Show and Tell: My Vertical Starfleet Vessel
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- A vertical saucer makes for a weird - but interesting - Starfleet vessel.
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Håkon Nilsen
TK2 Films
Joseph Jonathan Marcus
"Bad Wolf Solutions"
Dominick LaLicata
Sam Williamson
Daniel Day
Given that it's maximising windows over floor space and practicality, it should be something where windows are actually valued: passengers.
Given it's not a Civilian ship, this looks like something for the Starfleet Diplomatic Service, hosting delegations, ferrying ambassadors around, showing a peaceful presence in a sector.
Could name the class Courier-class or Marathon-class (after all, that was originally ran by a courier).
EruditePigeon I like that idea. Personally I think the Courier class name is more fitting for that sort of transport ship. When I hear a name like marathon, I think more of a long range, highly independent, explorer type starship.
Guess we had a similar idea there. Didn't see your comment until I finished mine.
EruditePigeon Absolutely agree. It would also be a good ship for sightseeing in space. You know, ancient space stations, protected by Federation as historically valuable... Diplomacy is in many cases about that: showing off your acomplishments in a peaceful way. That,s what windows are for. Btw, this deck configuration suggests modular gravity plating in each section (because different aliens are accustomed to different conditions). And the saucer width is just enough to fit luxury living quarters. And the sphere in the center is where crew lives, so it is much more like classic Starfleet. So it definitely should be a diplomatic ship.
I was gonna say something similar for different reasons.
The ships size and design seems to me to focus on a single passenger. The whole ship designed to pamper one person so a diplomatic transport for new diplomats the federation needs to impress. You matter so much we've sent a whole ship just for you.
I agree. Alternatively, it's the "Chariot" class, due to the wheel-like appearance of the vertical saucer.
USS Penny-Farthing
I LOLed.
XD that killed me
The thought that immediately occurred to me, and I apologize if this has been fleshed out similarly in another comment already, was that it would make an ideal consular vessel. The lack of interior floor space but lots of windows sounds perfect for conference rooms, staterooms, and good views in orbit of planets. It would only need minimal weapons for self-defense as well as powerful engines capable of speeding to diplomatic hot spots. It looks like it wouldn't require a large crew besides command, navigation, engineering, and basic medical facilities since it would typically be near a planet that could offer more extensive services in serious emergencies. The missions would consist of carrying diplomats to meet with newly contacted worlds, arbitrating interstellar disputes, serving as neutral ground for belligerents within and without the Federation, acting as mobile embassies.
The diplomatic nature of it makes me think that the class and ships within it would be named after important diplomats and other dignitaries known for their peace efforts. As such I would propose:
Eleanor Roosevelt-class Consular Cruiser
Ships of the class: (some, as the UFP would likely make use of lots of these)
U.S.S. Eleanor Roosevelt, U.S.S. Sarek, U.S.S. Nelson Mandela, U.S.S. Kofi Annan, U.S.S. Gorkon, U.S.S. Azetbur, U.S.S. Khitomer, U.S.S. Camp David, U.S.S. Ban Ki-moon, U.S.S. Emissary, U.S.S. Riva, U.S.S. Organia, U.S.S. Archer, U.S.S. U Thant
Alan R. C. Raventree they wouldn’t go with two names or someone alive in the series. So Khitomer is pretty cool, and it would probably be the Emmisary-Class for simplicity. Nice idea!
Nice thinking dude. Tell that to Starfleet.
USS Organa
I gotta say, the first look freaked me out, but it's very quickly growing on me!
One of my favourite aspects is using the artificial gravity for something other than simple flat decks. Radial gravity... interesting idea!
Actually the way you describe the gravity, it would be identical to how rotational gravity works. Which to me screams that this would be a concept used on the very first artificial gravity ships. If you had a universe where ships before AG fields used rotational hulls for gravity, then the first ship design that used AG fields might very well be a concept like this just because they would be so used to building hulls with this kind of radial/circular layout.
The trouble is that that really wouldn't work with the Trek timeline - at least, unless you redesigned the ship to fit in the pre-NX, pre-Franklin era.
Here's another thing. You said that you lose a lot of deck space with this configuration. That doesn't sound right to me, so I did a quick mockup in blender to test it out. I made a simple ellipsoid saucer, 134m in diameter and 18m thick. With 3m deck heights that gave me 6 conventional decks totalling 59,100m^2 of space.
Turning it to the other orientation, that makes the decks far narrower - the smallest radius deck is just about 18 m wide, dropping to about 3.6m wide for the deck at the rim. But there was space for an impressive 16 decks, totalling 58,005m^2. Obviously that's lower, but really not much of a loss. I neglected to put a core in the way you have it, of course, but that shouldn't make any difference as it will reduce the available space for both configurations.
Try some quick and dirty modelling yourself, I think you should see that you don't actually lose any deck space at all.
And this points towards one interesting aspect of this configuration, which is that you have a lot more potential for putting windows in. Think about it, on a standard saucer configuration for any given deck only the rooms on the outer rim of the deck can have windows at all. And for most decks, those windows will practically be in the ceiling. Skylights rather than widows.
But on my mocked up saucer, the widest deck is only 18m wide. Call that two 8m wide rooms with a 2m passageway between them. That means that every single room in that deck can have a window looking out into space. And as you go out the rooms get narrower, not larger, so really it means every single room in the entire saucer can have a window.
Now agreed, windows are all but useless to a practical Starship. But for a passenger ship, this would be perfect! Every single suite would have windows looking out into space. What better design could you ask for?!
Hope you find those insights useful.
Anyway, my suggestion for the name of the ship... how about the USS Contrarian!
Presenting, a new experimental scout ship the U.S.S. Rotam (wheel in Latin). The Rotam, NX -358 (length of this video), utilizes a new warp field configuration, hence the ship's unique shape. This new Warp Field is called Inverse Drive which basically flips the Warp Field on its side to increase the ship's ability to maintain speeds over Warp 9 for extended periods of time. The inverted Warp bubble is more stable and allows for greater agility. The inverted Warp signature is also smaller which aids in less detection during more stealthy missions. The Rotam is equipped with more escape pods than crew members. These extra pods act as decoys - complete with false lifeforms readings - to distract from real manned pods ejected during an emergency evac.
