Ship Design Philosophy

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Spaceships: Engineering and Nuclear Waste Is Manageable. We Just Have To Do It. | Random Thursday

The downside of nuclear power is, of course, nuclear waste. But there are a lot of myths around nuclear waste, and uses for it that might surprise you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96et8ZGsxJY


1. Ninety five percent energy potential.

2. Diamond batteries.

 

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Spaceships: 86 Passenger Space Shuttle - Yes, It Was a Real Plan...

In the 1970s, the USA was planning vast network of solar power stations, or SPS, to wean the country off oil and avoid using nuclear power. These stations would have been huge and required vast lifting spaceplanes like the Boeing space freighter or the Star Raker to get materials into orbit.

But hold on,

There was an essential component of the SPS program that we skipped over - that the star raker for all its glory was actually not designed to carry passengers. that these gigantic SPSs in orbit 300 nautical miles above the earth would in fact require a huge workforce of zero g workers as well - but how would they get there?

That role would fall on a different spacecraft entirely. Essentially, a passenger space shuttle.

The project was called the Personal launch system and would very much like the space shuttle we have today, although its actual support rockets would be very different. This is because the space shuttle was actually under development around the same time and was seen as the obvious leaping-off point for any sort of personal ground to orbit system.

So why not just design a passenger module and turn the space shuttle into a commercial transport? Well hot off the creation of the star raker, Rockwell did just that.

This design, from 1976, would be able to carry at least 68 passengers, although there are some concepts that could increase that capacity up to 86 if needed or as low as only 50 astronauts.

Passengers would be divided into four different areas, with different passenger configurations over two decks. Section A-A was the most dense at the rear of the cabin, with 4 seats across the top and two in the bottom. Section B-B had the same densifty but room on either side of the lower seats for cargo. Section C-C and Section D-D were areas with the four doors, with C-C having only four chairs and section D only two chairs at the lower deck leaving room to maneuver around the cabin.

Passengers would first be loaded through four different doors on the ground through the shuttles cargo doors - which themselves would be replaced by a single fixed cover with door openings - the shuttle wasn't designed for any cargo and the module wouldn't be released in flight to thus opening the main bay was not nesscearly.

Once in orbit, the passengers would depart from a new airlock section built into the passenger module at the front of the passenger cabin. It was expected that once the shuttle arrived, passengers would disembark and then the returning passenger's board before heading back to earth.

For missions that only required 50 passengers, the shuttle could reach an orbit of around 500 kilomenters with the extra space given over to more fuel tanks. The 80+ seater version with a shorter range would instead remove two of the ground doors and replace them with a high density B-B section.

The shuttle would return to earth using the typical method that would be employed by its real world equivelent.

There were other designs for earth to orbit transportation, a smaller version of the star raker, but research discovered that it would be cheaper and quicker to develop a simple booster rocket with a fly back orbitor hitching along s ride.

Like the SPS heavy lifter, Boeing was called up to present their ideas.

Instead of a series of boosters, Boeing had the idea to use a single large conical booster instead of the solid rocket boosters that had been used in the apollo program. This design would have had four liquid rocket engines, fed with a potent mix of liquid oxygen and liquid propane - easily giving enough thust, 1.815 Mlbf per engine, to get the whole apparatus to orbit. The shuttles own engines wouldn't have engaged until the booster had seperated, freeing up room onboard the orbiter shuttle for more passengers.

Each booster and orbital pair would have a life span of 14 years, and would cost 12.619 million USD per mission, which would be 100 million in todays dollars. For the whole program, NASA would need 26 boosters and 10 orbiters, a staggeringly high cost.

had this been built, we would have seen the possibility of commercial ventures. Space hotels would have sprung up and there would have been a real possibility of operators filling those 86 passenger seats with those paying customers - clearly there is a market today for it and plenty of people would have paid for it very much like the rise of air travel.

