|
Post by srbrant on Jun 20, 2017 5:51:55 GMT
By the way, here's an idea of my starship design philosophy, trying to reconcile "traditional" starships with realistic ones. And yes, I drew this myself. That's quite good art and the ships don't look too outlandish. Are they entering a dock of some sort? Oh stop it, you! And yes, a massive dock at that. It's an orbital city-state built over 150 years out of debris and derelicts called "Ferrous Reef".
|
|
|
Post by srbrant on Jun 20, 2017 5:57:54 GMT
Another pic I whipped up today. This time it's of a ship. Again, please forgive my phone's potato quality. Analyze to your heart's content. The reason why the remass tanks are so small in comparison is because in this setting, fuel efficiency has made incredible leaps and bounds. A ship like this could easily have a Delta-V of 54.6. Crap, double-posted the image. Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by apophys on Jun 20, 2017 11:09:19 GMT
That looks like a lot of mass and volume devoted to crew, rather than the weapons. Also those radiators look really small (compared to the things I'm used to). The reason why the remass tanks are so small in comparison is because in this setting, fuel efficiency has made incredible leaps and bounds. A ship like this could easily have a Delta-V of 54.6. Units please. Is that 54.6 Mm/s (18% c)? Because 54.6 km/s would be easily achievable with MPDs on a ship like that; no need for fusion. I like the clear labeling on the drawing. You're missing one label though - the thing between "life support engines" and "warp core."
|
|
|
Post by srbrant on Jun 20, 2017 14:50:51 GMT
That looks like a lot of mass and volume devoted to crew, rather than the weapons. Also those radiators look really small (compared to the things I'm used to). The reason why the remass tanks are so small in comparison is because in this setting, fuel efficiency has made incredible leaps and bounds. A ship like this could easily have a Delta-V of 54.6. Units please. Is that 54.6 Mm/s (18% c)? Because 54.6 km/s would be easily achievable with MPDs on a ship like that; no need for fusion. I like the clear labeling on the drawing. You're missing one label though - the thing between "life support engines" and "warp core." Ah, sorry. Embarrassed to say that I didn't think of units. ^^; Wonder what can be used to give that fusion more purpose...pulse weapons? It is the "right" time period. Most of the guns are built into the hull rather than the "guts" of the ship. The reason why the radiators are smaller than usual is because of advances in cooling and applied thermodynamics. Yeah, I gotta get to that label. Anything else you like?
|
|
|
Post by Enderminion on Jun 20, 2017 15:13:07 GMT
thermodynamics doesn't change the only way to make radiators smaller is to increase the temp and nothing is liquid above about 7k kelvins
|
|
|
Post by srbrant on Jun 20, 2017 15:44:08 GMT
thermodynamics doesn't change the only way to make radiators smaller is to increase the temp and nothing is liquid above about 7k kelvins Sounds like a job for applied phlebetonium!
|
|
|
Post by Enderminion on Jun 20, 2017 18:16:29 GMT
thermodynamics doesn't change the only way to make radiators smaller is to increase the temp and nothing is liquid above about 7k kelvins Sounds like a job for applied phlebetonium! or handwavium
|
|
|
Post by apophys on Jun 20, 2017 19:13:26 GMT
thermodynamics doesn't change the only way to make radiators smaller is to increase the temp and nothing is liquid above about 7k kelvins The liquid must still be circulated, and have the possibility of transferring heat to it. I strongly suspect we won't be able to pass the temperature of some solid. The highest melting temperature is TaHfC at 4488 K, and the highest theorized is ~4500 K for a similar ceramic. This gives a reasonable limit of about 1/12 of the radiator area we currently use in CoaDE at 2400 K. It may be possible to use magnetic fields to run a heat-pump coolant loop without touching it on the hot side, but that would take quite a lot of magnet mass and would not look anything at all like a conventional space radiator. It may be possible to avoid the majority of radiator needs for main power by running the contents of a fusion reactor through a magnetohydrodynamic generator to extract as much power as possible, then disposing of the leftovers so that it doesn't heat up the ship (thus combining power and propulsion in one system). But I'm not sure.
