More shipyards like Kosigi

[kyli]

I've been thinking about how the Karinnes could build more shipyards like Kosigi.  I know they don't really need the space yet, but with more empires joining the Confederation and more ships being build as fast as possible, Kosigi might get pretty crowded eventually.  I've been thinking that the Karinnes might not need to hollow out a moon or asteroid in order to build another shipyard like Kosigi.  If a planetary shield could contain an atmosphere on a small low gravity moon, then you could build a shipyard almost just like Kosigi, except maybe not as defendable. It would be low gravity, a breathable atmosphere, and lots of space, just like Kosigi.  It would of course take time to build the shield and bring in the oxygen to create an breathable atmosphere but it definitely wouldn't take as long as hollowing out a moon.  The Karinnes could then move all the Confederate empires out of Kosigi and to a shipyard on a moon with a planetary shield, leaving Kosigi free to build Karinne and Kimdori ships and would also help by decreasing the chance of any of the other empires being able to steal Karinnes tech by closing off Karis completely.  The only Karinnes tech that would have to be at the other shipyard is the planetary shield.  The question is, can a planetary shield prevent atmosphere from escaping into space?

[MartinK]

I believe somewhere it was noted that the more important and bigger nations are already taking steps to build a useful shipyard similar to Kosigi in their respective territories. Of course, a hollowed out space that size takes many years to complete. Also, while from a logistics point of view one big shipyard makes things easier, it also makes that location vulnerable if the enemy only has to take out one location to win a war.

BTW, why would you think that Kosigi would one day become too small? Its a fricking moon!

[calista241]

I can see Dahnai doing it for sure. They have to realize the Karinnes won't be in the shipbuilding business forever. To rely on a pacifist nation for your military infrastructure seems kinda short-sighted to me.

[kyli]

BTW, why would you think that Kosigi would one day become too small? Its a fricking moon!

Maybe it is big enough. But those are also very big ships and a lots of different empires building lots of ships and with even more space between the docks so that ships can move around. The surface area of our moon is 14.6 million miles, which is smaller than the continent of asia. I don't know how that compares with Kosogi's size, but I think I read somewhere that its smaller than our moon. I was also thinking long term. I don't think the karinnes will stop building ships for a while. The consortium still has about three hunderd thousand ships and who knows how many the syndicate has. I'm sure the karinnes wouldn't stop building ships until they can match those numbers. Even if they don't have the people to man those ships, they can still have them avaible. When they lose ships, the crews from the lost ships can just take another ship and get back out there since casualties are low with their armor.

[SYED]

THe karrine shipyard is being used to make the bigger warships, while the other nations continue the building of hte smaller ships in their existing shipyards. If they inflate an asteroid or something, it would be the perfect ship yard for smaller ships. ANd due to its smaller size than a hollowed out moon, it would be easier to build.
WHile other nations are able to build such a base, tthe issue is the sheer cost and size of the resources needed would break nearly every power around. THe karrines made their moon base by selling all their holdings and using advanced tech, and it still took a fortune and and decades. even with the free bank loans available in the confederation, it might be too much.
THe only place it would be worth it, would in in terra sysyem. It would service the whole sonfederation, and be available as a civilian shipyard.

[lapland]

There are two distinct advantages Kosigi has over other ship yards. One is as you addressed, the breathable air in the space. The other advantage you haven't addressed is the gravity on two surfaces and micro or zero gravity between them. It's unlikely that your shields can create the same environmental conditions. Why not just use a standard ship yard, put a shield around it and build that way. You could build an artificial gravity well on the dock and have air around the ship. Safety wise however you are asking for trouble. If a catastrophic accident occurred to bring down the shield even for a second all your people would explode.

[miraborn]

I wonder if it would be possible to amp up Jason's old Liquefaction Device (remember how he trapped the gang just after he left New Orleans) so that an entire asteroid could be made malleable, then blow it up like a balloon. That could save a Ton of time. Use tractor beams / forcefields to control the exterior surface shape, while inflating it from the inside.

