Bonaventure Class
Design History and Analysis
AMC Registry of Vessels for this class
Gallery Images for this class

Full Thrust Statistics (See Notes) MASS: 180 NPV: 719 Classification: Heavy Explorer (R) Crew: 45; 8 Officers, 37 Ratings, plus up to 75 passengers (science and survey staff) Crew Factor: 4 Hull Integrity: 40 (10/10/10/10) Armor: 10 (Armor Save 4+) Main Drive Thrust: 4 (36 TW) Drive Auto-Detection Range: 8.003 AU ∆V (Combat): 60.057 km/sec ∆V (Cruise): 1201.141 km/sec Fuel Points: 120 (2509 tons total fuel/propellant) Propellant Tanks: 8 Fuel Points per Tank: 20 FTL: Yes (Long Jump – 10 parsec range) Auxiliary Systems: 6-MASS Hangar Bay; Enhanced Sensors; 4-MASS Laboratory Section; 1-MASS Agricultural Bay; 6-MASS Cargo Hold; 0.9 G Spin Habitat for 120 Combat Systems: 2x Fire Control Weapons: 4x Point Defense Battery; 1x Class-2 Battery (FP/F/FS); 1x Class-2 Battery (F/FP/AP); 1x Class-2 Battery (F/FS/AS); 1x Class-3 Battery (FP/F/FS); 4x Short Range Antiship Missile Fully Loaded Displacement:  18,026 metric tons Empty Displacement:  13,209 metric tons Length:  557 meters Beam at widest point:  185 meters Nation of Origin:  Sagittarius Development Corporation. Date First Entered Service:  31 March 2353 Number Constructed:  10 Number of class known to be present in Sagittarius:  9 Endurance:  Consumables for up to 540 days with a 120 person crew.

Bonaventure Class SDD

Design History and Analysis:

The Bonaventure Class Explorers first saw service with the Sagittarius Development Corporation in 2353, as they began the preliminary survey and exploration of the Sagittarius Arm. A total of ten of these great ships were constructed, and all but one (Amundsen) returned by 2356 at the completion of the first survey mission. Unlike many research cruisers and explorers which are refits of older military cruisers, the Bonaventure was purpose-built as an explorer. The Bonaventure class fulfills its role as an exploration ship with an extensive laboratory suite, a large bay for landers and other small craft, provisions for "living off the land" for an extended period of time, and is extremely well armed and protected for a civilian starship. As these ships would be entering a part of our galaxy that was well beyond the roughly 150 parsec radio-contact bubble around Earth, there were no guarantees that the Sagittarius Arm would be uninhabited, and arming them against a hostile alien power was judged to be only prudent. Since the crash of the Stargate, it is perhaps serendipitous that the most powerful starships in human space are under the firm control of the SDC.

Bids for the project were tendered as early as 2339, while the Sagittarius Stargate was still a secret to the public at large. The design competition had three strong favorites, being Lockheed-Martin of Earth, Estrella Esperanza of Alpha Centauri, and Mercer Heavy Industries. As MHI's founder Frederick Mercer was a close personal friend of the SDC's Chief Executive, Gavin Aurimas, and Frederick himself was a board member of the SDC, it came as quite a shock to the entire industry when the design and construction contracts were awarded to Estrella Esperanza for a total request of three starships. Wisely enough, Gavin Aurimas ensured that the bid process would keep Lockheed Martin and his own friend's Mercer Heavy Industries involved as sub-contractors providing power plants, sensor platforms, and AMPLAR drive systems. Long Jump stardrives were provided by Aurimas' own Solarian Space-Time Engineering corporation in direct contravention of SSTE's agreements with the Western Alliance (the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Israel, Japan, Oceania, the Martian Alliance, and the European Union) to keep the sale of Long Jump technology a monopoly only their militaries enjoyed.

The first three starships of the class, Bonaventure, Enterprise, and Fortunato were received by the SDC in 2350 for space-trials and final fitting out at an SDC orbital complex in the Wolf 359 system. The SDC was pleased with the final result in spite of the many problems the design endured from initial drafting to fabrication and integration of components. The Bonaventure was a unique approach to space exploration, being first a starship capable of jumping up to 10 parsecs in a single hop, expected to operate without outside supply for eighteen months, and to be able to "live off the land" for an even greater period of time. In addition, she was to have performance characteristics more in line with a warship than an explorer, and a suite of weapons that made it the most heavily armed private starship class in existence. Though it is no match in a one-on-one slugfest with a cruiser of similar mass, the Bonaventure is a formidable starship in its own right, and reflected the reality that while no intelligent life has been discovered within 150 parsecs of Sol, there are no guarantees at 1500 parsecs.

The Bonaventure class measures 557 meters in length and masses approximately 18,000 deadweight tons when fully fitted out. It has a standard crew of eight officers, twelve senior ratings, and twenty-five junior ratings, plus a science department of forty, and a survey team of thirty-five, for a total complement of 120.

A truncated conical primary hull serves to house the command and control center; forward engineering systems such as reaction thrusters, life support, and an emergency 2500 MWe nuclear heated gas turbine power plant; a free-fall laboratory facility with biological quarantine stations; and the primary armament of the vessel – one heavy 7.5m free electron laser (FEL), three 5m FEL secondary turrets, four 1.5m FEL point defense turrets, and the missile bay carrying four R-45 Lancer antiship missiles. Officially, the warheads for the R-45s were kinetic burst projectile types, but in reality all R-45 warheads were 1000 kT thermonuclear detonation lasers. SDC possession of nuclear weapons was not actually unique for well-heeled non-state actors, but was a surprisingly cynical move for an organization that claimed to support non-proliferation.

