Starship Deck Plans - Boeing Starliner 1701 Main Body

Treadstone71 · July 2020

This is for a near future setting. In-System Passenger Liner: two maps - the first is the central body; the second is the passenger ring which spins about the central body for artificial gravity. I am aware that the biology and physics of rotational bodies require a much larger ring to correctly simulate earth gravity without causing people to get dizzy or messed up by the coriolis force but... bear with me - some willing suspension of disbelief please. Plus it's my first map so... go easy. :-)

Treadstone71 · July 2020

Second Map - the "Passenger Ring"

Loopysue · July 2020

Oh veeeeeery nice! Great

DaltonSpence · July 2020

Looks nice but the design seems a bit weird. Access from the core ship to the habitat ring for a passenger liner should be by lift with ladders only being used in emergencies. Also where is the docking bay? (Should be part of the core axis since docking with a spinning ring might be a bit tricky.) The cross sections of the habitat ring should be in "plan view" since the outer edge of the ring would be the floor which means no "end caps" since they obstruct the side windows. The "length" of the ring's deck plan should be π × the ring's diameter (divided into sectors if necessary) with sections set aside for crew quarters (for health reasons) and access points (one for each spoke). Ring diameter isn't critical because there is no reason that it has to spin at 1G; a reasonable fraction of that would suffice since Earth has the greatest surface gravity of any non-gas giant planet in the system. Finally front and rear views could show the profile of the ring with its spokes and end-on views of the command module and engines.

Treadstone71 · July 2020

Thanks for the feedback. Funny - when I initially created the ring section my first instinct was to use elevators and ladders and in fact, the two 'stanchions' between the ladder icons were meant to be elevators. I later decided that having an elevator was a bit ostentatious given that you could simply 'zero-g' it down the connectways when the ring wasn't spinning (at start and end of the flight). The thought is that passengers have no reason to be in the main section of the ship other than boarding/departing/emergency. I can re-designate those as elevators.

Docking bay is on the Main map (black/yellow inset). As for the side on views - I'm not sure what plan view is or how to access it but I'll look into it. I found it difficult to convey a 'side-on' view of the ring so if there's a better way to do it, I'm all for it. I also initially did the math for the ring measurements but I think it ended up going out the window as I tried to get scales correct. :-\

Wyvern · July 2020

Why is area 9 listed before area 8 (top map)?

You can get the second line of text for area 9 to line up with the others by adding spaces to the second line, though that may need a bit of trial and error. Both this and adjusting the line numbering can be done using Edit > Text > Edit Text using the drop-down menus, incidentally.

Shocked that it's not Pan-Am, obviously, but I gather Kubrick guessed wrongly, without a time machine to check its then-future survival as a company...

Nice-looking map though. Maybe a bit more wall clutter in the zero-g crew room (area 3) to make navigating it a bit easier?

Shessar · July 2020

It's really wonderful seeing a Sci-Fi map and a really great one at that. Other than Wyvern's observations I have nothing to add.

Thanks for sharing!

Treadstone71 · July 2020

OCD. I wanted the numbers to go from 1 - 9 moving left to right. And for whatever reason in my head I decided that Engineering *had* to be 9. Then I decided that I wanted to separate out Zero-G vs. the Artificial Gravity areas in the legend.
I'll noodle on it and maybe get past my OCD. Maybe. :-P

Amusingly enough, my mom actually worked for Pan Am back in the day and she feels a fierce amount of corporate loyalty to a company that no longer exists. Debated for an entire evening who to put as the manufacturer. Initially thought about an amalgamation between Boeing and SpaceX. Considered Northrop Grumman and/or Lockheed/Martin or combos thereof. Finally decided to just go simple and leave it at Boeing since they already actually have a Starliner in development. Obviously tacked on the 1701 as an homage.

Yah Area 3 is a little plain. Will spruce it up a bit.

DaltonSpence · July 2020

Posted By: Treadstone71Thanks for the feedback. Funny - when I initially created the ring section my first instinct was to use elevators and ladders and in fact, the two 'stanchions' between the ladder icons were meant to be elevators. I later decided that having an elevator was a bit ostentatious given that you could simply 'zero-g' it down the connectways when the ring wasn't spinning (at start and end of the flight). The thought is that passengers have no reason to be in the main section of the ship other than boarding/departing/emergency. I can re-designate those as elevators.

I think only one spoke has to be for passenger access while the other would be for cargo. The other two (unseen on the maps) would be solid support structures that might deliver power, utilities and life support to the ring.

Posted By: Treadstone71Docking bay is on the Main map (black/yellow inset). As for the side on views - I'm not sure what plan view is or how to access it but I'll look into it. I found it difficult to convey a 'side-on' view of the ring so if there's a better way to do it, I'm all for it. I also initially did the math for the ring measurements but I think it ended up going out the window as I tried to get scales correct. :-\

Doesn't seem like there is a lot of room for an auxiliary vehicle. As a passenger liner the habitat ring at least should have escape pods for emergencies. "Plan view" in this case means front or side view of furnishings and walls. BTW the habitat ring seems a bit thick. Is it supposed to have more than one deck? Does the hex grid represent a set distance or just floor tiles?

