Brief history of the Morales Class Survey Ship.

I need your feedback on this.

By 10 FY, The Planetary Resource Treaty was
signed. This document laid the foundation for the Survey Corp and put all
further exploration of space in the hands of United Planet Federation. The main focus of the Corp is the following: 1. All star systems and planet within UPF
boundaries shall be survey for resources and map. They will map all preexisting interstellar routes. 2. Any exploration beyond the boundaries
shall be conducted by the Survey Corp.
They shall handle all first contact with alien races.

3. In times of war, they will be assigned
to the UPF Military Command as scouts.

10-40 FY:
The Grand Survey to approximately 30 years to complete. During these
early years, modified assault scouts were equipment with multispectrum
telescopes and radar mapping equipment each planet, and moon in the UPF. Ground base telescopes were also used to map Xagyg
Dust Nebula, Lesser Morrass and White Light Neubla. (Original SF Map) They also conducted a survey of nearby stars for future exploration.

40FY The Interstellar Exploration Committee
(IEC) is formally created as a part of the UPF government. It came about a part
of a hearing on the Survey Corps budget and goals. It is the governmental agency which has
oversight of the Survey Corp.

45FY The IEC asks for and receives money
for a purpose built exploration ship.
The Contract is awarded to Pan-Galactic Corporation.

49FY Construction on the Eleanor Morales is
begun.

51FY The Eleanor Morales begins space trails.

52FY The Survey Corp accepts the Eleanor
Morales. Begins survey operations.

57FY Discovers Snowball.

60FY:
The Survey Corp Academy is established.
The name was also changed to Interstellar Survey Corp (ISC).

64FY Commission established on the space
worthiest and cost of the Survey Ship fleet takes place. Order PGC to retrofit all Morales Class Ships
and repair design error in the vessel.

72FY 25th Anniversary of the Liberation of
Snowball System

74FY The first Gregor Dentin Class Survey Ship begins space trails.

76FY The Survey Corp accepts the Gregor
Dentin. Begins survey operations.

88FY Eleanor Morales is retried and becomes
a museum ship at UPF History Museum on Gran Quivera.

108FY The search for a new scout vessel begins...

The Contract: Cash Cow

The contract for the Morale Class Survey
Ship was for a starship, that allowed a crew of between 10-20 well trained
individuals to explore planets within a 50 light year range of the present
borders of the UPF and return. It must be able to survey, land and conduct scientific
mission on a planet as well as in space.

The initial contract also gave an order
number of six vessel to be build and the company building it must support the
vessel throughout it service life.

There was no surprise when Pan-Galactic
Corporation (PGC) won the bidding. They
had the largest lobby in the UPF Assembly at the time. What did surprise most people was the lack of
supervision by the IEC during the design and construction phase.

Most historian seem to believe PGC's hold
on the Assembly was the root cause for this.
Some even have claimed large amounts of personal loans were given to
many of the IEC members during this period by one specific bank as a sign PGC
was heavy influencing the Committee to turn a blind eye on the entire process.

Others have suggested, the success of the
Assault Scout and other designs gave the Committee unquestioning faith in any
design produced by PGC. More claim
pressure by the Assembly had something to do with it as well.

PGC spent the next two years designing the
vessel. What they came up with shocked
most experts at the time. Most believed
they would come up with a single ship that used shuttles for planetary survey
mission. What was presented was a
modular system consisting of the primary starships, a lander module and a transport
supply ship.

It was hailed as a Marvel of Technology.

The scout ship had it own Void drive which
assure the IEC that if the Transport vessel was damaged the crew would return
safety to the UPF. There was also an
escape pod built in as well.

The landers module was a fully instrumented
research station which could send data back to Survey Corp Bases via an
orbiting satellite equipped with a subspace radio system. It's robotic probes could continue the mission
after the ship moved on.

The Transport ship allow the Morale class
and unprecedented range and allowed the survey several planets at a time
without resupply.

Several experts pointed out that the dual
ship system was going to make PGC a hell of a lot of money. The pointed out the servicing for the engines
would cost a pretty penny and the modules alone would keep PGC solvent during
the life span of the ships. They also
claimed it was too complex for just your average Joe Spacer to work on.

It was also decided to name these vessels
after famous aviators and space Captain.
Eleanor Morales was the first to chart the route between White Light and
Timeon.

The transport ships were number 1-6. However,
engineers unofficial began giving them names. Eleanor Morales transport ship
was named Edgar. The inside joke was
that the two of the ships formed a married couple. Edward Frasier Transport
ship was named Edith. Name selection
these ships were not base on real life people but on the first letter of the
Survey Ship.

Space
Trails: "Boys, It's not an Assaults Scout."

Test began on the first ship, the Eleanor
Morales, in mid-47. Pilots of the Survey
Corp up until this point used modified Assault Scouts, the Eleanor Morales was
a big change for them.

This became apparent during atmospheric reentry
testing phase when the test crew saw two major flaws in the design.

