Santa Maria Technical specs

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Santa-Maria - background information about a space ship in the Dragon Knights web comic

Of the three Lambda II ships built prior to the China War, only the Santa Maria returned from the Centari system. It now (June 2159) acts as an unmanned space station awaiting the expected return of the dragons.

front view diagram of the 'Santa Maria'
Front elevation of the Santa Maria

Propulsion Systems

Accellerated ion drives: These accellerate charged particles (pretty well any matter can be used but heavy ellements or organic molecules work better) to great speeds before ejecting them into space, thus very little fule is needed for a considerable accelleration of the ship.
Rocket thrusters: Used for manouvering, these are located at various possitions on the extremeties of the ship, for maximum leaverage.
Lambda II drive: This propells the ship at the speed of light (relative to any observer - as with eletromagnetic radiation). An inherent problem with Lambda drives is that the ship, and anybody and anything on it, don't experience the passage of time while in transit. This pressents the problem of how the engine's controle system "knows" when to deactivate it. The solution for this is complicated and requires a certain amount of bending of the laws of science. It is improvements to this controle mechanism and the ability to operate the Lambda drive with less power, that separates the Lambda II drive from the Lambda I drive.

Side view diagram of the 'Santa Maria'
Side elevation of the Santa Maria

Arnaments

The original plan, by the joint NASA and UECSA was to equip the Lambda II exploration ships with only light weapons, in the hope that any aliens encountered would accept them as peaceful. The Tianamen Square was heavily armed and arnaments were added to the Santa Maria in anticipation of doing battle with the Tianamen Square. The exact nature of these weapons is a closely guarded secret, to prevent the dragons from finding out. It's rumoured that at least part of Excalibur is located on the Santa Maria.

Scout Craft

Small body Lander: This is designed for landing on and taking off from asteroids, moons and small planets with little or no atmosphere.
Atmosphere Lander: This is designed to fly in both atmosphere and vacuum, and land on large planets like Earth or Mars. It can land in a wide variety of teranes or liquids. Unlike a space shuttle, it carries fuel on the downward trip and can (hopefully) take off again with little preparation.
Canada Flyer: A more advanced version of the Canada Arm, seen of the Space Shuttles and the ISS. This has the ability to detach completely from the ship and fly independently.

Top view diagram of the 'Santa Maria'
Top elevation of the Santa Maria

Power

Solar panels: The prefered power source but they have their limitations if in deep space or near dim stars (like Proxima Centary).
Nuclear reactors: Although these are safer than most, they're still stuck out on pilons and can be jetisoned easily.

Crew

The Santa Maria is equipped with a biospere module that uses a mixture of biological and nanotechnological processes to recycle waist and CO₂ into food and oxygen. Originally designed for a crew of twelve, with the capacity to keep a number of crew members in cryonic suspension so the actual number could be higher. It was crewed with married couples for psychological wellbeing and to enable the crew to survive for generations if marooned. However, it was modified to accomodate four more people (to allow for weapons and combat specialists in addition to astronaughts and scientists) prior to departing for Centari. It was able to accomodate a farther two people, survivors from the Tianamen Square, on its return voyage.

Mission to Centari

Objectives

When it departed for Centari, it seemed likely that the Santa Maria would fight a battle with the Tianamen Square. Signals of apparently intelligent origin had been detected from Centari and there was some concern that the Lambda drive (especially if damaged in battle) would malfunction and overshoot by many light years. Therefore the mission objectives were devised to cover a wide range of eventualities. In the event of conflict between these objectives the highest priority in the list would be followed.

Preserve the human species
Defend Earth
Defend off-world human colonies
Preserve the lives of indevidual humans
Prevent or end hostilities by the Tianamen Square
Return information to Earth or human colony - the mission should not be jeapadized to obtain a small amount of information and, in the process, loose a greater amount to humanity
Obtain information about intelligent aliens
Obtain general scientific information - pressumably relating to Centari
Survival of the crew (and possible descendents) until they reach Earth or human colony

The crew were mostly taken from scientific disciplines and given a crash course in combat. This was because it was easyer to train scientists (especially ones who'd already trained as astronaughts) to be soldiers than the other way round.

From the Tianamen Square
Captain/Pilot	Helga Rosen	Switzaland	An experienced astronaught who worked her way up through the ranks, after starting in the Swiss airforce. Inspite of little formal education, she'd acquired a vast knowledge of science and other subjects.
Millitary Captain/Pilot/Martial arts expert	Conrad O'Gregor	Irland	An expert on military statergy. It would be his job to assume command in the event of combat.
Science officer	Peter Sykes	UK	Both a genius and an accomplished telepath. He was partly responsable for discovering the relationship between psychic powers and dark energy.
Medic	Patrishia Henshaw	UK	A pinoneer of the use of medical nanotechnology and had made a study of thoretical xenobiology.
Linguist	David Von Phelps	Germany	An accomplished expert on mathematical models of language (thought necessary to communicate with aliens) he was also fluent in both Cantonese and Manderin.
Weapons specialist	Rosa Gruber	Germany	An expert on bringing about death and destruction by mechanical, chemical, nuclear, biological and nanotechnological means.
Engineer	Spiros Mechanopolis	Greece	Designed the space elevator (which was destroyed in the China war). In the event of being marooned, his job would be to construct buildings which could make pretty well anything habitable. He also knew how to trash the Tianamen Square.
Chemist	Johan Brown	Switzerland	A multitalented young man who never really seemed to find his nitch in his early life on Earth. Some thought that he was only chosen for the trip because he was married to Helga Rozen but he did take a three year chemistry course, including a new and notoriously difficult nanotechnology and physical chemistry subsid in six months.
Biologist	Reuben Pablitiski	Poland	Experienced at observing organisms in the field, including the Anatarctic and deep ocean. This in itself was a good grounding for a space mission but he was also very good at investigating strange biological phenomena.
Ecologist	Ludmilla Pablitiski	Poland	Renowned for her study of climate change and the greenhouse effect. Also looked into the possibility of terreforming Venus and Mars.
Nanotechnologist	Maria Cortez	Spain	Met her husband while working on the space elevator but her main expertise is using nanites for biological applications
Ambassador	Anne Geppert	Canada	The only non-European member of the crew (thought possibly useful in negotiating with the Chinese). A skilled diplomat, she was thought one of the best candidates for negotiating peace and protecting the Earth from an unessecery war. However some people thought she was too concillatory. She also had the distinct advantage of being married to a UECSA psychologist.
Psychologist	Bernard Matthews	Germany	A German citizen of very international extraction. He'd made a name for himself in studying the stresses of long space missions.
Geologist	Ross Cross	Netherlands	Recruited for the mission from an off-world mining company. He was an expert in both the theoretical geology of planets, moons and asteroids and the practicalities of mining them.
Martial arts expert	Anna Johandotter	Sweeden	As well as instructing the crew in use of unarmed combat, she was also to encourage them to maintain their physical fitness.
Catering officer	Yim Chow	China	A former beuty queen and aspiring model. Her glamour career was cut short by being drafted. Official records of her military career have been lost. Legend has it that she was almost imediately dragged from the parade ground by the notoriously authoritarian General Shon and assigned to "special duties". She became his wife shortly afterwards. It's generaly thought that her duties on the Tianamen Square consisted largely of seeing to the general's personaly needs.
Electronic Technician	Xiang Huang	China	His official records have been lost. It's generally thought that he was drafted due to difficulty in finding employment. He proved to be a mediocre soldier but good with machinery so he was trained as a technician. It's thought that he was put in suspended animation before departure from Earth with the intention of reviving him when and if it was necessary to repair the ship.

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