Starport Landing Pads

[Mithras]

I'm trying to really visualize the gritty details of starport landing pads. I want to see the layout and the way it operates. But I'm having a few problems with what's out there.

There are two common models:

1) Mos Eisely Circular Landing Bay (I like this!)

2) Modern Airport Style Hard Standing, Jesse De Graffe has done plenty of illustrations of this.

http://kenoreyal.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/marava_port_two001-70.jpg

I've looked at the Bob McWilliams style parkbay (used in White Dwarf and the excellent web supplement Starport!)

I've also looked at the GURPS Starport parkbay, which I like, but has problems with getting out cargo.

So in the end I decided to sketch out my own version, in blocs of six, with cargo lanes for grav-lifters, passengers arriving via subway or foot tunnel (for emergencies or cool running firefights), offices/lounge for use of the crew as a business centre during the week, and crash/fire/rescue services serving each group of six parkbays. This template I envisage being replicated multiple times on a single starport. I sketched out another version where the parkbays are instead arranged in a circular (if you like the circular motif).

Its all hand-drawn (sorry!) but it means its very changeable, for any great ideas you might have?!

I envisage the freight terminal and passenger terminal being more like 'departures' for your set of gates; with a central passenger terminal further away handling arrivals/tickets/shopping/customs etc.

 

[far-trader]

Of course there's also the classic enclosed starport accessible by big airlocks and doors, pressurized for comfort and easier handling. Useful in less than ideal atmo and climate, including Highports.

Examples? Off the top of my head, "Space 1999" with its lunar base landing pads and "2001: A Space Odyssey" (iirc) the orbital station and also on the moon (again iirc).

 

[BytePro]

My starports come in a variety of configurations...

Like the idea of tunnels for passenger ferrying. I've used monorails, people-movers in raised walkways, and, my favorite, vacuum transports (doors close, the walls spin up to pin you and your carry-ons to the walls ... frup - your off like a rat in a tube... ). [Okay - its highly impractical, and likely to make passengers sick or even injured before they even get aboard... but it sounded cool.]

BTW: Presume you have this -> http://www.columbia.edu/~mbk2109/traveller/Starports!.pdf

 

[Mithras]

Yes I have that. Very interesting. GURPS STarports suggests fuel lines going underground which is a great idea. Umbilical connections can be found at every landing pad, along with black and blue water connectors and electricity connectors to allow the ship's powerplant to go offline.

I envisage passengers getting to the pads via tunnels, and the service vehicles using the same cargoways as the freight movers. These service trucks include repair carts, life support and food resupply trucks, inspection trucks, lubricant, coolant and other resupply deliveries.

Crash/fire/rescue vehicles also use the cargoways, which act like the designated driveways on airport tarmacs.

 

[Peter Schutze]

my thought is that all versions youve shown get used in different places .... in my imaginings:-

the gurps one is only likely on a small protected military base

your sketch is very likely on a smallish b or c port - or a subsidiary port

the parkbays illo is most likely to be vacc or hostile atmos worlds

 

[Mithras]

Realistically, I understand worlds will use many variations of the starport but that doesn't help the referee struggling to run a combat on the fly or something. Its why I'm after a standard, so I can whip it out when needed for an adventure.

I can see the 'block of six landing pads' being replicated for bigger ports, just as extra terminals and rows of gates are used to expand an airport.

They could be extended into long lines, or (forgive my hand-drawn sketch!) arranged in circular groups of 36 landing pads:

 

[RainOfSteel]

I'm trying to really visualize the gritty details of starport landing pads. I want to see the layout and the way it operates. But I'm having a few problems with what's out there.

Your drawings are great! The only significant missing things are hangars for repair/maintenance and tank farms for fuel.

I'd make the landing pads a little bigger to accommodate vessels up to the Book 2 limit (wasn't it 5,000 dTons).

 

[Enoki]

I think this would vary greatly depending on a variety of things:

Quality of the starport
Population of the planet
How busy the port is
Atmosphere and weather of the planet
Expected size of the ships using it
Law level of the planet

For example a Type A port on a busy heavily populated world would more resembe a huge international airport of today and beyond while a Type C on a backwater is little more than a huge patch of concrete, couple of hangers and a control tower.
Worlds with high law levels would have the port (planet side) likely surrounded by security fences and other measures. Access would be controlled. You would have to pass through security checks coming in and leaving along with immigration requirements etc.
A port on a dry desert world would be very different from one on a rainy water world.

I really don't think it is going to be possible to characterize a star port in some way that will work on every world or even most worlds. There is just too much variety.

