Design starships from Enterprise onwards, dealing with production capabilities and internal layouts to meet the demands of Starfleet as Earth takes the galactic stage. With art!
It's a good day for United Earth: after a century of rebuilding with Vulcan help, the majority of the environmental and infrastructural damage from the Third World War has been repaired. As a part of these efforts the spaceborne activities of the human race have been centralised under the United Earth Starfleet, an organisation dedicated to the protection of Earth and the exploration of space. As the Vulcans are unwilling to share their technology the Warp 5 Engine project has been working for over a decade to prototype a design capable of propelling a starship at the eponymous warp factor.
Three years ago, it succeeded in breaking Warp 3. Projections are that an engine at least capable of reaching Warp 5 is likely to be available at the end of the decade. That has been the signal to Starfleet that now is the time to start launching starships that are capable of true extrasolar travel, rather than relying on colony ships and civilian freighters for the expansion efforts of humanity. All too often both have failed, with no help available to rescue them or investigate their disappearance.
With that in mind the Starfleet Design Bureau has been established in San Francisco, nominally to begin work on Warp 5 starship designs. But with currently only the Warp 3 engine available there has been some trepidation at the thought of beginning those designs and potentially having to start from scratch further down the line. Fortunately the United Earth Prime Minister in Paris and Starfleet Command are both in agreement that a new starship could be used more locally and as a useful training cadre for more sophisticated vessels.
Enter Project Daedalus. It is a simple request: to create a starship capable of Warp 3. Ideally it will be capable of carrying cargo to reduce reliance on the 'boomers', the space-borne families who run the United Earth Cargo Service. But more importantly it should have basic tactical systems to dissuade pirates and provide simple defensive functions. United Earth does not anticipate any large-scale hostilities, but the inability for cargo ships to decisively see off pirates with their standard defensive plasma cannon has been an increasing theme in the last decade.
It doesn't have to be elegant or cutting edge. It just has to work. That said, United Earth has laid the groundwork with several major industrial concerns, and are willing to provide extra funding to accelerate certain paths of research if you feel it would be useful to your work. What do you consider to be most in need of extra attention? The option(s) you decline to pick will follow their usual development timelines.
[ ] The current impulse thrusters are too bulky and space-inefficient. (Reaction Thruster -> Type 1 Thruster Prototype)
[ ] The particle cannon yields are too low to inflict meaningful damage to heavily polarised plating. (Particle Cannon -> Phase Cannon Prototype)
With that decided, you need to decide what shape Project Daedalus will take. The first option is to focus on the cargo request, using the minimum of material for maximum internal space. The ship will consist of spheres and circular elements, which will likely have a detrimental effect on warp efficiency and manoeuvrability but do a great deal to make a larger practical starship. The second option is to consider the tactical role more closely, focusing on a refined but low-mass design that can patrol freighter routes and the outer Sol system with a fast intercept time. This lower profile would have minimal cargo space and less endurance in exchange, however.
[ ] Focus on providing cargo and transport space for the United Earth Starfleet. Will require more warp coils and hull plating.
[ ] Focus on a small ship for short-range interception and basic patrol duty. Will require more polarisation relays.
Project Daedalus
TAC:
ENG:
SCI:
Warp:
At present roughly half your available industrial space in shipyards and factories across Earth and Luna has already been taken up by component manufacturing for the expected starships that you will be designing. This covers the tritanium hull plating, reaction thrusters, polarisation relays, particle cannons, spatial torpedoes, deflector systems, and more. But it is expected that the remaining capacity will be rapidly taken up to match demand for those same systems, or even to build specific starship designs in future. You can't take that free industrial space for granted, and in a few years may have to start making difficult decisions.
[X] The particle cannon yields are too low to inflict meaningful damage to heavily polarised plating. (Particle Cannon -> Phase Cannon Prototype)
[X] Focus on a small ship for short-range interception and basic patrol duty.
With the significant technology gap between Earth and most species, more effective weaponry is necessary. This is especially the case with the intention of designing a short range patrol ship for home duty. Given the Warp 5 Engine is expected to be back-compatible with the Warp 3 engine, you have to expect that whatever you design may be in service for ten or twenty years. With that in mind you have every incentive to excel in your first outing into starship design.
