Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Welding.
And before you doubt, it is canon.
And before you doubt, it is canon.
Which would then make it a dispersed structure. Correct?Welding.
And before you doubt, it is canon.
Or a close structure.Which would then make it a dispersed structure. Correct?
How many of these exist in Charted Space?Or a close structure.
Robert Pearce put out Starship Geomorphs 2.0 on his traveller blog ( Yet Another Traveller Blog )
Each Geomorph is a 20x20 grid (200 Dtons)
His Dyson Class Modular Starport uses stacks of geomorphs which are then attached with other stacks to form a ring.
Expansion can be achieved by stacking outward from the center or by adding geomorphs along the central axis to make a longer cylinder.
The gaps between stacks can be covered with hull and converted to fuel tankage surrounding the access hallways between modules.
This allows the station to be brought in by relatively small freighters over time until such time as it has its own manufacturing capabilities.
For building your own TU, of course. Using the material that is in the books though. I just don't see much evidence for this paradigm in Charted Space. Why not? Who knows? Probably because none of the writers considered that stations rarely start off as Class-A ports. They usually grow from smaller ports. In that, I agree with you, but I just don't see much evidence of it in Charted Space.Probably as many as there are of any of the ships in my custom ships thread, since Geomorphs 2.0 was not published by Mongoose.
Point being, if you are designing a starport, this is just as valid as that and provides an alternative paradigm to consider.
Downports aren't stations.Downports do have more potential for growth.
Breakaway hulls would be a pretty expensive solution.
What becomes optional?I think they become optional, as an extension of the starport.
You are putting 20,000-ton docking bays at your downport for huge unstreamlined ships?If you don't expand the hi/port, but you need more berths, the obvious solution is to make the ones in orbit more expensive, add more in the lo/port, and make them cheaper.
Facilities would have to be prioritized as to what remains in orbit.
Except in Traveller, they are not cheaper. They are a set rate (in general) by starport class.No, the obvious solution, would be to divert those that can be, to the lo/port, with the carrot that the berths are cheaper, and charge more for the ones in orbit.
If you don't want to expand in orbit.