Ship Design Philosophy

[Condottiere]

Starwarships: The Most Important Starship in the Star Wars Galaxy

The Gozanti Class cruiser is economical and mundane, it also happens to be one of the most important ships in the entire Star Wars Galaxy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_e3UTp7SM4


1. Frigate or corvette; I'll go with frigate.

2. And speaking of which, something that the Confederation Navy would adapt for the patrol role.

3. The presence role doesn't really require speed.

4. Default four docking clamps.

5. Cheap operational cost.

6. Might act as a Carryall.

 

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Starwarships: 8 Jankiest Star Ships in Star Wars

Today we take a look at some star ships that have a certain broke ass quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GfnmgsARxk


1. Too many aerofoils?

2. Minimalism.

3. I believe the concept is stand off missile platform.

4. Get a firm estimate in advance.

5. I guess that's where pirated manoeuvre drives end up; I wonder if we could harness two jump drives with cables and fuel hoses.

6. Could have been guano.

7. Junk fighters.

8. So annual two week maintenance is carried out by a Space Academy drop out and a monkey.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Modified Addumsa System Defence Boat

Nothing outstanding, but the entry may be incomplete, someone may wish to recalculate hull armour, as factor eighteen seems over the top, and factor twelve doesn't seem to match either tonnage nor cost, nor would eleven.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Naval tender Carnot class and Docking Clamp Type V

I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before, but it suddenly occurred to me that I had the perfect example of ship design limitations of the docking clamp with no limitations.

And it turns out, yes, Type V actually has no upper tonnage limitation, despite weighing in at only fifty tonnes each.

 

[Condottiere]

Inspiration: Sci-Fi Series "ATROPA" Episodes 1-4 | DUST

When Off-World Officer Cole Freeman finds the missing research vessel ATROPA, he discovers an inconsistency in the ship logs. He wakes the crew from hypersleep, and they soon find themselves caught up in a much bigger mystery.

Series Description: A troubled Off-World cop, running from his past, finds himself slammed directly into it when he boards the mysterious spaceship ATROPA.

"ATROPA" by Eli Sasich

A love-letter to the grungy science fiction movies of the 70s and 80s, the seven-episode digital series ATROPA features a twisting sci-fi plot, dazzling visual effects, and legendary genre actor Michael Ironside (Total Recall, Top Gun, Starship Troopers).

Cast
Detective Cole Freeman ANTHONY BONAVENTURA
Moira Williams JEANNIE BOLÉT
Jacob Sanders CHRIS VOSS
Captain Robert McKay DAVID EDELSTIEN
Andrew Jensen BEN KLIEWER
Boys on Beach QUINTON RIEPL, KAEDEN REIPL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVuZDtz-Aes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbGZl0gqo6A

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysc_reRZM5A


Grappling line. Torchlights. Artificial gravity?

Surprisingly entertaining.

 

[Condottiere]

Inspiration: Sci-Fi Series "ATROPA" Episodes 5-7 | DUST

When Off-World Officer Cole Freeman finds the missing research vessel ATROPA, he discovers an inconsistency in the ship logs. He wakes the crew from hypersleep, and they soon find themselves caught up in a much bigger mystery.

Series Description: A troubled Off-World cop, running from his past, finds himself slammed directly into it when he boards the mysterious spaceship ATROPA.

"ATROPA" by Eli Sasich

A love-letter to the grungy science fiction movies of the 70s and 80s, the seven-episode digital series ATROPA features a twisting sci-fi plot, dazzling visual effects, and legendary genre actor Michael Ironside (Total Recall, Top Gun, Starship Troopers).

Cast
Detective Cole Freeman ANTHONY BONAVENTURA
Moira Williams JEANNIE BOLÉT
Jacob Sanders CHRIS VOSS
Captain Robert McKay DAVID EDELSTIEN
Andrew Jensen BEN KLIEWER
Boys on Beach QUINTON RIEPL, KAEDEN REIPL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxkBK5o_JL8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpr3tzESWjM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YQaH1JkmBA


Chekhov's gun.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Armaments, and Lockheed Martin Rapid Dragon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0JRuQvN1xE


Torpedo grapples, missile container/launcher?