The first and most important was, the ship
couldn't land without the Survey Lander Module attached to the Survey
Ship. At the same time, the pilots
complained it had the characteristic of flying brick and could not perform slow
speed maneuvers. It's bullet shape and
atmosphere drag it caused prevented it from happening.

The second flaw was discovered when they
attempted to enter the atmosphere with a lander attach. PGC claimed the Eleanor Morales could enter
like an assault scout and land just like one.
The added weight of the lander and it fixed landing gear acting like
airfoils threw the center of balance off, caused stability problems.

To land an assault scout, the pilot
normally would locate a landing spot, pull a stall maneuver and land the ship
on its tail. The Morale could do this
without tearing the lander's legs off.
Even at slower speeds, it was difficult for the pilots to get the ship
to stand on its tail before the completion of the stall.

The ship worked fine when, it enter the
atmosphere on a ballistic reentry which placed the lander first, essentially flying
the ship backwards. Once this was found
to be and acceptable method to land the ship, the other two flaws were
overlooked.

No one disputes the pressure the Survey
Corp was under at this point. The cost
of the Morales was just over 200,000 Credits, 50,000 for each lander and
another for x credits
for was reach a million credits per ship. This excluded consumables which were
used during each mission. So the Survey
Corp accepted the Eleanor Morales in early 52 without addressing these issue
and others that would later cause a major retrofit 15 years into it service
life.

The rest of the ships were to be delivered
in every two years. Edward Frasier was deliver before the ink was dried on the
certification papers.

The
Early years: "They say bad things happen in threes."

The Eleanor Morales is said to have started
it when a munity occurred in the 57 FY.
This was overshadowed by the events that took place following incident
and the Destruction of the Sathar base on Snowball and the liberation of Mhemne.

Second Incident took place 60FY when the
Edward Frasier was landing on a planet.
One of the landing struts gave way under the weight of the ship. Had not the pilot had his handle on the
throttle, the ship would have been lost.
They managed to disengage the lander and return to orbit. It was later
to be determined, a micrometeorite has struck the strut and caused it to fail.

Two years, the third involved the
replacement of a solid fuel rocket used on the escape pod, on board the Beeba Harcoo. As per PGC guidelines the rockets were to be
replace once every five year, a technician was replacing one of them when he
accidently trigger the rocket causing a fire and extensive damage to ship which
knocked the ship out of action for two years.
The accident report blamed the Technician for not following
instructions.

Three years later, Isaac
Günter
suffered a similar incident when the escape pod, separated from the ship
without warning prior to landing.
Through skill and luck the crew managed to rendezvous with the transport
ship. The main section was lost as it
burned up in the atmosphere. The crew found it necessary to fit the escape pod
to the Transport ship as a way of control the vessel. Through their gallant effort, they returned
to UPF.

The IEC had had enough and a commission was
put into place to discuss the issue plaguing the Morale Class Survey Fleet.

The
Commission: "You know you have a problem when a Dralasites won't work on
them."

The IEC Commission of 64 FY first went to
the crews for the ships for their input on the ship's performance.

They came up with several major
issues, The first dealt with the Survey
Lander Module. Crews reported, tilt as
being an issue.

The weight of the ship and the module
caused the ship to lean as it settled on the planet surface. Several crews reported dealing with 10-15
degree tilts were not uncommon. Pilots reported having the same issues as the
test crews. the lack of landing gear was a major concern. Crapped working conditions and needless rooms
hampered the ship.

One crew showed the Commission, how they
had turned Theater in to a storage room.

Engineers complaints were mainly about the
access required to get at areas of the ship.
These cramped areas on the Lab and the Engineering deck made it difficult
to perform maintenance and repairs. Scientists worried about contamination as
samples had to be carried up to the Lab Deck.

They brought in outside experts to review
the design and give their opinion on the overall design.

First thing they discussed was the
complexity of the Modular design. Under
the present configuration, there were four lander modules stack on top of each
other. This part of the design was for
ease of use. All a survey ship had to do
was backup and attach itself to the module and it was plugged into the rest of
the ship. Had, at anytime, one of these
connections had failed, the Survey Ship would have lost control of the
Transport Ship. They also pointed out
the Transport ship was an expensive redundant system in itself due to the fact,
it was a separate ship.

The Survey Landing modules a waste of
material. They had pointed out by adding
landing gear to the Survey Ship, the need for the module was no longer
necessary. That newer technology could build a smaller leave behind automated research
center at a fraction of the cost.

The escape pod system employed by the
Survey Ship was a joke. Even if they
could get off a distress call, 4 days was not enough time for a rescue team to
arrive under normal circumstances. Nor
were there any provision made for the capsule to land period. Planetary landing
were out of the question, even if a suitable planet was in the area to await
rescue. And finally, the rockets we too
weak to launch the capsule into space, if the need had arisen.

They then explored the incidents which
brought the commission into being.

The landing struts were fixed to the outer
hull and unable to retract placing them in greater danger of accident
damage. They were also some concern about heat
of reentry and the affect it had on them.
These weaken struts might be the cause of the tilt the crews might be
experiencing but no modules were ever recovered for the commission to inspect.

