted bunks, desk/consoles, storage units or other equipment that you don't want cluttering up the floor. (see below)
quote:These could even be used to build your space station if built to the correct tolerances, as long as we have some decent hub system for interconnecting them. Portacabins In Space!
If memory serves, wasn't that Probert's basic idea for the orbital office complex in TMP? A series of circular section that dock around a central hub to form a modular station. Perhaps we should try incorporating the orbital office sections into the colony ship, given it's such a widely used design...or would that be too cumbersome? Either way we'd have to decide on a scale first.
quote:Lights It needed spots so people can find their way in the dark when in the vicinity, and to light the surroundings.
Shutters What if there were sandstorms or a breach in the window? Security even?
Stairs On some planets you could fit external stairs without the need to waste space inside.
Foundations Self leveling legs? special platform? Concrete?
Lights: I thought about that and my thinking was a pair of reconfigurable floods/spots that retract into each corner and can be retuned to any focal distance or spectral frequency. Since I imagine some planets are around stars that produce light that isn't the yellow we're all used to and/or had moons that reflect a different colour at night. Plus having IR lamps would be useful for night vision.
Shutters: I'm reasonably sure transparent aluminium is pretty strong stuff, so a breach is unlikely, though a mechanism that controls opacity would be in order for the sake of privacy or other activities that require darkness.
Stairs: Yeah, I figured an external stairway and or gantry would be easy enough to rig up. With a decent scaffy it can be done in minutes, doesn't have to be particularly high-tech.
Foundations: That's where the six telescoping pillars would come in.
posted
Axemans tounge & groove idea is spot on I think. If the supports go through the modules, than the need for external frames is negated - I was thinking of the rigidity of the modules when you stack them, but that solves it.
A few other practical things - the concave are on the top of the upmost cabin might require guttering or covering, depending on the weather. Also, it might be an idea to have reinforced areas (or just markings on the outside) for sticking things like external stairs or mezanines on.
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Registered: Apr 2005
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As a side note, a quick bout of mental arithmetic (assuming your man there is about 6 feet tall) suggests a floor plan for each of these of about 23 m^2 (≈245 sq ft), with a useable volume of roughly 80 m^3 (≈100 yd^3) – so they are about the size of a bed-sit.
With a partition for a 'hygeine area' including a toitet, wash basin, and shower combo, there's plently of room for a bed and living. I would assume that the furniture would be like that fold up, multi-function stuff you get in Ikea - a 23rd century sofa bed.
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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Axeman - that picture totally rocks! I'm so jealous! Wish I could produce stuff like that.
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: [QUOTE
Shutters: I'm reasonably sure transparent aluminium is pretty strong stuff, so a breach is unlikely, though a mechanism that controls opacity would be in order for the sake of privacy or other activities that require darkness.
Stairs: Yeah, I figured an external stairway and or gantry would be easy enough to rig up. With a decent scaffy it can be done in minutes, doesn't have to be particularly high-tech.
Why bother investing in technology for this when curtains will do the trick? You don't want to over-complicate things...
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Registered: Apr 2001
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Curtains don't block gamma rays or high levels of UV. They won't be out of the question in terms of décor though, after all, who wants to live in a bare metal box?
I've often puzzled at why on Star Trek everyone's quarters (aside from being freakishly neat) had pictures of space hanging on the walls...I mean there's tons of space right outside the window! Surely someone living in cramped conditions would rather see natural Earth (or Vulcan or Andor..., depending on species) vistas than black empty space and gas clouds.
posted
Ginger, I think you're right about the guttering job, but it's so much easier to simply invert the idea and have the groove on the underside and the 'tongue' part sitting proud on top. The foundations could be built accordingly, and the raised part on top could also provide a simple fixing point for other stuff to clamp on, like lights, ladder, antennae and so forth.
When I made the cabins I was somewhat disappointed by how small they were, basically just rooms. I would think they would be useful and easy to transport, but they dont provide real useful, versatile volume unless you use them in great numbers. I'm thinking something more the size of 5 or 6 of these things in a ring would be better, and something that size could form the basis of a small space station like the one mentioned previously.
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Perhaps that groove could have little inlets to drain away any water, or perhaps even draw it in to the reclamation systems?
As for the size, yeah they're only meant to be small porta-cabin type things. Anything bigger and it becomes somewhat impractical to transport. Though I can see say seven of these strung together without the 'outer' walls in-between them to create a reasonably large open space, with just some pillars around the middle. With the vertical members taking the weight, I imagine you could go up several levels in that configuration. In fact the bigger the structure, the less 'outer' sections and floors you'll need to use as a basic metal beam and tile arrangement can span the internal spaces, which would also give you a foot or so extra head room per floor.
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Something like this.
On the other hand perhaps a group of three, two story, diamond shaped sections could be used for larger structures?
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: Something like this.
Those pics so remind me of the UFOs from UFO: Enemy Unknown/X-COM: UFO Defence.
As for larger pre-fabbed open areas, why not have them using some inflated geodesic domes, kinda like the Eden project we have in this day and age.
Registered: Oct 2007
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How do these get down? I mean, does the ship somehow fly in and deposit them (imoractical) or do they drop from orbit? If they drop from space, breaking thrusters should be added to the design.
Could a largeish starship beam these down? We saw the "E" beam whole shuttles, so the mass is possible- and would solve a lot of issues with landing legs, etc.
Maybe SCE guys prefab the area to get it ready for the pods prior to the colony ship's arrival: I mean, someone would have to visit the colony site prior to the colonyship ever heading out to scout all sorts of stuff that simple planetary surveying would not bother with.
You know, to check for stuff like native eel things that crawl into your ear or imminent solar explosions....trivial stuff.
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Registered: Aug 2002
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They come down inside a cargo container in their various components and are assembled on the ground. Storing what are essentially empty boxes, fully assembled aboard a spaceship is an extremely inefficient use of volume.
As for transporters; I don't know about Kenny, but for the purposes of this thread I'd prefer not to depend on transporter or replicator technology for the design.
posted
I was thinking that the containers themselves were full of all the other colony equipment and then, after the containers are emptied, they serve as the basic buildings to be customized as needed. So- no space is wasted at all: the conatiners become the buildings.
Registered: Aug 2002
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Well in that case the volume of equipment would dictate how many buildings you have and these things are a little big to fill with smaller articles and not quite big enough for industrial sized equipment, vehicles or machinery. Plus you're restricted by the size of the door as to what you can move in and out of this thing, so big equipment is defiantly out, unless you propose they disassemble the module, extract the gear then reassemble? Not very practical. Plus of course half the point of these things is that the walls are interchangeable, so by pre-assembling, you immediately limit what you can do with them.
I think most things come down in standard cargo carriers and those containers are converted into storage sheds for equipment, food, raw materials or even livestock. You can never have too many unused metal boxes, so any excess is hardly a problem.
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I'm so jealous! Wish I could produce stuff like that. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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