April Art Challenge - Arkady

[Arkady]

Never entered one of these before, so here goes.

Narwhal Class:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/arkadyfolkner/Narwhal.jpg

Class Name: Narwhal
Utilized by the United Federation of Planets, Federation Naval Patrol
Type: Deep Sea Explorer



Overview later whenever I finalize it in my brain, probably about 110-130 meters in length, propulsion is the two large MHD style primary thrusters aft, the whole vessel utilizes a hull-layer forcefield and advanced construction materials to survive deep ocean pressures.

 

[Bill Morris]

Nice design.

 

[Arkady]

Overview:
On many worlds, the final terrestrial frontier is the depths of their oceans, to explore these depths the vessels of the Narwhal class were designed.

Built for use by the Federation and by its Naval Patrol, the Narwhal is 120 meters in length, and powered by a small matter/antimatter intermix chamber backed by twin fusion reactors, constructed of advanced materials and utilizing a hull-surface force field system to survive immense pressures, the Narhwal is built to dive deep into the oceans and stay there for extended lengths of time. the vessel does not have starship level shielding, but it's powerful protective forcefields give it more than adequate protection from hostile encounters it may face under the surface of an alien ocean.

Propelling this craft through the depths is a pair of advanced Magnetohydrodynamic drives in the very aft of the Narwhal, far more efficient than older generations of these drive types due to the use of forcefield technology in the construction of these vessels. Maneuvers are provided by additional thrusters and impellers implanted at strategic points on the hull.

The vessel also carries antigrav systems, powerful enough to lift it off the surface of the ocean so that the Narwhal can traverse long distances rapidly before settling back into the water and continuing it's mission. This feature tends to spark 'flying fish' jokes among the crews at times.

To defend itself the vessel carries modified phasers that are designed to specifically fire underwater, it also carries blue-green spectrum high-energy laser cannons primarily for mining purposes, as well as a special style of torpedo. This torpedo is powered by an onboard plasma thruster, and utilizes a surface level forcefield to project a supercavitation bubble around the torpedo while it is in motion, the advanced explosive warheads onboard this torpedo type combined with the quick velocities make the Narhwal's Naval Torpedoes devastating.

The Narhwal also carries modified Photon Torpedoes, but the extreme hazard and concussive shocks of firing even a low-yield antimatter photon torpedo underwater make it a weapon that rarely sees use.

Narwhals, for the most part, are small enough to be transported to their destination by a larger starship in a specially designed cargo pod from which the Narwhal is released in orbit, as it's tough hull, tougher forcefield shielding, and antigrav drives can allow it to make atmospheric entry and oceanfall with ease. A single impulse thruster in the aft and boosters in the hull saucer section can be used to punch the ship back through the gravity well - with the aid of it's antigravs - and back up into low orbit where it can rendesvous with its carrier pod for pickup upon mission completion.

Note that for missions on Federation worlds as part of the Naval Patrol the Narhwal almost never uses these systems.

Crew complements aboard these ships number about 40 and primarily consist of Naval Patrol officers and crew, along with a scientific complement of an additional 10 personnel - bringing the total crew to 50.

 

[Kaiser]

Reminds of the one of the Galaxy Police ship designs from Tenchi Muyo!: GXP

 

[Arkady]

lol have to watch that now

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I like the design. It'd even be a good ship for a slipstream spacedrive.

 

[Arkady]

I like the design. It'd even be a good ship for a slipstream spacedrive.

hehe thankee, figured its not too far a step to apply some of the same lines used by their current era starships to a Naval Patrol submarine since it seems to lend itself well to a hydrodynamic flowshape - although not being a scientist or submarine engineer couldn't say for sure. After that its just adapting things. It has a lot of power onboard for a sub - even one as big as she is (and I may have to adjust the length out longer because as I recall a Typhoon class submarine is 170 meters or so, maybe 50 meters longer than this design, so I may have to increase it a tad)

In any case there is a lot of systems to keep running aboard her, as the pressure forcefield is a must, because only it and the strength of her hull would keep her from getting crushed at very great depths.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

I like the design.

 

[hellsgate]

Now, design a starbase / personnel habitat / shipyard for the Narwhal.

 

[Arkady]

Now, design a starbase / personnel habitat / shipyard for the Narwhal.

Don't thinka starbase or habitat so much as a ocean dock structure, or it's carrier module.

Got that halfway done.

 

[Crewman47]

Just a quick technical question but why a MA/AM intermix chamber on a vessel that's designed to operate underwater. Wouldn't the fusion reactors that you have be enough to propel the ship? I thought that a MA/AM reactor would only be used for Starships in space or is this ship designed to go into space as well?

 

[Arkady]

I debated that myself before and after postage of the overview.

I think the thing of it is that there is a lot of systems that need to be running and I suppose I was not too sure of the power requirements, considering the structural integrity field and hull-surface fields are intended to protect the ship from outside damage, hold it together and keep it from being crushed by deep pressures, life support, sensors, replicators, the main drives, etc etc.

I figured it could have one, although it didnt have to have a large one by any means, and the fusion reactors either as supplementals or backups.

I suppose my answer in the end would be that I always try to hedge my bets, by using a primary power system and secondaries.

is this ship designed to go into space as well?

Well, yes and no. It does have a set of antigrav units and thrusters built into it, and can get back into orbit for pickup and retrieval by mating with a carrier module on the rare occasions that one is dropped into an alien ocean. I suppose I figured that sometimes you need to get a good look under the waves, a starship sensor may not give you such a great look at it or the lifeforms in it, and aquashuttle mods won't quite cut it so...

Course this may all be just me being crazy, but hey thoughts and feedback are appreciated.

The way I kinda do something is get a general function in mind, write an overview for it, then sketch it, this time got kinda out of sequence.