Subject:
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Re: Universal Docking Ring ideas?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.space
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Date:
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Mon, 9 Apr 2001 19:23:45 GMT
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Viewed:
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428 times
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In lugnet.space, William R. Ward wrote:
> Steve Bliss <steve.bliss@home.com> writes:
> > One quick note: for shuttles, put the docking rings behind a hatch (or
> > hatches). And put the hatch on the upper surface of the vessel. It would
> > be really cool if the hatch(es) can open all the way, and the docking ring
> > would slide outward, to better reach the ring on the other vessel/base.
>
> That would be cool. But it would be bulky, which is why I objected to
> that idea in my initial post.
Well, bulky is in the eye of the beholder, so I guess I can't help you much
there.
For STO craft, maybe you could put the docking port in either the nose or
the tail of the craft. If it's in the nose, put the nosecone on a hinge to
cover/reveal the docking port. If it's in the tail, position the main
engines out of the way of the docking ring.
> I've toyed with the idea of using the Technic pieces which are 3 studs
> long and are 2/3 friction-pin and 1/3 axle hole connector. Lego uses
> these for some of the Technic sets which are meant to be taken apart
> during play. Withdraw them into the ship during flight and extend
> them for docking. I'm still not certain I can accept the "airtight"
> quality of that, or rather the lack thereof, however.
>
> > And I think a non-gendered ring would be much better than gendered
> > ring-types.
>
> Why? One could always bring along "gender changer" adapter rings, if
> needed (4 Technic friction pins, for connectiong two "female" ships,
> or a 2-stud-thick ring with Technic holes on both sides, for
> connecting two "male" ships). I would expect most docking would not
> be between ships of the same types, but rather shuttle-to-station or
> landing-craft-to-mothership.
1. Adapter rings (or having both a male docking ring and a female docking
ring) add more non-payload overhead to ships.
2. Not having docking-ability limits your options. What if you had a STO
ship whose entire payload needed to be transferred to an OTM ship? It'd be
more efficient to dock the ships directly, rather than going through a
space station.
3. Docking rings would be a PITA for the astronauts -- spacewalks and
remotes are both cumbersome ways to deploy adapter rings.
4. Adapters are bulky.
5. It's as easy[1] and secure to dock ships with unigendered rings as with
gendered rings. Why limit your options for little or no payback?
Steve
1) But unigendered/nongendered rings may be harder to design.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Universal Docking Ring ideas?
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| (...) The benefit to gendered rings is that it is possible to dock in more positions. If all four of those mounting points are male or all female, then you have four orientations of the two ships to pick from. With ungendered rings, you have at most (...) (23 years ago, 9-Apr-01, to lugnet.space)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Universal Docking Ring ideas?
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| (...) That would be cool. But it would be bulky, which is why I objected to that idea in my initial post. I've toyed with the idea of using the Technic pieces which are 3 studs long and are 2/3 friction-pin and 1/3 axle hole connector. Lego uses (...) (23 years ago, 7-Apr-01, to lugnet.space)
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