Ship Design Philosophy

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Spacestations: Orbital Shipyards - Building Fleets in Space

A new industrial revolution is coming—not on Earth, but above it. This episode delves into how orbital shipyards will produce everything from shuttles to megastructures, changing how we explore and inhabit space.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:15 Why Build in Orbit?
1:32 The Gravity Well Problem
3:26Material Sourcing – The Importance of ISRU
5:47Early Orbital Shipyards – Existing & Near-Future Projects
6:37 Lessons from Space Stations & Prototypes
8:35 Port George & Linus Scrapyard – Revisiting Fictional Shipyards
13:22 Infrastructure & Logistics of Orbital Shipyards
23:49 Constructing Different Types of Ships
32:15 Challenges of Large-Scale Shipbuilding
34:30 Maintenance, Repairs, and Refits – Sustaining a Spacefaring Fleet
39:50 Salvage and Recycling
41:02 The Future of Orbital Shipyards – Expanding Beyond Earth
43:29 The Rise of Megastructure Shipyards
45:00 Privatization and the Spacefaring Economy
46:41 Shipyards as Strategic Military and Political Assets
48:32 The Role of AI, Automation, and Post-Human Workforces

1. Not all spacecraft are streamlined.

2. Fishbowl starships.

3. Simplifies repairs and maintenance.

 

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View attachment 4995

Planetary Operations

V. Any thrust greater (presumably than acceleration factor/three) will result in dangerous heating.

W. One assumes this implies either way, reentry, or atmospheric manoeuvring.

X. Though, as I recall, one acceleration factor above local gravity field can be any speed band, to hypersonic.

Y. How much faster can you push a spacecraft within an atmosphere?

Z. Apparently, with heat shielding, quite a lot.

 

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Spacecraft: Engineering and Speedometer

1. Normally, acceleration has no affect on crew and passengers.

2. Since, gravitational based drives are the default.

3. And, they have an integrated inertial compensation field that neutralizes the effects of their thrust.

4. But, if for some reason this field is turned off, or is unable to completely neutralize the effects of prevailing acceleration.

5. Then, you might want to be able to finely tune the exact amount of acceleration.

6. And how much you might want to filter through to the primary hull.

7. Or, other types of propulsion with an integral inertial compensation field.

8. That while affects the crew and passengers.

9. Has no short or long term medical or physical affect on humans.

 

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Inspiration: Flash Gordon (1980): 20 Weird Facts You Didn’t Know!

Flash Gordon (1980) was wild, campy, and unforgettable — but what happened behind the scenes makes it even more legendary.

From strange production choices to unexpected moments that made it into the final cut, these 20 weird facts reveal the chaos, creativity, and surprises that turned this sci-fi oddity into a cult classic.

The costumes were dazzling, the Queen soundtrack was iconic… but the weirdest stories were the ones no one ever told.

 

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Spacecraft: Engineering and Speedometer

A. Going by, I think, Companion, humans can exist long term, on planets with a local gravity of seventy to one hundred forty percent Terran standard, without any long term medical or physical consequences.

B. So if there is no artificial gravitational field onboard a spacecraft, you can have constant acceleration between those two values.

C. No idea about the other races, major or minor.

D. Acceleration settings would be calibrated to cover that range.

E. Depending whether you're in a hurry, or the captain decides on economy/cruise.

F. Which requires default technological level seven for reactionary rockets, and ten, for the gravitational based manoeuvre drive.

 

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Spacecraft: Engineering and Speedometer

G. Stop; zero; point one; point five; point seven; one; one point four; one point nine; two point nine; three; three point nine; six point nine; ten point nine.

H. Stop; standby; zero/zero; dead slow/point one; slow/point five; quarter/point seven; third/one ; half/one point four; two thirds/ two; full/two point nine.

I. Assuming acceleration factor/three is commercial standard, and you're not compensating for inertia.

J. With a gravitational based manoeuvre drive, except for restricted space and docking approach, you're probably going at full thrust, anyway.

K. I suppose you could add parking, at that point.

 

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Spacecraft: Engineering and Speedometer

L. I would suppose that an inertial compensation field requires power.

M. And the more it's compensating, the more power it requires.

N. That power would be diverted from that pumped to the manoeuvre drive.

O. As such, you could save power by turning off the inertial compensation field.

P. Unless, which I heavily doubt, inertial compensation field is a byproduct of gravitational thrust.

 

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Spacecraft: Engineering and Speedometer

Q. Stop; standby; parking/zero; dead slow/point one; one quarter/point two five; half/point five; three quarters/point seven five; full/one.

R. More to do with standardizing acceleration from another party's expectation.

S. Thus, there are no surprises that could lead to accidents, at close encounters.

T. Wouldn't stop customizing the actual acceleration controls on individual spacecraft.

U. Or, just spinning the dial or flooring the accelerator by feel.

 

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Spacecraft: Hulls and How To Build the Structure of a Spaceship

Spacedock delves into the structural design of sci-fi spacecraft.

1. Dispersed structure.

2. Recoil.

3. Manufacturing process.

 

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Spacecraft: Engineering and Speedometer

V. Lunar distance is about four hundred thousand kilometres from Erath.

W. That's a tad over three hours at acceleration factor/three.

X. Which would fall within regional flight time.

Y. That would be six percent on the rockets, default fifteen percent plus on fuel.

Z. Customization would get you between six and eighteen and three quarters percent, plus.

 

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Spacecraft: Hulls and Primitivation

1. Default fifteen kilostarbux per tonne; one power point per hundred tonnes basic services.

2. Dispersed structure, seventy five hundred starbux, lightened hull, fifty six and a quarter hundred starbux per tonne.

3. No hull armour, one hull point per 6.17283950617284 tonnes.

4. Twenty five kilotonnes, one hull point per 4.93827160493827 tonnes.

5. Hundred kilotonnes, one hull point per 3.7037037037037 tonnes.

6. Double hull, at one percent cost per percent hull allocation.

7. Machinery ten percent of double hull tonnage allocation.

8. Which takes care of crew and passenger area.

9. The rest of the spacecraft would be non gravitated.