I like that actually.
@@NyloElLobo Thanks. I wrote that two years ago and forgot all about it.
@@starbrand3726 I was thinking about a non-terestrian name. But this one got me. As well as the description.
@@NyloElLobo I've looked at some of your artwork. It's very interesting. The dragon especially looks almost like flowing liquid frozen into a dragon's form.
@@starbrand3726 Oh that. Yeah that was a long time ago. My skills actually evolved and I never finished this tutorial since I had problems with the recording system...
Because someone had to suggest it: the USS Starship McStarshipface
The unconventional floor plan would make it very difficult to move and store supplies. So, maybe light research or escort in some capacity. I'd say it would lend itself better as a delegation transport ship, though. It's design is more showing off than functional.
Khitomer Class; USS Buchanan, NCC 61868. Ambassador escort.
Nice design, but for the deck layout you miss the obvious. Star fleet ships use artificial gravity, so the deck layout could be exactly the same as any other starship. As in, flip the ship as if the saucer was flat and the nacelles on top and bottom. Lay out the saucer decks like normal. Now turn on artificial gravity, you have your up and down, doesn’t matter which way the ship turns or flips, up will always be the same, and down the same. Then rotate the ship back around with the nacelles to the sides.
The crew still feels like the are standing upright.
Mike Crabtree Would be really bad if the gravity was knocked out XD
In that case, it would just be a regular saucer with its nacelles stacked in a vertical orientation, rather than a vertical saucer section.
@Tyzan, It would still be like a normal ship: If the gravity was knocked out everyone would float in Zero G.
@Dang Oldn303: Except for the middle section, that sphere could still be perpendicular to the saucer, and it would contain the bridge which we would use to a that "this is up and down"
That basically turns it into a Stargazer clone.
But what if it were under external gravity?
wow...just wow! your skills and dedication is to be admired. keep up the good work! we appreciate it.
I don't.
It reminds of the 26th century Nautilus-class from Star Trek Online.
I had the same thought.
The Aegean-class starship is one of a highly specialized type of medical starship. Its central sphere has a very similar, though much more compact, layout to her cousins like the Olympus- and Daedalus-class ships. The ship pictured above is the U.S.S. Merkel.
The first deck of the inner sphere is where the bridge, conference room and captain's lounge are located. On the second deck, the mess hall, multi-purpose rooms, a couple small holodecks and other amenities customary for starsips are found. The third and fourth deck houses quarters for the entire ship's crew (typically only a few dozen people). The two decks below that are for shuttles and cargo.
Where the Aegean-class starship differs greatly from other medical ships is its vertical saucer. Most decks of the saucer boasts a completely open floor plan and this is vital to the ship's humanitarian function. Each deck has an impressive array of holo-emitters that allows the interior space to be designed specifically for any given mission. If need be, one Aegean-class starship can transport thousands of humanoid refugees. Some decks of the saucer section are static, though, with several sickbays, multi-purpose rooms for the entertainment of passengers, and an abundance of teleport pads which allows the Aegean to evacuate an area of people in a very short amount of time.
Because the ship is power-hungry (given all its holo-emitters and teleporters) it contains four massive generators (either anti-matter or fussion) which are visible as domes on either side of the engineering section. The ship is capable of traveling at warp 9.5, and utilizes the Intrepid-class' variable warp field geometry (though without the need for adjustable pylons).
Very nice indeed.
"open floor design" so you'd keep the decks parallel to the saucer? Is there any problem having two different gravitational up/down orientation on a ship?
Good gracious! That’s a lot of detail!
And how do you handle the huge heat dissipation requirements for such a ship with all that power running throu it? Plasma venting would be a continuous process so need to carry a lot of whatever material they are using to plasma-fy in order to eject heat. No way passive black-body radiation could handle it without a massive "sail" probably dragged behind it so the deflector shields would give it some protection; but then fitting that into a warp bubble wouldn't work so you'd have to bring it in whenever at warp; so warp speed duration would be limited by heat build up.
Could this be the hero ship for Star Trek McCoy?
USS Buzzsaw :-)
Blade Class
"wheel barrow" class
Captain Hammond. "I'm the Captain and I want it to spin!"
Perhaps it's more of an industrial or manufacturing ship? The vertical saucer section might not be optimized for human comfort, but it could be set up to provide long "assembly lines" or chains of systems for manufacturing, replication, etc. Like, there could be some heavy duty teleporters set up to extract materials from nearby asteroids which is then sent into that big saucer section either near the middle or the edge. The material then gets sent through a long assembly system (or series of highly efficient replicators) where it gets turned into a finished product.
It's basically a manufacturing/refinery ship that can replicate goods or materials on an industrial scale and can be quickly deployed to new colonies or planets without an established industrial base. Send one of these to a new colony and it can churn out technology or supplies in short order. It might also have industrial sized replicators that can make things that other ships in the fleet can't usually handle.
I had a similar idea a while back. Connect the Transporter, Replicator, Holodeck, and the Main deflector in order to replicate star ships. Use half the transporters to harvest molecules from asteroids, process through the replicators, and use the other half of the transporters to materialize the molecules into place in a holographic ship being emitted by the main deflector. Using the holograph as a template, to act as a place holder for everything not yet replicated.
A possible solution for you is that this is a Starfleet vessel for a non-humanoid crew, perhaps something aquatic that wouldn't need a traditional deck layout. We know non-humanoid aliens do exist in Star Trek, even if they're relatively rare compared to precursor-planted Humanoids.
The USS Unicycle!
There was an early episode of TNG where Riker was giving false information to some hologram posing as a former crewmate. Riker said his ship was the USS Lolipop and it's top speed was warp 3. This should totally be that ship.
