| By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Sunday, November 23, 2025 - 03:30 pm: Edit |
Revising my post of 18 July 2025, the description of the cutter's internal layout:
Ship's dimensions:
Overall length: 140 meters
Overall width: 70 meters
Body length: 111.5 meters
Body width: 27.5 meters
Forward hull length: 48 meters
Aft cylinder length: 48 meters
Tail-cone length: 15 meters plus 0.5 meter Impulse Engine heat vents
Nominal crew: 13 officers, 1 Senior Chief Petty Officer / Chief-of-the-Boat, 5 (4-6) Chief Petty Officers, ~60 Petty Officers, ~21 Junior Enlisted Crewmen == 100 total crew.
Deck One (aft only): shuttle bay, two flight-ready shuttle-craft, room to land a third; spare shuttle, not flight ready; two shuttle bay control rooms; spare parts storage area; upper water storage tanks.
Deck One refit: the refit adds a pair of short-range defensive Phasers-3, 360 deg of fire, on top of ship above shuttle bay, one shuttle control room converted to Phaser control; and converts 3/4 of the spare parts area to a vertical-launch Drone (warp-capable missiles) rack with two sets of drone reloads, depicted as two Type-I and one Type-IV drones, plus one set of anti-drone darts. A separate chart will show all the Drone load options.
Deck Two (aft only): one-meter high crawl space support equipment under shuttle bay; two side air locks / docking ports; transporter mine (aka T-bomb) rack with two mines and two dummy mines; aft transporter room; two 8-man barracks, typically used for weight-lifting/treadmill gym equipment or extra storage; two locker rooms with showers; gymnasium; two lifts to Deck Three.
Deck Three (forward): primary sensor dish; emergency solar sails; 14-seat conference room; two 6-seat meeting rooms; main bridge; six two-room officer suites with private lavatory; forward transporter room; tractor beam; armory; two public restrooms; four log buoys / emergency beacons.
Deck Three (aft): eight pairs of one-plus-one enlisted quarters with shared lavatory; two crew storage lockers; sick bay with doctor's office, two exam rooms, two isolation rooms, ten recovery beds in open bay, pharmacy, two surgery rooms, six body coolers for causalities; security tac-team office / ready rooms; brig with twenty holding cells; two lifts up to Deck Two (used only for prisoner / medical patient transfer); main HVAC/CO2 scrubber system with thermal regulators.
Deck Four (forward): two forward-facing offensive Phaser-1; Phaser control room; eight admin offices; two twenty-four-seat auditorium, can be used as mass briefing room, theater, or chapel; two Damage Control lockers; six two-room officer suites with private lavatory, the CO & XO have office adjoining their suite; two public restrooms.
Deck Four (aft): fourteen pairs of one-plus-one enlisted quarters with shared lavatory; two crew storage lockers; "black box" flight data recorder; engineering systems: two dilithium chambers, four AC electrical power generators, Auxiliary Power Reactor; main engineering control room; impulse engine high-bay.
Deck Five (forward): forward air lock / docking port; maneuvering thrusters; two telescopes / optical sensors; Astrophysics / Planetary Science laboratory; Forensics laboratory; main computer bank / server farm; six pairs of two-plus-two junior enlisted quarters, typically used to storage; two side air locks / docking ports; two public restrooms.
Deck Five (aft): eight pairs of one-plus-one enlisted quarters with shared lavatory; two crew storage lockers; two two-room officer suites with private lavatory; eight single-room chief petty officer quarters with private lavatory; "black box" flight data recorder; engineering systems: heavy bracing to attach warp drive pylons; engineering computer bank; two public restrooms; aft power Battery compartment; two fabrication / machine shops; Emergency Bridge; maneuvering thrusters; twin Impulse Engines.