But... this history never happened, and like the SPS program being cancelled, the extense of the shuttle was greatly scaled back and there was never a need to send that many passengers into orbit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9cUQgxsOtI


1. Mmm, science ...

2. Water flash evaporators - disposable heat sink system.

 

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Spaceships: Engineering and Fusion Rockets - The Real Mars Express [2021]

Fusion Rockets - The Real Mars Express [2021]

The proposed and most plausible system that is being researched by NASA is called Electromagnetically Driven Fusion Propulsion. This engine uses electromagnetic fields to achieve fusion and control the exhaust energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STtXdpD8LtM


1. Specific impulse, in seconds; I think I'll stick to thrust tonnes per turn.

2. It's the payload, stupid; or is it the total cost per tonne?

3. Radiation dosage.

 

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Starships: Dune Lore: Spacing Guild Heighliners Explained (DUNE 2021)

A discussion of the lore and history of the Spacing Guild's Heighliner ships as well as the role these massive vessels play in the Dune saga. This lore video combines elements from Frank Herbert's Dune, the Dune Encylopedia and Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson's Expanded Dune Universe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNIXijG88yE


1. You could have an Astrogator Guild, even an informal one.

2. I rather doubt that you could have a neutral interstellar shipping system in Traveller; maybe in the more volatile areas, such as Vargr and Aslan space.

3. I've always imagined the Heighliners as cylindrical, but that may be due to existing artwork.

4. If you wanted a Heighliner shipping system, considering the volume they carry and likely capital investment, they'd have to be booked months in advance.

 

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Starwarships: Anatomy of a Vessel: USS Sulaco - Registration CC13-2169

A look at the USS Sulaco from James Cameron's Aliens, referencing information found within The Weyland-Yutani Report, Aliens: The Colonial Marines Tech Manual, and Alien: The Blueprints.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy1lTQx3Vqc


1. Pretty much self sufficient, and apparently highly automated.

2. Dust as fuel.

3. How do turbines work in space? Or on a spaceship?

4. Stealthed.

5. Or it gets sent to Pandora, to take care of another alien problem.

 

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Spaceships: Hulls and Airlocks

Airlocks are sealed systems consisting of two heavy duty doors or iris valves, with atmospheric pumping equipment, allowing transit to and from a spacecraft in a vacuum or hostile atmosphere. A ship may have one airlock for every hundred tonnes or part of. A standard airlock is capable of cycling two humans per minute between the ship’s interior and exterior, or vice versa. Additional airlocks may be added using the system in the spacecraft options chapter.

1. Airlocks are handled as arbitrarily as hardpoints.

2. Like hardpointed turrets and bays, airlocks are not freebies, you have to pay for them, and indicate how large they are.

3. Arguably, the first one might be.

 

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Spaceships: Hulls and Airlocks

A ship has at least one airlock per five hundred tonnes. The average airlock is large enough for three people in vacuum suits to pass through. An airlock takes ten seconds to cycle. Under normal circumstances, airlocks are locked down from the bridge and require a Very Difficult (twelve plus) Electronics (computers) check to override. An unlocked airlock can be triggered from outside. Airlocks generally have vacuum suits (see page ninety six), rescue bubbles (see page one hundred fifteen) and cutlasses (see page one hundred seventeen) in lockers nearby.


1. Five hundred tonnes might be an Imperium safety requirement.

2. Let's assume that two is very easy, while three would be a difficult squeeze.

 

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Spaceships: Hulls and Airlocks

1. Vehicle airlock is at technological level six, takes up to two spaces, and costs two kilostarbux.

2. Compared to the additional airlock at minimum two tonnes, and one tenth of a megastarbux per tonne.

3. And then you have technological level nineportable airlock, or the Portairportie®, a flexible pressure tent kept rigid by a collapsible frame, the portable airlock has two openings and can be attached to a bulkhead to create an emergency airlock ... most commonly used when cutting into a starship hull for rescue purposes, preserving the environment inside, but can be also used to seal a building against NBC conditions ... big enough for two vacuum suited Travellers to use at once, and is reasonably robust ... comes with a small air bottle to initially inflate it, but then relies on pressure from the area being cut into to remain inflated. Weighs eight kilogrammes and costs a kilostarbux.

