Asteroid shipyards and the OAP

Alliyana is sort of a hybrid. It has an asteroid core, inside of which are all the shops, hangar bays, flight ops, power generation, life-support, blah, blah, blah. However, the assembly bays are external, built out of the sides of the asteroid in much the same fashion as the OAP was built.

There are two advantages to the asteroid setup. You have a source of raw materials that can be mined and utilized to build out the interior and to build the ships themselves, and you have much better radiation and micrometeorite protection being inside a few hundred meters of rock (if not kilometers of it).

The biggest disadvantage of asteroid bases is location. If it isn't in the right spot, getting to and from takes time and propellant. And not everyone can move an asteroid to park it where they like.

Another disadvantage would be the amount of effort it would take to carve out the interior enough to make room for drydocks big enough for starships. The Karuzara was an asteroid that had once been a mining base. The interior of the asteroid was mined for at decades before there was a big enough cavern to construct facilities on the inside. Then it served decades more as a base for mining asteroids in the neighborhood. Eventually, (was it was no longer convenient to use) it was abandon and scheduled for movement closer to Corinair so that its remains could be harvested be conveniently. (However, it would have been decades more before that would have occurred.)

Shipyards - Built to do one thing, build ships. It is constructed to suit the ships it is building and modified as required. Cheap to build as you literally only use what you need. It is close to a populated industrial world that supplies it with all its needs.

Astrohanger - Mining out an asteroid can be dangerous (trapped gasses or flammable/ explosive materials/ collisions with other asteroids/ proximity to Miners with mining equipment) You need to ferry tools to mine out the asteroid and then to make it fit for purpose. The Asteroid you have mined may not be fit for the purpose (discovery of a Vain of valuable ore / or a large vain of very brittle rock) You need to find and mine out a suitable asteroid. It is normally far from a Populated industrial World and therefor it is costly and time consuming to ferry supplies to the Astrohanger. The Karuzara asteroid would have taken years normally to transition from the Asteroid belt to orbit around Corinair.(If you have one, its better then a spaceyard, but its a hell of a lot of work and luck to get one and to get it to the right place... without Jump drives)

@rykbrown Are the external assembly bays oriented so the ships being constructed have their bows directed toward the asteroid or are they parallel to the asteroid so the ships have their bows directed toward open space?

@rykbrown And couldn't some kind of low-level shield system provide protection against radiation and micrometeorite hazards on shipyards not built into asteroids?

Low level radiation shields would be good. Or A solid barrier or radiation shield would work (Think the disk on the front of the ship in the movie "Sunshine") or again, just a big chunk of rock.

Asteroids have very little gravity, but they do have some. If the Shipyard is build onto the surface of an asteroid I would use that surface as "down", but you do not need to, (I would just prefer a floor under me). The Zaruzara offices as we saw originally were on multiple orientations, you just need gravity plating or in the case of a hollow asteroid or a habitat ring you could impart outward forces or "gravity" by spinning the object. anything in the center (and not spinning) would be in zero-G (In fact if you ran fast enough in the opposite direction to the habitat ring and then just lifted your legs you would be weightless and look really out of place as the ring spun on below you...

You can orientate the shipyard however you like if its Zero-G "and though this door we have one of our Zero-G Hubs to connect us with the Inverted and Vertical orientated parts of the station". Using one asteroid to hold two shipyards, the perfectionist in me would keep the entire complex to one orientation, if for nothing else it would make it easier to navigate. Like the OAP, I would have the shipyards on either side of the asteroid. (Not that that is the best lay out, it may make more sense to keep both shipyards beside each other or stacked one above the other to keep the exterior work environment in the light of the sun / out of the radiation of the sun / hidden from sight of the nearest planet / on the side of an asteroid less likely to be impacted my space debris)

@darkscribe Jason as I understand it you are trying to write a fan fiction novella set in the Frontier Sage Universe. Don't. You will drive yourself mad. Every time Ryk releases a new episode, something will happen that will change the history of your story and you will have to rewrite. Draw a line in the sand. Say to yourself Ep.14 happened, since then what do I think happened, make notes and then forget about everything else but your story. Ep.15 isn't happening/ didn't happen, the history of your personal fan fiction universe is all. As for Future Tech, make stuff up, try to make it sound believable, (making a gun 10% stronger is more believable then making a new gun 20xtimes stronger). It doesn't need to be perfect, just do your best, have fun with it and every now and then when you have a section you are happy with post it on the forums for us to read.