Deck Six (forward): Photon Torpedo launch tube (photon torpedoes are pure-energy weapons, no physical ammo ***); two forward targeting scanners; science probe rack with five probes; two arrays (port/starboard) of secondary sensor (measures hull temperature & pressure, radiation levels, ambient light, and various other environmental factors, chemical detectors, light-speed radio (AM/FM/HF/UHF/VHF) antenna array, etc.); two lateral high-res short-range sensors; two secondary HVAC systems; two rooms of electrical switching and circuit breakers; two emergency power generators; forward power Battery compartment; storage area with access to deflector dish pylon mounted on the bottom of the hull; Auxiliary Control Center; gyroscopic Internal / Inertial Navigation Systems. Below this deck, there is a 75-cm high bilge with six movable sleds each holding eight-tonne ballast weights to adjust the ship's weight-&-balance.
Desk Six (aft): twelve pairs of one-plus-one enlisted quarters with shared lavatory; two married couple's quarters, an optional configuration of a two-room suite with private lavatory; two crew storage lockers; four dayroom / crew break rooms with entertainment (TV) screens; two laundry rooms; two computer rooms with six terminals for off-duty use; two game rooms (darts / pool, etc.); Ship's Store; Bio-waste processing with black-to-grey-to-clear water treatment.
Deck Seven (aft only): two Food Pantry with enough food for 100-crew for 180+ days; Cargo Hold high-bay (no access from this deck); Galley / Service lines; Mess Hall with seating for 68 crew; Officer's wardroom with seating for 16; public restrooms; two side air locks / docking ports; trash compactor & trash bin storage.
Deck Eight (aft only): 10x20x5 meter Cargo Hold (typical cargo load shown here); cargo transporter with two forklifts; sub-space radio; lower Phaser Control room with 360 Phaser-1 mounted on bottom of the hull; dual grey-to-clear water recycling systems; lower / main water storage tanks.
ALL Decks: A robust turbolift network of vertical and horizontal shafts allowing for quick access to any part of the ship; four pairs of U-shaped staircases in convenient location; five vertical shafts for plumbing, wiring, and HVAC runs; two 3x3 meter cargo lifts.
Total bed space: 14x Officer, 8x Chief Petty Office, 84x Enlisted, 2x Married Couple (four bed spaces), 24 Junior Enlisted, 16x Marine Barracks == 150 beds.
*** In my mind, there is a small device, about the size as a loaf of bread, that is the fuse for the torpedo. This is inserted into the launch tube and activated to generate a magnetic balloon, which will be filled with tachyon-enriched plasma siphoned from the warp drive. When launched, a tiny hole in the balloon will allow plasma to 'leak' propelling the torpedo at extremely high speed, in excess of Warp 7.5, near-instantaneous in game terms. When the fuse detects the target, it releases a tiny amount of antimatter into the plasma, resulting in the explosion to damage/destroy the target. The ship will have many (50+) fuses ready, more than could possibly be used in a game scenario, and the Gunner's Mates have the ability to make more as needed. ***
Garth L. Getgen
| By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Monday, November 24, 2025 - 01:33 pm: Edit |
I'll note that a simple CO2 scrubber, with no oxygen replacement, can vastly extend available air.
You die of CO2 poisoning with air that still has far more O2 than you need. We can build perfectly good chemical CO2 scrubbers.
| By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Monday, November 24, 2025 - 03:37 pm: Edit |
Scrubbers were in use in the US space program starting more than 65 years ago. They typically require no electricity either, although a fan to move the air around can speed up the process.
--Mike
| By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Monday, November 24, 2025 - 06:00 pm: Edit |
The HVAC systems located on Deck Three (Aft) and Deck Six (Forward) will scrub CO2, obviously, as well as carbon-monoxide and sulfur-dioxide and other things people shouldn't breath in.
My intent for the compressed air bottles is to refill the ship's atmosphere after a hull breach. They probably won't fill the entire ship but should restore critical areas.
