Guide:DY sublight series

DY series (sublight)
Class Overview
Category	interplanetary transports
Operational	1989 - 2289 DY-50 experimental transport (1989-1991) DY-100 interplanetary transport (1990-unknown) DY-110 Apex mission spacecraft (1991-2008) DY-120 interplanetary transport (2020-unknown) DY-A1 launch booster (1990-1991) DY-A2 launch booster (1991-1994) DY-A3 launch booster (1994-unknown) DY-B1 interplanetary booster (1990-unknown) DY-T heavy launch booster (1989-unknown)
Constructed	121 total ships (65 boosters, 12 heavy launch) DY-50 Shuguang (CNSA): 2 (built 1988-1989) DY-100 (various agencies): 58 (built 1989-1996, 2021-2028) 4 Vayu (ISRO) 1 Botany Bay (Khanate) 12 Kaitòuzhe (CNSA) 21 Zeus (ECSA) 18 Copernicus (USAF) 2 Iskra (KARI) DY-110 Apex (Khanate): 12 (built 1990-1995) DY-120 (commercial entities): 400+ (built 2020-unknown) DY-A1: numerous/unknown (built 1989-1991) DY-A2: numerous/unknown (built 1990-1994) DY-A3: numerous/unknown (built 1994-unknown) DY-B1: numerous/unknown (built 1989-unknown) DY-T: 12 (built (1987-1995) 31 Brenton (DY-120, UEDP) 6 Black Mamba (DY-135, UEDP) 12 Helsinki (DY-140, UEDP)
Dimensions
Length	DY-50: 125.5 m DY-100: 110.4 m DY-110: 126.3 m DY-120: 153.2 m DY-A1: 84.6 m DY-A2, -A3: 110.2 m DY-B1: blunt: 26.2 m extended: 28.2 m DY-T: 226.5 m 149.0m (DY-135)
Beam	DY-50: 17.4 m DY-100/-110: retracted: 36.2 m extended: 45.2 m DY-120: 45.2 m DY-A1: 29.0 m (9.5 m indv) DY-A2: 26.5 m (13.2 m indv) DY-A3: 39.8 m (13.2 m indv) DY-B1: 28.8 m DY-T: 68.4 m 30.1m (DY-135)
Height	DY-50: 36.8 m DY-100: unladen: 25.2 m fully laden: 29.8 m DY-110: 27.3 m DY-120: unladen: 26.3 m fully laden: 20.3 m DY-A1: 9.5 m (9.5 m indv) DY-A2: 30.1 m (13.2 m indv) DY-A3: 29.8 m (13.2 m indv) DY-B1: 9.1 m DY-T: 68.4 m 30.3m (DY-135)
Mass	DY-50: 2,200 mt DY-100: 2,720 mt DY-110: 2,800 mt DY-120: 4,100 mt DY-A1: 5,585 mt (1,966 mt indv) DY-A2: 19,980 mt (4,945 mt indv.) DY-A3: 29,905 mt (4,945 mt indv.) DY-B1: 520 mt DY-B2: 780 mt DY-T: 27,662 mt 3,850 tons (DY-135) 5,200 tons (DY-140, typical)
Performance
Max Speed	DY-50: 0.005 c DY-100: w/ DY-B1: 0.005 c w/ DY-B2: 0.01 c DY-110: 0.01 c DY-120: 0.11 c DY-A1/A2/A3: 1.45 kps (5,200 kph) DY-T: 1.55 kps (5,560 kph) 0.22 (DY-140) 0.24c (DY-135)
Endurance	DY-50: 4 months DY-100/-110: 1 year 5+ years (all cryosleep variants) DY-120: 1.5 years 1 year (DY-135) 1.5 years (DY-140)
Complement
Crew	DY-50: 2 DY-100: 12 DY-110: 24 DY-120: 29 29 (DY-140, typical) 20 (DY-135)
Passengers	DY-50: 2 (transitional) DY-100: w/o cryogenics: 20 w/ cryogenics: 100 DY-120: 30 500 (DY-140, typical)
Cargo	DY-50: 1,432 mt (unrealized) DY-100: 68 mt (internal) 7,552 mt (cargo pods) DY-110: 80 mt (internal) 2,360 mt (cargo pods) DY-120: 88 mt (internal) 11,328 mt (cargo pods) DY-T: 75,500 mt (freight), or 2x DY-B1 modules, or 2x DY-B2 modules DY-B1: (service configuration) 27 mt (non-pressurized) 1,842 mt (fuel cell)
Tactical Systems
Beam Weapons	DY-50, -100, -110, -120 none experimental lasers (select early vessels) TDM-8, -13 and -16.2 class plasma cannons (UEDP transport variants) 4x laser emitters (DY-135)
Missile Weapons	DY-50, -100, -120 none DY-110 1x tube (w/ 10 HE radar-guided HE missiles) (fwd tower) experimental missiles (select early vessels) 1x nuclear missile launcher (36 missiles) (DY-135)
Other Weapons	DY-110 1x Close-In Weapon System (2,000 rds) (aft tower) experimental railguns or mines (select early vessels)
Shields	DY-50, -100, -110, -120 none glass-cloud anti-laser shields (on some 21st c. vessels) reflective armor (on some 21st c. vessels)
Laboratories	DY-50, -100, -110, -120 none various (mission dependent)
Auxiliary Craft	DY-50: 1x escape capsule DY-100/-110: various (mission dependent) 1x lunar (or asteroid) lander 1x lunar tug (optional for cargo pod) DY-120: various (mission dependent) 1x lunar (or asteroid) lander, or 1x shuttlepod 1x lunar tug (optional for cargo pod)
Canonicity
Design	TOS, TNG (Aridas Sofia, et al.)
Name	TOS, TNG (Aridas Sofia, et al., own)
History	TOS, TNG (own, adapting TOS, TNG and SFC)

