Ship Design Philosophy
- Thread starter Condottiere
- Start date
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
You can start with the quintessential Scout, and work your way up to the Tigress.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Spaceships: Personnel Facilities
Since gold is dirt cheap, and engineering is based on volume, not weight, you could fit out a spaceship completely in gold.
Why not platinum? Gold is softer.
Since gold is dirt cheap, and engineering is based on volume, not weight, you could fit out a spaceship completely in gold.
Why not platinum? Gold is softer.
gold is plentiful. however it's structural properties are sadly lacking....
of course, a few layers of gold over structural members would be shiny.....and radar reflective, and pretty good at stopping less penetrating types radiation..might get removed the first time you do a hot entry, or get too close to a star...but in those cases you got bigger fish to fry.
of course, a few layers of gold over structural members would be shiny.....and radar reflective, and pretty good at stopping less penetrating types radiation..might get removed the first time you do a hot entry, or get too close to a star...but in those cases you got bigger fish to fry.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
I hadn't thought of gold as a stealth material.
Theoretically, it wouldn't add that much more comparatively in cost to coat the F-35 with it, but it would weight it down.
Theoretically, it wouldn't add that much more comparatively in cost to coat the F-35 with it, but it would weight it down.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
There might be some undiscovered superconducting feature of gold, that absorbs sensors radiation and shunts it towards the fusion chamber, where it's radiated in the other direction.
And for those that like comparing sizes.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG3stLXpZ2w
And for those that like comparing sizes.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG3stLXpZ2w
Love homeworld ship designs.....
gold is used in some aircraft canopies to keep radar waves from getting in and bounding around, and to keep their own electronic noise contained...a mesh of gold wire embedded in the hull would seriously blunt EMP/Microwave weapons since it forms a very rough faraday cage....route the mesh to a capacitor bank and you have an EMP sponge., or hardened hull.
they also use gold wen they need a corrosion resistant low impedance contact for electronics..I'd imagine gold is fairly common aboard starships in one form or another.
gold is used in some aircraft canopies to keep radar waves from getting in and bounding around, and to keep their own electronic noise contained...a mesh of gold wire embedded in the hull would seriously blunt EMP/Microwave weapons since it forms a very rough faraday cage....route the mesh to a capacitor bank and you have an EMP sponge., or hardened hull.
they also use gold wen they need a corrosion resistant low impedance contact for electronics..I'd imagine gold is fairly common aboard starships in one form or another.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Sounds like a Faraday cage.
Hull construction is not a topic much touched upon.
Hull construction is not a topic much touched upon.
Condottiere said:
That may be due to the fact we really are grasping at straws o that subject.it's sort of like asking the Wright brothers to describe the inner workings of a space shuttle...they can only guess at it, and apply concepts they know to the problem.
and as for the Poster. I have no idea where my friend found it....It showed up as a Yule gift one year...lucky for me I had acquired a suitable return gift for her
Nerhesi said:
Fortunately for us all, Mr. Caswell has posted his Traveller work, and much more, on the Deviant Art website. It can be found at http://robcaswell.deviantart.com/gallery/
Enjoy!
Edit: His Traveller ship comparison chart is at http://www.deviantart.com/art/Traveller-Starship-Size-Comparison-375080388 but take the time to see the rest of his work. You won't be disappointed.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Spaceships Engineering and the Need for Speed
There was a discussion about carrier plane range, and in a roundabout way I wondered about speed settings for Traveller spaceships.
You'd have:
1. Emergency Power, or Gear wrenchingly Overclocked
2. Flank Speed, or Tolerably Turbo
3. Full Ahead
4. Fleet Speed
5. Half Ahead
6. Cruise Speed
7. Slow Ahead
8. Dead Slow Ahead
9. Parking
10. Drifting
11. Silent Running
12. Stop
13. Reverse
Basically, you're unlikely to have patrol fighters, as they'd accommodate insufficient crews and sensor equipment, especially as unlike aeroplanes, you can always allow the craft to drift and extend the range, or at least time on station, considerably.
There was a discussion about carrier plane range, and in a roundabout way I wondered about speed settings for Traveller spaceships.
You'd have:
1. Emergency Power, or Gear wrenchingly Overclocked
2. Flank Speed, or Tolerably Turbo
3. Full Ahead
4. Fleet Speed
5. Half Ahead
6. Cruise Speed
7. Slow Ahead
8. Dead Slow Ahead
9. Parking
10. Drifting
11. Silent Running
12. Stop
13. Reverse
Basically, you're unlikely to have patrol fighters, as they'd accommodate insufficient crews and sensor equipment, especially as unlike aeroplanes, you can always allow the craft to drift and extend the range, or at least time on station, considerably.