Edit: I just realized the name of the episode is "Arsenal of Freedom"
I think he referred to it as the "good ship Lollipop" but that sounds like a good name
If you make the saucer rotate, you can call it a pre-artificial-magic-gravity-plate ship and infer that saucers remained in use onwards as a means of reducing costs and later as a legacy standard (like the qwerty keyboard or imperial measures)
One, i think this is one of the most unique Ship designs i've seen in a while.
Two, you suprised me with your deck orientation. i'd have expected decks to be oriented with their top to the left/Right of the vessel.
Okay, so I'm LOVING this design. It's unique, cool, and very sci-fi. I can't help but wonder if perhaps it needs 4 neacells? It could just be my minor need for symmetry and multiple axis. But I wonder what would look like if there were four like a constellation?
Anyway, after having a good long look at it, and pondering it's design, I did dream up a sort of short history for it. (I might have gone too far...)
Class: Hermes
Name: USS Carson NX-1535 (Named for Rachel Carson, the Marine Biologist)
With a smaller compliment of offensive weaponry, but a larger surface area for sensor arrays, probes and all manner of data analyzing and processing suites. However, the ship could also double as transport, colonization, and medical aid.
The ship's primary function was to scout entire star systems, and analyze spacial phenomenon. Aside from it's shape, the ships most unique function was the "Core Detachment protocol", for planet colonization, heavy duty transport, or shipment of goods that where unable to be safely moved via either transporters, or a light craft such as a runabout.
The core of the ship does not house the warp core, but uses the spherical shape of its hull to allow for stacked fusion reactors to provide energy for up to 300 standard days while detached from the mother-ship in space. While detached, this spherical section can move at impulse speeds and features light weaponry. The primary feature however is that much like the Intrepid class, the Hermes class could land. It features a large selection of cargo bays and medical spaces for triage. The ship can effectively land and become an outpost all on it's own. While not in space the ships power supply is considerably extended, as it is no longer running it's impulse engines, shielding and deflector arrays. These can still function to protect the ship from hostile forces or environment. Essentially turning the ship into a small mobile fortress.
These ships saw limited front line use during the Dominion war. However, the Federation quickly found that deploying the Core on planets made for a ready made base with per-existing medical, weaponry, fabrication and housing facilities. Many ships where used to simply drop their Cores onto planets and use them for helping hold outposts on the fridges of Federation space.
So, here goes nothing:
The vessel is the USS Marcus Aurelius and it's a Caesar class vessel (all vessels in this class are named after various Roman emperors, although probably not Nero or Caligula). Now the vessel has a unique function to go along with it's specialized design. Long term localized research. The saucer section is actually it's own research micro-space station (that adopts certain design elements from the Cardassian Nor class space stations, most notably DS9, as well as certain Vulcan design elements) that can detach and move into position in orbit of a planet, star, nebula what have you (hence the impulse engines, moving stations such as DS9 and Space Dock often proved difficult). This frees up the sphere and star drive section to be able to go on other missions (such as ferrying various saucer sections to and from their various mission locations). Now, the various ring or saucer sections actually have specific equipment for the missions in question, and for this vessel the saucer contains what appear to be an inordinate number of escape pods, but what are actually two person research shuttles, possibly for exploring a planetary system that might be suitable for colonization. That also explains the inordinate number of windows, the researchers want to be able to see the object they're researching.
Starship "Gyros".
Perhaps this is a interior floor style that would suit aquatic species if you fill it full of water ?
Or perhaps a dense gas full of sentient floating jellyfish.
On slight issue the poor thing would have if someone wanted to display it in a museum exhibit in a large starbase in future decades it would have to fly through the doors sideways.
I love this ship. It's so bizarre and unique. As for a name, maybe the Picasso.
This is actually a pretty amazing design, and I love the curving hallway concept. It definitely makes it stand out. There is also a future starship in Star Trek Online that resembles this.
this ship looks amazing, awesome job
When the Federation is threatened by the Space Pizza creatures, this ship - with a role like a Coast Guard cutter - to the rescue. But to defend against the Flying Spaghetti Monster, you need a more tomato shaped sauce, er, section.
If I had to classify this ship I would say it were a Solar System Class Deep Space Clipper, similar to the Yankee Clippers of old. Its main area of operation would be Pluto and beyond, the Kupier belt, on out to the helopause region where our solar system ends and inter stellar space begins. It could be used for transit to near by stars when and if warp drive were developed. Currently it would have ion,or fusion engines.
If you'd just described this ship to me I would have said it sounded terrible but seeing it in 3D it actually looks pretty good! It really just works, I love it!
Slowboat Class. Crew of 150, Max warp 8.5 (TNG scale)
Designed to operate in regions of space affected by Omega Particle Detonations. Its impulse drive can operate in a Nuclear Thermal mode which sacrifices the incredible specific impulse and thrust for only really quite impressive Isp and T, the warp drive is designed for smooth transition from warp to sublight, and in the event of a loss of gravity plating the ship can deploy a counterweight and spin around for artificial gravity. Subspace sensors are replaced with heavy reliance on optical equipment, and in the event of holo-imaging failure on viewscreens.
Some design changes may be necessary to make my idea work though, so not the best idea. I'll list them on the off chance you're interested. First, bulky propellant tanks to store hydrogen for the nuclear thermal mode. Second, it would make sense to make the ship larger and thus the windows smaller in proportion, since small centrifuges need to spin fast to generate earthlike gravity. Fast spins cause dizziness and can not be adjusted to in cases as small as most of the decks on this design.
So anyway as it is my idea doesn't quite work upon further inspection, but I really do like this ship design!
That is such a creative concept! I love the uniqueness to this starfleet ship. Way different to a 'Constitution' style ship.
Interesting idea, and I'm going to echo other people in saying that you can orient decks however you want because of artificial gravity. Also, the Death Star had both crustal decks and a stacked internal arrangement, so doing something like that in this case would work too. The only trouble with this design is to wrap existing engineering and warp field theory around the shap of this ship...which also doesn't hinder you because you could just as easily say "We've done some alternative maths and it works fine!" because it's fiction and you can do what ever you need to fit the narrative. In fact, those windows may just be glowing panels because having a totally blacked out ship would be boring.
