werdna
Astroarchitect
2001: a Space Odyssey is quite frankly the greatest film of all time. We all know the iconic Space Station V and the wonderful scene where the Orion approaches the dock. It makes for a great scene, but becomes a hassle in the real world.
If you read the book version by Aurthur C. Clarke, you'll see that one of the main differences lies in Station V's overall design. Clarke does not mention two rings, and describes the station as a large disk. He also describes a stationary area at the center of the station for ships to dock so they don't have to spin around at the center. The other notable difference is the spiral ramp where Heywood Floyd enters at the center of the station and slowly makes his way down, "gravity" increasing as he heads towards the edge.
The first of those differences is something not unheard of, but the second is something I don't believe I have ever seen talked about (or visually depicted) other than in the book. It's an idea I had actually considered myself before I even read the book (honestly, I did!).
Anyway, for some time I have been making a model of such a station in Google Sketchup. It's not complete but I'm getting there. Orbiter seems to have a lack of space stations with virtual cockpits or interiors. Only recently have I begun to consider possibly making this into an Orbiter addon. I'm using components (sort of like replicated objects) in order to duplicate different areas of the interior (chairs, cabinets, desks, tables, etc.). I'm worried that a mesh of the entire thing would slow down Orbiter, although by how much I'm not sure. I suppose it would be suited for faster computers, but whether or not I can get the final polygon count down to reasonable levels is a different story. I suppose having every single room would be overkill for a program like Orbiter. I'll admit to a love for attention to detail, and my thought is that this would be the mother of all virtual cockpits for an Orbiter station/vessel, even if I choose not to add switches and monitors, leaving it static.
I'm also not much of a programmer, and am not familiar with the Orbiter SDK and addon development. I suppose I could collaborate with someone on the forum, but I'll cross those bridges when I come to them. For now, I'm going let the pictures speak for themselves and finish the mesh.
There are plenty of things which I plan on changing and tweaking, and places where I plan to remove unnecessary details. Other things are there for the sake of illustrating the concept, and I will remove them when the time comes so you only see what you absolutely need to. Basically, my plan is to finish the station as I would intend it, and then copy the file and edit parts that I want to be less detailed and create a mesh for Orbiter.
Right now I have time to really work on this model. Please comment and let me know what you think!
PS: That includes the spiral arms- I may choose just to have a disk for the sake of structural support (would the arms be sufficient?) and polygon count. I also plan to have a nuclear reactor on the other side of the docking area, and it would be extended from the station for safety. Conceptually, it would be prepared to jettison in the event of an emergency, and there would be some sort of release mechanism.
I am considering making the station into a disk, perhaps arms like this might be unstable. The colors are coded for different areas of the ship. I used this when modeling, this won't be there in the final version. There are various sections of the station not all are finished- station security, administrative offices, cafeterias, lounges, libraries, housing, hospital/medical offices, cargo, and public restrooms (not sure where to put them yet). And I may have forgotten to mention something... just look at the pictures!
Here is the inside of that docking station (I call it "the Harbor"), gives an idea of the layout. I know the ports aren't standard sized- I'll fix that later I guess, although a larger docking standard would be good for transporting cargo from ship to ship in a pressurized area.
Start of passenger ramp from the center room (which is overall cylinder shaped, in case you can't tell from the views I provided)
Cargo ramp directly opposite from the passenger ramp. The wheeled box is basically what I would consider a "standard cargo module" for the station. When I finally considered this model in the context of Orbiter, I immediately thought of UCGO (although it may be difficult to implement that, and unnecessary). It is one of the things I would consider simplifying. Also, I would not have a box right there in the final model, of course.
Nearing the end of the passenger ramp.
Documentation and security scanning. "When the red light turns on, would you please state in the following order your...
Reception desk. You can see a door on the right side (there is another on the left not visible) that leads around to the other side of the spiral arm. The wheeled chair is one of the only things that I did not model (a standard Google placeholder- eventually I will create a replacement myself for this and some other things mentioned below).
Area of the main hallway near the scanning area.
A "space traffic control" room. There are a couple of other rooms like this.
The office of one busy administrator. There are some other offices like this, as well as a meeting room, which aren't pictured. The chairs and table are two other things I plan to replace with my own models.
