Dawn Mothership

Dawn
Class	Core Ship
Type	Mobile research and exploration base
Length	4800 m
Dry mass	2.2 billion tons
Agility	Very low
Skeleton crew	166
Passengers	3,000 - 14,000
Gravity	Centrifugal
Autonomy	10 years
Hyperdrive	Yes
Range	1200 LY
Max. Acceleration	0.5G
Weapons	• 50 civilian laser turrets
Complement	• 60 shuttles   • 20 atmospheric shuttles   • 5 cargo shuttles   • 2 orbital barges   • 3 shipyards for docking and repair of other ships   • 2000 escape pods
Additional cargo	25 million tons

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The Dawn-class ships are the core ships of several research fleets engaged in exploration of space around the Alliance and are among the largest spacecraft in the ranks. In fact, they are like small mobile cities, almost five kilometers in length. The mission of these ships is to form the core of the fleets in which they are located and serve as points of repair, maintenance and rest. Dawn has everything you need for a completely autonomous existence for several years in a row.

In addition to hangars storing a large number of shuttles and industrial bays responsible for the production of various spare parts from raw materials, the most important compartment of the ship is the living module. It is a large cylinder 300 meters in diameter and more than half a kilometer in length. It spins to create 0.9 Earth gravity with centrifugal force, is filled with atmosphere and illuminated by huge fluorescent lamps, and is largely reminiscent of the O'Neill Cylinder concept, except for the absence of giant windows vulnerable to space debris.

Sections of the mothership

The interior of the living unit is designed to create the illusion of a small town, with roads, vegetation, a park, and even a pond. Psychological research has shown that during long expeditions in deep space, it is important to have something that at least mimics the planetary surface, since even spacious corridors and rooms eventually begin to cause bouts of depression, especially among representatives of more claustrophobic species, such as the bird-like Ktak that are used to soaring in the sky. Under this recreation area, a little closer to the outer walls, there are living quarters for the population. Under that level there is a technical floor, which stretches near the skin itself, containing all the systems that ensure the normal functioning of the interior of the cylinder.

View of the inside of the cylinder

The geometry of the interior of the cylinder may cause a slight dizziness at first, but if you do not look up, then it is easy to forget that beneath you is not the earth, but thousands of trillion kilometers of the airless, pitiless, black and cold abyss.

The "skyscraper" to the right of the center is the main building for the leadership of the entire expedition; this is where information about the state of the entire fleet flows, and here is the MCC and the main archives of the expedition.

Command and Control center

Sub-park level accommodations are provided with two standardized cabin types - the economy class, which is more like a single hotel room, and the extended class, for families and important crew members, is more like a multi-room apartment.

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  Single-person apartments, outfitted for raharrs.
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The cabin itself is divided into two areas: the main room and the bath, with a total area of ​​50 square meters. The bathroom contains a shower, toilet and sink with a mirror, while the main room contains cabinets, a table, a bed and a wall screen, most often imitating a window using video wallpaper. Economy class cabins are not designed much for individualization of design (in addition to a selection of furniture and parameters of touch panels for specific features of the guest's anatomy), so usually the only piece of furniture that can be rearranged is a chair on magnetic wheels.

In the buildings located in the park area, there are a number of cabins with a special layout, for crew members with rather specific requirements and dimensions, such as three-meter Sashli or the height-loving Ktak. In addition to personalized cabins, parkland buildings contain movie theaters, canteens, shops and other establishments to create a localized, simplified yet functional economy within the fleet.

One of the mess halls.

Dawn is a civilian ship, and therefore does not carry any weapons, except for laser systems to protect the ship from dangerous pieces of space debris or meteoroids. Due to their size, they are very clumsy and generally unhurried, and do not allow themselves to accelerate by more than 0.5g. Even then in emergency cases, they usually use no more than 0.01-0.1g of acceleration. More often than not, they simply passively drift along a ballistic trajectory when in orbit around a body, or in transit between two orbits. Each maneuver is reported 15 minutes in advance via the general communication system, since despite the fact that they are performed slowly and at low accelerations, this is enough for loose objects to fall off the table on the floor, or unprepared crew members lose balance.