4. Or you could have a vacuum proof corridor, two hatches, and an air suction device.

 

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Starwarships: Star Wars: Inside the Tie Fighter

I have decided to create another inside-out animation of an iconic Imperial starship, the Tie-Fighter from Star Wars, all in 3D.

. The Tie Fighter was first introduced in the 1977 movie, Star War A New Hope and was commonly used by the Empire to fight against the rebellion. There are several different variations of the Tie fighter including the Tie Bomber, TIE interceptor, Tie Defender, and the TIE Advanced X1 which was used by Darth Vader but in this episode, I just wanted to focus our attention on the standard Tie Fighter.

The backbone and workhorse of the Galactic Empire, the TIE fighter is identified with the Empire’s influence and power. TIE fighters are manufactured in massive numbers and are assigned to a pilot as an expendable asset, much like the pilots themselves. TIE fighters are considered tools to the Empire’s need, and they were designed to be as efficient as possible for the job they do.

The standard TIE/LN model contains no deflector shields, hyperdrive, or life support system. For this reason, they have a much lower range of operation compares to other galactic space fighters, and often need to be ferried into battle by other vessels, such as the menacing Imperial Star Destroyers, Gozanti class cruisers, or the Quasar Fire class carrier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Z-viJExyA


1. No life support.

2. I think it's doable, in that considering the spherical nature of the cabin, you could pre install a rescue bubble, with the controls inside of it.

3. I think you'd need a more advanced, thinner vacuum suit to full utilize the controls without penalty.

4. Otherwise, as long as there is no breach of the hull, you could use a rebreather or any number of other environmental protective gear.

5. The issue has more to do with (the lack of) pressure if you get ejected out in the void, or the hull is breached.

6. While it's not stated, if you go cheap on the standard hull, without gravity, you may want to let the inertial compensators bleed through one gee uncompensated.

 

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Spaceships: Accommodations, Life Support and Brigs

1. While stables is the cheapest accommodations in terms of capital cost, two hundred fifty starbux per tonne, and two hundred fifty tonnes per two humans per tonne.

2. Brigs are actually capable of supporting three humans per tonne, for the samelife support cost, but they cost twenty five times more.

3. At full capacity, you could make up that sixty kilostarbux in about two years.

4. You would, of course, either have to install bars or leave the door open in order for the air circulate.

 

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Starwarships: Star Wars: Inside the Y-Wing

I have decided to create another inside-out animation of another iconic starship, the Y-Wing from Star Wars, all in 3D.

Basic information regarding the Y-Wing.

The Y-Wing was actually the most commonly used ship in the Rebellion, but this bomber's history starts in the Clone Wars. The starfighter was typically crewed by a single pilot and was often overshadowed by models such as the X-wing and the A-wing. They are depicted as the primary fighter-bombers of the Galactic Republic, Rebel Alliance, New Republic, and the Resistance.

It was mainly used for dogfights and for bombing runs against capital ships, close air support, and ground attack missions. The Y-wing is equipped with a hyperdrive but requires an astromech unit to fully calculate the necessary course vectors and power setting for any hyperspace jump.

But the Y-wing's historical importance is remarkable, and it has reliably served multiple generations of star pilots. Although slow for ship-to-ship combat, it was still capable of engaging other craft, and the Y-wing was excellent when used for planetary bombing runs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7xFU8Wm_ms


1. This sot of represents a rather barebones approach, apparently retconned to be a stripped down example of the "original".