Aft of the bow complex is the hangar bay, with provisions for two 200 ton heavy VTOL cargo landers, two fifty-ton general purpose landers for vacuum operations, and two fifty-ton VTOL general purpose landers; a large cargo bay attached to the hangar was nominally rated at 600 tons of supplies and gear.

Aft of the primary habitat is the spin-gravity hub and associated machinery, which links a pressurized ring with an outside diameter of 170 meters through three pressurized 'spokes' of four meters in diameter. Situated 120 degrees apart on the ring are three secondary habitats of twenty meters by sixty meters by ten meters, each mounted on independent gimbals that allow the secondary habitats to pivot to provide artificial gravity either through spin or through main drive acceleration. Standard operating procedure called for the habitats to be oriented for acceleration only during transit burns, and oriented for spin the rest of the time to provide as much continuity of gravity as possible for the health of the crew. The ring spins at an adjustable speed between one and three RPM to provide artificial gravity between 0.1 to 0.9 G. Habitat 'A' is the primary berthing area for the crew and laboratory technicians, habitat 'B' is the main dining and recreation area, as well as the berthing for the officers and senior scientific staff, and habitat 'C' is the main laboratory section with full biological quarantine safeties. The laboratory section can comfortably accommodate a science department of up to forty researchers and their assistants and technical staff, and can perform advanced biological, physical, geological, chemical, and if need be, archeological analysis on any survey samples collected. The ship's twelve bed sickbay with four bed ICU capacity is also located in Habitat 'C' to take advantage of the quarantine facilities and access to the science staff and equipment. All surgical procedures up to and including heart-lung bypass and cybernetic limb replacement can be performed in the surgery. Each habitat has its own independent atmosphere control equipment, climate system, waste heat radiators, and waste water recycling systems, though there is sufficient redundant capacity for one habitat to take up to half of the load of another. This allows two functioning habitat life support systems to handle the loss of the third's systems.

Aft of the spin hub is the Drive Section, which houses the four General Atomics GA-35R Antimatter-Catalyzed Fusion Main Reactors (10 TW total output each), their associated Lockheed Martin TTM-9000 Antimatter-Catalyzed fusion torch plasma drives (45,000 KN thrust each, total jet power 36TW), the SSTE Class XI Long Jump Stardrive, and the supporting radiators, auxiliary equipment, and fuel storage for the ship. The primary reaction mass is 2509 tons of liquid hydrogen, deuterium, and helium-3, plus up to 100 kilograms of antimatter in the form of antiprotons and positrons (stored separately) for the main engines, power reactor, and long jump stardrive. The Bonaventure is capable of making up to eight maximal range (10.0 parsecs) Long Jumps with its antimatter reserves.

The contract to build the Bonaventure explorers was broken up into three Blocks. The first three ships, Bonaventure, Enterprise, and Fortunato were considered Block I models. Following acceptance trials with the SDC, the corporation decided to order three additional hulls. These were known as the Block II model, and were represented by Amundsen, Intrepid, and Magellan.

The Block II model differed from Block I in that it featured a simplified fuel and propellant storage system using eight larger cylindrical tanks instead of sixteen smaller spherical ones, a larger low temperature radiator system for the propellant cryogenic plants to increase system redundancy, and improved structural support between the large and small hangars and the rest of the ship.

The SDC approved a final flight of four Block III models following acceptance trials of the Block IIs in 2351. These final four ships, Armstrong, Gagarin, Musgrave, and Adventurer represent the standard by which the class is now based. The improved structural support and propellant systems of the Block II were retained, and an improved Propulsion Complex featuring better maintenance access and a milspec liquid gallium droplet radiator system from Lockmart was added to replace the original Block I and Block II Propulsion Complexes. The Block III design was more streamlined, and actually saved several hundred tons of mass while providing for a more robust main engine heat rejection system. The mass savings was realized as additional consumables for the ship, extending its duration away from support.

During the years of 2358 through 2360, the Block I and Block II Bonaventures were all upgraded to the Block III standard as shipyard availability in Fury and the Expedition schedules permitted. The upgrades were carried out by major subcontractor Mercer Heavy Industries with Estrella Esperanza technical support.

AMC Registry of Vessels for this Class: Vessel Name Hull Number Laid Down Commissioned Current Disposition in Sagittarius Bonaventure AMC-002 8 October 2350 31 March 2355 Active duty with the SDC. Enterprise AMC-003 12 October 2350 31 March 2355 Active duty with the SDC. Fortunato AMC-004 14 October 2350 31 March 2355 Active duty with the SDC. Amundsen SDCR-4* 18 June 2351 31 March 2355 Declared Missing December 2356, listed as lost December 2357. Intrepid SDCR-5* 23 June 2351 31 March 2355 Stolen from Gateway Station on 17 August 2357. Magellan AMC-005 9 July 2351 31 March 2355 Active duty with the SDC. Armstrong AMC-006 12 May 2352 31 March 2355 Active duty with the SDC. Gagarin AMC-007 18 May 2352 31 March 2355 Active duty with the SDC. Musgrave AMC-008 28 February 2352 31 March 2355 Active duty with the SDC. Adventurer AMC-009 10 April 2352 31 March 2355 Active duty with the SDC. *Amundsen was lost and Intrepid stolen prior to the implementation of AMC hull numbers.  Those listed are their original United Nations Registry hull numbers.

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