The saucer hull, shown above, provides a vast volume within the Enterprise for uses during space exploration. The saucer is 1500 feet in diameter (.28 miles) and 75 feet thick around the perimeter. Near the center of the saucer hull it grows to 300 feet thick.
Around the interior perimeter of the saucer hull is a sealed donut-shaped cavity that houses the magnetically suspended gravity wheel. There is 1g gravity inside the interconnected pods that make up the gravity wheel. All other locations inside the saucer hull do not have gravity.
The interior sections of the saucer hull serve many diverse functions and contain many diverse items. Some examples are:
- Three motorized hinged doors and three hangars for housing and servicing visiting spacecrafts. The hangars also house the three Universal Landers that will be used on missions like when going to Mars. Fuel tanks for refueling the Universal Landers and other visiting spacecrafts are in the hangars.
- Vast cargo compartments for storing supplies and equipment for missions such as rovers and specialty planes to be sent down to probe planets, moons, and asteroids. Other cargo items are base-building equipment and raw materials such as those mined on the moon or an asteroid. A semi-automated warehouse system will manage the cargo.
- The passive storm shelter that provides maximum protection against radiation in space. Surrounding the storm shelter are composite propellant tanks that contain the 55 million pounds of Argon propellant needed by the three engines in the engine hulls. The propellant serves as the main shielding material for achieving a 1000 gram/cm2 storm shelter.
- Gravityless recreation areas. This is for fun and sports. People can push off and travel floating for long distances to experience vast gravity-free spaces. This compartment can also be used for educational and entertainment purposes.
- Gravityless research laboratory.
- Gravityless micro-manufacturing facility.
- Oxygen generation stations with oxygen storage tanks
- HVAC system
- Water tanks and other supplies for all of the ship except for the gravity wheel which has its own supplies.
- Backup supplies for gravity wheel.
- 100MW laser
- 1MWe hydrogen fuel cell backup power systems.
- Impulse engines and their fuel tanks.
- Stationary system of permanent magnets and electromagnets to control the suspension and rotation of the gravity wheel.
- Electrical power distribution cables and equipment to route power from the nuclear reactors in the three engine hulls to the rest of the ship.
- Inductive power transfer system to wirelessly provide electrical power to the gravity wheel. (The gravity wheel cannot have power cables running to it since it’s floating in space and at no point touches the stationary saucer hull.)
- Magnetically levitated rotating elevator that glides above a circular magnetic track around the interior of the saucer just inside the donut-shaped cavity that contains the gravity wheel. The elevator is used for going from the stationary hull to the gravity wheel and vice versa.
- Windows so the crew and visitors can look out into space to see earth, Mars, Venus, the moon, the stars, the galaxy, and so on.
- Fire control system
- Hole-patching system
- Backup living quarters in case an emergency arises in the gravity wheel.
Likely locations for some of the various sections of the saucer hull listed above are shown below.