Okay, I need to clear up a misunderstanding here. I said earlier that the large doors on the underside of the fairings were for the large HLV to enter and exit, so it does not rise through the upper shuttle bay and leave through the upper doors. The only reason the false floor opens up is for maintenance of the the Horus and so it can load cargo through the nose if necessary. Furthermore, there are redundant bays, one in each fairing. Even when the ship is servicing a Horus in one bay, the other bay is available for Type II shuttle traffic.
Furthermore these are my assumptions in designing the Horus-Gryphon system:
1.) Transporters are either too unreliable or considered unreliable by most people in the 2180's. Rightly or wrongly, Starfleet brass distrust the system and did not design the ship around it.
2.) Most outposts and minor powers at this point do not have improved spaceports, which means neither orbital facilities nor space elevators. The only way to get bulk materiel up to orbit is with an HLV, and it is too risky to assume that capability already exists on site. Hence you must carry your own ship.
3.) Very small warp engines are fairly new but better understood and trusted than transporters and Horus is about as small as they come. If I had to choose between a sublight-only bulk carrier with a negligibly larger amount of cargo, or being able to make a supply run across several light years in Horus, I'd choose the warp capable one.
4.) Gryphon operates as part of a fleet which is typically distributed over several sectors of space with the fleet tenders a sector or two behind the science ships. Horus is Gryphon's lifeline to that fleet. In the event that Gryphon cannot procure something herself, she can send out a Horus to go get it from the main fleet and not have to delay by running back herself.
5.) Surveying a star system is a far more difficult task than is generally assumed, especially if that system has several worlds supporting an ecosystem. Weeks before entering a system, Gryphon identifies interesting targets with her subspace sensors and then sends survey teams ahead to land on those worlds. Horus drops off laboratory modules and survey teams on the target worlds and can either run back to Gryphon or remain on station to move the survey team on demand. In the meantime, Gryphon can focus on what she does best: astronomical surveys. This way, Gryphon doesn't need to remain on station for weeks running shuttles up and down.
6.) Gryphon is designed around the concept of "defense in depth". The ship follows Jefferies' original concept of the warp nacelles being self-contained power units, so each one has its own warp core. In the event one core fails and is ejected, the ship can limp to safety on the power of the other. If both fail and the escape pods and Type II shuttles are out of range of an M-class world, the two Horus' can carry the entire compliment back to the fleet or to a system with a safe haven.
7.) The impact on the main ship's cargo capacity is negligible as there is no need to carry enough bulk material for the entire multi-year mission. As she is, Gryphon carries enough supplies to support her crew for a year without resupply and eliminating the HLV's would not necessarily mean the space would be used for more consumables. Bulk consumables are stored in tanks above and below the main deck in the saucer. If the ship is ever isolated from the fleet, the ship's onboard recycling centers can extend the water supply indefinitely and it's easy enough to bring a load of hydrocarbons or food items to the ship from a planetary surface when food supplies are running low.
In short from a 23rd or 24th century standpoint where transporters are common and ships go out completely alone, Horus wouldn't make sense, but in the 22nd century it is far better to have and not need than to need and not have.
Furthermore these are my assumptions in designing the Horus-Gryphon system:
1.) Transporters are either too unreliable or considered unreliable by most people in the 2180's. Rightly or wrongly, Starfleet brass distrust the system and did not design the ship around it.
2.) Most outposts and minor powers at this point do not have improved spaceports, which means neither orbital facilities nor space elevators. The only way to get bulk materiel up to orbit is with an HLV, and it is too risky to assume that capability already exists on site. Hence you must carry your own ship.
3.) Very small warp engines are fairly new but better understood and trusted than transporters and Horus is about as small as they come. If I had to choose between a sublight-only bulk carrier with a negligibly larger amount of cargo, or being able to make a supply run across several light years in Horus, I'd choose the warp capable one.
4.) Gryphon operates as part of a fleet which is typically distributed over several sectors of space with the fleet tenders a sector or two behind the science ships. Horus is Gryphon's lifeline to that fleet. In the event that Gryphon cannot procure something herself, she can send out a Horus to go get it from the main fleet and not have to delay by running back herself.
5.) Surveying a star system is a far more difficult task than is generally assumed, especially if that system has several worlds supporting an ecosystem. Weeks before entering a system, Gryphon identifies interesting targets with her subspace sensors and then sends survey teams ahead to land on those worlds. Horus drops off laboratory modules and survey teams on the target worlds and can either run back to Gryphon or remain on station to move the survey team on demand. In the meantime, Gryphon can focus on what she does best: astronomical surveys. This way, Gryphon doesn't need to remain on station for weeks running shuttles up and down.
6.) Gryphon is designed around the concept of "defense in depth". The ship follows Jefferies' original concept of the warp nacelles being self-contained power units, so each one has its own warp core. In the event one core fails and is ejected, the ship can limp to safety on the power of the other. If both fail and the escape pods and Type II shuttles are out of range of an M-class world, the two Horus' can carry the entire compliment back to the fleet or to a system with a safe haven.
7.) The impact on the main ship's cargo capacity is negligible as there is no need to carry enough bulk material for the entire multi-year mission. As she is, Gryphon carries enough supplies to support her crew for a year without resupply and eliminating the HLV's would not necessarily mean the space would be used for more consumables. Bulk consumables are stored in tanks above and below the main deck in the saucer. If the ship is ever isolated from the fleet, the ship's onboard recycling centers can extend the water supply indefinitely and it's easy enough to bring a load of hydrocarbons or food items to the ship from a planetary surface when food supplies are running low.
In short from a 23rd or 24th century standpoint where transporters are common and ships go out completely alone, Horus wouldn't make sense, but in the 22nd century it is far better to have and not need than to need and not have.
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