|
|
|
Post by EshaNas on Jun 20, 2017 19:14:07 GMT
You could do artificial gravity by rotating the crew compartment at relatively high speeds, granted that needs power and/or some sort of engine to keep the crew compartment rotating, if you don't want to spin the whole ship. This takes place in the year 5525, keep in mind. Though there ARE some ships that use centrifugal gravity to save on costs or if the required technology is unavailable. 5525 is really far. So far that only two main 'verses' really go that far: Asimov's Galactic Saga, where 5000 AD is the first dark ages (and overall has fallen to hard zeerust), and Orion's Arm, where the Inner Sphere era is ongoing, and anything not a damn AI basically exists at the whim of the AI who we can't even comprehend nor harm (generally dislocating and boring to average consumers), where the most recent thing was that a Middle-Sphere world colonized by people of South African stock had fallen to genetic plague (I'm not kidding). Are you sure you want that to be your year? Even besides the dearth in fiction, it's just hard to see oneself in. Though, hell, even anything beyond 2100 or so looks very hazy and becomes more and more generalized, at least if you want to stick somewhat with science and predictions and growth thereof.
|
|
|
Post by srbrant on Jun 21, 2017 4:22:03 GMT
This takes place in the year 5525, keep in mind. Though there ARE some ships that use centrifugal gravity to save on costs or if the required technology is unavailable. 5525 is really far. So far that only two main 'verses' really go that far: Asimov's Galactic Saga, where 5000 AD is the first dark ages (and overall has fallen to hard zeerust), and Orion's Arm, where the Inner Sphere era is ongoing, and anything not a damn AI basically exists at the whim of the AI who we can't even comprehend nor harm (generally dislocating and boring to average consumers), where the most recent thing was that a Middle-Sphere world colonized by people of South African stock had fallen to genetic plague (I'm not kidding). Are you sure you want that to be your year? Even besides the dearth in fiction, it's just hard to see oneself in. Though, hell, even anything beyond 2100 or so looks very hazy and becomes more and more generalized, at least if you want to stick somewhat with science and predictions and growth thereof. It takes place 700 years after a devastating interstellar war in which countless technologies were lost. Also, no mention of Warhammer 40,000 or Dune, which takes place 19,000 years in the future? Also, I believe that when you get to a certain tech level, progress will plateau for a while. Makes it easy to keep things under control, techwise and storywise. Plus it gives things a "timeless" feel of sorts. For practical and cultural reasons, there's sort of a kind of schizo-tech thing going on in Kemono, with self-adaptive machining and polymorphic software alongside books and vinyl records. Sometimes you just can't beat tradition.
|
|
|
Post by srbrant on Jun 21, 2017 4:38:12 GMT
I'm going to get dogpiled for that last post, I just know it...
|
|
|
Post by apophys on Jun 21, 2017 5:40:24 GMT
Also, I believe that when you get to a certain tech level, progress will plateau for a while. I agree with this. Though I disagree on the details of the plateau (for example, no FTL in any form ever). I see information technology and engineering exploding to extremes, but the basic physics are very unlikely to ever be broken.
|
|
|
Post by srbrant on Jun 21, 2017 6:23:30 GMT
Also, I believe that when you get to a certain tech level, progress will plateau for a while. I agree with this. Though I disagree on the details of the plateau (for example, no FTL in any form ever). I see information technology and engineering exploding to extremes, but the basic physics are very unlikely to ever be broken. New materials like Adamantium, Agricite* and Arachnite (the Triple-A) allow for new engineering marvels, such as Dyson Swarms and massive orbital colonies like Ferrous Reef. There's also "Brain-Paper", which is a tough, thin fabric micro-woven from a silicon composite to mimic Human neurons, giving something like an iPad ("Codex" in the story) the processing power of a supercomputer. Social and medical progress has been made as well. The lifespan of any spacefaring race caps out at the four-digit mark, Humans, Kemono and aliens alike can eat extraterrestrial food with little-to-no harmful effects (excluding gas), cancer is a disease of poverty and bigotry is treated as a mental illness. *Originally from SWAT Kats. In the story, it's a ferro-ceramic material that has a higher melting point than tungsten.
|
|
|
Post by srbrant on Jun 21, 2017 6:24:47 GMT
Moving back to layouts, I often wondered how a huge (read: more than 500,000 tons) ship would be built.
|
|
|
Post by Enderminion on Jun 21, 2017 12:11:41 GMT
Moving back to layouts, I often wondered how a huge (read: more than 500,000 tons) ship would be built. about half as big as this
|
|