2. When I first saw it, never really appreciated the modular design.

3. It should also mean, no armour, except around the cockpit.

4. Current rules would make the astromech dangerous for computing jumps.

 

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Starships: Starship Size Comparison 2021

Here are just some of the spaceships from various movies, animations, and tv shows, including Star Wars, Star Trek, Robotech, Macross, Starship Troopers, Halo, Buck Roger, Battlestar Galactica, and Interstellar to name a few.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAQp_5aZerw


Firefly reminds me of the Hooded Swan, or at least in it's depictions.

 

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Spaceships: 5 Sci-Fi Spacecraft Based on Real Life Aircraft

Hey co-stars and welcome to another episode of Generation Films, my name is British Ben. And I know you all love to know the behind the scenes stories of movies and to find out how certain things came into being. What I want to focus on in this video is how fictional space ships in sci-fi borrow design elements from the real world. Just like how, you may not have realized this but, Eagel 5 in Spaceballs steals its design from the 1986 Winnebago Chieftain 33, like it doesn’t just borrow from the vehicle, it literally is the 1986 Winnebago Chieftain 33.

Okay that one was kind of a joke because they literally just stuck wings and engines onto a winnebago. But a lot of other ship designs to come from real things and are a lot less obvious. So this is 5 Fictional Spacecraft Based on Real Aircraft

List
Marvel Quinjet
Razor Crest from the Mandalorian
MG-100 StarFortress SF-17 from the Last Jedi
H8 Global Defender from Independence Day Resurgence
The Supremacy from the Last Jedi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD8nOGDnSeQ

 

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Starwarships: Star Wars: Inside the B-Wing

I have decided to create another inside-out animation of an iconic Alliance starship, the B-Wing from Star Wars, all in 3D. Enjoy.

First appeared in Return of the Jedi, the B-wing starfighter made its mark as an iconic spacecraft nonconforming to a traditional design. Despite its short appearance, the B-wing helped diversified an already impressive arsenal of ships in the Star Wars Universe and frequently reappears in other Star Wars canon and legend works. The cockpit for the B-wing is inspired by the early concept arts of the Millennium Falcon.

In Star Wars canon, the B-wing is said to be designed and produced by the Rebel Alliance after the Battle of Yavin, manufactured by Slayn & Korpil, who also builds the V-19 Torrent Starfighter, and the MG-100 Star Fortress, seen in the Last Jedi. The MG-100 Starfortress shares many commonalities with the B-wing, as is apparent in its design.

Designed to land horizontally in the hangar, and fly either vertically or horizontally as needed, the vessel features a cockpit mounted on a gyroscopic system. This system allows the cockpit to level with the horizon no matter the orientation of the vessel. This unique design also allows for the pilot to concentrate on flying and targeting enemy ships, while evading incoming fire. The stabilization system also minimizes g-stress when performing evasive maneuvers. The B-wing only has a crew of one, but unlike its Imperial counterpart, the TIE bomber, the B-wing comes equipped with a hyperdrive system, shielding, and much faster speed. The cockpit also features an ejector seat for the pilot, as well as an emergency disconnect system to quickly sever the pod from the rest of the starfighter. This pod also contains a separate sublight engine for navigation after disconnection. Another variant of the B-wing, the B-6, also contains another gunner turret at the tail end of the craft and a more extensive weapon system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCMTqWOQTBc


1. Probably overcomplicated, and combat power determined by plot.

2. Detachable bridge/cockpit.

3. You couldn't fit in that many weapon systems on Traveller designs.

 

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Starwarships: Battlestar Galactica: Atlas Class Analysis

Returning to the world of Battlestar Galactica to analyse the Atlas Class, the primary carrier of the Colonial Fleets.

0:00
0:14 Outline
0:37 Features
2:30 Use in fleets
3:30 Missing features?
4:32 Conclusion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjJ5dxsxL-M


1. The actual issue is that once the battlestar class(es) are introduced, all other capital ships are obsolete.

2. While thick armour and lots of hull points are nice, a flak screen would have been better, and could be used to shield escort vessels that didn't have that protection.