Palletized missile packs.

Out of the cargo hold.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Docking Clamps

1. This one design mechanism that always looked a bit wonky.

2. I don't quite see how a fifty tonne docking clamp can hold on to a hundred megatonne asteroid, but okay.

3. At the other end of the scale, why having established a ratio of one to thirty, it inexplicably switches to nineteen point eight to one, and then reverts back.

4. My needs require somewhat customized sizes below three hundred tonnes, so I'd logically use the one to thirty ratio.

5. Type IV is one to a hundred; okay.

6. Type V is one to infinity, minimum two kilotonnes; is fifty tonnes the doorway to infinity?

7. How far does forty nine tonnes get you?

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Solar Sailing versus fractional acceleration

1. Solar sails require neither power nor fuel, but have acceleration factor of zero (somewhat plusish).

2. Can cover a surface area of dozen of klix, and take days to change course or speed.

3. They take up five percent of total volume when stowed away, and cost one fifth of a megastarbux per tonne, and in theory you can't engage the jump drive when unfurled, but I doubt that, if sail stowage would be in a cargoesque bay and the unfurled solar sail is beyond the jump bubble.

4. If the panels are fitted to a ship without a power plant, then assume the (non–existent) power plant is sized to the ship’s basic systems and a Thrust one manoeuvre drive.

5. That's usually thirty power points per hundred tonnes, default early fusion would be three tonnes per hundred, standard fusion two tonnes per hundred, late fusion one and a half tonnes per hundred.

6. Minimal manoeuvring does not include long periods at full thrust, so solar power alone is useless for most commercial and military vessels.

7. If you switch off artificial gravity and all other non essential ship systems, you'll have more than two thirds power available for a manoeuvre drive, arguably weapon systems and sensors.

8. You could also temper acceleration sprints with fractional acceleration, allowing constant acceleration.

9. To what extent that can be stretched is speculative.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Solar Panelled Acceleration

1. A ship equipped with solar panels consumes power plant fuel at one–quarter the normal rate so long as it is only engaged in minimal manoeuvring and does not fire any weapons.

2. With, or without, power plants.

3. So the issue seems to be squeezing out enough juice from the panels to power the manoeuvre drive continuously.

4. At technological level twelve, high technologized acceleration factor one manoeuvre drives can be tweaked to be seventy five percent efficient in energy usage.

5. So basically, acceleration factor one would require only two and a half power points per acceleration factor, per hundred tonnes.

6. Essentially, power spikes cannot be the reason, at this tier, to not full and constantly, accelerate the manoeuvre drive, purely on solar panelled power.

7. Maybe, hugging the sun more closely.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Hangars, Launch Facilities, Docking Clamp, and attached Fighter

1. External cargo mount costs a thousand starbux per tonne of cargo.

2. The cargo can be accessed externally.

3. Default fifteen tonne light fighter would cost fifteen kilostarbux, and default thirty five tonne medium fighter would cost thirty five kilostarbux.

4. Cheap and easy way to have on call fighter to defend convoy.

5. Separate docking clamp would cost around half a megastarbux, though can be used multiple time.

6. Docking space is about 0.275 megastarbux per spacecraft tonne, and full hangar about 0.4 megastarbux per spacecraft tonne.

7. So if a convoy needs a couple of one shot Hurricats, this is probably the way to do it.

8. Optionally, you could always collect the blown fighter and stuff it in an empty cargo hold for refurbishment.

 

[Condottiere]

Inspiration: MOONFALL Official Trailer (2022) Apocalyptic Sci-Fi, New Movie Trailers 4k

In Moonfall, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it on a collision course with life as we know it. With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler (Halle Berry) is convinced she has the key to saving us all - but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper and a conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman believe her. These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love, only to find out that our Moon is not what we think it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSPMC6jNEho

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Solar Panelled Acceleration

8. In a way, attempting to get self reliant solar panelling is a bit wonky, since I'll assume power is based on the chosen technological level at default value, which would make technological level six fission reactor eight power points, which at half a tonne of solar panelling gets you one and one third hundred tonnes of spacecraft, technological level seven diesel power plant five power points, five sixths of a hundred tonnes of spacecraft, double that for technological level eight early fusion reactor with ten power points.

