Landing Facilities

[Liam Devlin]

Again, following Mythmere's proposed outline..

Table 1: breathable atmosphere, Type A-C
Table 2: breathable atmosphere, Type D, E
Table 3: non-breathable atmosphere, Type A-C
Table 4: non-breathable atmosphere, Type D, E
There might be a TL modifier on these.
Table 5: Highport
.-Mythmere

 

[mad13142000]

Do you want to break up landing pads from hangar or parking space? I've seen starport designs that have limited landing/takeoff pads, and make up the difference in hangar space for starships to live in while they're here...
-MADDog

 

[Liam Devlin]

Good point MDV..that would be a another set of table(s). call it Longterm parking facilities?

 

[Mythmere]

I would include it in the same table, because hangar space is linked to landing pad. On an airless world, part of the table might look llike this:
asphalt pad landing, no enclosed hangar
asphalt pad landing, enclosed hangar, pressurized
asphalt pad landing, enclosed hangar, unpressurized
sunken pit landing pad with pressurized lid (pad is hangar)
cave entrance horizontal landing pad, hangar space in caves, unpressurized.

 

[mad13142000]

Not always going hand in hand are the hangar and landing pad...
Think of your palm as the pad, and each finger a hangar for ship servicing/cargo handling. Or even more 'fingers' like a RR roundhouse kind of design. I think there will be places that this is the preferred design for space/ATC or other reasons.. If your starport is large, but you want to keep the number of ships in flight low...Or you are in a highport - you dont have room for lots of landing/takeoff space relative to the hangar space...
just a thought
-MADDog

 

[Liam Devlin]

Both Valid points guys..it reminds me of the docking airlocks in the Earth/Union stations by CJ Cherryh, as well as the hangar bays they could pull into for massive trade good loading/offloading.-on orbital/ beanstalk stations..Hmm more food for thought! Yer digging gems lads, real gems!

 

[Antares Administration]

Originally posted by Mythmere:
I would include it in the same table, because hangar space is linked to landing pad. On an airless world, part of the table might look llike this:
asphalt pad landing, no enclosed hangar
asphalt pad landing, enclosed hangar, pressurized
asphalt pad landing, enclosed hangar, unpressurized
sunken pit landing pad with pressurized lid (pad is hangar)
cave entrance horizontal landing pad, hangar space in caves, unpressurized.

Add an idea taken from "Space 1999": surface landing pads with elevators to move ships to subsurface hangers (not unlike an aircraft carrier).

Paul Nemeth
AA

 

[Liam Devlin]

yes especially for the types A-C, Hi TL, bad Atm worlds. Makes sense to get the starships' out of the environmental effects!

 

[bolie]

Landing pads aren't going to be asphalt unless ships have very large feet on their legs. I don't have any ship masses around, but asphalt is like a liquid if it's hot or you put something really heavy on it. I saw a motorcycle that had it's kickstand several inches deep in an asphalt parking lot (after a couple of weeks).

Scout ships (especially the Scout/Courier) and Safari ships may have special pads to spread load, but most ships probably won't. Some ships might be designed to belly land on large pads contoured into the hull.

Bolie IV

 

[Mythmere]

Hi Bolie! Yes, there actually should be different options for materials for exactly the kind of reasons you mention. I only actually used asphalt because it was the first thing that came to mind.

Are we gaming this weekend?

It's pretty important to know what materials would be involved at different tech levels - probably for other parts of this project as well. Any canon experts on this? Mr. "CT" Thrash?

 

[Jame]

For pressurized hangars and bad atmosphere/no atmosphere ports, why not have some sort of hatchway/gangplank like a lot of airport have now (when the plane/ship is coming right up to the port building) that connects to the ship's airlock? It would keep any atmospheric and vaccum effects out of the ship and allow cargo and/or passengers to disembark from the ship while the hangar depressurizes.

 

[Ran Targas]

Thrash,

Surely there is some Imperial Bureau of Starship Safety (or insert office of choice) requirement for standardized personnel hatches; it seems only logical for rescue or even Customs purposes to have a universal hatch. Today, all submarines are equiped with universal hatches to allow rescue DSV's from any nation to provide assistance.

Cargo hatches would probably come in standard sizes too so architects can design around them and manufacturers produce them efficiently.

