Colony layout

[thedubman]

Nice- I like it compact and useable..

I still like the idea of units with nodes and basic functions installed (ie water/air pumps and Power). It could be like you want an extra farm and need more sleeping areas, so u get your generic unit, plug it into the system- install unit with neccesary equipment to operate (farming stuff, kitchen etc)

As with the trench design and walls etc- agree it may look flimsy but with the right materials and pressures and tethering supports I reckon it would be properstrong... I got a mountianeering 2 man tent with about 5-10 fittings that can withstand a Force 10 Gale...

In reality I was trying to imagine what was the simplelist way  of building that 'access tunnel' - using as little storage space as possible (for the support rods,teathers and sheeting) and local resouces (water and cold)..

[Hyper]

Well Marcus the thinking is in the right place. Modular is key I think. We get out a bunch of rails, wall sections, floor sections and lay it out the way it makes sense. If things change in the colony we change the layout or add to it. I think everyone is on board with that. Keep the ideas flowing....
I am working on the Life Support module now. I imagine we have wells drilled and the module would be built over the well so the equipment would be inside and warm air from the module would help keep the water in a liquid state and being inside would cut down on dust issues. Oxygen charge stations can be added to the outside of this module for emergencies and piped through the modules with charge stations and tanks in various places. Also just outside this module there would be a fueling station for the Rovers and Fuel Cells as well as a fuel charging station inside. Part of the fuel can be sent over to the Power module to help charge the batteries as well.

[Utini]

Re the frozen tunnel issues: in Antarctica one of the biggest issues they have is heat unavoidably ducting down legs into the Antarctic ice, causing the bases to slowly sink. Having connector floors over essentially large patches of ice would suffer the same issues as well as fighting the heaters in the habs. Being basically paranoid, I'm less leery of having the main airlock entering into the rover dock / repair bay, with secondary / emergency locks opening from other habs. Gives the possibility of sealing the entrance of the bay temporarily with some sort of flexibile sheeting to stop / reduce atmospheric venting and loss while the airlock is repaired. I've not run the math to discover the feasability of this approach, I must admit.

[thedubman]

If you had other access points it would help with emergencys, also if you included a 'independent/combined' life support system it would make for a challenge in gaming terms..

Imagine the scenario- Players in 'section A- biohabs' report an alarm and report large pressure loss and O2 loss, they suit up. Players outside use alternate access to get  in the  control Hab and shut down O2 flow to control node- the area is sealed off (doors around bio-lab).  
Players in section A  repairs bio hab problem,.. players in control hab re-route O2 from section B (farms) and activate Farms backup O2 generator- control hab re-opens main O2 flow and after a few mins section A bio is repressurised and doors are opened once pressure balanced ree-routing is reset and normal operating conditions resume.. players remove suits and continue work..

same goes for power and water supplies..

[Marco2001]

I made a model out of 4 basic modules layouts:
Airlock module - litle square
Base module - the main starting module.
Rectangle module - as in your schemates  
Connector (or Triangle) module - it can connect 3 modules together.

Player would decide for himself where to put the airlock. He simply connects an airlock module to the desired module.
Using those 4 basic module shapes player has almost infinite possibilities how to connect them together.
If you use Connector module to connect with every other module you will see that the modules connect to each other together and make a circle.



P.S
Iam sorry - I actually made some serious schemates. Each one different, and many of them. I would gladly post them on forum, but Iam currently traveling to Italy  

P.S.2
You should also see this: http://janek.kozicki.pl/asia_bergamo_2009/asia_bergamo_2009-18.jpg

[Hyper]

I would love to have the players arrange things but that would require a full editor and would have to be sent to the server. Also when adding a airlock there are 2 doors 4 switches with interlocks and a pressure balancer. Beyond the scope of reality for MMO.
I could make that work for single player mode but there is alot of alignment issues to deal with and alot of gear to tie in so be ready to code things as well.
The hubs are 4way now and there are 4way service modules which is efficient way of doing things. Circles and spheres are hard to line up and are very expensive CPU wise.
Here is the current layout so far...

[Hyper]

Here is the current layout.

[thedubman]

Looks real nice-

whats the cylindrical object far right, rover garage??

[Ivanpet]

I like new base design !!!!

[Hyper]

The cylinder is equipment that has been dropped from orbit, it was unpacked and the cylinder is built in small sections that gets tore apart and used in building the struts for the modules
There are 2 modules under construction, nuke housing is there waiting for the equipment to arrive.
Like I said this first "test" will mostly just be a walkthrough, testing what I have installed so far.

[Marco2001]

I found this on internet. It may proven usefoul somehow.



Link: http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/studies/final_report/440OHandley.pdf

Also this:
http://www.marssociety.org.au/amec2002/proceedings/Image62.jpg
And this:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/132/405315596_74a5eda922_o.jpg