3. Since doctrine would be very much carrier, having offensive power would be less important, as you could off load this to gun and missile cruisers.

4. Didn't know about the missing armament, but if the broadside had space, perfect place for a flak screen.

5. Manoeuvre didn't matter that much anyway, since you'd be hanging back, with the aerospace group projecting power, invulnerable behind a flak screen, and assuming missile and gun cruiser escort, a rather nasty surprise to enemy forward elements.

 

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Inspiration: Ice Pirates - re:View

Jay and Rich talk about the forgotten 1984 flop The Ice Pirates for some reason. Or no reason. It's directed by the guy who made Mac and Me. SPACE HERPES!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fXACfkyvLc


1. This is why you have cutlasses onboard spaceships.

2. Pimpbots.

3. Awoken pirates.

4. Let's do the time warp, again.

5. Space herpes.

6. Reviewers curse more than the pirates.

 

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Spaceships: Take Off and FAB Facts: Fireball XL5's Influence on Rocketry, Aviation, and SpaceX?!

The shows of Gerry Anderson are known to have inspired all kinds of things in culture, and Fireball XL5 is no exception. The Hotol project was a rocketry project that was very familiar to one particular launch sequence...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk2lILR1TAU

 

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Starwarships: Star Wars: Inside the Acclamator-Class Assault Ship

Here is a detailed 3D animation of the exterior and interior of the Acclamator-Class Assault Ship. Enjoy.

The Acclamator-Class Assault Ship is a multipurpose cruiser used in the Star Wars Universe to transport troops, equipment, and sometimes, Jedis, to the battlefield. First appeared in Episode II Attack of the Clone, the wedge-shaped vessel appears strikingly similar to the Venator Star Destroyer, albeit smaller in size and featuring only one main extruding conning tower.

Constructed under the orders of Emperor Palpatine by Rothana Heavy Engineering, and deployed at the First Battle of Geonosis, the vessel carried the Grand Army of the Republic from Coruscant to the various theatre of conflicts.

The Acclamator is unique in its ability to land on planets to deploy forces, despite its large size at 752 meters in length. This is achieved by its powerful repulsor lift engines, as well as multiple landing legs to allow the craft to land safely on the surface.

Once landed, the ship can deploy its clone troopers through two massive ramps on the side. Manned by a crew of 700, the vessel can carry 16,000 clone troopers, 48 AT-TEs, 66 LAAT/i gunships, 14 LAAT carriers, 320 speeder bikes, and 36 SPHA. It also carries at least one Nu-class shuttle. This impressive carrying capacity allows for one vessel to be able to establish a foothold on the planet as well as assaulting enemy positions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRY5lZzKJ4Q


1. Troop transport with roll on roll off ramp(s)

2. Planetary assault, since you can land the troops directly on the surface, as well disgorge assault vehicles from orbit or while in flight.

3. Maybe closer to Landing Ship, Tank, than an assault carrier.

 

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Starwarships: 5 Sci-Fri Craft Based on Real Aircraft Part 2

Hey Co-stars, welcome to another episode of Generation Films, my name is British Ben, and since so many of you seemed to like our episode on sci-fi space craft based on real aircraft, we decided to give you a part two. And actually not all of these are space craft, but they are all in movies. And no Aquilla from the kids TV show Aquila isn’t one of them though.

That was based on an egg or something. I loved that show as a kid though, give this video a like if you watched it. Americans you really missed out. Anyway let’s get going, this is 5 Sci-Fi- Craft Based on Real Aircraft Part 2.

