Text 14021, 102 rader
Skriven 2007-04-26 05:51:50 av Vorlonagent (384.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Re: Relative ship sizes in the B5 universe (and others)
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"Jeffrey Kaplan" <nomail@gordol.org> wrote in message 
news:qs8v23lv4k6bg6ragsgof22q995n7fse5j@gordol.org...
> It is alleged that Vorlonagent claimed:
>
>> > Are you talking about the B5 station, or the B5 universe?  If the
>> > station itself, remember that in the story the B5 station was built on
>> > a shoe-string budget with bargain basement parts.  OTOH, an Omega class
>> > destroyer expects to be damaged periodically.
>>
>> I'm talking about the station.  If Earth made things that lasted 
>> extra-long
>> you'd see it in the maintenance that B5 crews weren't doing.
>
> In that case, realize that the B5 station was built on a shoe-string
> budget.  Lots of quality compromises were made in its construction.

You see that in the brown and gray sectors.  They're a bit on the unfinished 
side down there.  But you see maintenance going on everywhere.


>> I wouldn't think Omegas don't get shot all that often.  Most of the time
>> partols are quite and confrontations one-sided.
>
> The Omegas are warships.  They are, or at least should be, designed
> with the intention of putting them in harm's way.  To that end, they
> should be built sturdy and as unbreakable as possible.  Moreso than a
> space station.

The omegas had to be.  They were designed during the Earth-Minbari War.

But that's not my point.  MY point is that Omegas don't get shot up on a 
regular basis.


>> With only 1150 people, an Omega doesn't need super-sized storage for
>> people-stuff.  It supports between 1/5 and 1/6 the people a Nimitz-class
>> carrier does.  Arguably their storage is smaller.  Fuel and parts would 
>> grow
>> with the volume of the ship, naturally.  But when you have 91x the volume 
>> of
>> stuff and a corresponding failure rate, you arguably need more than 1/270
>> the crew to keep the ship maintained.
>
> Does the Nimitz need to carry air?  No, it never leaves the atmosphere.
> Does the Nimitz need to carry water?  No, it runs seawater through a
> desalination plant.  The Nimitz never roams alone, it's the centerpiece
> of a battlegroup that travels and fights together, whereas an Omega on
> patrol is usually alone.

The Nimiz better have water tankage and a fair amount.  I'd be very 
surprised if it sucked seawater up on an as-needed basis. The holding 
tankage the Nimitz has ought to compare well on a gallons-per-crewman basis 
as what an Omega needs allowing for technology (recaliming wastewater is 
harder but the Omega has better tech to do it with matching desalinazation 
being easier but the Nimitz' tech is more primitive).  That means an Omega 
needs a little over 1/6 the tankage as compared to a Nimitz-class carrier. 
Air is a separate issue, I grant you, and one that will grow in proportion 
to the ship's volume.  But the Nimitz carries about 5-6 times the fighters 
an Omega does and fuel tankage and munitions stores take up a lot of space 
and weight that an Omega doesn't need.


>> >> > And one more point about the Omegas:  only about one third of the 
>> >> > total
>> >> > length has any kind of gravity effect at all, which places its own
>> >> > limit on how large the crew can be.
>> >>
>> >> No it doesn't.  The Hyperions seem able to have crews without any
>> >> rotating
>> >> section.
>> >
>> > The Hyperions are also a lot smaller, with a corresponding smaller
>> > crew.  Take a look at them in the poster.  The Hyperion is ~700 meters
>> > shorter, and it's also noticeably smaller in cross-section.  I didn't
>> > say you cannot crew without gravity, but it does limit what you can
>> > effectively do.
>>
>> Nova-class dreadnought.
>
> Is also smaller than an Omega.

No so it makes a difference.  The Nova is 1470 meters long to the Omega's 
1580.

Lack of gravity is no limit on crew size.


-- 
John Trauger,
Vorlonagent

"Methane martini.
Shaken, not stirred."

"Spirituality without science has no mind.

Science without spirituality has no heart."

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