MERIDIAN SPACE DOCK (Concept Study)
The place, where the UMS ÜBERLICHT is build.
UMS Überlicht details
I thought about, how workers will build such a ship at such a station. The building of such an epochal ship will last many months/years, so there must be adequate room for the workers, meaning artificial gravity for them to live in. Habitation rings with centrifugal force generated gravity is the first choice for that. The workers have to move between the Habitation Rings and their working place, that is in zero gravity (which helps a lot when lifting huge masses used for the ULCS - ÜberLicht Class Ship - vessels).
But how to solve the problem of rotating habitation rings and nonrotating working area ?
The workers have to be for weeks or months at the station (which currently produces the UMS ÜBERLICHT, eta = 1.1.2100). There must be a somewhat comfortable and secure way of switching between the two zones (esp. becuase they are workers and not Neil Armstong like trained super astonauts).
At Meridian Station there are two DOG CLUTCH MODULES between the central station axis and the two Habitation Rings (where 200 workers relax from heavy work in non gravity workings zone).
As you can see in picture 3, the yellow parts rotate at a differend speed than the Habitation Rings, if the Rigid- (or "Lock-Up") Clutches are not docked with the Habitation Ring. The golden parts are additionally free to move in axial direction (supported by spring/damper), so they can couple smoothly.
(This principal is derived from clutches used in automobiles by the way.)
So when moving from Habitation Ring to central part, workers enter the golden habitation spaces (for that the rigid connectors, implemented by docking ports here, must be closed). Then the docking ports are released (with AG1) and the Dog Clutch Modules can rotate freely. With Slider1 and Slider2 you can control the two axially placed motors before and behind the Dog Clutch Module, controlling the rotational speed of the module.
Bring the rotation speed to zero, then the workers can leave the habitation space and have a hard 6h shift on the Überlicht.
Going back to Habitation is reverse then.
Experiment successful, in principal.
GENERAL INFO
- Created On: Windows
- Game Version: 1.2.100.0
- Price: $810,295k
- Number of Parts: 315
- Dimensions: 270 m x 203 m x 156 m
PERFORMANCE
- Total Delta V: 0m/s
- Total Thrust: 0N
- Engines: 0
- Wet Mass: 7.88E+6kg
- Dry Mass: 7.44E+6kg
STAGES
| Stage | Engines | Delta V | Thrust | Burn | Mass |
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6 Comments
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1,682 TomKerbal8 months ago
@JanusSpaceIndustries Sounds great :-) I always try to make my own creations and come up with something new, and warships aren't on my menu, but I definitely get inspired by intriguing ships like the Donnager (how the heck did they overpower those?). Medina/Behemoth/Nauvoo ? Man, that's gigantic.
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9,227 Hyperant8 months ago
@TomKerbal Yeah, I think the Medina Station would be great, to be honest... Tycho is big but Medina Station looks prettier. I think you should try making the Donnager or the Gatamang Feronte if you are up to the challenge! :)
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1,682 TomKerbal8 months ago
@JanusSpaceIndustries Very good idea. I'm completely open-minded about it, I haven't thought about exactly how a space dock like that would work. Something like Tycho Station... so there will be ports for smaller ships in the future.
First I had thought about how something like that would be built realistically. Working in permanent weightlessness is not really pleasant, I think. Well, sure, with magnetic boots and great drugs it might work for a while, but it's better to sleep in 1g. Probably. -
9,227 Hyperant8 months ago
I don't think that, that dry dock shouldn't be limited to producing one ship at a time, I think it needs more ports.
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@TomKerbal In that case, just make those drop pods and add droids!😂