Garth L. Getgen
| By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Monday, November 24, 2025 - 06:33 pm: Edit |
It seems my calculations for the food pantries was off. I said "food for 100 for 180 days". There's 300+ cubic meter of storage. According to ChatGPT-AI, one cubic meter of food can feed one person for 100-125 days on the conservative side, and with high-density / add water food, it could be 12-15 months. With 3 cubic meters per person, my 180 day calculation should be closer to a year (low end) to three years. Love it when thing work out right.
(
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Garth L. Getgen
| By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, November 29, 2025 - 08:03 pm: Edit |
With the help of the friendly AI bot, I crunched the numbers and came up with a volume / displacement for the police cutter. Rounding off, the body is about 41,500 m^3, and adding in the warp drive brings it to 52,800 m^3. That's outside dimensions. Assuming a 10% reduction for hull thickness, desk plating, and bulkheads, the internal volume would be about 37,350 m^3.
Up topic, I had calculated total compress air tanks at 375 m^3, and suggested this could, depending on compression ratio, expand to 75K to 150K m^3. Even at a modest 100:1 compression, I have enough to refill the entire ship is it lost all air to a hull breach. Love it. 
Garth L. Getgen
| By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, November 30, 2025 - 10:42 am: Edit |
This registered engineer nods to Garth's detailed work.
| By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Sunday, November 30, 2025 - 01:08 pm: Edit |
Thank you, Steve. That means a lot.
For comparisons, using Nick Black's wonderful FFG deck plans:
| m^3 | FFG | POL |
| Body | 54,300 | 41,500 |
| Total | 76,600 | 52,800 |
| Crew | 160 | 100 |
)
| By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, November 30, 2025 - 03:30 pm: Edit |
Happy Birthday!
| By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, December 13, 2025 - 05:25 pm: Edit |
Good news: I now have a way to 'print' to PDF within the virtual machine (VMware running Windows-XP to run FloorPlan Plus ver 2.0). I just have to play with the 'printer' settings to get the best output. I also discovered the version of Adobe at work can Save-As to export PDF to TIFF or JPG.
Meanwhile, I need a little help with the duty stations on the Main Bridge. See linked image. There are eleven seats on the bridge (ditto for Aux-Con & Emergency Bridge).
These are the five stations on the Main Bridge that are always manned 24/7/365:
1 = Command center seat
2 = Helm Control
3 = Navigation
6 = Communications
?? = Sensor Operator
The other positions are manned as needed during operations / combat. I need to figure out who sits where, and I'm open to suggestions. (The above five stations are manned in Aux-Con and Emergence Bridge during combat; otherwise, they're left vacant.)
Garth L. Getgen
| By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Saturday, December 13, 2025 - 06:13 pm: Edit |
4 = Defensive systems.
5 = Sensor Operator
7= Boarding Party Operations
8-9 = Engineering stations.
10-11 = Offensive systems
Just my thoughts.
| By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Sunday, December 14, 2025 - 12:06 am: Edit |
I can't decide if I want 5 = Sensor / 6 = Comms -or- 6 = Sensors / 7 = Comms. Maybe 5 & 6 makes more sense, because then 4 can also be a second Sensor Operator and/or 7 be a second Comms if the situation requires, such as when flying thru a high-traffic area.
Another factor is the small crew size and typically thirteen officers assigned, there's just no way to fill all eleven seats in all three control centers. I wonder, is there a place for the Science Officer and/or Intel Officer on the bridge when they're not in the center seat??
Honestly, if I could have, I probably would have put just nine duty stations on the Bridge and only five in Aux Con and Emergency Bridge. However, Petrick told me it should have 100% redundancy in all three centers, and SVC wanted the bridge to match the FFG's bridge.
Garth L. Getgen
| By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Sunday, December 14, 2025 - 12:42 am: Edit |
Do they have to manned by officers? What about Senior NCOs manning some of the stations?
Several of the SNCO's should be deck qualified.
To man all three on a 3 shift rotation at all times would be 51 people.
