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Starship Design Bureau

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2337: Project Ferdinand (Primary Hull: Part One)
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    • Order -> Spaceframe -> Warp Core/Nacelles -> Tactical -> Internals -> Prototyping -> Certification -> Final Review​

    [X] A replacement for the ageing Miranda-class, able to conduct missions safely in the Federation interior. (Frigate)

    Project Ferdinand
    The ship should have sufficient tactical armament for convoy duty and responding to distress, as well as sufficient cargo space to act as a bulk hauler. It must have a crew of 100 or less.

    Minimum Tactical Rating: C


    Someone higher up has a sense of humour - Project Ferdinand indeed. For all the criticisms one might make of the Miranda-class, it is an extraordinarily well-designed hull. Well armed by the standards of the time, reasonably quick, plentiful cargo space, and even limited scientific facilities. But to build a small ship that can carry out the mission you've been assigned will require some intensive work, and the first decision is what to start with. The nature of the matter is that whatever saucer section you elect to begin with that will constitute the majority of the hull.

    The first option is to return the Excelsior, that ever-reliable chassis. The engines are already sorted, potentially some of the weapons too, but from there you'll have to take a chisel to the spaceframe to find space for the deflector, warp core, cargo bays and so forth. Experience also means you can be more comfortable with automating well-understood systems to reduce pressure on the crew.

    The second option is to create your own, trialling modern manufacturing techniques and bulkhead designs. You'll still have to take butcher's tools to whatever you create, but it would provide the option to more aggressively build up the rear in the same vein as the Miranda originally added mass to the back of the Constitution-class saucer. Still, are you sure you really want to start from scratch when you're already going to be fighting to cram every system under the sun into as small a space as possible?

    [ ] Excelsior, don't fail us now.
    [ ] Trial a new saucer design.
     
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    • [X] Trial a new saucer design.

    I want the phaser array and jamming that into an Excelsior saucer is already making changes, plus with isolinear being the future this way we can figure out how to design hulls account for that
     
    I'm amused at the idea of making our first batch of new ships all re-use the same Excelssior hull, but no. We can do better.

    [X] Trial a new saucer design.
     
    Should we make this ship able to land on planets? Will make it easier to ship goods to worlds that aren't as transporter friendly.
     
    [X] Trial a new saucer design.

    Let's just make it a sphere rather than a saucer.
     
    [X] Trial a new saucer design.

    It feels like the amount of rearrangement we'd need to do to the Excelsior's internals to make this work would obviate many of the benefits of working within an existing design?

    Also we just designed a workhorse starship based on an Excelsior saucer with no secondary hull, and the result was the Renaissance class. How much more mass could we realistically even cut? And if we aren't cutting mass, then... pretty much we're just making an alternate version of the Renaissance at that point, which seems pointless.
     
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