There are several cafeterias. This is the view of one from the main hallway. There are three large entrances. The couches are the last things which are placeholders.
Inside a cafeteria. (There are multiple) I should really use different chairs in here. The food tray dispensers are similar to the ones aboard Discovery and the Ares spacecraft (see the movie!!!!!).
A library area, with computers for public use. I suppose that decent internet access would be tricky from orbit. I would imagine the station would maintain it's own large knowledge database, to be updated whenever necessary or possible, even if internet was provided. (Perhaps using a satellite system or something) Note the three entrances, narrower than the ones at the cafeteria.
Hallway outside the libraries.
One of the lounges. Have a chat before you leave the station!
Hallway outside hotel rooms.
The lower level of a living unit- the only area you will find two levels. The room in the back is undetermined. There is a room above it behind the bedroom. One of these rooms will have a bathroom, and I am guessing it may be the upper room.
View from the other side of the room.
The ramp to the second level. There are no stairs or elevators on the entire station!!! On the other hand, this space feels wasted. I guess you could have flat screen monitors that tell you information and news as you walk along, or something (in theory, not in Orbiter).
The end of the ramp and the entrance to the room. I should use this space more wisely, perhaps I should get rid of that bit of wall there.
The bedroom. You can see the back room I mentioned. I would imagine this to be the bathroom. One reason I might consider the lower level as a good place is that if someone comes over to my hotel room, I wouldn't want them to go all the way through the bedroom to the restroom if they had to go. I like my space! Public restrooms are still on the to-do list. I can use the downstairs room for a refrigerator, food dispenser, and eating area (now that I think about it, I may well do just that. Problem solved!).
Imagine a comfy memory foam mattress, and lie down, putting the dangers of space travel out of your mind for some R&R. The gravity will be a little lower here too, this might be better for sleeping(???).
Hallway around cargo areas. I would imagine the rooms to come with adjustable temperatures for different cargo types.
Cargo. The wheels under each module are areas I plan to reduce detail for Orbiter.
Remember the reception desk picture, and those halls to go around the spiral arms? This is the other end of that.
See the next post for four more images. (25 Picture limit)
If you read the book version by Aurthur C. Clarke, you'll see that one of the main differences lies in Station V's overall design. Clarke does not mention two rings, and describes the station as a large disk. He also describes a stationary area at the center of the station for ships to dock so they don't have to spin around at the center. The other notable difference is the spiral ramp where Heywood Floyd enters at the center of the station and slowly makes his way down, "gravity" increasing as he heads towards the edge.
The first of those differences is something not unheard of, but the second is something I don't believe I have ever seen talked about (or visually depicted) other than in the book. It's an idea I had actually considered myself before I even read the book (honestly, I did!).
Anyway, for some time I have been making a model of such a station in Google Sketchup. It's not complete but I'm getting there. Orbiter seems to have a lack of space stations with virtual cockpits or interiors. Only recently have I begun to consider possibly making this into an Orbiter addon. I'm using components (sort of like replicated objects) in order to duplicate different areas of the interior (chairs, cabinets, desks, tables, etc.). I'm worried that a mesh of the entire thing would slow down Orbiter, although by how much I'm not sure. I suppose it would be suited for faster computers, but whether or not I can get the final polygon count down to reasonable levels is a different story. I suppose having every single room would be overkill for a program like Orbiter. I'll admit to a love for attention to detail, and my thought is that this would be the mother of all virtual cockpits for an Orbiter station/vessel, even if I choose not to add switches and monitors, leaving it static.
I'm also not much of a programmer, and am not familiar with the Orbiter SDK and addon development. I suppose I could collaborate with someone on the forum, but I'll cross those bridges when I come to them. For now, I'm going let the pictures speak for themselves and finish the mesh.
There are plenty of things which I plan on changing and tweaking, and places where I plan to remove unnecessary details. Other things are there for the sake of illustrating the concept, and I will remove them when the time comes so you only see what you absolutely need to. Basically, my plan is to finish the station as I would intend it, and then copy the file and edit parts that I want to be less detailed and create a mesh for Orbiter.
