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Charon Class Orbital Large Vehicle Lander

Designed to carry wider load, the Charon Class Orbital Large Vehicle Lander has a cavernous main cargo bay that spans the central hull and both side pods with multiple loading ramps. It retains the upper hangar bay for atmospheric craft that other ships in it's line support. In operation the Charon Class can act as a counterpart to the Calliope Class Orbital Troop Transporter, while the Calliope deploys troops and the Charon deploys larger vehicles.

The Charon is an offshoot from the Clio Class Orbital Multie Vehicle Transporter and as such retains the same landing ramps as the Clio for vehicle access both fore and aft. The Central hull has been lowered and extended to combine with the side pods, while the pods sacrifice some atmospheric thrusters in order to gain two wide loading ramps (1 on each side). This allow vehicles to access the cargo bay in a number of ways such as; driving in from the rear and parking within or for longer/ wider vehicles to drive in from the sides and be stored within. The multiple access options allows for maximum flexibility in ground vehicle storage.

When landed on a planet, there is a set of rear pistons that deploy to aid in stability. Use Increase/Decrease Limit on rotors as required.

Layout
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Forward cockpit for docking. Passageway behind this leads to Upper Hangar bay (for atmospheric craft).

Leads to Elevator Room which can move craft up to/ from the roof of the lander where the 'flight deck' is located.

Forward of the Upper Hangar is a passage leading to a meeting room, with a further passage to the side observation rooms finally leading down to an air lock that takes you to the main hangar.

The main hangar has access via air lock to the Operations Room. This room contains cryo chambers, control stations and has 2 small rooms adjacent to it that overlook the side rear loading area.

Behind the Operations Room is the crew area with vertical access to the bridge. The bridge has rear exterior access to the upper rear landing pad.


NOTES:
1: All carried craft must be fitted with landing gear to prevent cargo moving during flight.
2: The side loading ramps take a while to deploy fully.

WARNING: Please ensure Elevator is retracted before closing the Dorsal Hangar.

Key components
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1x Antenna
9x Batteries
1x Beacon
1x Cockpit (intended for station docking fine control manouvers)
15x Connectors (All usable: 1x at the front of the ship. 11x within the hangar [all located in the floor]. 1x in the Elvevator Room [rear mounted]. 1x located at the lower rear of the ship. 1x in the upper rear landing pad)
2x Control Stations
24x Cryo Chambers
1x Flight Seat
4x Gattling Turrets
1x Gravity Generators
27x Gyroscopes
10x Hydrogen Tanks
3x Jump Drives
8x Landing Gear
~40 Large Atmospheric Thrusters for keeping the ship aloft.
2x Large hydrogen thruster (rear)
3x Large Reactors
10x Large Ion Thrusters (rear)
26x Oxygen Generators
40x Oxygen Tanks
14x Passenger Seats
13x Programmable Blocks
1x Remote Control Block
9x Small Cargo Containers
10x Spotlights
18x Timer Blocks


Hydrogen Thrusters only face Forwards, Rear, Sideways and Below (not above!)
Blocks 7,467
Grid Mass: 8,181,397

Possible: Move landing gear down 1 block on lander so that rotor'd landing ramp is more flush when deployed - however, landing gear become more visible in an undesirable way. I note this as users may find this more practical even though it may not look as 'cool'.