Notomys class mobile starbase

Notomys class mobile starbase

OVERVIEW

Recent developments in coaxial jump drive have developed an energy intensive system that is able to produce a spherical field and translocate an object from one point to another. Unlike teleporters which break matter down and beam it as energy and reassemble it at the destination the Jump Drive alters space/time at the quantum level effectively causing the space within the field to become the space at the projected destination.

Generating the field safely is a time intensive process taking approximately 15-20 minutes and take more energy than can be generated in a conventional MA/RA reactor. The Notomys clas starbase is thus equipped with a SM/AC (small matter/antimatter collider) reactor. The 'Smack,' as its crew has taken to calling it, are several miles of tubes wrapped around the 'waist' of the starbase and surrounded in magnetic and warp fields used to accelerate deuterium and antideuterium atoms to superluminal velocity before colliding them together for a massive energy release.

The maximum stable size for the coaxial jump field is limited to a diameter of approximately a kilometer which in turn governed the maximum size possible for a ship or starbase using the technology. The prototype starbase also has twelve massive docking arms or "masts" that extend even further when in the starbase is real space for normal operations but can be retracted when jumping. Extending and retracting the masts takes just under 10 minutes once personnel are removed to safety.

Because the jump is 'blind' and bears a risk of interpenetrating any object in the arrival zone several protocols exist for jumping. Ideally, a federation starship will survey the arrival point in detail and use its navigational deflector to remove any matter from the area before signaling the all-clear to the starbase before the starbase jumps.

MISSION

Notomys class starbases are designed to rapidly deploy anywhere within the Federation to provide major economic, strategic, and other support to an area without a starbase for a temporary period until its support is no longer required or a regular starbase can be constructed. All Notomys class starbases are able to bring significant resources to an area but three variants are currently planned to increase the starbase’s usefulness in particular areas.

Variant A - Industrial

Increased mining, refining, manufacturing and terraforming capacity. Most useful to new colony worlds establishing their infrastructure or worlds recovering from catastrophic damage to its infrastructure. Auxiliary craft include many cargo shuttles, mining rigs and tugs

Variant B - Medical

Expanded hospital and laboratory facilities and evacuation capacity. Most useful for worlds that are suffering a medical epidemic or that have suffered a recent catastrophic disaster resulting in mass casualties overwhelming the area's own medical capacity. Auxiliary craft include many search and rescue craft and medical transport shuttles.

Variant C - Defense

Maximized tactical and defensive systems. Fleet command and control facilities. Admiralty offices, starfleet academy facilities, fleet recreation systems, and starship repair facilities. Auxiliary craft include many starfighters.

PRIMARY DESIGN ELEMENTS
 

Hull:
Due to the limitations on its drive (see below) and to maximize its volume within those limits the Notomys class starbase is spherical in design with a diameter of approximately 1 kilometer. The starbase has a regular outer hull and inner hull but also has an additional interior hull for additional protection of the drive and to protect residents from drive radiation.

Pylons:

The starbase has twelve docking pylons that extend for a further 180 meters and can be retracted into the hull when the drive is in use. The pylons are multipurpose; serving docking, tactical, sensor, communication, and cargo functions. The upper section of each pylon included starship docking systems, tractor beam, a turbolift lobby, a security lobby, airlocks, etc. The next section is the tactical systems including a phaser ring, point defense systems, a torpedo turret, shield generators, and a fusion reactor. The next levels include sensor systems, sensor pallet hardpoints, and subspace receiver arrays. Except for at its base, the remaining pylon volume consists of cargo holds and structural elements. The base of the pylon includes the mechanical systems to raise and lower the pylon.

Reactors

Main reactors:
The starbase has three main fusion reactors located in the lower portion of the hull. A single reactor is usually sufficient to operate the regular systems of the starbase. Heavy use of energy intensive systems such as refinery, manufacturing, or tactical systems require a second reactor to be used. The third reactor is a reserve. Normal procedure is for one reactor to always be online with a second a warm standby mode while the third is offline and under a maintenance cycle. The use of the reactors is cycled through a regular schedule to assure all of them receive regular maintenance and to extend their operational lifetime.