USS Pizzacutter
Logically that doesn't work for me at all. The whole point of having a saucer is it helps manage the effect of "gravity plating" by having gravity across a thin circular plane, while keeping it within the warp bubble. Your design makes no sense either way, since it would both clip the warp bubble, and collapse under its own "weight". Plus if you're having a saucer at a 90 degree angle, why not just have the plating at an angle too? ie, have nacelles above and below the saucer, instead of at the sides.
I think the rings would need to spin like in harder sci fi gravity chambers
Like the design. I also like the bridge is finally not on the top of the ship, but protected by several decks. Maybe a fast courier class?
I've always thought the Warbird's vertical head would be fantastic from a volume perspective. A few extra turboshafts are much more volumetrically efficient than the kilometers of corridors and lateral shafts that kill 'walkability' aboard the Enterprise-D, and could make for faster battlestations reaction time rather than relying on running speed. Also, ubiquitous holodeck tech means they don't need the corridors for running a la Starbuck in nuBSG. However, using a 2001 style deckplan utterly kills all those advantages.
I can't explain why, but I love this design
DUDE this is an amazing concept for a cruise ship or passenger liner! alter the shapes to appear more civilian and this would totally work! also great for a plot device!
What you do with the impulse engines, if you want to put them on the pylons, is have them slun under the warp nacelles
First thing that comes to mind when hearing about the endless circular decks with many windows is: Rehabilitation. A medical care ship, focusing on patients with chronical issues, mental health problems, or slow recoveries. Many windows to reduce claustrophobia, smooth sloping decks with adjustable gravity to assist in walking therapy, etc. Quarters easily accessible by nurses and mobile beds/equipment. The ship could ferry patients to and from planets best suitable for their recovery, and/or act as a care home for those that prefer space and changing sights. Incidentally the different and minimal warp profile could make warp-travel smoother, which reduces stress of patients.
I love unusual designs.
University Class - USS Bonhomme Richard or USS Cutlass OR Pizza Cutter Class - USS Italy or USS Italian Mêlée Weapon WW2
dank
USS- Anti Italian Aircraft Weapon
I wouldn't mind seeing a ship like this on Discovery. Very nice!
This is such a cool design. I would love to see people walk around the spaceship like that
I honestly love this ship of yours and believe it would be an awesome science vessel with an experimental weapons array
I know I’m a little bit late to the party, but was thinking over some similar comments regarding this ships possible use in the Diplomatic Corps and realized that this ship would probably be a good equivalent to our Air Force One. I imagine it being Federation One, NCC-0001, the personal ship of the President of the Federation. It’s speed and focus on open space would be great for mobile offices or possible conferences away from Earth. Additionally, it’s defense shortcomings would likely be taken care of by its convoy and escorts, as the President of the Federation would almost certainly always be protected by a special squadron/fleet. Really great design, a near certainty for EC Henry. Well done.
U.S.S Pathfinder
Prototype and one Half of the "Pathfinder" Class (the other half is the Sistership "Seeker")
Purpose: Mid Space evacuation and Medical Care.
Operational Speed: Warp 9.5, durable for 9 Days
16 Phaserbanks in addition to the Torpedobay ( 2 on the up
and downside of the Pylons, and 2 rings on each side of the
Saucer, made in to thirds)
The Ship is highley automated, so that the operational Crew can
be limited down to only 63 Members, so the rest of Crewquarters
can be filled with 126 Doctors and other Medical staff.
That shows also the biggest Flaw this Class has, and the Reason
why it is not produced anymore. It´s Scientific and Tactical
Capabilities are not limited, they are nearly non-existent.
I like the Pathfinder name. If the outer rim was a complete sensor array it could be a great observation ship. The weird design might be a specific advantage for a specialized craft.
It could be called the USS Geoduck, a Bivalvia class light multi-purpose cruiser. Typically sent to the frontier of uncharted space. The clam shell saucer can separate from the spherical secondary hull, acting as a temporary deep space station for exploratory ships needing to repair/resupply. The advanced sensor suite can also allow the Bivalvia class to perform as an observation post in troubled areas of space, especially during times of conflict.
USS Sojourner NX-878. This is an early 23rd-century vessel launched around 2208. Starfleet is examining new methods in Starfleet design after the perceived failure of the Daedalus-class, but still with along the same design path as the Daedalus-class.
Only 5 of the Sojourner were ever built when Starfleet again decided to go down a new design path.
I THINK THIS SHIP DESIGN IS AWESOME, ITS ACTUALLY MORE PERFORMANCE DRIVEN LOOKING. I LOVE IT, IT IS VERY REFRESHING..
I like it. It’s pretty different, but cool! I think the advantage with this ship is the unique attack profile. I’d call it ‘Vertical’ class. And I’d call the ship the USS Independence NCC 1776.
Certainly one of the most bizarre concepts for a Starfleet ship I've seen, but I oddly like it. I can't really see this being a practical ship for combat or science with such a reduced usable work space with the wrap around decks, but I could see this as a diplomatic envoy ship, with the wide open floors acting like an atrium, being very ornately decorated and lots of window space.
This ship makes me think of a cruise liner and because they would fly to beautiful locations it adds to the value of windows.
The deck plan going from horizontal to vertical😂😂. Seriously though good job.
USS Risa Stare. It is a R&R vessel first Starfleet personnel designed to alleviate the massive PTSD it's open floor plan allows for staff members to easily assist any guess on board with slightly different layouts for each deck. It has a oversize navigate navigation deflector array that allowed it to effortlessly navigate gas clouds and nebulous to take advantage of is rather unique layout and large windows.
This is a vary interesting design.
I would call it an Oculus. It's primary mission would to venture to new galaxies. Because the ship would be spending hundreds years cut off from an sort of Star Fleet outpost, the majority of the crew would be self aware holograms (like Voyager's Doctor). With only a small organic crew to run maintenance and conduct diplomatic actions on behalf of the Federation. Those organic crew would come from long lived races, recruited at a young age. The decks in the vertical saucer would be holo decks, giving a vast amount of space compared to it's actual size.
