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You can't just cut into the walls of a structure to expand an opening. Load-bearing isn't as much of a big deal in space, but is an issue of some sort in orbit. Additionally, we've all seen how jam-packed with ODN equipment, power transfer ducting, and assorted the walls of Starfleet construction can be.

Well that brings up a question about Spacedock that I always wondered about.

Namely... can they pressurise that dock? Because if they can, then it would be hella-useful for working on the exteriors of ships. You can imagine crew crawling over the outside of the thing in shirtsleeves, so much easier than working in a suit.

Of course it would be a major disaster if somebody opened the doors whilst everyone was working on their ships... you'd have to schedule such openings for when you knew you had hours without any arrivals or departures scheduled. And it's hard to imagine the pumps it would take to evacuate that space in any reasonable time. Unless they just vented the atmosphere when they wanted the doors open, though that seems awfully wasteful.

But then, if they can't pressurise the dock, then what exactly is the point of having an internal dock in the first place? It looks cool, but seems to have no practicality to it. Why not fill that space with more rooms, or make the station that much smaller, and simply string a whole bunch of docking ports around the rim, as was done with the spacedock in the Abrams movies? Hell, string a dozen or more of the frame type drydocks we saw in TMP around the rim too, there's certainly space for them.

Shields to pressurise smaller sections?

Protection vs solar radiation, cosmic radiation, Van Allen radiation belts, and other energetic stuff that might affect ships being worked on? By having an enclosed volume, you should theoretically know the source and type of all emissions being radiated within the volume, allowing you to carefully calibrate sensors. A ship could test its passive arrays at near maximum sensitivity, and not worry about local particles burning them out.

Coalition wrote:Protection vs solar radiation, cosmic radiation, Van Allen radiation belts, and other energetic stuff that might affect ships being worked on?

If all that is a problem, why have those exposed docks we see in TMP etc?

By having an enclosed volume, you should theoretically know the source and type of all emissions being radiated within the volume, allowing you to carefully calibrate sensors. A ship could test its passive arrays at near maximum sensitivity, and not worry about local particles burning them out.

I can believe that, though it seems like an awfully slight justification for building something the size of Spacedock. I'd have thought an enclosed farad-cage style thing big enough to take one ship is all that would be needed.

Coalition wrote:solar radiation, cosmic radiation, Van Allen radiation belts, and other energetic stuff

Since these are things that starships undergo routinely on a near-constant basis while traveling under normal (i.e., non-high-threat) status, I can't imagine a 'Trek milieu in which they'd be any more than a minor annoyance during shipbuilding.

Mikey wrote:

Coalition wrote:solar radiation, cosmic radiation, Van Allen radiation belts, and other energetic stuff

Since these are things that starships undergo routinely on a near-constant basis while traveling under normal (i.e., non-high-threat) status, I can't imagine a 'Trek milieu in which they'd be any more than a minor annoyance during shipbuilding.

For the fragile stuff you'd install it inside the spacedock. For the regular stuff, you could use regular yards to assemble. So hull, engine installation, and shuttle bay door setup could be done outside, while the sensors/deflector dish would be done inside the spacedock to protect them from observation and from hostile particles during calibration.

I'm still at a loss as to why those things would affect installation when they don't affect those systems at any other point.

I guess there could be fragile stuff inside the ship which is normally protected.

Say your computer core is very susceptible to damage from radiation. Normally that doesn't matter, because it's protected inside the hull of your ship.

But if you have to tow it through space to get it to the ship whilst you're building it, then it could be damaged in transit.

There could be any amount of stuff that's perfectly fine inside the ship's hull but can't be exposed to space.

Of course, the question is why can't they just have shipping containers that are pressurised and protect from radiation just as well as the hull does. No reason at all that I can think of.

Hell, build fragile stuff in parts that are man sized or smaller and just beam the stuff onto the ship.

Graham Kennedy wrote: Hell, build fragile stuff in parts that are man sized or smaller and just beam the stuff onto the ship.

THIS...

The entire spacedock thing always confused me a bit.

I've never really understood the purpose of Spacedock or Starbase 74, with all the ships docking inside it's giant hanger. Yes, it looks good on camera for the movie or TV audience. But one good shot that jams the doors while they are closed by a Romulan fleet that just decloaked and all those ships are trapped inside and cannot help in it's defense. Spacedock may be strong by itself, but if it happens to fall, all those ships cannot escape.

It really doesn't make sense when you think about it but on screen it certainly had the cool factor. ST3 had its best scenes revolving around Enterprise and the Space dock.