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space Dock vs. Dry dock

My guess is that spacedock is for simple repairs that will only take days or weeks while drydock is for major repairs that will take months or years.
 
well Dry dock seems to be like an incomplete tunnel.. seen in the first two films, "Relativity," and "Broken Bow" while Space dock is the mushroom shaped thing in the latter films, and 111001001
 
The drydock was designed by Andrew Probert with technical assistance from NASA-MSFC engineers Georg von Tiesenhausen and Don Worrell. The shroomdock was designed by ILM with technical assistance from, well, Leonard Nimoy and Harve Bennett.

TGT
 
As far as I'm concerned, Drydock is for construction, refit and major repairs. Spacedock is basically a port for the ship, but can carry out some repair work if necessary.
 
Space Dock - Services starships plus has accomodation attached

The dry dock appears to be equipped with some form of worker accommodation - as the docking ring in this Probert sketch implies - although the lighting and camera angles David Stewart used for photographing the actual miniature for ST:TMP renders the mechanism essentially invisible. On a related note, Probert also designed "clip-on" habitat modules for the structure, which were regrettably not fabricated for whatever reason by Magicam.

TGT
 
When I think of the functionality and feasibility of Spacedock, I sometimes think that the station's resemblance to a mushroom might not be coincidental.
 
Semantically, a dry dock should be a dock that removes the ship from its usual element for the purpose of repairs or construction. In that sense, the ST3 structure might theoretically be a dry dock (that is, it could be pumped full of air to remove the starship from her usual vacuum element), while the TMP box thing would be a wet dock.

Then again, vacuum is pretty dry...

Timo Saloniemi
 
On a related topic I've always wondered how a Planet based outpost can be called a Starbase when it isn't even located in Space?
 
The Farpoint station could have become a starbase the same way Dr Bashir could call Bajor the final frontier: even though it's somebody's home, from the Earthling point of view it is a stepping stone to the stars.

However, I'd think that all starbases will eventually feature at least some spaceborne elements. Even Farpoint would ultimately have acquired a dock facility or three in orbit, a couple of defensive fortresses, lots of observation satellites and so forth.

Timo Saloniemi
 
Spacedock and drydock: one and the same. They just dumbed down the name because too many of the general public wouldn't understand what "drydock" means. This is similar to the traditional - and assinine - practice of adding "space" to every word in a B Sci-Fi movie.
 
^^^I know that if they had said "Warning! Hanger doors are closed," I would have been completely lost!
 
Drydock =TMP drydock..this is what I call a "slip".....a medium to light repair / consturction facility. A "drydock" as opposed to a slip as seen in TMP would be a meduim sized facillity with some substantial supply depot for construction materials and personnel. On a scale of a 1 to 10 what we saw in TMP I would rate it as a 1...a minimal constuction facility. A drydock which would be more substantial in size would have a much larger dedicated yard servicing it. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate a "drydock' on the sclae of a 5.

Spacedock = Secure harbor....heavy facility for fleet logistical maintenance. I seriously doubt the "spacedock" was entirely amtomsperic capable. I do suppose that htey may have had a dedicated slip inside the spacedock that would house a starship that would be enclosed and airtight that was removed aaway from the other ships inside the other side of the spacedock. Spacedock as seen in ST III I would classify on a scale of 1 to 10...I would rate it s 10.

Slip = TMP drydock.....light repair facility..minimal on site facilities. On a scale of 1 to 10 in size....I would rate it a 1. Slips traditionally were the site where a ship was built. The one we see in TMP being a minimal facility suggests that "slip" is TMP is not used solely for ship assembly / constuction facilities but to general repair and maintence which is more of a duty allocated for smaller outlying yards. Hte larger yards as a economy of allocating resources would be allocated to the heavier repair / construction work to be done on the fleet. So a near total over haul like seen on the Enterprise in TMP would be more apprpriate to be done in the "Spacedock" where such heavy supply and logoistical support exists, than in a minimal support structure like seen in TMP.

Does that help any?
 
Drydock =TMP drydock..this is what I call a "slip".....a medium to light repair / consturction facility. A "drydock" as opposed to a slip as seen in TMP would be a meduim sized facillity with some substantial supply depot for construction materials and personnel.

You know, the reason why fans tend to call the ST:TMP structure a "dry dock" is because the model makers painted the words "dry dock" onto the actual miniature.

TGT
 
I am not challenging their choice of established teminology. What I am pointing out is that their terminology does not entirely fit what is seen it it's traditional role assignment. Let's make it simple for you....small yards do small work....and big yards do BIG work. And what we saw done to the Enterprise in TMP was MAJOR BIG work and not something like replacing the food stores or minor modular components. To rebuild a ship entriely from ground up top to bottom is not something to be assigned to a small service slip which is more appropriate for light service and repair. Is that more clear? Everything has a specific purpose. I am calling attention to is that up till that point in Trek / pre- TMP there was nothing ever seen on screen as to what a space repair facillity looked like. IN TMP they had start barebones and came up with the dock design. Minimal...but it seved it's purpose to show a location where the Enterprise was being overhauled....PERIOD! IN STIII we have the "spacedock" which I think is a conscious adknowledgement that there must have been more rubust facilites since what was seen in TMP was spartan. I think was a intuitive smart move to see, recognize and addess this with the spacedock seen in ST III.

Yes it says "drydock". But in all candor and to be blunt....the ones who were designing the miniature probably didn't know the difference from a slip, drydock, or yard in Trek up till that point given that most ( Read majority but not all...) people associated with Trek in pre-production.....and especially special effects artists in particular ( I wanted to be an effects artist and model maker myself so don't accuse me of sluring anybody...) weren't ex- military and didn't know the difference. Especially since in Trek it hadn't been designed yet up till that point. And I seriously doubt they even knew the wet equivalent of what they were desiging a future version of. Ands that is why what they designed didn't exactly fit the name usage of what the traditional role is reserved for.

And that shot was uncalled for.
 
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The TMP refit could have easily taken place entirely within the drydock we saw. I'm thinking that all the new components were manufactured offsite in big chunks, and they simply took her apart to the structural core and installed the new stuff. The whole ship is bound to be more modular than you think, especially if you start thinking like Jefferies.

I just don't see the Mushroom being used for major refit work. It's not set up for construction, the interior is laid out like a big harbor in space. If you want to build or refit things, the ideal support structure in space is a scaffold. It's cheap, easy to build, and it's all you really need.

Utopia Planitia isn't going to be a bunch of big mushrooms. As we saw in VOY, its a bunch of scaffolds with the occasional larger facility, probably offices and fabrication bases.
 
I always figured that they were simultaneously refitting most of the fleet at that time, so all the other really big facilities were in use then, and the drydock seen in TMP was all that was available to them.
WHat the Hell. It works for me.
 
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