Olympic-Class MSD

[Praetor]

Here's the MSD of the Olympic class U.S.S. Nobel created by LCARS 24 and myself for inclusion in the next release of LCARS 24 for nitpicks and suggestions. The length is as extrapolated on Ex Astris Scientia. In original laying out the components, I envisioned the ship as being a multi-role medical transport workhorse, designed by the Federation to be equally well-suited for natural disaster relief and combat triage, as well as transport of precious medical cargoes and large numbers of passengers.

The number of windows on the model alone seems to indicate a lot of rooms, so it was my thought almost the entire ship could be used as one big medical ward, or for passengers. The large cargo decks along the upper secondary hull were also based on lack of windows in that area and the two large airlocks on either side, as well as adjacency to the obvious rear shuttlebay. I originally had the deuterium tankage in the 'hump' that the nacelle pylons came off of, but it was LCARS 24's suggestion that this should be another, larger shuttlebay to aid in disaster evacuations and so forth, which seems to match pretty well with the visual evidence - why else bother to have it be a separate hump?

A few relevant references. First, side view from the Star Trek Encyclopedia:


From on screen:


Filming model shots:


And the actual MSD:

 

[Bill Morris]

This shot is from a fanmade mesh, but at least it gives a glimpse of how the pylons are attached and what's there:

 

[Timo]

"Obvious primary shuttlebay"? It doesn't seem to me that there would be room in the forwardmost hump for any shuttlecraft. It's pretty much analogous with the hump that joins the Excelsior warp engine pylons; it probably contains machinery associated with the warp engines. So the aftmost hump would be the only (if rather spacious) shuttlebay on this design.

Also, the MSD might make note of the very prominent armament of this hospital ship: the two thick phaser strips on the spherical hull, and the possible strips on the pylons and perhaps under the fantail. Dialogue in "All Good Things.." makes it clear that this vessel is indeed armed, even though the armament is no match for the Klingon threat the ship faces. Apparently, Starfleet sees no merit in trying to convince the enemy that hospital ships aren't military threats by stripping them of armament.

Which makes rather logical sense: the ship is a threat anyway because it replenishes Starfleet's fighting personnel, and thus a prime target, especially for Klingons who are explicitly in the habit of slaying the wounded. Heavy defensive armament would thus be warranted. And of course, phasers have many uses in disaster relief scenarios...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bill Morris]

There are various photos of the studio model on the Web, but I could find none with a clear enough shot of that. However, here's a picture of the relevant part from the Star Cast model kit. What do you make of that?

 

[Timo]

Looks almost like an aft-facing torpedo tube...!

The one top shot of the model seems to show two side-by-side rectangles close to the sphere hull - possible transporter emitters? The long central "ridge" is much less pronounced there than in the cast part, though - probably just painted on. And then there's the dorsally drawn big square that probably wouldn't be a good door for a hangar (but might be an engineering access feature similar to the things painted on the underside of Kirk's TOS ship), and no clear aft-opening features. One wonders if Greg Jein went for identifiable "Sternbachian" features or for random decorative paint when doing this ship - I'd wager he would have had the motivation/ambition to try the former...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[GodThingFormerly]

One wonders if Greg Jein went for identifiable "Sternbachian" features or for random decorative paint when doing this ship - I'd wager he would have had the motivation/ambition to try the former...

It was actually ILM arch-villain Bill George who designed and built the USS Pasteur miniature, not Jein.

TGT

 

[trevanian]

One wonders if Greg Jein went for identifiable "Sternbachian" features or for random decorative paint when doing this ship - I'd wager he would have had the motivation/ambition to try the former...

It was actually ILM arch-villain Bill George who designed and built the USS Pasteur miniature, not Jein.

TGT

And he built it for himself (only renting it to paramount), so he wasn't under any of the usual Berman redesign 'guidelines.'

 

[Timo]

Drats. Humiliated again.

Then again, ILM tended to stick to the pseudofunctionalities created by their predecessors; the Pasteur is probably far more "Sternbachian" than the unfortunately recast Defiant...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bill Morris]

Anyway, the primary mission of this ship is mass medevac, right? If you have hundreds of people to move from a planet to this hospital ship, and the very conditions that caused the emergency also prevent beaming them up, you'd better have enough shuttles and shuttlebays to get the job done. And I don't want to hear about putting landing struts on this thing!

And the Olympic class doesn't have torpedo launchers.

 

[trekkerguy]

I've always liked the Olympic class. I'd love to see it used in a non-medical
area. I don't think there would be any reason for the design to be restricted
to that role.

 

[Timo]

The obvious other use might be troopship - with a window seat for each trooper!

Or perhaps a flying repair shop for machines rather than people. Or an operations center for anything ranging from planetary survey to planetary assault, not particularly well stocked in instrumentation or tools herself but well equipped to coordinate.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[SicOne]

Or the interstellar equivalent of a luxury liner, with cabins with excellent views!

 

[SicOne]

LCARS 24, is there a clear separation point for the (saucer) ball to detach from the ship and possibly land planetside?

...and when it returns to space, it can dock with the middle of a Trade Federation battleship...

Timo and TrekkerGuy, I am also thinking this would be an excellent ship design for a StarBase resupply role, with plenty of cargo area and many cabins for crew replacements, as well as a science vessel with which to further explore areas that a Nova- or Oberth-class has already visited, scanned, and moved along from.

LCARS 24 and Praetor, thanks for finally doing an Olympic MSD, as well as showing excellent photos/images of the "real thing".

 

[SicOne]

LCARS 24 and Praetor, I thought I saw in a previous thread mention of the Luna-class MSD and a link to it, but can't find it.

 

[ancient]

Looks great!

I always liked this design.

 

[Bill Morris]

LCARS 24 and Praetor, I thought I saw in a previous thread mention of the Luna-class MSD and a link to it, but can't find it.

Here it is again, second thumbnail down, at LCARSC.COM. This was made by a regular contributor to LCARS 24, but I'm only including canon ships and tech pages in my LCARS 24 package.

http://www.lcarsc.com/lcars/

Praetor asked me about separation, but I kind of chickened out on that, I guess, for lack of evidence.

 

[Praetor]

Yeah, that kind of fell to the wayside after shuttlebay two came to be. I originally thought that it could, simply becase of impulse placement (and... why not?)

To be fair the Voyager's MSD has similar lines on it that indicate shape while not being clear separation points. I don't see why it couldn't as is really... why should it matter it the separation plane borders the backside of the shuttlebay?

 

[SicOne]

Thanks for the link, LCARS 24, for the Luna-class.

What other uses, other than a hospital ship, could this class (Olympic) be used for?

 

[ST-One]

The Olympic-Class is one of the better Trek-designs... Nice work on the MSD

 

[Harry]

As far as large scale medevac goes, I suppose you could park some pretty big shuttles on the actual flat outside surface around the shuttlebay?

I could also see these ships being used on diplomatic cruises. Everyone his own office and spacious room, plenty of space for socalizing. And a great big atrium in the center of the sphere.