 

[Mithras]

I do agree Enoki, I can't imagine Mos Eisley looking like Coruscant's downport, or Naboo's port looking much like the landing fields of Geonosis.

But reading GURPS Starports, the emphasis in that book is on the SPA and on port standardization. That said, perhaps I should instead look at a number of basic models for varying worlds, with the circular landing pad being a basic default. Other models being the open tarmac, another being recessed underground hangers, another being a combination of taxiing/parking tarmac and individual bays.

But my campaign hops from system to stem on a frequent basis, and alot of action goes down at the starport - which is why I'm needing some plans and maps.

I think this would vary greatly depending on a variety of things:

Quality of the starport
Population of the planet
How busy the port is
Atmosphere and weather of the planet
Expected size of the ships using it
Law level of the planet

For example a Type A port on a busy heavily populated world would more resembe a huge international airport of today and beyond while a Type C on a backwater is little more than a huge patch of concrete, couple of hangers and a control tower.
Worlds with high law levels would have the port (planet side) likely surrounded by security fences and other measures. Access would be controlled. You would have to pass through security checks coming in and leaving along with immigration requirements etc.
A port on a dry desert world would be very different from one on a rainy water world.

I really don't think it is going to be possible to characterize a star port in some way that will work on every world or even most worlds. There is just too much variety.

 

[MR TEK]

The solution of coarse would be to have a standard set, maybe 5 or 6 that are generic, and then that would be all you need for the world your group sees once or twice in passing,

Then you would have a good set of inspirations to draw from for the ports that you want to be memorable.

Frankly, I have always wanted to see a 'bank' of generic ports. Much like ship designs, if people wanted to release designs they had done, those would be great for the one time use, and could either be used as is for home ports, or used as inspiration so that game masters could work from a baseline rather than staring a b;lank page wondering where to start.

And yes, I have toyed with laying out starports in the past, so I know the work involved, but There are people working on ways top develope large ship plans and hopping from 1/2 mil dt starships to a concourse or two and then coping with variations would not be that much more work.

There is an old excel sheet for making deckplans by laying out different components in squares that are multiples of 1.5 meter squares. I have been toying with a set of large liner plans using a modified version. combine that the the templates idea form a while back and large structures become practical, for those ambitious enough.

 

[Dragoner]

I wouldn't have a ramp for freight: if the freight is too long it will high center on the top of the ramp (which goes for containers on ships with ramps as well) and the cargo could roll down the ramp, uncontrolled.

 

[BlackBat242]

Realistically, I understand worlds will use many variations of the starport but that doesn't help the referee struggling to run a combat on the fly or something. Its why I'm after a standard, so I can whip it out when needed for an adventure.

So buy a copy of the Judge's Guild "Fifty Starbases" book, and just select one that fits the situation when you need a starport.

 

[Enoki]

I do agree Enoki, I can't imagine Mos Eisley looking like Coruscant's downport, or Naboo's port looking much like the landing fields of Geonosis.

But reading GURPS Starports, the emphasis in that book is on the SPA and on port standardization. That said, perhaps I should instead look at a number of basic models for varying worlds, with the circular landing pad being a basic default. Other models being the open tarmac, another being recessed underground hangers, another being a combination of taxiing/parking tarmac and individual bays.

But my campaign hops from system to stem on a frequent basis, and alot of action goes down at the starport - which is why I'm needing some plans and maps.

I would think "standardization" would be more along the lines of how shipping ports and air ports on Earth are today.

That is, there is a relatively standard means of passenger loading and unloading from ships. So, things like ladders, loading ramps, etc., would be similar or standardized. That way a ship wouldn't land and the crew find the ladders all too short like Khrushev did in the 60's when his special Tu 96 aircraft was too tall for US ladder trucks.

Just as with cargo containers. The loading and unloading equipment would be standardized.

Also, what the port accomidates and its tech level would be important. For example, say a TL 7 or 8 class B starport might literally be the equivalent of a modern international airport where most of the traffic is winged aircraft. It just can also accomidate starships when they land or take off. These might even be required to follow a flight pattern on take off similar to other aircraft just to make sure they don't interfer with the general traffic pattern.
I've done that on worlds of about that TL with small star ships. The crew is required to check in with a flight control system and then follow a prescribed flight path to what is pretty much a modern airport.


That said, the actual space port itself could vary tremendously in capacity and design. So, one port might include a rail system that ties it into a megacity while another is out in the middle of nowhere buried behind several layers of security fence etc., because the local government is run by a paranoid anal retentive dictator.

I think you'd need to put alot of thought into each starport then. You really need to consider tech levels, size of population, the local planet conditions, government... well, basically everything.

