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Description

This series on the TAU class includes the following variant: TAU One extrasolar exploration vessel (2036) .

Image provided by: Adrasil

Original inspiration from: Mike Okuda (and Kris Trigwell)

History from: Delta Dynamics (editing by AJsRealms )

Variant blueprints: Access via Adrasil's Download button

Featured in: Starship Recognition Manual #307

All components for the TAU Two mission had been assembled at the orbital facility. The initial connections of all habitable modules were taking place when contact with Daedalus was first lost. Staging and assembly of Betelgueze continued while the lost vessel’s recovered telemetry was studied. When it was concluded that a massive charge buildup was the fatal cause, all progress was halted on the ship.

The engineering solutions were relatively simple: additional plasma contactor units (PCUs) were installed on the dorsal antenna base above the engineering section.These PCUs generated a slow, neutral plasma bath around the craft, multiplying the discharge field by a factor of three. Radiator panels were borrowed from a ground-based Ares static model and modified with embedded gold-based leads to channel environmental static discharges to grounding units located on either end of the panel and the mid-point. A toroidal tank—surrounding the ready-consumables module—was added to treat, supply, and circulate the particular coolant that serviced the (otherwise) always scalding panels. Additional mission batteries joined the original set, with each enlarged slightly by rubber shielding encasing every cell and each of the cargo/hibernation pods were updated with better radiation shielding. The most significant change was the new mandate for two active members to be overseeing all ship’s operations at every stage, ensuring a better response time to any emergent issues.

TAU Two proved to be a successful mission: all crew returned safely (proving new cryogenic enhancements along the way) from the six-year journey into interstellar space just beyond the heliopause with a plethora of new environmental data sets. The mission was intriguing for the many benchmarks set. A notable one, though far-surpassed by establishing the most distant recorded point any Human had yet (knowingly) ever traveled, was that none of the eighteen crew-members ever interacted with all of their crewmates during any operational part of the mission. Due to only waking those with the skill sets or experimental knowledge necessary for any given scheduled (or unscheduled) event, the most crew ever active at any one time was seven, during periods of turnover from waypoint transit to station-keeping observation points. The only times the entire crew were fully active as a complete team was during pre-mission training, pre-boost orbiting, and post-mission recovery.

Note: Additional details and art on TAUs Three through Eight (and an abandoned variant) can be found in Starship Recognition Manual Report #307: TAU Extrasolar Exploration Vessel

Would you like to learn more about this class of ship? Download the free Hobbyist's Guide to the UFP Starfleet , a three-volume, 1236-page history of space flight, by Timo Saloniemi.

For an extremely rich gallery of Star Trek starships and vessels from other universes, check out my partners, Adrasil and AJsRealms , here on DeviantArts. For more on the ships of the DD-verse, visit, explore, and download from Delta Dynamics .

Description

This series on the TAU class includes the following variant: TAU One extrasolar exploration vessel (2036) .

Image provided by: Adrasil

Original inspiration from: Mike Okuda (and Kris Trigwell)

History from: Delta Dynamics (editing by AJsRealms )

Variant blueprints: Access via Adrasil's Download button

Featured in: Starship Recognition Manual #307

All components for the TAU Two mission had been assembled at the orbital facility. The initial connections of all habitable modules were taking place when contact with Daedalus was first lost. Staging and assembly of Betelgueze continued while the lost vessel’s recovered telemetry was studied. When it was concluded that a massive charge buildup was the fatal cause, all progress was halted on the ship.

The engineering solutions were relatively simple: additional plasma contactor units (PCUs) were installed on the dorsal antenna base above the engineering section.These PCUs generated a slow, neutral plasma bath around the craft, multiplying the discharge field by a factor of three. Radiator panels were borrowed from a ground-based Ares static model and modified with embedded gold-based leads to channel environmental static discharges to grounding units located on either end of the panel and the mid-point. A toroidal tank—surrounding the ready-consumables module—was added to treat, supply, and circulate the particular coolant that serviced the (otherwise) always scalding panels. Additional mission batteries joined the original set, with each enlarged slightly by rubber shielding encasing every cell and each of the cargo/hibernation pods were updated with better radiation shielding. The most significant change was the new mandate for two active members to be overseeing all ship’s operations at every stage, ensuring a better response time to any emergent issues.

TAU Two proved to be a successful mission: all crew returned safely (proving new cryogenic enhancements along the way) from the six-year journey into interstellar space just beyond the heliopause with a plethora of new environmental data sets. The mission was intriguing for the many benchmarks set. A notable one, though far-surpassed by establishing the most distant recorded point any Human had yet (knowingly) ever traveled, was that none of the eighteen crew-members ever interacted with all of their crewmates during any operational part of the mission. Due to only waking those with the skill sets or experimental knowledge necessary for any given scheduled (or unscheduled) event, the most crew ever active at any one time was seven, during periods of turnover from waypoint transit to station-keeping observation points. The only times the entire crew were fully active as a complete team was during pre-mission training, pre-boost orbiting, and post-mission recovery.

Note: Additional details and art on TAUs Three through Eight (and an abandoned variant) can be found in Starship Recognition Manual Report #307: TAU Extrasolar Exploration Vessel

Would you like to learn more about this class of ship? Download the free Hobbyist's Guide to the UFP Starfleet , a three-volume, 1236-page history of space flight, by Timo Saloniemi.

For an extremely rich gallery of Star Trek starships and vessels from other universes, check out my partners, Adrasil and AJsRealms , here on DeviantArts. For more on the ships of the DD-verse, visit, explore, and download from Delta Dynamics .