On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 10:55:15PM +0100, Timothy Collinson wrote:
> Command modules.  I have to have 5 sections (for space stations over
> 200,000 tons) - that's fair enough.  I have to have one command
> module per section which also seems reasonable.  BUT each command
> module takes 0.2% of the station.  That's 2,000,000 tons *each*.  10
> million tons total.

Is it 0.2% of the section it commands, or 0.2% of the whole station
each?  It seems odd to have a "per section" module that depends on
stuff outside its section, but it could be reasonable if every command
module in any section is capable of running the whole station in an
emergency.

> It seems way out of kilter for what's being described as essentially
> a starship bridge - although maybe somewhat bigger.

It sounds like a "bridge" for a whole city.  I.e. the combined volume
of every control room for every subsystem on the whole station.

Does it also include the volume of all the control pathways and
distributed networks of control nodes?  If it does, then the volume
could well make sense.  If you have 5-way redundant operations modules
for every system on the station, each with their own command pathways
then the total volume and cost would add up pretty fast even if in
routine conditions only 1/5 are in use at any given time.

> While I'm here... how on earth do you work out what would be
> appropriate commercial space for such a station?  (shops, malls,
> arcades etc).  There's no guidance and I've chucked in 20,000 tons
> just for something to be going on with but I think this may be
> woefully inadequate.  Especially if residential space is over
> 20,000,000 tons.  Anyone got a rule of thumb?

That does sound woefully inadequate.  Even though we are dirty gravity
well bottom feeders and so not worthy of comparison to shining
citizens of space, it might be interesting to imagine a "snapshot" of
our commercial spaces vs apartment buildings, and roughly estimate how
many m^3 per person in each.  If their society was anything like ours
(grubby mudsuckers though we may be), then they would typically go
outside their homes for work, shopping, socialising, and various other
activities of daily living for a goodly number of hours per day.

They wouldn't want to be packed in like sardines during these
activities, so I would expect nonresidential spaces to be at least
similar in total volume to residential spaces.  It would be quite
reasonable to expect those spaces to be larger.

> I'm also wondering if Docking Space of 300,000 tons (which allows up
> to 100,000 tons of docked ship) isn't a bit small as well.  This is
> a major station, one Jump from Capital, A-class port, on x-boat
> routes.  I'm guessing there will be a *lot* of ships berthed and
> coming and going and this would only allow for thirty 10,000-ton
> ships (or 300 1,000 tons), so I reckon I might go up to a million
> tons of docking space.

It sounds like it functions as the primary port with a large city on a
major interstellar trade route, so even a million tons seems small.
Ten million might be getting closer.

> Oh, and just for info: the Power Plant (presumably a lot of them
> spread out through the station) comes to 12,500,000 tons!  (and M
> Drive for station keeping at 7,500,000 tons).

Given the power density of Traveller power plants and drives, these on
the other hand seem excessive.  Is this thing designed to swoop around
gas giants with a few gees of thrust while blowing up the planet or
something?  I'd expect more like a hundredth of a gee maneuver
capability at most, and a few terawatts of power should be able to run
everything.

- Tim