The first question is one of shape, which in turn is determined by the main deflector. Strictly speaking you don't need one for a starship to be warp-capable, as the warp field itself will passively guide interstellar dust around the ship. It's only when incoming velocities and mass exceed the innate deflection force of the warp shell that a deflector becomes necessary.
So the first option is to eschew a deflector entirely. This will enable a much more compact bow section, reducing mass and complexity. Giving the ship an arrow shape would reduce its profile significantly, a useful trait when every part of the hull needs polarisation relays for defensive purposes.
The second option is to fit a deflector in the forward hull. Given its width it seems sensible to at least make the front a half-saucer. That would provide plenty of space for weapon systems, but at the cost of needing more polarisation relays and hull material for a faster and more heavily armed interceptor.
Eventually the decision is made to use a deflector and build a larger vessel than the minimalist approach. The half-saucer is sharply truncated just before the midline, a flat aft-facing surface being formed through the four decks it practically bisects. This will be the idea place to put loading bay doors, docking hatches, and the main sublight thrusters. But before you can get to the weapons or even the main engines, you need to make sure the spaceframe is capable of faster than light travel.
As far as you can tell you have two options. The first is to sharply bring the nacelles up over dorsal surface of the ship. This would allow clear forward line of sight and compact the warp bubble for increased stability and a slightly higher cruise speed. The alternative is to shift the nacelles out more to the sides at an almost horizontal displacement, creating a distended warp field that will emphasise higher maximum warp factors.
[X] Horizontal Axis Nacelles (+0.4 Maximum Warp Factor)
The advantages offered by a higher sprint speed are difficult to ignore for a fast-response ship intended for local defense and basic patrols, so you end up spreading the nacelles out along the horizontal axis. It gives the ship an almost aquatic look, like some sort of skate or ray. With the nacelle positioning decided, the only thing left is the main engines.
The first option is to mount it on the aft midline, taking up the rear of the ship just behind the nacelle struts. The ship might not be especially manoeuvrable as a result, but it would save a great deal of internal space in the half-saucer for auxiliary systems. You could fit a couple of cargo bays, maybe even a basic shuttlepod hatch.
The second option is to mount a pair in the flat surface formed by the truncation of the saucer section. This would give the ship greater responsiveness and agility for turns, but would impinge on the internal spaces and reduce the room for auxiliary functions. It would never be more than a purely military patrol vessel.
While the reaction thrusters are bulky, the engine bells do not protrude overly much against the profile of the ship. With the Daedalus mobile you now have to make a decision on the tactical armament. While the new phase cannons are yet untested and more complicated to produce, you have a few options in terms of placement. The design provides for two forward torpedo tubes, so whatever is decided they will definitely be included. The question is the energy weapon armament.
The first is to mount two phase cannons on the ventral hull forward and one aft, providing decent all-round coverage. The second option is more extensive, doubling up so that the same layout is duplicated on the dorsal hull. While this would keep the ship firing more often, the factories warn that phase cannons are already more complicated than the standard plasma cannons and it will absolutely limit how many ships can be produced.
At present you have 40 industrial capacity, of which a minimum of half is going to be directed to Project Daedalus over the next five years. While you can't be sure how industrial capacity might expand due to outside events, you can control what you do with what you already have available. By using the excess to expand your production capabilities you can increase your manufacturing budget for future starships.
[ ] Three Phase Cannons (Five Ships over 5 Years) (20 Industry Remaining [+4 Industry/Year for 5 Years])
[ ] Six Phase Cannons (Five Ships over 5 Years) (14 Industry Remaining [+2.8 Industry/Year For 5 Years])
[X] Three Phase Cannons (Five Ships over 5 Years) (20 Industry Remaining [+4 Industry/Year for 5 Years])
Using only three phase cannons substantially reduces the manufacturing cost of the Daedalus, although it comes at a tactical sacrifice. With all the weapons on the ventral surface, it means that it is theoretically possible for an enemy to stay in the dorsal arcs and evade counter-fire. More realistically the Daedalus' dual thrusters allows it rapid turns in the horizontal axis with asynchronous thrust, and its RCS thrusters at the edge of the saucer means that it can rotate along its longitudinal axis to bring its cannons to bear. Any ship capable of defeating both these efforts is likely one with such a technological advantage that the Daedalus has no business fighting it, though it is undeniable that there will be some firepower losses as a result of the empty firing arcs. Maybe something for a refit.