Background

An early model DY-100 blasts out of Earth’s atmosphere on chemical thrust, utilizing a finned booster stage typical of these pathfinding vessels. In the later DY-100 ships, this stage would be replaced by an improved fission propulsion module that featured no aerodynamic surfaces and only served as dead weight during liftoff from Earth. In space, the stage would unfold a series of radiator panels and be energized to propel the ship to previously undreamed-of accelerations and speeds. Later vessels in the family would introduce even more advanced sublight propulsion systems, including fusion power, and would serve as a sturdy basis for warp-capable colonizer vessels as well. Note the smooth instrumented nose cone of this vessel, as well as the partial cluster of payload modules complete with their forward atmospheric fairings – apparently, a circumlunar mission not involving independent orbit-to-surface operations was intended for this DY-100.

Two DY-142 improved lunar transports orbit Earth’s sole satellite, with a tug about to lower four cargo modules down to lunar surface. A DY-B5 interplanetary booster is being fueled in the background, and carries the Ares III mission spacecraft Guan Yu for the 2032 mission to Mars, the thirteenth successful manned sortie to reach that planet. All the vessels are equipped with advanced fission propulsion modules, distinguishable from each other mainly by their differing radiator panel assemblies. Conversions from one standard to another were common as well, a DY-B booster mission being a likely end for a veteran transport of another model.

The first of the Grand Tours. Christopher, Fontana and O’Herlihy launched on Aventeur I, the Lewis and Clark (2009), riding via Jupiter (2014) to Saturn (2020) with a payload of 12 scientists in deep cryosleep. It was only at the return of the spacecraft, in 2039, that reports were released on the team’s discovery of evidence of alien mining at Enceladus and Dione. By that time, the Aventeur design was propulsively completely outdated: Lagan, Murray and Ulrich and their coldsleep chattel on Aventeur V, the Frémont, were actually recalled halfway to Neptune when it became evident that they would be preceded there by expeditions launched much later.

The Dinyan-Yoyodyne Conglomerate DY series space transport vessels represent a continuous chain of shipbuilding tradition, from Earth’s first practical commercially produced manned interplanetary craft in the 1990s to the colonization and cargo ships of the late 23rd century. Considering that for the first hundred years of operations, all the various types of spacecraft in the DY series were vastly inferior to the ships of most extraterrestrial races and alliances of the time, it seems rather curious that they would in fact propel Earth into becoming a major military and exploratory power in the region. The sociopolitical reasons for the success of Earth’s colonial expansion have been exhaustively discussed elsewhere, but these would not have come to play had Dinyan-Yoyodyne not produced these humble colonization vessels in notable quantity.

