I found this earlier today, and while I know it's for ocean-going ships rather than space ships, there's a lot of things in here that we (modders) and CIG are not including in the ships we build.

Specifically, a lot of the stuff in section 5. I know not all of it is required for a game, but it seems like we ought to include some of it.

http://www.usap.gov/vesselScienceAndOperations/documents/III-E_General_Ship_Requirements.pdf