Here is the list: X Jet from X Men
J Type 327 Nubian Royal Starship
Enterprise NX 01
LAAT Gunship
ARC 170

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAm8RWUq6uU

 

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Starwarships: Terrifying Flying Submarine - The Convair Nuclear Submersible Ramjet

The year is 1961. USA needs an edge agaist the soviets. They turned to military supplier Convair, who at the time was looking into various applications of nuclear power in aircraft for the US navy. They had already proposelled the very imaginative submersible seaplane submarine hunter, and naturally had the imagination to think outside of the box. the engineers had so far thought up unmanned nuclear VTOL drones, aircraft caffier launched mach 3 strike craft, both projects that desperately need a future video, as well as giant nuclear seaplanes, much like the Lockheed flying nuclear tug that I put up last week that you can watch right here.

But the US navy wasn't satisfied. they needed something that had the deterrent capacity of a submarine, but would also be able to reach inland targets far from the ocean - after all, if you have ever seen a map of the world, much of the USSR was very far from the sea, and missiles used in the era lacked the flexibility of a manned aircraft.

Thus they needed a craft that could approach enemy terrorty without its presence being known, and then strike quickly. This is what the team at convair came up with.

this top-secret black project would be called the submersible nuclear ramjet. It would be unlike any other aircraft design of the era, and would resemble mroe of a manned nuclear missile than anything. It would have a long sleek design with a diameter of eight feet, as well as being 190 feet in length, with two fuel tanks, one at the front and one at the back, with four different exhaust areas at the rear.

It would have a sea weight of 350,000 pounds, which would lighten up to 240,000 pounds when the tanks were empty. It would be able to carry around 20,000 pounds of nuclear tipped weapons, 24 in total, that would be deployed as parachutes over the target area, allowing the jet to escape quickly. Remember this is the early 1960s, and self guided missiles were sitll just emerging technology.

This is how its mission would work.

this submersible Nuclear Ramjet mission would be one a quick, retaliatory strike. It would be used for operations which had little or no warning, or for when the powers that be deemed a first strike.

The crew of nine would start their deployment being subltly located near the teriroty of a nation, submerged under the sea sitting quiet. The mission profile was long, and would have employed life support systems designed for space missions.

When code red was given, the team would spring to action and pressurise the ballast tanks. These tanks would slowly be heated by the nuclear reactor, forming steam. This would simtaniously start to be released and the aircraft, if we can call it that, would rise from the ocean floor. The water would be vaporise and the jet would launch from the sea like a submarine nuclear missile today.

As the aircraft rose to the sky, it would tilt over until it was facing forward and scream towards the combat zone low to the ground. the ramjet would slowly switch from water to air as a reaction mass and increase up to around mach 4.

Upon reaching the target area, the nuclear weapon would be deployed via parachot from the top of the plane as it soared over ahead, as to not impact the ramjet inlets, and slowly fall down. It would come to rest on the ground, before detonating.

The jet, now presumably outrunning the blast and reaching safer open water, would throttle down its ramjet. It would pull into a vertical climb and then deploy special drag breaks. This would stall the aircraft and it would start to fall almost vertically tail first. Before it hit the water, it would use rocket jets for a rough final deaccelation - much like the space x rockets that we see today!

Once in the water, it would refill its tanks and descend under the waves.

So if it was so incredible, whatever happened to the design?

You might realise that this concept seems very simular to a later one, project pluto, which envisioned a flying nuclear cruise missile, that once completed would dive into the deepest part of the ocean, the marianas trench, to protect the world from the raditation. But as scott from aerospace projects review said in his original aritcle on this topic, the crew are very unlikely to want to sign a one way trip to the darkest and deepest part of the world.

By 1964, nuclear ICMBs were proved to be far more reliable, accurate, harder to stop, and didn't have pesky crew onboard who might have morals about attacking enemy cities with 24 nuclear weapons after spending long months underwater. The project was sunk... well, as far as we know on the USA side.

Whos to say what insane technology the russians have been working on. But thats a video for another time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDLOXv3yN3A


1. I'm thinking System Defence Boat.

2. Whether deep sea or gas giant.

3. Instead of ramject, reactionary rockets.

4. Lifters for buoyancy.