The experimental DY-50 was an early attempt at a ship capable of interplanetary travel at a then-incredible delta-v of 0.005c. Two ships of this type were constructed in 1989 in the province of Xuhan in the country of China, part of the vast number of technology breakthroughs of that time that were the result of a long international, clandestine eugenics program. The genius of the selectively bred, chemically and genetically augmented scientists could not be hidden for long: in 1992, the results were dramatically made public as these supermen took over most of South and Southeast Asia. Despite an initial civilized establishing of diplomatic relations, the rulers soon began an endless cycle of revolutions and coups in a quest for ultimate power. But many leading nations still turned a blind eye on the supermen’s cruel reign, lest the stream of new technology and scientific breakthroughs from their R&D centers end. As an example of this tolerance, mass production of DY spaceships was continued in China, and also expanded to India and the United States.

In the hectic years of the rule of Khan Noonian Singh, perhaps the most famous of the victors of superhuman wars of supremacy, technologies flourished in a way that put to shame the industrial revolution and the birth of computer technology. There are persistent rumors of longevity drugs and antigravity devices, perhaps even time travel methods, having been developed by Khan’s or his less civilized usurpers’ scientists; given our fragmentary knowledge of that era, no such rumors can be completely discredited. What is certain, however, is that spaceflight technology took a major step forward. Super-efficient reaction drives were built for DY-100 fission-powered interplanetary craft expanded from the early cislunar DY-50 hulls, and used to found a spaceborne industry for Singh’s kingdom. As the movement spread to northern Africa, several spaceports were built there to support this industry. Other countries were sold parts of this technology, usually heavily laden with propaganda and sometimes also with hidden psychochemical weapons.

DY-100 was an ingenious design featuring a pencil-like central hull with two support decks and two full-width longitudal zero-gee habitat decks, a ring of wedgelike jettisonable fuel tanks or cargo pods, a one-, two- or three-chamber solid-core fission rocket with adjoining radiator assemblies and possible chemical boosters, aerodynamic surfaces and other mission-specific additions at the stern, and an offset control/docking tower at the bow. For planetary takeoff, the ship used a cluster of four to six huge solid booster rockets attached aft of the fuel wedges. While this complex configuration required an elaborate gantry system to stack, the simplicity of the propulsion system facilitated rapid launch preparations; a DY hull and a set of boosters could be taken from storage, equipped for the mission, stacked and launched in less than two days if necessary.

‘Landings’ were theoretically possible on low-gravity worlds like asteroids and the moons of Mars, both of which were targeted by manned missions in the 1990s and 2000s. It was usual to utilize a dedicated landing craft housed inside a bow shroud or carried in place of a cargo container for true orbit-to-surface operations, for example on Earth’s moon. No DY ships ever returned to Earth surface, but were refueled in orbit by dedicated tankers launched on simple, throttleable-combustion single-stage solid boosters not unlike those used to loft the ships themselves to space. The boosters were also used for a variety of other missions, most importantly for launching orbital laser platforms to bolster the military muscle of the supermen. Between 1990 and 1995, the rate of orbital launches from Earth grew by almost 200% every year, and more than twenty interplanetary launches were performed between 1993 and 1996 alone, mostly to Mars where the Great Khanate unsuccessfully tried to establish a colony of supermen.

