It wouldn't crash at all. There is no lift in space. At a minimum it would have the angular velocity of wherever on the planet it left. The issue would be if you wanted the station to be in a specific orbit. If you didn't care where the station was then it's orbit would still be stable. The station's thrusters should be more than sufficient to keep the station in place.Nobby-W wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2017 5:38 amThe question I would ask is 'why bother?' If you boost the station into orbit (assembled or otherwise) then you don't need CG at all - which is safer, as your station won't crash if your power or CG fails. All editions of Traveller offer the ability to design heavy lift shuttles capable of lugging space station parts into orbit - at whatever size takes your fancy. I'll just re-iterate what I originally suggested about space stations.
No, not really. It's like saying how a balloon and a plane get to 1,000 feet off the ground is the same. Arriving at the same destination is one thing, but how you get to that place is still different.Nobby-W wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2017 5:38 amWhether shuttles used to lift parts off-world use AG or manoeuvre drives is a matter of semantics. For moving parts to another system - which you're up for doing unless you have a local class A or B starport anyway - you're going to need a jump-capable freighter big enough to carry the parts. This could be a jump shuttle that carries the parts externally but it doesn't necessarily have to be.
I agree that many stations will end up being built with parts imported from other places, especially with smaller population, poor or low tech worlds. Those stations will be of minimal size to handle their orbital traffic, with the downports most likely being far busier than any high port station.Nobby-W wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2017 5:38 amNow, if you're (for example) Trin or some other wealthy high tech world, you will probably have local shipyard and orbital construction facilities capable of building a space station. However, the same principle still applies. Somebody will build parts for the station - either on the ground or in orbit - and a team of engineers will take the parts and assemble the station. Maybe (as somebody suggested) some fraction of the parts could be fabricated in a large 3D printing device. Even Trin will find that the requirements for space stations will expand over time, and will need to add on to them.
Exceptions to that rule would be those system with low populations or tech level that still have a Class A/B Imperial starport. Depending on distance and such it may be cheaper to build the necessary infrastructure in a system to build the starport, or at least you would bring in manufacturing ships to make the basic materials locally from asteroids or local mineral deposits and then ship in your electronics and other specialized parts that would be better suited for assembly elsewhere. There are many variations on this same theme that are reasonable and possible.