I'd guess on a routine basis only the Main Bridge is fully manned (something we never saw in ST, there were always an empty seat or two) and then AuxCon. AuxCon is probably manned by junior officers and midlevel NCOs.
The Emergency Bridge was only manned at Geeral Quarters.
| By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Sunday, December 14, 2025 - 02:27 am: Edit |
No, only the center seat has to be an officer, although a case could be made for the Senior Chief or even a Chief Boatswain or Chief Quartermaster taking the center seat.
Helm, Nav, Sensors, and Comms are all enlisted duties. Ergo, you need 12 enlisted for 24/7 ops, 8-hour shift, no days off. Or 12 hour shift, on a four-and-two schedule**.
Of the 13 officers, there should be at least six who are bridge watch qualified: Captain, Exec, Ops, Intel, and both Shuttle Pilots. Weapons and Tactical probably are qualified, too. Science, Engineers, and Doctors could be but not typically.
The Main Bridge is manned 24/7. Aux Con might be manned in a high-threat area but otherwise unmanned. Sometimes, in high traffic area, Comms and Sensors would work in Aux Con to cut down the chatter on the Main Bridge. Emergency Bridge is only manned during Red Alert / General Quarters, and for training exercises. There was enough space to put a trainer's chair behind each pair of duty stations.
** Four and two: four days, two off, four nights, two off, back to four day, rinse and repeat. Yes, I worked that schedule for an entire a 128-day deployment. Yes, it sucks as much as it sounds.
1) D D D D - - N N N N - - D D D D - - N N N N - - D D D D ....
2) N N - - D D D D - - N N N N - - D D D D - - N N N N - - ....
3) - - N N N N - - D D D D - - N N N N - - D D D D - - N N ....
Garth L. Getgen
| By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Sunday, December 14, 2025 - 10:12 am: Edit |
That schedule sounds like it makes it really tough to get good sleep.
--Mike
| By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Sunday, December 14, 2025 - 02:37 pm: Edit |
I worked it a lot in my career, and I'm fine. The nice people in white coats said it didn't affect me at all.
Seriously, it's better than a two-and-one 12-hour shift schedule. Which is still better than a six & eighteen schedule:
DAY : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ...
00-06 A B C A B C A B C ...
06-12 B C A B C A B C A ...
12-18 C A B C A B C A B ...
18-24 A B C A B C A B C ...
My last deployment, we did straight eights, no days off, but no rotation.
Just don't get me started about how wrong Riker was when he told Jellico it was too hard to switch to a four-shift schedule.
Garth L. Getgen
| By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Sunday, December 14, 2025 - 06:08 pm: Edit |
That shift does suck. That was our rotating 4th shift in Germany at Field Station Augsburg.
A Shift 2 weeks days
B Shift 2 weeks swings
A/B switch after 2 weeks
C Shift mids for a month
D Shift 2 day, 2 swing, 2 mid
Everyone shift rotates on a monthly basis. Covers 24/7/365 ops.
| By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, December 14, 2025 - 09:21 pm: Edit |
I might comment that starships are not planets. You do not need people moving back and forth from day to night. It's not like people need daylight to mow the law or hang out their laundry, or night time to go to bars and movies. There is no "day" or "night" on a starship.
Port Watch, Starboard Watch, stay on the watch you're on. Port watch is four days on from 0000 to 1200 and two days off then repeat. Starboard watch is 1200 to 2400 and two days off then repeat. Each watch has A, B, and C, staggered two days apart. Two sub-watches are on duty at any given time.
That should make life easier.
| By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Monday, December 15, 2025 - 01:46 am: Edit |
Steve, trust me on this. I worked rotating shifts for most of my 26 years active duty. With three people to man 24/7 ops, you either have eight hour shifts with no days off, or you have to flip 12 hours each rotation of shifts, be it 2-1, 4-2, or 6-3. Or you have some weird schedule like the six-&-twelve (I misspoke above). There just are no good options.