Theoretically capable of acceleration to 0.01c lightspeed with full fuel load and minimum cargo, the DY-100 could also carry over 7,500 metric tons of material swiftly across interplanetary distances; had the relatively stable Singh rule continued for another decade, the ships would no doubt have established a systemwide industrial base for the supermen. But the final breakthrough in interplanetary travel came just before the collapse of the Singh kingdom. As the surrounding countries finally prepared to join and end the constant war between the genetic supermen, scientists at Delhi perfected the first practical long term cryogenic sleep technology, earlier used only to preserve biological samples or even dead bodies in bizarre attempts at afterlife. And when the walls of Khanton came crumbling down in 1996, a group of Singh’s followers were able to escape on one of the final-batch DY-100 ships they had prepared for interplanetary ‘seeding’ operations. No one outside the regime suspected that these ships would be capable of interstellar travel, though – Khan Singh’s escape was only revealed 270 years later, when his ship was found adrift in space in the Mutara sector, some fifty lightyears away from Earth.

The Singh kingdom left some two dozen DY craft and their associated launch equipment lying around in various states of construction, an enormous technology base for the rest of the world even though the original Dinyan-Yoyodyne Conglomerate factories and labs now lay in ruins. In addition to two active ships operated by USAF and one by RRKS, half a dozen abandoned Chinese-flagged vessels were adrift in Earth orbit. International missions were mounted to salvage these craft; no such effort was made on the doomed Martian conquistadors. It has been speculated that some of these ships, also equipped with crude cryogenics, may have allowed more supermen to escape the way Khan did, but no evidence has been found to support such speculation. ‘Upgrades’ and ‘refinements’ to the original design yielded mixed results. The DY-120 series from the 2020s was a moderate success, yet the further enlarged DY-130 failed to perform according to specifications, reflecting the science community’s poor theoretical understanding of the original inertia manipulation breakthroughs. More than four hundred and fifty DY-120 and -140 series ships were eventually finished by commercial operators; a total of 43 saw UEDP service under the respective class names Brenton and Helsinki. The unsuccessful DY-130 in turn spawned the DY-135 military project, half a dozen high speed patrol vessels armed with four laser cannon and a missile tube and backing up the slower Liberty class in defending Sol in the late 21st century.

The extended interplanetary operations of the second generation of DY vessels were facilitated by an improved Amjet gas-core fission powerplant assembly that required only 50% of the propellant mass of the original design. For lunar runs, a simple landing tug was carried; up to 16 cargo wedges could be externally mounted onto the core stage, and the tug could carry four at a time down to lunar surface.

For fast translunar missions, standard practice still called for a mission spacecraft to be added to the booster stage. The Apex, Afrodite and later Ares “upper stages” utilized a conventional fission-powered ion engine for regular flights to and from Venus and Mars, while the much heavier Aventeurs relied on a cluster of the same nuclear thermal rockets that propelled the booster stages when launching on “Grand Tours” to the outer planets. The Aventeurs were also able to fulfill mankind’s dream of an offworld colony, running a steady stream of supplies to the Moon from asteroid mining rigs, as well as setting up automated bases at Ganymede.

The permanent settling of Mars was once again put on hold, however. Far more interesting dreams were now taking its place, as the wave of probes built with the new technology began sending back evidence of near-Earth-like worlds in this area of space.