[MartinK]

Wasn't the liquefaction device possible because there was a single, homogeneous material that would react to a specific vibration? An asteroid, pretty much any object in space, consists of lots of different stuff.

However, that ballooning up of asteroids was a subject of more than one book already. Take a big asteroid, heat it up with lasers or lots and lots of mirrors which collect and concentrate sunlight, then let it cool, blast a hole into it to the center, stuff a comet into it and seal the hole back up. Now heat it up again and the comet, or rather the water in it, balloons up nicely. Open another hole into the center and take the cometic remains out and voila, you have a huge cave. John Ringo made a great book series based alone on that principle. Who needs space stations, simply build a door and you got one already.

[SYED]

There is a metal liquidifier, so any non metal would retain itself. I wonder how that would effect any bubbling.

THe SAPL from john ringo books, used mirrors and lenses. THe device the karrine has is much better i think than what is used in those books. I wonder if such a system if possible. WIth indictors limiting ships to travel STL in system, then such a system has the potential to do alot of damage.
THey can warp space, so i wonder if applications of this could be used to make lensing effects in certain areas.

[Wolfee]

I had originally intended to say there was a cheaper way than hollowing out a moon. However if you pick the right moon, what is removed might pay for a good portion of the work.

There is a quicker way that hollowing out a moon to make a ship yard for the other empires. You build a spherical cage of curved outer spars by attaching them to the center cylindrical main shaft that runs from North to South pole of the station right down the axis of the station. To make the station air tight, you'd have an outer and an inner hard shield projected by shield generators mounted on the spherical outer cage of the station.... for doors an airlock system comprised of soft shields would do the trick. You would of course need some environmental controls. I would the use a hole-emitter to hide the interior of the station and to prevent the workers from getting vertigo... you'd want to also add some sensor jammers and the like to provide security. Gravity generators could then be used to provide gravity in the locations you wish.

[SYED]

How effective is their gravity tech, i know they have some spartial distorsion ability. SAy they go to a rubble belt, use the gravity tech to drag all the matter around them covering them, until it makes a large enough body. They could then inflate it to make it hollow.

[calista241]

You know, if they mined 1/2 of Kosigi to make the shipyard, that would have a substantial effect of the moon's mass, and therefore it's orbit, affect of the tides on Karis, all kinds of unfathomable stuff.

[Fel]

You know, if they mined 1/2 of Kosigi to make the shipyard, that would have a substantial effect of the moon's mass, and therefore it's orbit, affect of the tides on Karis, all kinds of unfathomable stuff.

That's what large-scale gravity inducers inside the moon are for, to allow Kosigi to project the same mass as before, which prevents it from altering the astrodynamics of the entire star system.

They took that into account when they built the base.

[Greymist]

You know, if they mined 1/2 of Kosigi to make the shipyard, that would have a substantial effect of the moon's mass, and therefore it's orbit, affect of the tides on Karis, all kinds of unfathomable stuff.

That's what large-scale gravity inducers inside the moon are for, to allow Kosigi to project the same mass as before, which prevents it from altering the astrodynamics of the entire star system.

They took that into account when they built the base.

You know he just made that up right?

[kyli]

You know, if they mined 1/2 of Kosigi to make the shipyard, that would have a substantial effect of the moon's mass, and therefore it's orbit, af. ct of the tides on Karis, all kinds of unfathomable stuff.

That's what large-scale gravity inducers inside the moon are for, to allow Kosigi to project the same mass as before, which prevents it from altering the astrodynamics of the entire star system.

They took that into account when they built the base.

You know he just made that up right?

No, I don't think he did. I think it says something about that somewhere. Though the reason he gave was so mass detecters couldn't see that Kosogi was hollow and find out that its a hidden base. I think thats in the second book though i'm not sure.