I've managed to create a patrol fighter at around 50 tons. It's a heavy fighter, but you can squeeze in a stateroom with no problem....more like a couple of bunks, a fresher, and a storage cooler with enough room for a pilot to stretch out while the copilot takes a watch.
a patrol fighter doesn't need the same performance as say an interceptor or point defense fighter. after all, it is there to be way out on the fringe, spot trouble and react to threats it can handle. or simply step over an inspect an unknown entering an area. If it encounters real trouble it calls in for help and evades trouble.So it wouldn't need large reaction drives or a lot of reaction fuel. It would be a lot like the PBY from WWII, slower less agile and not well suited to dogfighting, but at 50 tons you can slap a barbette on it and give it some pretty serious firepower..enough for the odd raider, or armed merchant ship.Better yet fit it with a modular weapons system, light patrol duty version could carry turreted weapons to defend itself, and heavy weapons could be swapped out to give it a bit ore punch. a flight of three craft, two with turret weapons, and another carrying sensors and a heavy long range weapon such as missiles, or torpedoes.
a patrol fighter doesn't need the same performance as say an interceptor or point defense fighter. after all, it is there to be way out on the fringe, spot trouble and react to threats it can handle. or simply step over an inspect an unknown entering an area. If it encounters real trouble it calls in for help and evades trouble.So it wouldn't need large reaction drives or a lot of reaction fuel. It would be a lot like the PBY from WWII, slower less agile and not well suited to dogfighting, but at 50 tons you can slap a barbette on it and give it some pretty serious firepower..enough for the odd raider, or armed merchant ship.Better yet fit it with a modular weapons system, light patrol duty version could carry turreted weapons to defend itself, and heavy weapons could be swapped out to give it a bit ore punch. a flight of three craft, two with turret weapons, and another carrying sensors and a heavy long range weapon such as missiles, or torpedoes.
AnotherDilbert
Emperor Mongoose
Given that sensors only have a complete view of 300 000 km, we need lots of sensor platforms to control a system.
Inspired by wbnc I came up with a modular concept, I think I will put it up in a separate thread.
Inspired by wbnc I came up with a modular concept, I think I will put it up in a separate thread.
Cool, I cant wait to see it....AnotherDilbert said:
If you use your fighters to patrol Gas Giants, and jump limits.
Then scatter drones/satellites around the system they can detect objects at minimal detail range, and then fighters can be vectored to investigate if the contact is acting peculiar or local space control decides to run a random check. a picket drone wouldn't even need drives just a power plan to run sensors and basic systems. as people like to point out you can detect an energy or heat source at ridiculous ranges with even the most basic sensors. so all the satellites would have to do is go.."Hey! there is something artificial out there....you might want to check it out." a patrol fighter with 6 gees constant thrust from gravitics alone can cover some serious ranges if it has early..especially if it has a two man crew and at least a barracks to let one of the crew catch a nap once in a while.
A single 12-24 patrol fighter squadron with a few dozen drone/satellite units could probably provide basic protection for a system with one or two fuel sources...if you are using a converted freighter as a tender/transport for the pilots, and a patrol corvette/or SDB as a heavy hitter there isn't much, short of a full blown warship ,that's gonna risk getting into a scrap with the patrol force.
so say youhave a world with apopulation of 1-3 million they could easily support
24 patrol fighters( borken into 8 three craft sections ) two section on fixed patrol per fuel source, 3-4 sections on rest and maintenance, or roving patrol)
1 refitted 500 ton freighter
2 SDBs
20-30 5 ton sensor pickets...
Not a force I'd want to risk a fight with in anything short of an ambush frigate..definitely not an armed freighter, or Corsair...and if you are a scout...run screaming and pray that your boss dropped some credits for drop tanks so you have fuel to jumpout..
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
You can of course, tailor your ship designs to suit the doctrine you want to follow.
I tend to think that unless spaceships are deliberately camouflaged and/or stealthed, you can see them a long way coming, and sine the idea is to let interceptors engage the intruders, my preference would be for an extended duration EWACS loaded with drones, with a crew of at least four.
I tend to think that unless spaceships are deliberately camouflaged and/or stealthed, you can see them a long way coming, and sine the idea is to let interceptors engage the intruders, my preference would be for an extended duration EWACS loaded with drones, with a crew of at least four.
Condottiere said:
I am really fond of ships that are built as a base hull, with modular sections to allow one hull to serve several purposes. I squadron of ship with a specific purpose would be fine, but since outside of the standing fleet formations a lot of jobs would require very flexible design to be able to handle all the "rat catcher" jobs smaller ships, operating independently, or in small groups would be handed. You would definitely need optimized designs for intercept, Battlespace superiority/denial, and other roles. But a nice solid design with lots of optional packages would be a real plus to any military.
one f the ideas I loved From the space combat System for 2300Ad was that of the black globe...a marker that represented a contact detected by passive sensors too far away to be clearly identified.Unless you spent some time studing the contact, or dedicate active sensors to the object it stayed a black globe, you knew it's location it's direction/speed of travel, but very little else.
in a patrol/picket type scenario, The tender/carriers sensor drones could easily track black globes and use their own sensors to get more info... or the Main ship could use it's more powerful/advanced sensors to pick up details....then vector fighters/combat drones onto the target. If they get close enough for detailed sensor sweeps, a dedicated scout/recon/EW bird in the intercept package could relay data back tot eh carrier, and act as a Foward observer/flight director for it's associated combat craft.
