Ok, what do I mean Wet Navy in space?
Well I've noticed something that annoyed me. It's especially noticeable in the Clement Sector campaign, but also even in Star Trek...
...But that's not the point I wanted to make. As I said in Star Trek they use the same appellations: Cruiser, Destroyer, etc. When I keep getting told that it's supposed to be more like NASA.
What you are rallying against is called a role, basically a defined purpose.
A
Cruiser is a vessel designed to operate at high speeds and to travel long distance and is armed with medium caliber weapons.
A
Tanker is a vessel designed to transport large quantities of fluids over a great distance.
A
Freighter is a vessel designed to transport a large quantity of material over a great distance.
The role or purpose hasn't changed - you have tanker and freight cars for a railroad, you have semis hauling tanker or cargo trailers, and you have tanker and container ships. While the technology and environment may change, the role has not.
But yes, Star Fleet is like NASA as its primary mission is one of exploration. That is why the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 is an Exploration Cruiser - a ship designed primarily for long range exploration and defense.
Carriers however are designed to launch fighter and support craft, yet most of the ones I've seen in various drawings hold shuttles, not fighters, which would make them the space going version of the Dock Landing Ship or the Amphibious Assault Ship.
But since many sci-fi fans seem to be military or military enthusiasts. They seem to go with what they're familiar with. Life in modern military navies. How ships are utilized, rank structure, etc.
To be fair, Gene Roddenberry was a pilot in the Army Air Corps, who flew a B-17E Flying Fortress bomber in WW2 and left as a captain. The arrangement of the bridge of the USS Enterprise resembles more the cockpit of an aircraft than that of a wet navy ship. The crew structure is an amalgam of the Army Air Corp and the Navy.
Now wouldn't different designations be better suited to the medium of space?
Really it depends on the role and that common frame of reference. But there is one vessel that appears in Star Trek that has never existed in the wet navy - the shuttle craft.
Now the reason I ask this is I was thinking of making a model for Star Trek. One with a huge hangar. Now their usual idea is Carrier. Like we have now. But wouldn't they have different ideas for it's purpose?
Since it can carry anything from fighters yes, but also runabouts, scout vessels, ambulances, shuttles, etc.? And their roles could vary. Why only fighters for a wargame?
War games you tend to focus on ships whose primary purpose is war - which is strange, because to my knowledge the only two ships ever built by the Federation for the express purpose of war in the Star Trek universe was the USS Defiant and the USS Vengeance. Games like Star Fleet battles are more like the Mirrorverse of Star Fleet.
I was thinking of calling mine a Crisis Intervention Cruiser. Filled to the brim with craft that could handle a whole set of problems: Disaster relief, evacuating colonies (Vulcan *cough*), setting up a quarantine zone, or even police support.
Crash course in ship design - ships have a primary role and one or more compatible secondary roles that help shape the vessel's requirements.
When I look at your list above, I see four conflicting roles.
Disaster relief - this is the movement of supplies and trained personnel for rescue and long term support. A requirement would be shuttles and transporters to move people and equipment. A mobile hospital unit that could be deployed to the disaster area would definitely be a part of that, to treat in the field and to move cases to the ship for advanced care. Disaster relief is a very common sort of emergency. Typically a non-combatant role.
Colony evacuation - basically a large ship with a lot of room for passengers with attendant life support and supplies and means of transporting them to and from the ship - once again shuttles and transporters. Only we already have ships built to move a large number of people - colonizers and cruise ships. And how often do colonies need evacuation that we would need to build a specialty ship for this? Vulcan was destroyed too quickly for anyone to respond. Typically a non-combatant role.
Quarantine - isolating a planet or a solar system? This would basically require a station and/or picket ships, as well as a network of early warning sensors, most likely satellites. The station, once in place, typically would not need to move much except for maintaining its position. How often does a quarantine get put in place? I can see the need for a large scale transport ship to move the station and attendant picket ships. Definitely combatant role.
Police Support - sounds like a mobile police station with court house and detention facilities. More civilian structure than military, probably non-combatant.
Possibly I could work colony evacuation and disaster relief roles together, say specialized drop ships that could be attached for disaster relief but that would still be at odds with the other two roles of quarantine and police support - and they are opposite roles from each other.
What might be better is to not put all the eggs in one basket, and instead create a task force. Need to set up a quarantine around a planet suffering severe destruction and needing evacuation? Why would you only send one ship for that? Instead, you send picket ships to guard the planet while a rescue ship helps the people on the surface and sends the wounded to the rescue ship's hospital ward while the able bodied and lightly injured could be put aboard a stream of transportation ships to a refugee camp on one or more worlds.
My question for everyone is: What different designations would you set up for a space born navy? Or what kind of vessels would there be to differentiate itself from a planet based one?
Pure space vessel, trans-atmospheric, shuttles, and drop ships.
And of course, spheres are only if it stays in space. Having to fly or land on planets means the usual boat or tower orientation.
Spheres are not streamlined and can experience significant atmospheric drag. They do excel at volume.
A science fiction story you may want to read is called Ker-plop by Ted Reynolds about the return of a ship from the Magellanic Clouds after a voyage of 300,000 years - a sphere with a radius of 5,000 km. Except it's actually a nested series of spheres, with the exception of the outer shell they're basically planets. The population of the galaxy tripled when this ship returns.
Star Wars' Death Star confuses me because the surface suggests nested spheres but the landing bay the Millennium Falcon is pulled into suggests a horizontal layering of decks.
