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So... Shuttles in Fenspace
01-22-2011, 06:49 AM
While updating the FenWiki today, a thought occurred to me. There's no way that http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Project_OV-200]Hephaestus is going to build Shuttles for just the VVS and Artemis (and one for Starfleet) - it's silly to set up the assembly line and then run off just four ships. (Yes, I know that's what happened in real life. These are Fen we're discussing, not 'Danes.) So it's reasonable (for a Fen definition of "reasonable") to assume there are more Shuttles flying around out there.
But who owns them (they are expensive ships, after all), and what are they named?
The Soviet Air Force would be more likely to own the [link=Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105] Dyna-Soar and the Spiral[/url] than anyone else would. There's no way that Noah would name a Shuttle http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0186566/]Daedalus or http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079574/]Moonraker 5, so let's let some random wealthy Fen buy those. (There aren't any other fictional Shuttles out there, to my knowledge. Digression: Oddly enough, the only three works I'm aware of that reference a real Shuttle - the novel Shuttle Down, the movie SpaceCamp, and the anime Rocket Girls - all reference Atlantis; why is that Shuttle so special?)
I'd like to add a couple of Shuttles to the Artemis fleet, but I have no idea what to name them - any suggestions? And who else would own a Shuttle (and what would they name it, other than Daedalus or Moonraker 5)? I suspect some of those ultra-rich folks living in the more exclusive L5 stations or on Pallas might own Shuttles, just because nobody else does...
(Edit: What? Yes, I am looking for an excuse to use http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail ... iaid=37452]this photo. Why do you ask?)
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Padraig O'Niell has to have one, just from a sort of "Keeping up with the Joneses" deal he may have (in his own mind) with Noah.
Y'know the whole "He's Rich, I'm Rich. He has a harem, I have a harem. Ditto Space station, etc," thing.
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Shuttle names, shuttle names....
VVS shuttles after OV-202 would follow Soviet Orbiter naming conventions, the theme of which seemed to be heavy weather: Buran, Burya, Uragan etc.
As for shuttle names from the US tradition, well. Here's a bit transcribed from the absurdly-exhaustive reference, Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System:
A really awesome book you should find on inter-library loan Wrote:What's In A Name?
Sometime in the mid-1970s NASA decided upon a name for at least the first Orbiter, but any further list has apparently been lost to time. All that is known is that Constitution was proposed as the name of OV-101 in recognition of the U.S. Constitution Bicentennial that was occurring the same year the vehicle was rolled out. But the public (i.e. Trekker) fervor to change the name of the first Orbiter to Enterprise finally convinced Washington to do so. In response, and to keep a similar incident from happening again, NASA decided to formalize its naming convention.
On 26 May 1978 John F. Yardley, the NASA Associate Administrator for Space Transportation Systems, sent the Public Affairs Office a list of potential Orbiter names. (...) The attached list included 15 names: Constitution, Independence, America, Constellation, Enterprise, Discoverer, Endeavour, Liberty, Freedom, Eagle, Kitty Hawk, Pathfinder, Adventurer, Prospector, and Peace.
This apparently did not satisfy everybody, and the issue remained open. Another Orbiter naming committee met three times through the end of November 1978 to determine a strategy for naming the new spacecraft. (...) Several themes were proposed: bright stars, constellations, American flight history, American history, explorer vessels, and American Indian tribes. The final recommendations were sent to Acting Administrator Dr. Alan M. Lovelace on 11 December 1978. "Three categories of names were selected by the committee by their vote in the following order of preference: (I) Explorer's Vessels - Enterprise, Endeavor, Discovery, Resolution, Adventure; (II) American Tradition and Spirit - Enterprise, Independence, Constitution, Freedom, Liberty, Republic, Columbia; and (III) Stars and Constellations - Orion, Arcturus, Polaris, Pegasus, Canopus, Capella, Alpha Centauri." It was noted in earlier memos that Enterprise did not fit well into the third category, and that there was some concern over the name Polaris because of its association with the Navy fleet ballistic missile program.
Orbiter Names
(...) In March 1988, NASA Headquarters announced a contest to name OV-105. As a tribute to school teacher Christa McAuliffe, who was on Challenger, the contest was open to all kindergarten through 12th grade students in the United States. In honor of the crew, the name Challenger was permanently retired. During the fall of 1988, 71,652 students formed 6,154 teams which submitted 422 different names.
The official list of finalist names included: Adventure, Calypso, Chatham, Deepstar, Desire, Dove, Endeavour, Godspeed, Hokule'a (a Polynesian heritage name), Horizon, Nautilus, North Star, Pathfinder, Phoenix, Trieste, Victoria, and Victory.
Other public reports have indicated there were 29 names on the final list, including Adventure, Blake, Calypso, Deepstar, Desire, Dove, Eagle, Endeavor (American spelling, Endeavour (British spelling), Endurance, Godspeed, Griffin, Gulf Stream, Chatham, Hokule'a, Horizon, Investigator, Meteor, Nautilus, North Star, Pathfinder, Phoenix, Polar Star, Resolution, Trieste, Victoria, and Victory.
