Guide:Class B4 (pod)

Class B2
Class Overview
Category	inspection pod
Operational	2210-2257
Constructed	534
Dimensions
Length	3.7 m
Beam	3.4 m
Height	3.0 m
Mass	5.3 tons
Performance
Max Speed	sublight (thrusters)
Endurance	2 days
Complement
Crew	0 (or 1)
Passengers	4 (or 3)
Canonicity
Design	Game-canon
Name	Game-canon
History	Game-canon

In all industrial cultures, construction and assembly work has from the very beginning of the space age relied on extensive automation and precise virtual visualization of the items under work. Yet orbital construction facilities have always had a need for nimble pressurized pods in which engineers can zip around their handiwork and see both the minutest details and the "big picture" with their own naked eyes. Besides sheer vanity, such pods also serve the important function of transferring people from a pressurized location to another with minimal effort and infrastructural needs. Such spatial taxi cabs are by necessity much simpler constructs than transatmospheric shuttlepods or interplanetary shuttles, yet they share one important quality with these types: the desire for passenger comfort.

While work pods may be optimized for lengthy work shifts, becoming "extended spacesuits" for their users, or perhaps be designed with quick embarking and disembarking in mind, inspection pods have to simultaneously provide both capabilities for multiple personnel, while also offering large viewports for visual inspections and for maneuvering in tight spots. Yet fairly few other demands are placed on the design, and the inspection pods of Star Fleet assembly yards have traditionally been of low overall performance and simplistic, boxy construction.

A typical example would be the C6 pod of the 2210s, mass-produced by Patterson-Massey for Star Fleet applications on basis of its commercial UE-4490 series. Equipped with a standard docking adapter astern and a three-faceted, flat-plate viewport forward, the cabin could hold up to four personnel on benches along the side walls. Full gravity was provided onboard, while external anti-grav repeaters could gently attach the vehicle to any nearby surface or push it away from one. Main propulsion was with powerful reaction drives at the four corners, however, giving up to 120 g acceleration or enough thrust to push major structural elements around. A manual control interface to starboard allowed onboard personnel to control the craft, but route point input or full automation could be employed on simple taxi duty.

A small number of the half a thousand pods completed were later equipped with manipulators or external tools. Inspection pods had diverged from the work pod optimum by then, however. They were not nimble enough for precision assembly tasks, and interiors had to be significantly reworked to provide the operator with sufficient control and vision at the same time.

Gallery

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Notes

• Replacing the Class B2 work pod for inspection and supervisory roles.

• Timo's operational dates changed for SFC. Note, also, that the displayed sample art is the SFC-intended one, as the gallery art provided by Timo appears to be closer in depiction to the Type 401 shuttle. Some facts were changed to reflect the chosen image.

• The dimensions are placeholders, to be modified to match final art.

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• Appendix B: Glossary
• Appendix C: Starfleet Organization - General Outline
• Appendix D: Abbreviations From Outside