@rykbrown from my relocation the Alliyana wasn't know to the Alliance until Jessica got told about it my the CLA, but if as you say the assembly bays are external surely it would have been spotted by the cold costing falcons.

Kindle Episode 13 page 276.

"They have shipyards here" Jessica wondered, surprised by his statement. "none of our recon flights have detected any shipyards"
....
Ellyus nodded. "well I'm not surprised that your Falcons did not detect them unless one of the new ships is departing, the shipyard would just appear to be another of Sorenson's moons.....

This to me says that the shipyard is masked in the assemble bays are more like depressions or creators, which were dug out to fit the need, then had retractably roofs/doors added, which were masked. Upon casually in section it might look like some kind of base was on the moon, like in the Tannan systems, but it would take a really close look to spot the assemble bays.

@palmer A cold coasting Falcon wouldn't have necessarily seen the external assembly bays. You have to remember that the Tau Ceti system was heavily traversed by interplanetary traffic prior to its liberation, requiring the Falcons to operate much further out than they had on such missions previously in other systems to avoid detection. Sheer distance could have kept it hidden from them. Also Alliyana is one of 15 moons in orbit of Sorenson and could have been behind Sorenson from the Falcon's line of sight when it cold-coasted through the system. An example of that kind of situation would be the fifth moon of Tanna that held the Jung fighter base and refueling depot that you mentioned. When Josh and Loki began their cold-coast of 72 Herculis is was behind Tanna and only became visible to them when it crested the horizon of the planet into the line of sight of their instruments. So, a Falcon crew could have missed it, external assembly bays or not.

@four-islands Thank you for your advice, but I have been writing for more than a decade and know what I am doing.

@darkscribe There were Multiple Cold Coasts Though the Tau Ceti system, and I would expect the Alliance to want to at least Survey the plants and local planetary bodies So they are not caught out like Josh and Loki were in the 72 Herculis System I can understand them no pay much attention to the Gas Giants, as they probably weren't in the planned engagement zone.

Multiple Cold Coast from Varying angles would have caught the Alliyana Moon, I could understand if the moon was tied locked and the assembly bays were facing the plant that they might have been missed.

You also have to consider that even with mutliple cold-coasts, it would be difficult to get good intel on the inner Tau Ceti system. With two full Jung task forces in the system, a recon ship would be hard pressed to coast through the heart of the system, where they would be able to get a good look at ALL inner planets. All their recon missions would have been from further out in the system, thus limiting the detail. Also, it's a matter of timing. Where was Alliyana in relation to Sorenson when the recon was performed. What was the recon path? How reflective are the structures on that asteroid? What sort of emissions/power signatures is that asteroid emitting?

Their inability to coast through the heart of the system on recon is one of the main reasons they put Jessica on the ground on Kohara to get intel.

Of course, that didn't work out as well as they had hoped.

Worth mentioning that the Falcon doesn't have the best sensor equipment of the Alliance (It has to fit on a Space fighter, even if it is a large one) although I do like the multiple functionality.

I would like to see the Aurora or a scout ship do a long range scouting mission at say one light month from the target system from above or below the orbital plane. looking down or up will show all of the Orbital bodies of a system. I have never heard of an orbit at the poles of a planet and the Jung would not see the jump flash for a month, so it gives the Alliance time to plan the attack knowing more of the facts.

Asteroid base becomes a death star type base? http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/12/26/nasa-engineer-schools-you-on-how-to-build-a-death-star?%20hub%20page%20(front%20page)&utm_content=2&read or in Frontiers Saga Terms Battle Platform.

Saw star wars and just finished reading ep.15. As fighter / warship battles go ep.15 takes it with ease. (Poh does give josh a run for his money.)