The Khitomer-class was the closest thing late-24th century Starfleet had to a luxury ship. It wasn't especially practical, but it served the important purpose of carrying VIPs and diplomats (foreign and domestic) from place to place at both high speed and in comfort.
This particular ship, the USS Wescott (named for the President of the same name) serves as the official transport of the Federation President, under the callsign of Starship One.
Other Khitomer-class ships have been refitted as science vessels, medical frigates, and occasionally as reconnaissance and espionage vessels.
Love to see this as an experimental vessel.
diplomatic class, low combat low exploration. it held's only diplomatic talks and gala , so its rare and doesn't need a lot of crew
Don't forget, gravity is relative to the placement of the deck plates only. The saucer can have that orientation, and still have traditional layout internally, OR the width of the edge might be much wider than it appears in an image. That might be a much more zoomed out view than you imagine in your head. Also, the saucer could spin, which would provide natural G forces, which would continue even after a power loss.
for a second, I thought I was staring at some weird version of the Equinox from Starlink.
I keep thinking to myself the ship design could have to uninterrupted corridors. Inspired by the Xindi Aquatics I speculate the ship's ring is filled with water; some salt some fresh depending on deck separation and corridors would contribute to a flowing water oxygenation. An aquatic crew wouldn't need a flat deck design for a ship. The various species of crew would interact in areas separated via transparent aluminium; separating air breathers from water breathers. The ship type would be science surveyor; USS St Clair named after lake St Clair in the Cradle Mountains Tasmania. Because they are both contained ecosystems.
Aquarius class. The symbol for the zodiac system is the water bearer.
The Titan was built to be a warship. Its vertical orientation allows it to focus fire on a single point. You could call it a Titan-class NX-5040. Crew complement 50, minimum operational crew 7 (Captain, first officer, tactical officer, medical officer, chief engineer, Engineering assistant, nurse. All other functions are handled by the computer.) Its weapons can also be modified for long distance artillery.1 second ago•
You probably already named it but I would've called it the "Sunfish Class" because it reminds me of one. The ship could be a dedicated observation ship, it goes out and tours shipyards or random aesthetically pleasing phenomena and lets people look with their own eyeballs out the ridiculous number of windows. The entire outer deck of the saucer could be a restaurant/bar.
The Tycho Brahe class astro-navigation survey vessel. It is a small but fast vessel with a small crew meant for astrogation and stellar cartography. This vessel is designed to take its fairly small crew as far a field as possible to catalog and map for trade routes and civilian use.
In the Federation Science Fleet, an experimental partition in StarFleet during a period, following the Dominion War, in which the Federation was looking to reorganize StarFleet into two to three separate and more specialized branches, the occasional odd ship does show up now and then. This is NOT without some often overlooked purpose.
Designed with a larger more cohesive warp field in mind, the Marinas-Class was designed to explore closer to Neutron stars and Black holes than other Federation vessels, and even dive into Gas Giants. Commissioned specifically by the Federation Science Academy, a sister organization to the Vulcan Science Academy, the Marinas-Class was never truly designed for combat, but to explore where no one had any busy being.
Due to the lack of understanding of competing Warp field designs, such as the often ignored Alcubierre design, which is known to produce nearly unbreakable warp fields at the cost of extreme sheering, at warp speed, at the warp bubble interface to normal space. The Warp rings are built into the vertical saucer and extend to the and round the nacelles. Unfortunately due to a lack of understanding of how this design works, owning a lack of time in development, the Alcubierre Warp Rings are not faster than the commonly accepted and used Cochran design. Also the potential of utterly limitless speed, while hugely enticing, was curtailed by fear of warp field failure, extreme energy accumulation, and the ship would be utterly uncontrollable making any short warp journey impossible.
But for deep diving extreme gravity wells, the Alcubierre warp field is uniquely suited.
The Vertical disk also has the benefit of acting as a control surface with deep diving into gas giants. This as the ship is already naturally orienting to dive in to or climb out of the gas giant's atmosphere.
Due to the very specialized nature of the ship, very few have been built. However imaginative engineers are always putting some time into refits and possible successors.
Marinas-Class
Purpose: Deep Gravity Well explorer.
Crew: 250 (5 with full automation)
Length: 225m
Top Speed: .847C (Sublight), Warp 7.6 (Cruising), Warp 9.1 (Emergency, 8.1 hours)
Weapons: two Standard torpedo tubes, Two multirole tubes normally tasked for probes. Type X Phasers (2 rings on Saucer, Two strips on nacelle pylons)
Ships in service
NCC-34100 Marinas
NCC-34101 Challenger's Deep
NCC-34102 Belldiver
NCC-34103 Cameron
NCC-34104 (under construction, Not named)
NCC-34105 (under construction, Not named)
Rotating the saucer does mean that the profile from bellow and above is greatly reduced.
From a military point of view that would make it great for attacking ground positions which have anti-aircraft weaponry as it would be a smaller target. If the gravity pointed in the same way as other ships then it could follow up an attack by efficiently landing large amounts of troops via vertical hangars that run all the way up the ship, taking advantage of the planet's gravity and their own artificial gravity whilst keeping the number of openings low.
It would also be better at turning in atmosphere than horizontal vessels as there would be less air resistance to pitch changes whilst the increased difficulty in yaw changes could be addressed by differing the power outputs of its engines to create a moment.
USS Balthazar : I'm thinking corvette or even a light heavy munitions destroyer built as a new concept design to replace ageing designs in Starfleet and was meant to be the main destroyer class in a new modernization program and was meant to be used as a colonial and border defence craft as well as a frountline attack craft however due to its complex and expensive desing it never saw a complete production run as later models put to drydock and models finishing construction had to work with reduce funding leading to cut downs on advanced technology and weponary on the ship. However it was still a formidable ship in its own right and the phase 2 prototype the USS Balthazar was the first working model to be deployed in the field and worked well defending border patrols. Due to the USS Balthazar having the benefit of full project funding it was equipped with the original technology and weponary package due to its performances in several engagements Starfleet was convinced by the ship desing team to give back 70% of original funding up from the original 50% funding reduction this allowed the team to outfit and upgrade others of the Balthazar class with the same package as the USS Balthazar. Overall the Balthazars although never being a true part of the fleet wide modernization program due to there limited number they filled a key roll having state of the art warp engines and heavy munitions alowwing them a heavy hitting characteristic they were the ideal fast response craft needed to patrol the ever expanding borders of the Federation and Earth space. They would later be fased out and replaced in there role by the Oskar Class Destroyer which leaned heavily on the Balthazars desing philosophy. Although quite a few were scrapped or moth balled a core of the original Balthazars including the USS Balthazar stayed on with the fleet resigned to system patrol ships and saw little combat as it entered it retirement.
