Spacedock II Class

Template:StationSpecificationsSpacedock-class stations are amongst the largest structures in the Federation. Indeed, their name is now used for an entire class of stations called 'spacedocks,' which are capable of holding multiple starships within an interior hanger. While the design is based on the original Earth Spacedock, the Spacedock-class is a much larger design that was developed when Starfleet realized that the internal hanger of the prototype would be quickly made obsolete by larger starship designs. Dozens of these stations were built between 2327 and 2389, but the class has been phased out in new construction by the Guardian-class spacedock.

Layout

Administrative Levels

Dotted with sensor and short-range communications spires, the administration levels are located above the spacedock, and consist of several modular towers above a disk-shaped module which houses diplomatic facilities, quarters for senior officers and VIPs, and the station's main infirmary. The towers are largely used by sector administration personnel, various Starfleet offices, and other non-station-critical operations.

Spacedock

The spacedock is the largest module of the station, a stretched disk-shaped structure that is open on the inside. It is accessible through four space doors which lead to a cavernous interior dominated by the central docking spire, which has berths for up to sixteen starships. Inside the bay on the tower are sixteen bays for small craft such as shuttles and runabouts. On the exterior of this module are a further sixteen shuttle bays in bands of four between the space doors. The center of each of these bands has an operations complex, one of which serves as station operations: the station's primary command center. The lowest levels of the spacedock is occupied by cargo bays and the facilities to construct starships.

Commercial Module

Commercial traffic is handled through a barrel-shaped module that connects the spacedock to the dome-shape arboretum module. This facility includes eight more shuttle bays and two small drydocks reserved for civilian traffic. This area is also where most of the station's civilian quarters are located, as well as additional cargo bays.

Arboretum Module

The second-largest module on the Spacedock class is the arboretum module, which contains a simulated class-M environment that's nearly two kilometers across, rising eight hundred meters through most of the bulk of this section. The interior of the dome projects the illusion of being on a terrestrial surface, with the central travel core rising through the center of the area. With over three square kilometers of varied terrain, plants, and park space, this area is popular for recreation and relaxation. The station's promenade runs around the perimeter of the arboretum, providing hundreds of restaurants, bars, and shops. In addition, there are a further twelve shuttle bays in this area.

Habitat Module

The next cylindrical module under the arboretum module is the habitat module, which contains most of the quarters for the station's 60,000 crewmembers.

Support Module

The support module is the smallest module on the station, and consists of contingency crew quarters, the station's hospital, and the station's laboratory facilities.

Reactor Module

The sphere-shaped reactor module contains the station's eight massive fusion reactors, which provide main power for the entire station. It is largely uninhabitable.

Communications Array

The communications towers dominate the lowest levels of the station, providing sufficient power and bandwidth to coordinate an entire sector.

Class Overview

The Spacedock-class (sometimes referred to as the Stardock-class) is the largest orbital starbase in use with the Federation Starfleet. At the time of the initial construction of the Earth Spacedock in the 23rd century it was the largest artificial satellite ever constructed by the Federation. Today the Spacedock-class design is used throughout the Federation core in orbit of key worlds and serves not only Starfleet but civilian craft as well.

Class History

For many years Starfleet depended on single-ship orbital platform facilities for the construction and maintenance of its starships. However, the rapid expansion of the Federation during the late 22nd and early 23rd centuries was fuelling an increase in the size of Starfleet and the existing platforms were becoming unable to cope. By 2264 Starfleet was petitioning for a major new orbital facility to be built, and in 2266 it was decided to proceed with this project. The requirement was for a space station which would put all the refining, processing, manufacturing and assembly facilities required for manufacture and maintenance of starships into one place. When finished in 2278 the station was essentially a small city, dedicated to Starship production. This enabled Starfleet to eliminate much of the transportation requirements previously involved in starship construction, the resources saved by this centralization covered the initial outlay for Spacedock within ten years.

Once it was realized that such efficiency savings could be achieved, it was decided to proceed with further stations in other major systems. Starfleet has continued to add new Spacedock facilities to its inventory ever since, with a total of 33 now.

Over their lives these stations have seen many revolutionary changes. The advent of industrial scale replication in the 24th century was a major revolution throughout the Federation and led to a major refurbishment of the manufacturing facilities on the Spacedocks. This freed up much internal volume, allowing a considerable increase in living standards for the crews. Many different sensor and weapon suites have been utilized on these stations over the years, the most recent being improvements to the shields and weapons to counter the Borg and Dominion threats.

During the last five years the Federation has seen a marked upswing in the level of threat directed toward it. As a result of this all Spacedock facilities have been working at maximum output in order to put as many new ships into the fleet as possible, as well as producing weapons for ground forces and other war materials. As such, these stations continue to form the backbone of the Federations war production capability.

Although the Spacedock series of stations proved highly successful, by the 2330’s Starfleet faced a problem with its latest ships. The trend had been for ever larger designs, and all projections were that this trend would continue for the foreseeable future. The Spacedock stations needed considerable redesign and refit of their main docking area in order to accommodate these ships, a re-working which would reduce the efficiency of the stations handling arrangements and cause serious problems to Starfleet's maintenance schedules during the work. It was decided to re-build the small number of stations in existence, making them much larger facilities which would be easily capable of handling significant numbers of the largest starships. All new Space Docks would be build using the new specs.

The sheer size of these stations was far beyond anything previously envisaged, a factor which weighed heavily on the minds of the design team. The original proposals called for an all-new station configuration, but the detailed design work for this would have taken at least fifteen years to complete. In order to cut this figure down as far as possible it was decided to use the existing design, scaled up.

Construction of Starbase 74, the first of the new, larger facilities, begun in 2342. Despite many technical problems the project kept to its projected build time of 14 years and the Starbase was commissioned in 2356. Since this time all original facilities have been refit (including Earth’s Spacedock), with a total of 33 completed with 3 more underway. Starfleet eventually refitted all Stardocks to the larger configuration.