The problem is crew size of this ship (and the FFG) is simply too small to have four or five people per 24/7 duty station. Someone might get a day off every now and again by either filling the seat with a junior officer or an non-certified trainee.
With four people per station, you can go 12-hour shifts, three on / three off, no flip. Or you can do a rotating eight-hour shift, but that works better with five. At six people, you can go three on / three off eight-hour shift no switching.
But I can't do that. I have 24 crew assigned, three for each of the eight 24/7 stations: helm, nav, sensor, comms, L-Warp, R-Warp, impulse, and APR/AWR. Starting with 100 crew, minus 20 for Tac-Teams (Boarding Parties) and 10 for the shuttlebay, it's down to 70. Take out for weapons (9-10) and DamCon (8-10), officers, medical, admnin, etc. -- there's just not enough left over to get another body in the rotation.
Agree there is no "day" or "night" on a starship. But I assume they still use a 24 hour clock.
Garth L. Getgen
| By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Monday, December 15, 2025 - 08:00 am: Edit |
I recall having read somewhere (so take with a large grain of salt) that USN submarines use an 18-hour "day" for setting watch assignments. If so, there isn't an automatic reason to stick with a 24-hour day aboard a starship that has a similar lack of an instinctive natural time reference.
| By Jack Bohn (Jackbohn) on Monday, December 15, 2025 - 09:01 am: Edit |
Wow, not just a lack of a natural time reference, but traveling between two external time references, no doubt of different lengths! I'm thinking of planets, but there's also colonies or space stations, and how much they have chosen to ignore the day length of the homeworld, and in which direction. At least the captain, cargo master, and chief communications officer will know the time zone they'll be dealing with ahead of time; when investigating strange new worlds, the point of interest is just as likely to be active in the middle of your night! (Another reason ship captains have the reputation they do on tri-v shows!)
| By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, December 15, 2025 - 09:25 am: Edit |
My point, Garth, was that there was no need to move from day to night. On a starship, there is no daylight, no store hours, no lawn mowing hours.
I am not sure what you are arguing about. YOUR plan, four days on, two days off, is exactly the ABC plan I laid out. Basically six people to cover four jobs, two shifts is 12 people covering four jobs. I was quoting YOUR plan back to you and you are arguing… that YOUR plan is wrong? Huh?
| By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Monday, December 15, 2025 - 01:11 pm: Edit |
Okay, now I see the disconnect, Steve. Your plan is:
1: D D D D - - D D D D - - D D D D - - ...
2: D D D - - D D D D - - D D D D - - D ...
3: D D - - D D D D - - D D D D - - D D ...
4: D - - D D D D - - D D D D - - D D D ...
5: - D D D D - - D D D D - - D D D D - ...
6: - - D D D D - - D D D D - - D D D D ...
And crewmen 7-12 on N shift (or P/S, if you like).
This does work but ONLY IF all six people can do all four jobs. And that could work in Engineering where all the enlisted are listed as Warp/IMP/APR "Reactor Technicians", if we lump them all together. However, on the Bridge, I am assuming that Helm, Nav, Comms and Sensors are all separate specialties, in which case that plan cannot work.
In my head (the way I write my Trek fiction), Helm and Nav are both "Quartermasters", but Comms is "Signalman" and Scanner/Sensor is "Sensor Operator". If you want for in the SFB universe that all four jobs to fall under the same enlisted "Operations Specialist" career field, okay, cool. That works. Same number of crewmen required.
Garth L. Getgen
| By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, December 15, 2025 - 01:58 pm: Edit |
Garth. It is not my plan. It is YOUR plan (one that works). YOU said "four days on, two days off" did you not? To cover four jobs that is six people per shift. YOUR PLAN. All that stuff you're arguing about is nothing I mentioned. I don't have a plan. If I did, it would be the French plan, which is just bizarre (two teams, three shifts per day, 7-7-10 hours). Or the Klingon plan, which seems designed for no days off but gives them anyway and puts very junior people in the empty seats.
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