The ships original weapons package was extensive compared to most Starfleet vessels of the time and like it's desing consisted of many revalutionary and prototype technology. The ship was outfitted with four large prototype Trebuche Phaser batteries these powerful phaser banks jutted out from the afft of the ship and contained there own power housing unit these were extremely powerful but due to there prototype nature on it's first few assignments the crew of the USS Balthazar experienced power failure issues however over the course of it's active surface the desing was refined and mastered and would be carried over to the Oskar-class. The raised and 360° arc nature of the weapons afforded them with a deadly port and starboard firing arc. In the front of the ship were 4 heavy spinal mounted proton torpedo launchers capable and purposely designed to be able to fire 3 shot burst at first contact with an enemy from a long distance to carry out some of the ambush tactics it was designed for and to be heavy opening salvo. The ship also carried 4 new lightly armed attack shuttles with short range warp capabilities able to stand up against hostile targets long enough to use advanced communication suites to contact the mother ship. This was done to allow one ship to cast a wide net over a significant portion of the frontier. One of the key desing features of the Balthazar-class Destroyer was the ability to carry these light attack craft so that a small number of these craft could patrol federation space independently were previously a small flotilla of several ship designs maybe need to cast the same net a Balthazar now could. Finally the ship was outfitted with state of the art target computer system and automated loading systems for the proton torpedoes which where linked to two separate 50 torpedo magazines. The target computers afforded the ship a great degree of accuracy. The ship used a reinforced tried and tested polarized hull and a traditional shield arry but with most of the shield strength located in the frount of the ship to protect it from the charge tactics it was meant to employ.
Due to the expensive cost of the weapons and technical load out the ship had almost no scientific capably a rarity among other Starfleet vessels of the time. As well as this It did not facilitate the ability to carry passengers and was strictly outfitted to carry only Starfleet personal in rudimentary and sometimes cramped facilities. The main bridge was located in the centre of the ship and was compared to the rest of the ship rather spacious and held a large tatical table showing a detailed holographic map of federation space and allowed the ship to coordinate and act in larger engagements as a sort of minor fleet command and coordination vessel. However the ship did have some draw back due to the large space required for the Trebuche-class Phaser batteries in the afft the engineering was forced to take up a cramped space leading to over heating issues if put under an immense stress but was not critical to the vessels as long as it was kept regulated however on more than one occasion lead to catastrophic explosions inside the ship crippling the USS Helenica and completely destroying the USS Antiquity killing all her grew in two separate engaments respectively . Th Balthazar Class as well due to its radical desing some times sufferd from micro fractures in the ship internal structure when pushed to max warp speed of a record high 9 from the ship. This does not present a real issues in the long run but could cause issues if max warp speed was used regularly or simply as wear and tear over time. This would lead to the ship requiring matinace on a sometime two year biases. The ship did finally play host to one diplomatic suite to be used in the event of first contact or to house frount line wartime strategic conferences or frount line war time truce or Treaty summits.
The ship was original designed for a crew of 215 but after the desing of more automationed ship systems and functions. The crew was dropped to 187. Most of who were Tactical and engineering staff to manage the ships advanced weapons systems.
In an age of peaceful science and exploration vessels the Balthazar-class destroyer was the only ship designed to be the Bulwark of the Federation against the terrors of the void. It's was a ship designed by a team who served in the romulin war and remember the horrors they faced it was a weapon meant to defend the federations ideals from the fear of another war. The Balthazar was meant to be a one of a kind a purposeful break from the ideology of the federation to defend those very ideals from being erased. It was a weapon of freedom. A weapon for peace !
Just my suggestion feel free to tweek loved thinking of background could write more but didn't want to bore you and as you can tell not good with the technical side but would love if you could keep the Trebuche Batteries.
Thanks keep up the incredible work!
Very neat, I like the design change. I think it might be some sort of cruise ship or diplomatic ship. Like you said it's an exotic design that would maximize window space and it has far more escape pods than a ship of it's size normally would need.
I'd put it under the Ambassador class and I would call it the USS Soval for the Vulcan ambassador to earth during the NX-01 mission and the beginning of starfleet.
Clearly, that is Riker's ship before the Titan. It is the Lollipop. It is a good ship.
This ship was designed for crew and passengers with different environmental requirements than standard crews. It can be configured so that whole or sections of decks can be configured to suit different habitats and life support requirements. For instance configured sections could be set for a sulphur dioxide atmosphere with higher gravity, or sub zero aquatic zones where crew swim through antifreeze, etc. Multiple different habitats operate simultaneously throughout the saucer.
Starfleet commissioned such elaborate ships so that individuals whose worlds are not m-class could serve in starfleet. It also enabled greater exploration of incredibly strange new worlds as instead of requiring extremely specialist equipment, a suitable crew member could just walk through the acid sky, or withstand incredible pressures when swimming through a liquid nitrogen lake.
Each habitat area would have reconfigurable stations allowing the crew to be dissipated throughout the ship. This allows crewmen regardless of environmental requirements to work together. It does have the advantage of a decentralised structure - it is hard for opponents to target the bridge if the bridge terminals and officers could be anywhere.
This ship's name is the USS Attenborough of the Goodall class. All ships of this class are named after wildlife biologists or naturalists as they study not only animals but also habitat.