The names were evaluated by two seperate NASA committees, and the results forwarded to the NASA Administrator, and then to President George (H.W.) Bush. Continuing with the tradition of naming the Orbiters after famous sailing ships, OV-105 was christened Endeavour in May 1989. Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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The Roughriders would probably have a decent size fleet in the long run once they start getting their Gagarin class ships. Since their first one was named Pegasus, then others would be named after mythical creatures as well... Griffin, Roc, Phoenix, Chamrosh, Gandaberunda, Ziz, and Adarna.
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The cargo bay would be useful for deploying a vacuum-based cybernetic assault team. Probably so they're no longer reliant on the availability of others to transport them to their missions, and using the Destiny Nova too often will negate its value as a Trojan horse.
They might be able to fund the construction of one shuttle, OV-213 named Melchizedek.... or more usually 'Mel' for short, which is used for just about *anything* from fetching cargo, to carrying a Gruppe on a mission, to running out faction representatives to a con. Probably everything *but* exploration.
Mel.... is something of a metalhead, And is most decidely un-gracelike, she tends to come across as something of a rebellious teenager compared to her more sober and graceful sisters. In their downtime, Mel and her usual crew operate the radio station Radio Kaos, from a Mars orbit. It's popular enough, with an eclectic mix of classic rock, metal and a few other genres... some current affairs and the only place in Fenspace that carries motorball results.
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Okay, I'm going to go with "Explorer's Vessels" for the Project Artemis fleet of Shuttles. Since there are already Shuttles named Enterprise, Endeavor, and Discovery, the next three Artemis Foundation Shuttles will be named Resolution, Gjøa, and Calypso (with AIs patterned after James Cook, Roald Amundsen, and Jacques Cousteau, respectively).
Let's let Padraig O'Niell have Daedalus - it seems a good fit.
(Oh, and there's already a Phoenix... but I'm willing to give up the Shuttle to the Roughriders. I'll retcon that the Resolution is the supply-and-support ship for Research Station Chawla instead. We'll just need to make some new models for the Phoenix; I doubt the Roughriders would want to paint the Artemis Foundation logo on one of their ships.)
So - explorer's vessels for Artemis, mythological beings for the Roughriders, heavy weather for the VVS, assorted other names for other folks. I'll add that to the FenWiki.
Edit: http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Resolution]Resolution is now OV-204, http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Phoenix]Phoenix is now OV-205 and property of the Roughriders, and I believe all the Shuttle information has been updated.
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Oh crud! My apologies and thanks, Rob. I really should double-check the registries next time.
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'Sallright. Phoenix didn't really fit my new naming convention anyway, and this way you have a ready-made ship page.
I got a page for http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Gj%C3%B8a]Gjøa up, but it looks like the wiki's fallen over... I'll have to upload the page for Calypso later.
Edit: Oh, yes - Dartz, regarding the class quirk for the shuttles, what genre of music does Mel like to wake up to? (I'm guessing heavy metal...)
Re-edit: The wiki's back and http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Calypso]Calypso's up... and so is http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Melchizedek]Melchizedek. Dartz, feel free to fix my mistakes on that page. I've also put a Shuttle-page template up on the http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... ect_OV-200]OV-200 talk page to speed things up whenever somebody wants to write up another Shuttle.
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Yup. Heavy metal, preferably loud enough to wake the rest of her crew at the same time. I might add a few things to her page, and the Destiny Nova at the same time.
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Wasn't Phoenix the name of the first warp ship of the Trekkies ?
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Yep. It wasn't a Shuttle, though...
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Hm, anybody got an idea for a badge for Gjøa? I'm drawing lots of blanks here...
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A small, but stalwart, tall ship sailing through high seas - the imagery should, of course, inspire the idea of boldly pressing on through the sorts of conditions that the faint of heart would shy from.
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M Fnord Wrote:Hm, anybody got an idea for a badge for Gjøa? I'm drawing lots of blanks here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gj%C3%B8a]Gjøa was the first vessel to transit the Northwest Passage. Something depicting a successful trip through a treacherous uncharted area might work...
(Trivia: I chose Gjøa because she was an early metal-hulled vessel with a total crew of seven - Admusen and six sailors - which seemed appropriate for a Shuttle.)
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For sake of at least *trying* to make shit easier when updating the 200-series fleet table, I've created a happy little spreadsheet here with slots up to OV-250. So when you add a shuttle to the list, copypasta the updated table into this converter and then paste the output into the wiki page. Nice and neat - or at least it should be - and easier than manually futzing about with wiki table formatting.
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And what would the big shuttles think of a 'waved mini Lego Shuttle, or would some use it as a physical avatar to get in to places they can't. Like say the hotel on Stellvia.
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