Treadstone71 · July 2020

It's just floor tiles - I was really going for an all white interior look similar to the ship depicted in The Martian but there were no white shaded deck graphics other than the Alien Design one which I felt didn't convey what I was going for. So the next best choice was the light green hex.

I'm working on the habitat ring making it thinner and more 'aligned'. Also adding lifeboats (another thing I had also previously considered) to the side of the main body. Will re-post when complete.

Treadstone71 · July 2020

Updated Main Deck - added Lifeboats and made the ring side on view a little cleaner.

DaltonSpence · July 2020

According to a file I found on the GURPSnet Archive, "The apparent gravity generated depends on the distance from the rotation axis and the rate of spin: gravities (g) = [radius(ft) x spin rate (rpm)^2]/2935." From the same document "most (people) can't adapt to more than 3 rpm," and "Probably 0.3G for as little as an hour a day would prevent the worst health effects." To provide 0.3Gs at a spin radius of 100 ft. (30 m.) would require a rate of 2.97 rpm so this would make a good distance from the ship's axis to the deck of the habitat ring. Also I don't think tile flooring is a good choice for the vertical walls of the habitat ring and its access tunnels. Still think a passenger ship should have a lift to the habitat ring that could also serve as an emergency escape pod. While one pod for the crew is a good idea on the main hull you want some on the deck of the habitat ring for the passengers. (They shouldn't have to climb a long ladder in an emergency.) Finally what font are you using for the map title?

Treadstone71 · July 2020

That's a good point about the tile flooring. I may go with the white alien decking for that. Will see how it looks. I can add Lifeboats to the back of the spin ring also now that I've got the design - it's an easy enough copy and paste.

The font is called Oceanic Drift.

DaltonSpence · July 2020

Your efforts have inspired me to design my own ring ship but it will take a while to have anything much to show for it. I'm designing the ring section first and will figure out the core ship later. Below is a cross section at the spokes. Deck plates and bulkheads are 6" thick with the outer hull being 9". The ring has a total diameter of 210' and a width of 50'. The labeled sections are:

"P" - the central passage is 5.5 feet wide between bulkheads and 8 feet tall between the ceiling and the lattice decking which can be opened to access the crawlspace (C) below for maintenance.
"E" - the elevator and shaft provides easy access between the core ship and the ring. The elevator capsule itself can be ejected as a short term emergency life pod with a maximum capacity of 4 adults and 48 man-hours of life support.
"L" - opposite the elevator is a ladder tube that has airtight hatches between decks. On the "Bilge" level it can serve as a one-person manual airlock that may have a lifeboat attached.
"R" - the outer rooms of the ring have 9.5 feet of head room and are typically 15 feet wide and 21 feet long. (The vertical access tubes aren't present between the spokes.) Note the floor of Inner (Upper) Deck rooms are 18" below that of the passage and require two steps down at the hatch.
"Attic" and "Bilge" decks are filled with life support and other machinery and can be accessed by the crawl spaces ("C").

I'm still working on the deck plans for the Inner and Outer ring decks and have some interesting ideas for those.

Treadstone71 · July 2020

Wow - that's way more detail than I was willing to put into it. Looks really good though! :-)

I like what you did with the decking backgrounds - nice work with the elevator. My only thinking on the life pod was, in the vastness of the Solar System, you're lucky if rescue is weeks away. I'd want more than two days. I realize at this point it's semantics since you can say the pod provides however much life support you want.

DaltonSpence · July 2020

That's why you also want a large lifeboat; so the ship's crew can pick up the life pods after a disaster. (I'm putting a hangar bay in the central hull next to the spin collar section for just that reason.) The main reason for life pods is public relations… they make the passengers feel safer. Passenger comfort is a very important marketing strategy. What I'd really like to see is a sci-fi symbol set with a profile/side view of various furnishings/equipment/doors etc. that I can use for elevation views. Also a zero-G command or engineering deck should be perpendicular to the primary acceleration vector for crew comfort/safety when the main engines are firing. Remember that streamlining isn't important for this kind of ship so aside from the spin section the component hulls can be any shape.

Treadstone71 · August 2020

Hey - sorry, I haven't checked back here in a while. That looks phenomenal! Definitely more realistic than mine.

I actually didn't pick any one symbol set - I went with whatever symbol I happened to like best for the given object I was trying to convey. That ended up being the Sci-Fi vector sets 9 times out of 10 but every once in a while (closets, cabinets, and a console or two) I went with Sci-Fi Bitmaps.

Keep at it - I want to see what it looks like with the floors decked out (pun totally intended). :-)

DaltonSpence · August 2020

If you want to see what I have so far check out my WIP: SpinDizzy IP RingLiner discussion where I've posted an updated cross-section and some hull shots. I've got bare deck plans for everything except the hub and the spin arms and my bridge layout was … borrowed … from an old and very famous source. (The research for that was quite fun! Digital blueprints are very easy to measure.) I'll leave this thread to you and your ship.

Wyvern · August 2020

Might be interesting to see one or other of these recent spacecraft designs redrawn using the new August Cartographer's Annual package too, the deceptively simple-looking, green-screen, Retro Starships style.

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Starship Deck Plans - Boeing Starliner 1701 Main Body

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