The Rectus-class diplomatic envoy. The rectus has no weapons loadouts, the ship can be equipted whith two phaser banks on the wings but should only be equipted whith weapons in wartime. The phasers can be attached at attachment points under the wings. Maximum crew compliment: 175 standard crew compliment: 125 and then minimum crew compliment: 65. It has around warp 7-8. The Rectus should have pretty powerful shields since it probably carries important people. But the shield should only be activated if in danger since when people see a diplomatic ship you dont want them to be scared. This is what i think this spacecraft should be like.
It's the Love Boat in space! I used to wish for a "Love Boat" type of Star Trek series after TNG went off the air. Lwaxana Troi would be a regular guest on the show and the series would follow pretty much the same premise as the Love Boat, where new guests would cruise from Earth to pleasure planets like Risa and Casperia Prime. Perhaps during times of conflict like the Dominion war, the vessel would be used as a hospital ship. A possible name for the ship could be the USS Stella Solaris, which was one of the alternate vessels used in the production of the Love Boat.
USS Xindi, Ocean class, diplomatic envoy designed to specialise in planetary landings on water.
Okay I got it the USS Ezekiel NX-1157 is an vertigo class starship and the successors to the dautaless class star ship. In order to make her ready for the masses. Starfleet went back to the drawing board and design a vertical saucer around the original sphere to not only add more room and surface area but to also add a larger warp core to achieve a cruise warp speed of 9.3 before establishing transwarp 1.5. With a maximum or transwarp 2.1. The vertigo class is designed for the great distance that would be required to travel back to the delta quadrant after voyagers return. But don't let her size confuse you she is well armed caring ten phaser banks. Two torpedo launchers and 175 photon torpedos makes 5he vertigo class almost on par with the much larger galaxy class when it comes to weapons. With a crew compilation of 800 she is more than enough ready for anything the delta quadrant could throw at her.
an interesting design. I think this might perhaps be a good one for more military long term exploration kind of design.
Suggestion, Ferris (wheel) class light cargo ship
Outer rings (with the long hallways) used for bulk and abnormally sized cargo not generally able to fit in standard cargo bays (throw a forward facing ramp in there for loading and unloading and it should fit that well)... Central dome is for scientific research for a multirole capability keeping this Starfleet vessel productive even if it is hauling cargo, lower decks of the central dome hold the crew quarters and only 1 holodeck
Crusing speed warp 7, max speed warp 7.8
Also can be used as a torpedo boat in combat firing massively large amounts of torpedoes in a short amount of time due to its unique magazine style torpedo storage allowing chambering and firing of a new torpedo in quick succession after the previous torpedo is fired... Each torpedo launcher has a magazine holding 100 torpedoes, (400 total)
That being said it only has 3 phaser banks, 1 aft 1 port and starboard
I Actually enjoy vertical ship designs. The Chariot Class and the Minbari War Cruiser are among my favorites for similar reasons. Very interesting with the deck layout like that. I do know there is precedent for being able to turn off, or possibly alter, gravity in certain areas. It would be an interesting ship to get used to that's for sure. I would have gone with the decks horizontally in sort of long hallways. But I see what your going for. Very interesting.
This might make for a nice luxury, special purpose, or diplomatic vessel. In it's current state I don't see much call for it in other situations. Diplomatic is pretty self explanatory. Though you could say they are a dedicated team of specialists for solving uinique situations. Luxury and special purpose can be for anything from medical(maybe specialized and research thus providing the best equipment and comfort ), mobile R&R (maybe a series of restaurants or other entertainment), a mobile think tank, and more. It could be a combination of those. I'm not sure about long range research though. I always thought long range exploration and small federation vessels are things that don't fit together.
Once you get the purpose down a name might come easier. Then you can fit it to those purposes.
Like Mercy for a hospital ship. Or Warp Cordon Bleu for a restaurant ship.
I'll show myself out. :P
They went a similar direction in STO with the Nautilus class 26th century science vessel. It is popularly known as the Pizza Cutter.
They have this arrangement tilted 90 degrees in the 1st Kelvin Film.
My first thought when you started talking about having the maximum number of rooms with windows was 'cruise ship'. Maybe some ex-starfleet designers set up a civilian company, taking their design sensibilities with them
I could see this class being listed as a Heavy Frigate or Destroyer. The four forward facing torpedo launchers, as well as a couple of pulse cannons, would give it a potent initial punch. As it is nimbly flying past, the sheer amount of broadside shots that it could deliver with its phaser strip would be devastating. A pair of or the same set up of torpedo launchers as on the front of the saucer facing aft could probably render any ship a wreck in space. In this configuratiom I could see this class being named the USS Garth of Izar to commerate the Hero he was before his fall.
Wanted to say the stargazer but that name has already been used. The USS observer. Commissioned to carry high-level dignitaries to observe newly chartered systems perhaps for the purpose of picking out good colony locations. The high level of escape patches are there because no matter where you are in the ship you don’t have to go far to get off. Be necessary if you caring a lot of passengers or people inexperienced in deep space travel
Vertica Class, 300 Crew, Science Vassal, Warp 6.9 (for this particular one). Sphere can be seperated from Saucer as a additional mass fleeing oportunity. There is a Secondary Bridge for this occasion.
while i don't think a ship like this would make a great Starfleet ship, i could definitely see this design being used in some other sci-fi like the expanse where they don't have magical gravity and have to produce artificial gravity realistically. That entire saucer could just be spinning and boom you have a habitation section of the ship where the crew lives, perfect for deep exploration
Since the floor space is so reduced, I'd say this is a science, specifically an orbital observation vessel, I'd replace the "decks" in the saucer with different sensors and hardware with maintenance halls oriented the same way you described towards the center to allow easy access to the equipment.
Then the sphere would just be the same as it is.
The ball in the middle gives me a sort of "oh thats the experimentation deck!" Vibe, so something like a research vessel made for testing materials inside it.
When i turned the saucer so it angles flat a realized you have a two nacelle stargazer type ship. Would make sense since four nacelles was only for experimental data testing settling on two makes sense for a regular vessel.
I feel the problem with this is that there's already a very similar design where the engines are one-above-one-below the saucer. basically this design, but flying on its side. There's not a whole lot of obvious reason to make a vertical saucer and a whole lot of reasons not to.