Pylon reactors:

Each docking pylon is equipped with a separate fusion reactor sufficient to power its basic systems, sensors, and subspace systems and one of either providing enough power to a docked ship to maintain its basic systems, to power the pylons tactical systems, or to raise or lower the pylon. When raised to its deployed position the pylon can draw power from the starbase's power distribution network to augment its own reactor's power or its reactor's power can be diverted into the starbase's power distribution network.

Secondary reactors:

A dozen secondary reactors are located throughout the starbase. 1 for command, 3 for environmental, 3 for docks and locks, 1 for computer systems, 1 for emergency SIF, 1 for medical, 1 for the main reactors and 1 for the SM/AC reactor. Typically these reactors provide backup power to critical systems in the event of an emergency but the power can be tapped into the starbase power distribution network if required. 

SM/AC reactor:

The SM/AC (small matter/antimatter collider - usually referred to as a 'smak reactor' by its engineers) involves several miles of conduits in warp and magnetic fields that circle the outer edge of the starbase.  Deuterium and antideuterium are accelerated to superluminal velocity in the conduits contained in a warp field before colliding producing a huge energy outburst. The smak reactor is only used to power the jump drive.

Drives:

Impulse drives:           
The starbase has a single main impulse engine and several smaller impulse engines. The main engine can propel the base at a speed up to 0.25c or in emergencies up to 0.33c. The smaller impulse engines can vector their thrust and are used for steering while the underway with the main engine and for station keeping when not underway.

Jump drive:    

The Jump drive is a derivative of the coaxial drive. The coaxial drive itself is rather power intensive and smaller than standard warp drives but very difficult to control and extremely dangerous. A critical failure of the drive would destroy not only the ship it was mounted on but several billion miles of surrounding space. Federation scientists and engineers have found a variant of the coaxial drive that is even more power intensive and is rather massive but is much safer which prompted the development of the Notomys class mobile starbase.

The jump drive alters space in a limited area around it until it becomes identical to space at the point it where it wants to arrive. The Jump drive field is centered on the drive mechanism itself and cannot be projected to another location thus it is not useful to move other ships or objects.

The transition from one location to another is instantaneous and distance from the origin and destination points is not a consideration. Detailed scans of the destination point are necessary and interpolation of the starbase with another object occupying the destination area is a serious hazard; for these reasons starbases do not jump blind. 

Typically a federation starship will do a detailed scan of the target destination and use its navigational defectors to clear the space of any debris down to the hydrogen atom level and then download the scan information and an ok to jump to the waiting starbase.

The drive require approximately twenty minutes from initiation to spin up to power and complete the transition.  The amount of power required is well in excess of what can be provided by a normal M/ARA warp reactor so a SM/AC generator is used instead.  Because of the size and power requirements of the systems it cannot be mounted on a normal starship.

OTHER SYSTEMS

EMH mark V: 

The Notomys carries the prototype of the mark V version of the emergency medical hologram system. The mark V is only a slight improvement on the mark II-IV in terms of its medical knowledge and abilities. The true improvement to the system is that it is able to generate multiple holographic medical personnel, including doctors, nurses, and technicians, and send some of those personnel on away missions.

The non-medical Notomys starbases can produce forty EMH doctors up to eight of which can be sent with a mobile emitter off the base within a range of 12 light minutes. Medical varients of the Notomys starbases have an even more powerful EMH system capable of producing and managing hundreds of emergency medical personal simultaneously. The EMH system is not designed to replace living medical personnel but supplement them for short periods during mass casualties.

Unarmed combat drone:        

Starbases represent a major economic investment by the Federation. While the Federation does not like to adopt a military role, it is vital that its citizens and assets are protected. Notomys class starbases have a moderate defensive armament of their own and are usually supported by Starfleet vessels for additional security. The Notomys is also the test platform for a new Federation defensive system which is a short-ranged armed drone.

These drones typically operate by remote control from operators within the starbase but also have some semiautonomous ability. These drones lack warp capability but are incredibly fast and agile in sublight. They are the size of a shuttle but sacrifice habitual spaces to hold their heavier weapon and shielding systems.