Even thou, the first accident seemed to
deal with procedural errors made by the Technician, there was significant similarities
between that and what happened to the Isaac Günter to suggest the rocket used might be flawed. At the time of the Isaac Günter accident, the
rockets were ending their lifespan.

The cost of the entire system and consumables
was explored as well.

The Survey Lander Modules was 50,000
credits each time one was used. Two
DA-800 Airships were left behind on the planet, crews reportedly rarely using
one or both, considering it was quicker to use the aircars.

Maintenance costs on both ships and the
landers were close to 1 Million credits.

Consumables for the labs, food and fuel
costs ran around 1 Million credits per trips.

All total, the system was running just
under 3 million credits per year for just one ship. The Survey Corp had six. Add in crew, Maintenance and administrative
costs they program was running close to
24 million credits a year.

They then called in Pan-Galactic who
basically explained or deigned everything away.
Calling the Morales Class ships one of the safety designs it had ever
built and the charges of creating a 'cash cow' were just sour grapes on part of
the Assembly.

Most historians who look at the transcripts
of the hearing agree the PGC representative nonchalant manner in which he
answered their questions, turned sour the grapes into vinegar.

Retrofit:
The Repercussions

The Commission issued their report in early
67FY sighting major design flaw with the Morale Class Survey Ships. On the surface, it appeared to be the IEC making
an attempt to gain funding for a new vessel to replace them. However, it was a skillfully play ploy to
show the Assembly what they were dealing with.

The same PGC representative and their lobbyists
made the rounds in Assembly attempting to quell the furor over the report and
gain support if, a new class of vessel was to gain funding. Many of the Assembly members, were not please
by the responses given by PGC and this turn the storm in a tempest. By mid 67, they
were calling for a hearing before the full Assembly. Later on that same year, the
PGC representative had been replace and the lobbyists had created a comprise which
fulfilled the IEC and Assembly.

PGC would pay for the retrofits at a
greatly reduced cost and adhere to recommendation made by the IEC.

What shocked the Historians at this point
was the modest list of demands presented to PGC by the IEC. It was almost certain, Assembly had instructed
the IEC to reduce their changes or suffer funding cuts.

The follow list what PGC was to changes:

The landers were to be reduced and equipped
with auto leveling and retractable landing gear.

Escape Capsules were to be redesigned. They
were to provide them with better life support and the ability to land on a
planet safely.

Interiors were to be redesigned and made ergonomically
friendly to both crews and maintenance teams.
Systems were to be upgraded.

In the end, it appears the IEC lost and
their attempted at persuading the Assembly to react in their favor lost.

Over the next five years, the ships were retrofitted
at a cost of just over 200,000 credits per ship.

Morales
B's: "Those Damn Mhemne."

In the 72FY, the Mhemne were granted full membership
in the UPF. It was also the 25th Anniversary
of the Liberation of the system. To commemorate
this event, the ceremony was to be held on Clarion and the Eleanor Morales was
to attend. Medals and accolades for
crews of the Morales and the Osprey were to be handed out as well.

The Mhemne ambassador shocked everyone in
attendance when during the medal presentation he award Captain Greogor Dentin
with his very own ship. On the
holographic projector appeared behind him, the image of a Morales Class Survey
Ship. At first everyone thought this was
a joke, until they began noticing the distinctive control tower at Clarion's
starport.

The Mhemne had put landing gear on the on
a Morales Class Survey Ship.

Representatives from the IEC and ISC were
given a tour. It was the ship the
Commission had hoped for back in 67FY.
The Mhemne wishing to impress the UPF with their ship building skills
had redesigned the Morales to improve their chances at getting lucrative contracts
within the UPF. It worked.

The ISC's fleet was now in it thirtieth year
and the Assembly saw a need to replace them.
The landers and its satellites were seen as a security risk, which could
be use by the Sathar as insights into the technology of the UPF. The UPF also saw this as a way to cement
their relationship with the Mhemne.

PGC was not pleased with this
arrangement. They fought hard to have
the deal squashed, but the Assembly had enough of the PGC Lobby and passed the
bill unanimously.

In 76FY, the first ship of this new class
Gregor Dentin, was commisioned that year and over the next twelve years replaced
the Morales Survey ships.

The
Museum: The Grand Old Lady.

On the 10th day of the 10th month of
Federation Year 84, after serving the Interstellar Survey Corp for 37 year, the
Eleanor Morale landed at Gran Quivera for the first time outside the Interstellar
Survey Corp Headquarters. Her atomic
engines had been strips out months ago and decontamination. She would not rise again to explore the
stars, she once touched. This was the honor bestowed on her for faithful
service and partaking in the Liberations of the Mhemne.

The rest of the ships of this class and all
their transport vessels were scraped and she is the last of her class. PGC never produced another ship after the M'tal
Bax'z was built to replace the Tomas Andersons.

The Dentin Class has gone on to become the ship
of choice for exploration for both the government and civilian market.

Pinned

Off

Locked

Off

Forum category

Open Discussion