Babylon 5 Station Layout

You used the BabCom terminal to find out more about Babylon 5.  The terminal responds by displaying a coloured schematic, illustrating the different sectors of the station.  A synthetic voice starts to describe the layout of the station...

General Dimensions

This station schematic shows all of the different colour-coded sectors of the station.  The station is roughly cylindrical in shape, slightly over 8 kilometres long from the Command Sphere to the Fuel Core.  The divisions shown on this figure are in fact the kilometre boundaries.  For convenience, we refer to the Command Sphere as the northern end of the station.  The central part of the station is a giant open habitat cylinder, which we refer to as the Carousel.  It's just over 900 meters in diameter at the widest point.  The internal diameter of the station is just under 700 meters for the majority of its length.

Simulated Gravity

The Carousel and all parts to the north, including the Command Sphere, rotate in order to simulate gravity.  The whole structure is supported by maglev bearings inside a Spinal Collar that connects to the Command Sphere at the north and to the Transfer Grid at the south end of the Carousel.  The Spinal Collar is like the backbone of the station; this and parts of the station south of the Carousel do not rotate and therefore are in zero gravity.  Large panels that function both as heat sinks and solar collectors are attached on cantilevered arms to the non-rotating part of the station; and are angled to benefit from the sunlight of Epsilon Eridani.

The Command Sphere

The northernmost part of the station is the Command Sphere.  This houses the main docking bays.  There are twenty-four bays that can handle craft from the size of a transfer shuttle up to the size of a Condor military transport.  The bays are situated radially around the widest part of the Command Sphere.  Ships entering the main rotating dock pass through the dock's doors and settle on one of four landing platforms.  They are taken down by elevator, where they are berthed in a cradle, which transfers them to their designated parking bay.  Larger mixed transports are too long to use the elevators.  These pass through the inner dock doors and berth in one of the four low-gravity docking bays.

All ship traffic is handled by Command and Control in Observation Dome One.  Captains are requested to surrender control of their vessel to Babylon 5 as they enter the main dock.  C&C vectors the craft onto the correct pad.  Arriving passengers disembark and pass inward through Customs, which are on levels 10 to 14, at the southern end of the Command Sphere.

The Core and Cobra Bays

South of the Command Sphere is a short connecting Core, which transfers visitors to the main part of the station.  Externally, there are four other connecting arms, known as the Cobra Bays, because of the similarity the structures bear to the head of the hooded cobra.  These house the four fighter squadrons that defend Babylon 5.  The Cobra Bays are accessed from levels 8 and 9 in Blue Sector.  You may be able to see a training exercise, if you have permission.

The Torus

The next substantial segment of the station is known as the Torus; this connects to the Core at the northern end and to the main Carousel at the southern end.  The Torus basically houses all the station's administrative and military staff. It also offers a number of vantage points, such as the sanctuary observation deck.  Externally, the traffic proximity arrays are mounted here, since they may scan forward of the Command Sphere.

The Carousel

The Carousel constitutes the main habitable part of Babylon 5.  The northern end is a commercial zone; the southern end provides engineering power, light, alternative environments and recycling services.  The central two kilometres are constructed as a large open cylinder, supported internally by pillar arms.

This is the garden, an important habitat with its own soil, grass, lakes and restricted building.  It serves a dual purpose as a recreational area and also supports Babylon 5's biodiversity.  The hydroponics gardens are here too.  The pillars contain transport tube elevators that rise to the core shuttle, in the near-zero gravity zone.  This rapid transit system has three railtracks that run for the entire length of the station.  Shuttles are suspended every 120° around the core superstructure, which also provides the sunlight-strength illumination to create the natural environment of the garden.

The Ambassadorial Residences are found in the middle of the open garden, in a more built-up area that rises some floors above the ground-level and extends below into the hull.  This is to provide a mixed range of gravity environments for our VIP visitors.  The diplomatic suites all have excellent views of the garden, as do the best hotel suites at the northern and southern closed ends of the Carousel.  To the north, accommodation is offered at commercial rates to mostly human visitors; while to the south, care is taken to accommodate the needs of alien visitors.  This end of the Carousel houses the so-called "Alien Quarter", offering more exotic methane and carbon dioxide environments for different species.

Transfer Grid

Behind the Carousel is the Transfer Grid, which regulates power from the fusion reactor and the solar collectors.  A series of concentric transfer rings allow people to move between the spinning part of the station, which is under gravity, to the zero-gravity part of the station. Raw materials are shipped from the Collar to the Carousel via this route.

The Fusion Reactor

South of the Transfer Grid is the Fusion Reactor and Fuel Core.  It's a dirty area and therefore kept separate from the living areas.  The reactor housing contains several fusion cores that are fed with helium from the Fuel Core tanks.  South of the main reactor housing are the fuel delivery systems and north are the cooling fins.

Spinal Collar

The Spinal Collar extends from the zero-gravity dock at the north to the secondary power distribution conduits to the south.  The zero-g docking stabilizers project northwards like a hood for some 500 meters: these help to guide transports and robot tugs into the zero-g bay.  Hard docking clamps may also be extended to moor ships permanently.  Materials are shipped south to the raw materials storage tanks.  Several microgravity research and engineering areas are to be found here.

The main communications relay is mounted to the north, where a tachyon beam emitter extends above the hood of the docking stabilizers.  The Defence Grid is mounted along the whole length of the Spinal Collar.  This consists of a number of emplacements for heavy pulse discharge cannon and defensive interceptors.