Right now I have time to really work on this model. Please comment and let me know what you think!
PS: That includes the spiral arms- I may choose just to have a disk for the sake of structural support (would the arms be sufficient?) and polygon count. I also plan to have a nuclear reactor on the other side of the docking area, and it would be extended from the station for safety. Conceptually, it would be prepared to jettison in the event of an emergency, and there would be some sort of release mechanism.
I am considering making the station into a disk, perhaps arms like this might be unstable. The colors are coded for different areas of the ship. I used this when modeling, this won't be there in the final version. There are various sections of the station not all are finished- station security, administrative offices, cafeterias, lounges, libraries, housing, hospital/medical offices, cargo, and public restrooms (not sure where to put them yet). And I may have forgotten to mention something... just look at the pictures!
Here is the inside of that docking station (I call it "the Harbor"), gives an idea of the layout. I know the ports aren't standard sized- I'll fix that later I guess, although a larger docking standard would be good for transporting cargo from ship to ship in a pressurized area.
Start of passenger ramp from the center room (which is overall cylinder shaped, in case you can't tell from the views I provided)
Cargo ramp directly opposite from the passenger ramp. The wheeled box is basically what I would consider a "standard cargo module" for the station. When I finally considered this model in the context of Orbiter, I immediately thought of UCGO (although it may be difficult to implement that, and unnecessary). It is one of the things I would consider simplifying. Also, I would not have a box right there in the final model, of course.
Nearing the end of the passenger ramp.
Documentation and security scanning. "When the red light turns on, would you please state in the following order your...
Reception desk. You can see a door on the right side (there is another on the left not visible) that leads around to the other side of the spiral arm. The wheeled chair is one of the only things that I did not model (a standard Google placeholder- eventually I will create a replacement myself for this and some other things mentioned below).
Area of the main hallway near the scanning area.
A "space traffic control" room. There are a couple of other rooms like this.
The office of one busy administrator. There are some other offices like this, as well as a meeting room, which aren't pictured. The chairs and table are two other things I plan to replace with my own models.
There are several cafeterias. This is the view of one from the main hallway. There are three large entrances. The couches are the last things which are placeholders.
Inside a cafeteria. (There are multiple) I should really use different chairs in here. The food tray dispensers are similar to the ones aboard Discovery and the Ares spacecraft (see the movie!!!!!).
A library area, with computers for public use. I suppose that decent internet access would be tricky from orbit. I would imagine the station would maintain it's own large knowledge database, to be updated whenever necessary or possible, even if internet was provided. (Perhaps using a satellite system or something) Note the three entrances, narrower than the ones at the cafeteria.
Hallway outside the libraries.
One of the lounges. Have a chat before you leave the station!
Hallway outside hotel rooms.
The lower level of a living unit- the only area you will find two levels. The room in the back is undetermined. There is a room above it behind the bedroom. One of these rooms will have a bathroom, and I am guessing it may be the upper room.
View from the other side of the room.
The ramp to the second level. There are no stairs or elevators on the entire station!!! On the other hand, this space feels wasted. I guess you could have flat screen monitors that tell you information and news as you walk along, or something (in theory, not in Orbiter).
The end of the ramp and the entrance to the room. I should use this space more wisely, perhaps I should get rid of that bit of wall there.
The bedroom. You can see the back room I mentioned. I would imagine this to be the bathroom. One reason I might consider the lower level as a good place is that if someone comes over to my hotel room, I wouldn't want them to go all the way through the bedroom to the restroom if they had to go. I like my space! Public restrooms are still on the to-do list. I can use the downstairs room for a refrigerator, food dispenser, and eating area (now that I think about it, I may well do just that. Problem solved!).
Imagine a comfy memory foam mattress, and lie down, putting the dangers of space travel out of your mind for some R&R. The gravity will be a little lower here too, this might be better for sleeping(???).
Hallway around cargo areas. I would imagine the rooms to come with adjustable temperatures for different cargo types.
Cargo. The wheels under each module are areas I plan to reduce detail for Orbiter.
Remember the reception desk picture, and those halls to go around the spiral arms? This is the other end of that.
See the next post for four more images. (25 Picture limit)
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