Re: ? for the FT players or anyone with RW Naval Build Times

At 9:37 AM -0600 3/21/04, Doug Evans wrote:
>
>Yes, you can build ships without the structures. Yes, modularity means
you
>build a small piece, attach it, and it's flawlessly integrated. Will it
>necessarily the best way to do it? I'm not so sure. But that's a flavor
>thing as much as any.

The space dock is going to provide the following:
Power
Light
thermal protection (how hard is it to line up a 
part that's suddenly expanded because it's struck 
by direct sunlight?
Habitation facilities for the construction teams
Staging points for materials, tools, parts, sub-assemblies
structural support for the items above for alighnment
design offices where problems might need to be sorted out

Even today, ships are coming off of slips 
slightly different as the design is changed over 
the course of the production run. There's a very 
good book about the Arliegh Burke class 
construction program and how Bath Iron Works is 
doing it. They're building it in modules 
sometimes upside down in factories floors, then 
assembling them on the slips.

Assuing such a process would work for a Space 
Navy, it'd be trivial with the kinds of heavy 
lift capabilities some nations would have to 
construct the large modules on a low Gee 
environment and then boost them to an assembly 
area. If only to make it easier for the crews to 
perform their work. Work in zero Gee with a hard 
vacuum is hard. Fiddly work is very hard as well. 
Crews would work far more efficiently if in a 
pressurized environment with low gravity. 
Artificial gravity plating in an assembly dock 
would be useful.

For maximization of work space, a set of slips 
arranged around a disk or a sphere would allow an 
internal area for offices, quarters and workshops 
(1 G). A layer of enclosed area for major 
assembly (or small craft assembly) seems 
reasonable (pressurized w/ airlocks for access in 
and 1-.3 G). Two layers of slips would be useful 
as well, enclosed slips  for major construction 
(pressurized w/ airlocks for access in and 1-.3 
G) and overhaul and external slips for minor work 
that can be accomplished outside (open to space).

With additional sub components built on the 
surface of a factory in times of great need, one 
could step up construction times to match that of 
the liberty ships or the LSTs.

-- 
--
Ryan Gill	       rmgill@SPAMmindspring.com
----------------------------------------------------------
      |        |		   |	     -==----	  
      | O--=-  |		   |	    /_8[*]°_\	   
      |_/|o|_\_|       | _________ |	    /_[===]_\	  
      / 00DA61 \       |/---------\|	 __/	     \--- 
   _w/|=_[__]_= \w_    // [_]  o[]\\   _oO_\	     /_O|_
  |: O(4) ==	O :|  _Oo\=======/_O_  |____\	    /____|
  |---\________/---|  [__O_______W__]	|x||_\	   /_||x| 
   |s|\        /|s|   |s|/BSV 575\|s|	|x|-\|	   |/-|x| 
   |s|=\______/=|s|   |s|=|_____|=|s|	|x|--|_____|--|x| 
   |s|		|s|   |s|	  |s|	|x|	      |x| 
'60 Daimler Ferret '42 Daimler Dingo '42 Humber MkIV (1/3)
----------------------------------------------------------