The Trialus Starlifter

[Solluk]

The Trialus Starlifter

Diameter: 150 meters
Decks: 6
Embarked Craft: 10 Sphynx Workpods (Used to Carry Cargo Canisters between Katra and the Starlifter)
 
20 Type 16 Shuttlepods (For personnel transport)

25 Four-Person Escape Pods

Crew Complement: 100 Officers, Crew, and Civilian Employees, with at least 50 Flight Certified Personnel
The Trialus Starlifter is employed by Starfleet to supply antimatter fuel and other matter to Katra Station, making the facility largely self-sufficient.  The Starlifter is a disc approximately 150 meters in diameter and 20 meters thick.  Its sunward surface is covered with solar energy collectors which provide auxiliary power to the facility when the fusion generators are offline for any reason.  A third of the facility is comprised of hangars for the embarked craft.  The remainder is living quarters for the crew, and the apparatus needed to make the Starlifter function.

When in operation, the Starlifter uses modified tractor beam technology to lift hydrogen (deuterium) particles from the star's corona, bringing them into the facility and storing them in tanks.  This hydrogen fuel is then used to power banks of fusion generators.  The generators in turn supply power to an antimatter (anti-deuterium) converter, which consumes one-hundred hydrogen molecules of fuel for each anti-hydrogen molecule produced, for a conversion efficiency of approximately 1%.  Fortunately, with a practically infinite supply of hydrogen, the Starlifter can provide more than ample antimatter fuel for Trialus sector operations.

In addition to hydrogen molecules, the Starlifter is capable of lifting other stellar reaction products, such as Helium, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Neon, Iron, Silicon, Magnesium, and Sulfur.  These forms of matter can then be further converted by industrial replicators into virtually any other material Katra Station may require.

A constant stream of modified Sphynx Workpods, equipped to carry cargo canisters at high speed, make deliveries to Katra Station and the Katra Auxiliary Drydock.  The trip takes about three hours in each direction.

One of the ways Katra maintains its importance in the region is by selling antimatter fuel at exceedingly low cost, making it a point of interest for freighters from all over the sector.