Major Production Runs

• DY-T (1989): heavy single-stage-to-orbit cargo launch vehicle; carried fuel or other cargo (such as the DY-B series cislunar drives)
• DY-50 (1989): 2 test models constructed for the CNSA by the Dinyan-Yoyodyne Conglomerate, with built-on launch boosters; refueled by DY-T for cislunar missions
• DY-100 (1990): the first mass-produced series, built or licensed to the ISRO, CNSA, RRKS (later collaborating as the ECSN) and USAF; launch assisted by the DY-A1; would swap for DY-B1 in orbit (for cislunar missions)
• DY-A1 (1990): tri-booster launch system; detached upon reaching orbit and swapped for a DY-B1 for cislunar missions
• DY-B1 (1990): a pair of finned and aerodynamic boosters for the cislunar missions to Luna; delivered aboard DY-T and refueled for follow-on missions; can return to Earth thru remote for maintenance
• DY-110 Apex (1991): supported early Venusian and Martian missions; would launch with DY-A2; receive DY-B2 in orbit
• DY-A2 (1991): a cluster of four huge solid booster rockets attached aft of the fuel assembly of the DY-100s and DY-110s for launches from Earth
• DY-B2 (1991): an improved non-aerodynamic, fission-propulsion module for cislunar missions and interplanetary ones to Venus and Mars
• DY-100B (1994): an improvement upon the original DY in that the DY-B2 is attached on the ground; requires the DY-A3 to launch to orbit
• DY-A3 (1994): a cluster of six huge solid booster rockets attached aft of the fuel assembly of the DYs with pre-equipped DY-B series boosters
• DY-B3 (2009): replaced the -B2 for interplanetary travel
• DY-B4 (2017): replaced the -B3 for interplanetary travel
• DY-120 (2021): DY series re-enters production with new commercial design, supporting orbital structures and lunar bases; the first of 31 militarized Brentons transports are introduced in 2023 for the ISA; altogether 173 DY-120s are produced
• DY-B5 (2025): replaced the -B4 for interplanetary travel
• DY-130 (2037): six larger DYs are built as a test of a newer and intended faster design, but the ship is much more maintenance-demanding with very little speed increase
• DY-140 (2039): lessons learned from the failed DY-130 result is a comparably faster and larger design, successfully improving the DY series; over 277 were produced, successfully supporting first the colonization of Mars and then other interplanetary destinations; the first of 12 militarized Helsinki transports are introduced in 2042 for the ISA
• DY-135 (2042): the improvements from the DY-140 series are used to modify the 6 DY-130 hulls, making them less massive and faster; they would form the Black Mamba class for the ISA and later the UEDP, serving alongside the slower Liberty class ships defending the solar system

Gallery

Sublight 'family'

• 
  DY-50 test model
• 
  DY-A1 solid rocket booster
• 
  DY-100 production class
• 
  DY-1B booster stage
• 
  DY-110 Apex class
• 
  DY-120 civilian class
• 
  DY-120 Brenton militarized subclass
• 
  DY-130 civilian class (canceled)
• 
  DY-140 & Helsinki militarized subclass
• 
  DY-135 Black Mamba militarized subclass

Other Images

• 
  Botany Bay departs Earth

DY-100 Gallery

• 
  Sail docking ring
• 
  (Mislabeled) forward hull and sail section
• 
  Forward view of cargo pods
• 
  Dorsal view of docking rings for 6 cargo pods
• 
  DY-100 maneuvering over Cuba
• 
  Lateral dorsal view of unloaded cargo section
• 
  Fully-loaded DY-100, forward lateral view
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  Fully-loaded DY-100, stern dorsal view
• 
  Fully-loaded DY-100, forward ventral view
• 
  Fully-loaded DY-100, stern ventral view
• 
  Fully-loaded DY-100, forward hull section view
• 
  Partially-unloaded cargo section, just aft of sail
• 
  Partially-unloaded DY-100, stern dorsal view
• 
  Partially-unloaded DY-100, forward ventral view
• 
  Partially-unloaded DY-100, showing 12 unloaded docking rings
• 
  Close-up of main thrust engines
• 
  Partially-unloaded DY-100, ventral view
• 
  Partially-unloaded DY-100, stern view
• 
  Launch of an unidentified DY-100

Supporting Documents

• [ Blueprints]
• [ Starship Recognition Manual #xxx - Report: DY Sublight Transport]

Class Reports

• DY-50 class
• DY-100 class
• DY-110 class
• DY-120 class

See also

• Afrodite
• Ares
• Apex
• Aventeur
• DY warp series
• DY series cargo modules

Notes

• The mission name of the Ares Mission III spacecraft is changed from 'Lucifer' to 'Guan Yu' to better fit the 'deities of war' motif of the missions.

• All references to the ECSN are being changed to ECSA, as I want to reserve the "navy" for the ECONs.

• All references to Timo's "DY-B" series have been removed; it was extremely under-defined and now represents the series of interplanetary propulsion systems.

• Text was changed for cargo capacity from 6,000 to over 7,500 metric tons, based upon volume analysis.

• In order to not have the Columbus series craft as too fast (arriving at destinations pre-First Contact), all max speeds have been drastically reduced, (except for the DY-50).

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• Appendix C: Star Fleet Organization - General Outline
• Appendix D: Abbreviations From Outside