With that said, the new phase cannons enter their testing phase. Initial efforts reveal some troubling inclinations towards overcharge when linked into the ship-wide power grid, but the implementation of a plasma-throttle resolves the issue without much in the way of complications. The new cannons output just under a hundred gigajoules of particle energy with relatively short charge and cycle times. Somewhat perversely they so outclass the current spatial torpedoes that it becomes hard to recommend fitting them on future starships for a purely tactical purpose, a far cry from the multiple tubes on the Daedalus.
With the weapons fitted the Daedalus is ready for its trials. With a warp drive that can sprint to almost forty times the speed of light it is ideally equipped to intervene in the outer system of wherever it is stationed, which in this case is Sol. The cruise is a more standard ten times the speed of light, which means that any transfers would need to be carefully considered by Starfleet Command. You doubt any are in the near future. When all systems come back green save a few minor technical glitches, she puts into spacedock for the final touches. The last thing she needs before setting her loose is a name.
[ ] UEF Stingray, for the aquatic creature that her flared half-saucer makes her resemble.
[ ] UEF Daedalus, for the inventor who made Icarus his wings to soar the heavens.
[ ] UEF Intrepid, for the spirit that this first major step past Warp 3 signifies.
[X] UES Stingray, for the aquatic creature that her flared half-saucer makes her resemble.
The UES Stingray launches with much applause and celebration, though the ship is unlikely to leave Sol for many years. It nonetheless provides a certain amount of in-system security that has been sorely lacking. You wouldn't find any other spacefaring species unable to defend their own homeworld, and if Earth wants to join that club then it needs to be prepared to do that.
The phase cannons were certainly worth requesting an acceleration of their development, and the new impulse thrusters now coming out of the labs and getting ready for field tests look attractive in their own right. So while the Stingray enters service and generates the useful reports that will demonstrate how the design and your manufacturing techniques hold up under prolonged use, other eyes are turned firmly to the future.
On the one hand, you could request further investment into another prototype technology. On the other hand, that same investment could be used to set up more factories and manufacturing systems for your own use. Some inquiries suggest that an up-and-coming company called Yoyodyne is making some interesting steps in warp coil technology that could benefit from having an extra injection of funds. Alternatively a new industrial shipyard in Iowa could provide some welcome overhead as you spin up capacity for the NX project.
Bringing a new set of facilities online is much appreciated, although at present sublight technology is not sophisticated enough to bring a ship from ground to orbit. Nonetheless the Iowa facilities will be making plenty of tritanium alloy and polarisation relays in the near future that will be climbing to orbit for final assembly, and every little bit helps.
Meanwhile the Stingray has finished its trials and is entering service. While you won't be able to see how it performs until it is actually called to engage an intruder or bold pirate, you feel reasonably optimistic about its chances. Time will tell. It's entirely possible that if they remain stationed at Sol that they may undergo a refit before any actually see combat.
But your work is never done. The Stingray is a good start, and United Earth now feels much more confident about fielding starships of its own design than it did a couple of years ago. While you may not have the technological edge of other species you can clearly apply what you do have competently. Which leads to your next project.
It's the armed cargo ship, filed as Project Zheng He. You previously declined the contract, but the demand for a faster cargo hauler with basic weapons hasn't disappeared. Ideally you want one that's cheap, small, and effective. Given progress reports from the Warp 5 complex you are confident that in the near future you are going to be called to design the first Warp 5 starship, so you don't want to take on too heavy a workload beforehand.
With that in mind, you have two options. You can focus on as small a footprint as possible, aiming to use minimal materials and making some sacrifices in bulk cargo capabilities, or go the opposite way and try and make a larger vessel with weaker defensive power but greater carrying capacity. Fortunately you can make a general estimate of the cost for each ship as a baseline before you start factoring in weaponry or extra engines.
[ ] Small Cargo Ship (-9 Industry)
[ ] Large Cargo Ship (-12 Industry)