Oversized cargo may require a unique umbilical, adding to the wait or expense of docking.

 

[Anthony]

Originally posted by Ran Targas:
Thrash,

Surely there is some Imperial Bureau of Starship Safety (or insert office of choice) requirement for standardized personnel hatches

Given the laissez faire nature of the Imperium, standards, if present (which seems likely) are probably enforced by insurance and lending agencies, not by the Imperium.

 

[mad13142000]

Let me consult my list of building materials...

Plastisteel
Ferrofoam
Nograin
Duralloy
Zortrium
Andrium
Tritanium
Admantium
Neutronium
Neutronite
Polymeric
Cerametal
FRP -Fiber Reinforced Plastic. A kind of fiberglass.
Another one I can't remember that had carbon fiber reinforcing a metalic ceramic matrix...I can't remember its name, but NASA was developing...
Superdense
Crystoplast
Luftschwamm - Porous Bronze used to defeat the boundary effect in the Nazi spaceship Dora...
Fortean Crystal - A nearly indestructable glass..
Ceramacrete

I'm sure there's more, but I don't have access to my sci-fi library right now...

Besides, ANYTHING is more interesting than plain old concrete...Even that concrete stuff they make in Europe with the little styrofoam balls instead of gravel - I can't remember its name either.
-MADDog

 

[Mythmere]

H Beam Piper used Collapsium (dense metal w/ electrons collapsed into nucleus).

I have used "plascrete," a plastic analogue of concrete but more flexible and harder.

 

[far-trader]

And maybe Glassteel and whatever they called the transparent aluminum in that ST movie.

 

[trader jim]

Heres one...When i was stationed on Okinawa i found out the Japanese during WWII used this strange ship the CUT large slabs of CORAL out of the REEFS at low tide, then took them ashore and made gun bunkers out of the stuff, when it DRIED it was actually HARDER than concreat!!!...gave our guys a rough time....this idea could work on wet worlds!!!...cheap buliding material!!!

 

[far-trader]

Originally posted by trader jim:
Heres one...When i was stationed on Okinawa i found out the Japanese during WWII used this strange ship the CUT large slabs of CORAL out of the REEFS at low tide, then took them ashore and made gun bunkers out of the stuff, when it DRIED it was actually HARDER than concreat!!!...gave our guys a rough time....this idea could work on wet worlds!!!...cheap buliding material!!!

Hey, very cool TJ. This could be taken a step further perhaps with genetically engineered quick growing coral for fast durable construction, just add water. In the right places you could just level the ground, build a low dike, seed your QuickCoral(tm), flood the area and stand back while your landing pad, taxiways, roads, or whatever, grow to fill the depth of your dike. Then just drain and let dry to harden. Voila your paveways are all built, seamless and self-leveling. Cracks and potholes (or bomb craters) should they develop are an easy fix, just seed, flood, drain and dry. Need walls or a building? Lay a tarp on your paveway, frame it out in your material of choice, seed your QuickCoral(tm), flood, grow, drain, dry, and hoist it up into place and assemble. I like this a lot. It could even come in your choice of several colors, never paint again, as long as you like your choice. Neat.

 

[trader jim]

I like it...its more sci-fi, than just cutting shape and bolting them togather!!!
I still cant belive that CORAL is so HARD when dried...that war story is TRUE...i saw a lot of those old bunkers...you could see where 5in shells hit them and DID NOT destroy them!!!, just "chiped"!!
You idea has merit, just frame, pour, let dry, assemble!!! good stuff!!

 

[mad13142000]

Have you TRIED to grow coral? As someone who has many aquariums, it's not that easy...
How about a genetically engineered bacteria or an algae - they would be easier to grow in fresh water than trying to balance the numerous factors in sea water...Yeah, I know it's the far future...
I think that although concrete is an easy and common substance, Hightech in the future should have a similar common and easy substance.
How about a type of ceramacrete - just mix the goop, pour it in the mold, and fuse with laser, microwave, or electrical induction - viola, a ceramic like substance hard as steel with no aging effect like today's concrete...(Concrete will crumble and decompose with age or excessive stress - like repeated plasma torching from starship engines...) You would have to line a standard concrete pad with ceramic tile like the shuttle (or something) to counter the thermal effect of takeoffs/landings...

-MADDog