As another example, I had the starport on a mining world in the Glimmerdrift set up where it was fairly easy to get in and only cargo passengers were closely inspected on arrival. Ship's crews belonging to one of the mining corporations and local traffic got a pass for the most part as the government was looking mostly for out of system smuggling.
To leave as a passenger was a pain. You needed a departure pass which required an arrival pass. So, if you arrived as crew and didn't get one you couldn't leave as a passenger.....
This was to stop workers deserting their jobs while owing on company stores etc.
There was strict security out and only moderate in in this case with crews getting little scrutiny.

 

[AlHazred]

So buy a copy of the Judge's Guild "Fifty Starbases" book, and just select one that fits the situation when you need a starport.

I own this. While it's not the worst supplement ever designed, it lacks a certain amount of flair. On the one hand, the designs are utilitarian and have a sameness about them -- they all look like they were designed by the same three guys in Naval Architecture 101. On the other hand, they're definitely not modular.

It would be nice to see a modular starport idea. The SPA undoubtedly has a system for developing starports and, while it may not always be used due to political or economic pressure or local technological standards, might be useful for GMs quickly working up the planet the crew just decided to go to on the spur of the moment.

I imagine the SPA works from the ground up. The most basic starport is a cleared circular patch, let's say the standard is 180 meters across, paved with concrete. That should be low-enough TL that any Imperial planet can manage maintenance. There's also a completely unmanned automated beacon that automatically parses ships within planetary orbit range and records telemetry. The unit probably has a buried fusion plant or, perhaps, some sort of geothermal dingus. The latter might be more cost effective and fixable even at low TL.

Then, each increment has a certain number of improvements, with some standard design elements. The elements can be limited per TL; thus you could have a sprawling Class D port on a low-TL breadbasket or a tiny Class A field on a high-TL outpost. Mithras' design would have varying-TL and environmental options, and could be repeated as many times as needed. Although, for some reason, I'm thinking modules would be a single bay for maximum flexibility of planning.

I'm picturing a set of geomorphs (or "dungeon tiles") which the GM could fit together according to personal whim.

 

[shield]

Check out JTAS 7 it did a big article on a starport in the solomani rim

 

[Mithras]

Check out JTAS 7 it did a big article on a starport in the solomani rim

Champa, yes I have that somewhere. There is an excellent starport 'Exonidas' detailed in an old Dragon magazine, too.

I'm in danger of getting too obsessed with this!

I think there are two scales or approaches here, and really I'm more interested in one not the other. One approach is the 'build and layout a starport' scale, maybe using the guidelines and detailed rules in Starport! and in GURPS Starports. Where is the startown? The fuel dumps? etc. The other scale is the roleplaying scale, what do PCs see, where do they walk, what can they do? That's what I'm interested in. When my PCs hit the town, I don't need a map of the city. What I do is conjure up a cool idea for a hotel that fits the theme of the world and find a photo on the Net of a suitable hotel room/lobby/lounge etc. This came to light in a quick solitaire adventure I just ran which featured a running gun-battle through Rhylan starport on Dinom. Are there escalators? elevators? Long corridors? An open terminal? Do you get to the ship via air bridge or sealed bay? I needed to know! Obviously I made something up on the spot, but I thought I could have done better with a bit of planning, something in writing I could flip to if it happens again on Wypoc or Roup.

I want to know how PCs experience starports. Modular starport systems would be neat, but only part of the question I want to answer/itch I want to scratch.

 

[Mithras]

I wouldn't have a ramp for freight: if the freight is too long it will high center on the top of the ramp (which goes for containers on ships with ramps as well) and the cargo could roll down the ramp, uncontrolled.

Dragoner, the ramp is purely for passengers coming up to the pad from the subway system. Cargo arrives via grav-loader along the cargo-ways on the far side of the pads. Thanks

 

[Enoki]

Here's an idea! Why not start by googleing or binging "Airport layouts" "Airport layout maps" etc., and looking at how the real thing today is done? Just the images alone that I got doing that look like about a 90% solution on their own. Very detailed and varied ones come up instantly.

 

[Mithras]

Here's an idea! Why not start by googleing or binging "Airport layouts" "Airport layout maps" etc., and looking at how the real thing today is done? Just the images alone that I got doing that look like about a 90% solution on their own. Very detailed and varied ones come up instantly.

That's an idea ... there are some very different layouts, when you consider places like Nepal, Africa, Canada etc.

 

[Mithras]

I quite quickly found this website: http://planetolog.com/map-airport-list.php

Lots of food for thought. I've worked out though, what really separates the airport from the typical Traveller starport, and that is: at airports, aircraft taxi around to where they need to be. The typical Traveller starship lands and does not move.