If I were designing this, I'd firmly lay the impulse engines parallel to the nacelles. It would help emphasise which way is "up" on the ship. I'm also not a big fan of the way the nacelle pylons curve upwards, there doesn't seem to be much reason to do it when they're not attached to a secondary hull that hangs below the saucer.
I'm unsure about having the shuttle bays on the sides of the saucer/ball too. No other starfleet ship does this to my knowledge and there are a lot of good reasons to place a shuttle bay at the back of a ship, mostly to do with landing on a moving ship. Side-bays are the mark of a ship that doesn't intend to maneuver much. Fine for launching, harder for landing.
Purpose-wise, I definitely get "civilian" off it. Passenger quarters and diplomatic service. Things that require a lot of window space and can cope with having a lot of decks.
Alternately, a scientific craft where most of the labs need ready access to the hull. For example astronomical studies and suchlike.
I can readily imagine it being a useful platform for more esoteric technologies. Attaching equipment physically off the sides of the saucer because it's well within the warp-bubble, where other ships have their warp bubble much closer to the hull and can't afford odd protrusions.
So all in all, this is a ship which is designed to take up station somewhere, for example, an unusual astronomical phenomena, and stay there for fairly long durations.
It doesn't need to be fast, so it can have a less than optimal warp geometry. It doesn't need to move, so it can have side-mounted bays. And it needs a lot of scientific surface-area, so its many scientific labs all have ready access to the hull for bolt-on sensory equipment.
I believe it was Rick Sternbach that said on Trekyards once that said he wanted vertically oriented ships; however, the producers always shot them down. His original concept for the Romulan D'deridex Class Warbirds was vertically oriented.
Pisces Class
Heavy Escort
Pictured Above USS Pluto (Sister ship to the USS Charon)
The Pisces class is an unconventional combat focused craft, designed to operate in tandem with another ship of its class againt larger vessels or to act independently against smaller vessels. The craft would postition itself performing a slow flyby of the hostile vessel, performing a assault similar to a navel broadside attack. Against smaller vessels the ships wide attacking range means their are minimal blind spots for the weapon system s. The ship was first conceptualized in the early to mid 2370's, inspired by the marquis use of twined ships, before the design was sidelined due to the uptake in production and developments of the Defiant, Akira, Steamrunner Etc. Classes. During the 2380's the design was brought out of mothballs and development and constriction of the prototype ship USS Pisces, however the spacedock at which the ship was being built was destroyed during the Borg Crisis, leading to the vessels further delay. During the rearming of Starfleet in the aftermath of the Borg Crisis the design was finally constructed and christened the USS Pisces. The ship was promptly approved for service due to increasing tensions with the Typhon Pact, leading to the ships mass proliferation throughout the Federation.
I lately been thinking about what I would do differently if I made a prequel series like Star Trek: Enterprise, and this video came to mind with how you arranged the floor plan in the saucer section.
I was thinking that I would do away with a lot of the typical Star Trek tech (including gravity plating) and would have the saucer section spin on its axis to generate artificial gravity (i.e; 2001: A Space Odyssey), with the engineering section and shuttle bay (attached to the axis point) having zero gravity.
This would explain why future Starfleet vessels would have that configuration; because the saucer hull and engineering hull would be a relic design from when such a shape was practical.
USS Cooke, Pisa class Cutter / Fast Transport. Jokes aside, being some combination of diplomatic transport / survey vessel could work.
Your grav-deck style floor plan could allow for a survey team to directly observe 2 close objects or the inside of a nebula simultaneously.
Replacing some of the escape pods with transporter emitters, sensor suites, and Tractor emitters could allow it to serve in a rapid response role, swiftly assessing damage and deploying rescue/salvage teams between multiple derelicts while towing them to safety [think the wreckage fields from the battles of Wolf-359, Sector 001, Omarion Nebula or Operation Return
Wide range scanning vessel, purpose could both be as a recon sensor vessel and generalized stellar cartography. It is the ship that flies around looking for something interesting then dispatches a more specialized vessel. The hull of the suacer could be fitted with passive sensors and it flies in a pattern to get full over lapping sweeps of areas.
You stole my idea! Ha ha totally kidding, though I've had this idea for a while. Seriously though, awesome job. I'm a huge fan of your work. Keep it up!
It was built as a direct opposition to the idea of a detaching saucer, using some of the experimental technology used on voyager and experiment with the idea of having multiple central gravity points, do uses a lot of small gravity wells as opposed to several large ones, in fact, the decks use trap doors to travel between them manually
The design is unique and reminds me of one of Probert's conceptual designs for the D'Deridex with the nacelles above and below the plane of the "head." The interior concept seems very reminiscent of the orbital hotel from "2001: A Space Odyssey" and makes the rounded design more practical for wheel-oriented saucer.
I'd say the best roles would be either experimental courier/diplomatic transport or a passenger craft, the NX-381 Ourobouros (named for the serpent) or Velocity
Class: Santa Maria
Size: 350 Meters
Weapons: 6 Phaser Arrays, 2 Fore Torpedo Bays, 2 Rear Torpedo Bays.
Crew Complement: 300
Drive System: Antimatter Warp
Top Speed: Warp 7.5
Eras: 2267-2306
The comments don't seem to have been changed so here's my entry:
McAuliffe Class surveyor frigate
Named after Challenger Shuttle astronaut Christa McAuliffe, one of the early space pioneers who died in the line of duty. The McAuliffe class is designed for short-duration exploration and charting missions. The work of these advanced scouts outlines mission parameters for more rigorous exploration missions set to follow their work. The McAuliffe has special instruments on board and its crew are specialized for astrometrics. Its warp engines are very high speed but its other amenities are limited due to the brisk pace of its charting flythrough-style missions. This allows for frequent resupply and crew rotation back at starbase.
With the extra windows I think it should be a luxury ship.
This is dope!!! Love it.. I've got drawings of vertical saucers... As for the ship class I can't think of a name tho...lol
USS Tidewater- Tesla Class science vessel for dangerous missions where tight spaces and maneuverability are key.