Shuttle Bays

Large areas of a starship can be assigned as shuttle bays. They must be at least two decks high and open tot he outer hull of the ship.

For example, a Galaxy class starship has 3 shuttle bays. The main one (#1 on the saucer section) and two smaller ones (Shuttle bays #2 and #3) in the engineering hull. These are outfitted with various types of shuttles.

A specific shuttle, called the Captain’s Yacht is attached to the underside of the saucer section and is intended to be used for diplomatic missions etc. The captains yacht uses a docking point and does not have a dedicated shuttle bay, it can however be landed in any of the other shuttle bays.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the main shuttle bay is huge (see above) and occupies almost all of decks 3 and 4. It can hold up to 40 shuttles. Shuttle bays #2 and #3 are much smaller. Each can hold 4 shuttles.

Each shuttle bay has an armoured door that is normally closed during non-flight operations. During shuttle flight operations the door is opened and a permeable force-field is used to keep the atmosphere in.

If the force-field fails while the door is open the atmosphere will vent out of the shuttle bay. The normal atmosphere of the bay is 100%. It will vent slowly if the door is just marginally open, at a rate of 1% per second per percentage that the door is open. i.e. if the door is 5% open, the air will all vent out of the bay in 20 seconds. If the atmosphere in the bay falls below 20% any crew members still in it will be rendered unconscious (unless they are wearing a space suit). If the atmosphere falls to 0% then any unprotected crew members in the bay will die within 60 seconds.

Once the door is sealed or the force field re-established the atmosphere in the bay will automatically be recharged. This is accomplished by backup gas cylinders and does not require any power.

Venting the atmosphere from any shuttle bay should also push the ship forwards by a small amount.

Each Shuttle Bay has a tractor beam emitter for assisting shuttle landings and to pull in objects that are close to the ship (within 10km) or to throw them back into space. This range is reduced by 1km for every 5% of damage done to the tractor beam, with total failure at 50% health. Failure of this tractor beam will not actually affect the shuttle landings as most pilots should be able to land without it. This tractor beam could become useful in a number of scenarios, pulling in probes, life pods, damaged alien shuttles etc.

In a number of episodes and novels the shuttle bays are converted for other purposes. These are medical triage, cargo storage, factory and accommodation (for refugees).

An Engineering team can convert the cargo bay to/from any of these purposes with 1 hour. Once a shuttle bay is converted it cannot be used to launch shuttles until it is converted back.

The different uses of the shuttle bays are:

Shuttle Bay: Land or launch shuttles, accommodating up to 40 in the main bay and 4 in the small bay.

Medical Triage: Each bay can treat 200 people (large bay) or 40 people (small bay) per hour. A medical team needs to be assigned to the bay.

Cargo Storage: Each bay can hold 1000 cargo slots (large bay) or 200 cargo slots (small bay).

Factory: Each bay can produce 1000 production points (large bay) or 200 production points (small bay) per hour. Production points can be used to build supplies for the ship. An Engineering Team needs to be assigned to the factory during production. Some of these supplies would only make sense in certain scenarios (e.g. making vaccinations for a specific illness on a planet). These are:
Photon Torpedoes: 100 production points each.
Mines: 50 production points each.
Type-6 Shuttle: 2000 production points each.
Type-7 Shuttle: 2500 production points each.
Type-15 Shuttle: 1000 production points each.
Sphinx Worksled: 500 production points each.
Disaster Relief Food/Shelter/Medical: 100 production points produces 1 cargo slot size kit.
Vaccination: 100 production points produces 1 cargo slot size kit. (Vaccination type chosen from list of illnesses).
Medical Supplies: 100 production points produces 1 cargo slot size kit.

Accommodation: Each bay can hold an extra 400 people (large bay) or 80 people (small bay).

Power Requirements

The doors each require 0.1MW of power to move.

The force-fields require 1MW of power to operate.

The tractor beams require 1MW of power to operate.

Ongoing operations of the bay (regardless of what it is being used for) requires 10MW of power (for the large bay) and 2MW (for the smaller bays). This power can be turned off, but this will halt any work being done in the bay.

Dev Notes

For each shuttle-bay, the door has a health rating of 100%. These can be damaged like other systems, however the armour plating will allow it to take heavy damage before its operation is affected. The health can be bought down to 50% before it will be affected. The shuttle bay doors take 10 seconds to fully open or close (0% = closed, 100% = fully open). For every 1% below 50% health, then door will take 1 second longer to operate. So at 35% health, the door will take 25 seconds to move fully open or closed. Below 25% health the door will stop operating, stuck at its last position.

Each shuttle bay also has a semi-permeable force field that allows shuttles to travel through it, but keeps the atmosphere in. This force field also has a health rating. If the force field health drops below 80% it will fail.

When converting a shuttle bay, multiple Engineering teams reduce this time. i.e. 4 Engineering Teams can convert a shuttle bay in 15 minutes.