How bid is DS9 suppose to be? I get the feeling that it's basically a city floating in space whenever we see a ship docked to it. However, it only looks that big. It's really just the core, the inner ring, and the outer ring, isn't it? I assume the big arms are dedicated to docking. Is there a deckchart, official or fan-created, for DS9? Do the docking arms contain anything other than a docking port and an elevator that goes to the docking ring?
How big is DS9
- Thread starter Charles Trip Tucker III
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That helps me get a grasp on how big it is compared to other space stations, but it doesn't really answer any of my questions except for how wide it is. 1,000 meters is crazy! 
I don't really know how big it is.
But my frame of reference was always OPS. You get a pretty good idea of its seize by the interiours(sp?) and can compare that to the exteriours.
I also would guess that the docking pylons contain transporter rooms, cargo bays, waiting rooms for passengers, spare part storage for ships, the old mining facilities and weapon control rooms.
But my frame of reference was always OPS. You get a pretty good idea of its seize by the interiours(sp?) and can compare that to the exteriours.
I also would guess that the docking pylons contain transporter rooms, cargo bays, waiting rooms for passengers, spare part storage for ships, the old mining facilities and weapon control rooms.
Charles Trip Tucker III said:
That helps me get a grasp on how big it is compared to other space stations, but it doesn't really answer any of my questions except for how wide it is. 1,000 meters is crazy!
DSN is only a kilometre across makes it a rather small starbase when you compare it it to the likes of the mushroom starbase such as Spacedock in TFSF-TUC, Starbase 74 in TNG
Which literally house numerous ships of the line inside.
Dimensions from the DS9 Technical Manual:
Overall Diameter: 1451.82 meters
Habitat Ring Diameter: 579.12 meters
Upper Core Diameter: 285.9 meters
Mid-Core Diameter: 182.88 meters
Lower Core Diameter: 184.46 meters
Ops Diameter: 59.43 meters
Height of Core (Ops to Fusion Exhaust): 368.8 meters
Height of Docking Pylons (Total): 969.26 meters
Height of Weapon Sail Towers: 192.02 meters
Overall Diameter: 1451.82 meters
Habitat Ring Diameter: 579.12 meters
Upper Core Diameter: 285.9 meters
Mid-Core Diameter: 182.88 meters
Lower Core Diameter: 184.46 meters
Ops Diameter: 59.43 meters
Height of Core (Ops to Fusion Exhaust): 368.8 meters
Height of Docking Pylons (Total): 969.26 meters
Height of Weapon Sail Towers: 192.02 meters
Do we know how many decks thick the station is? 
^ It doesn't say specifically how many decks Deep Space Nine is. However, later in the book it goes into details about other Federation vessels (including the Galaxy Class). We know that the Galaxy has 42 decks. The DS9TM says that the Galaxy is 195.26 meters tall. Dividing we can find the average height of a level = 4.649 meters per deck
Using that as a reference we can divide the total size of the sail towers and get a roundabout answer of 208 levels.
Using that as a reference we can divide the total size of the sail towers and get a roundabout answer of 208 levels.
In "Crossfire", Shakaar, Kira and Odo descend from an upper pylon, intent on reaching the Promenade, and Odo sets the destination as "Level 2D" (or so says the TrekCore script - I think it was changed to 22D in the aired episode). An assassin then contacts them, pretending to be Worf and claiming that he has to be given access to turbolift controls because there's another lift stuck on "Level 41" and Shakaar's lift has to be rerouted.
The assumption there is that "Level 41" would be in the pylon, because it makes little sense for it to be either in the docking ring, the connecting horizontal pylons or the central core.
As to whether Level 41 is just a designation for a certain height, or an actual accessible floor with possible rooms or other facilities... Hard to tell. But clearly the different parts of the station have their own numbering schemes, because the core is numbered from Level 1 (Ops) down and thus a Level on Shakaar's route that has a higher number than their Promenade destination would make no sense as the location of the fake "stuck turbolift".
Perhaps one says "Level XC" where X is the number when referring to core levels; and "Level XD" when referring to docking ring levels (Odo might have set 22D as a point where they'd change from a pylon elevator to another one, either for security reasons, or because the Cardassian system featured separate pylon elevators); and perhaps "Level XP" for pylon levels, or perhaps "Level XPU" for upper pylon and "Level XPL" for lower pylon. And perhaps the special letters are only needed when one moves between sections, so that trips within the core don't require the use of the letter C.
Complicated in any case... And again goes to prove that the station is really big, a veritable city in the sky. It's a miracle that Starfleet could run it with as few as 300 people during the early seasons.
Timo Saloniemi
The assumption there is that "Level 41" would be in the pylon, because it makes little sense for it to be either in the docking ring, the connecting horizontal pylons or the central core.
As to whether Level 41 is just a designation for a certain height, or an actual accessible floor with possible rooms or other facilities... Hard to tell. But clearly the different parts of the station have their own numbering schemes, because the core is numbered from Level 1 (Ops) down and thus a Level on Shakaar's route that has a higher number than their Promenade destination would make no sense as the location of the fake "stuck turbolift".
Perhaps one says "Level XC" where X is the number when referring to core levels; and "Level XD" when referring to docking ring levels (Odo might have set 22D as a point where they'd change from a pylon elevator to another one, either for security reasons, or because the Cardassian system featured separate pylon elevators); and perhaps "Level XP" for pylon levels, or perhaps "Level XPU" for upper pylon and "Level XPL" for lower pylon. And perhaps the special letters are only needed when one moves between sections, so that trips within the core don't require the use of the letter C.
Complicated in any case... And again goes to prove that the station is really big, a veritable city in the sky. It's a miracle that Starfleet could run it with as few as 300 people during the early seasons.
Timo Saloniemi
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