9. You can build smaller spacecraft, but the minimum tonnage for solar paneling remains at half a tonne, and we'll assume excess power points are lost.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Engineering and NASA Designs Near Light Speed Engine That Breaks Laws Of Physics

The planet Earth isn’t going to be habitable forever. If the human race is going to survive, one day we’ll have to pack up our things, and move to another planet. It sounds easy, until you realize the vastness of space, and even how big our solar system is.

No matter where we’re going in space, we need to travel fast, and not just at the speed of light either. We’re talking about ludicrous speed.

But some researchers have designed an impossible engine that violates the laws of physics. And another group of scientists’ are now saying a warp drive is possible. Is NASA really working on this technology, and what does the future hold for space travel?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6WjiupbVHI


1. Maybe gravitational focus gives the EM Drive that extra push it needed.

2. Solar panelled ion acceleration.

3. Nuclear pulsing.

4. Solar sailing doesn't do it for me anymore.

5. Self centered drive.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Solar Panelled Acceleration

10. Tweaked power plants have little effect on the cost per tonne of solar panelling, being a hard hundred kilostarbux per tonne.

11. Tweaking only has an effect insofar how the solar panelling affects fuel efficiency.

12. Default fusion reactor fuel usage is fifty kilogrammes per five tonnes per month, which we'll peg at unrefined, at five starbux.

13. The real difference is that on the minus side, you don't have to scruple over how that manufactured energy can be utilized.

14. On the plus side, you save the cost and volume of power plant and fuel tank.

15. While we're dickering around as to how manoeuvre drive maneuvering will effect solar panelling, what about high thrust reactionary rockets?

16. Another thought is if you can have multiple solar panelling on the the same hull, and if all can be used simultaneously?

17. Then you'd have multiple sources of thirty power points per hundred tonnes for power, some of which could be diverted to weapon systems.

18. I guess the real fun is at technological level twenty, when the basis of energy production are hundred power point antimatter power plants, at five times more cost and energy density to late fusion reactors , while solar panelling remains the same cost, despite the five times, or if compared to technological level seven twenty times energy density without the requisite inflationary cost, at the exact same cost.

19. The future truly looks bright for solar power.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Accommodations and Life Support

1. Suffocation - A spacecraft or self-contained, sealed structure with power can usually sustain life support for one person per stateroom for one month comfortably, and for six months at a stretch (number of staterooms time five thousand person/hours). Without power, this drops to two weeks at most. Various shelters will list the amount of air and life support available if they differ.

2. The implication here seems to be, is if you provide power to life support equipment, but don't pay for their operating cost, beyond the initial first month, you can eke out life support for the next six months.

3. If that's the case, what prevents corner cutting cost conscious captains from implementing that standard operating procedure?

4. Outside of Imperium regulations, probably nothing that can be discerned from reading Core or High Guard.

5. Ostensibly, it might wreck life support, that it would require extensive repairs or replacement, of which we have no idea of that cost on spacecraft.

6. But no hint of such an outcome in Core, or High Guard.

7. Another interesting titbit is that without power, life support lasts two weeks.

8. Two weeks is about the planned turnaround for most commercial starship operations.

9. Or, you spend about a week down the rabbit hole.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Accommodations and Life Support

10. While I, personally, wouldn't want to travel on a starship that cuts power to presumably basic functions after dropping down the rabbit hole, it does suddenly open up options in ship design.

11. The reason that we never thought a battery powered starship was viable, was because basic functions sucked up a lot more power than viable could be supplied by an onboard battery.

12. You now could conceive of solar panelled or diesel driven starships.

13. While I don't think that in the long term you can derive much advantage from rockets in Mongoose Second, or any, short term might have possibilities in terms of initial outlay.

14. For a purely solar powered starship, it might have been possible to divert the power from the manoeuvre drive to the jump drive, if it wasn't explicitly stated that you have to furl up the solar panelling during the transition.

15. I'll assume you'll need a running start of about one month of powered life to get those two weeks of unpowered life support.

16. I estimate the average length of time from a ten kiloklix diameter planetary body to transition border at one gee is six and a half hours, plus return, so that needs about thirteen to thirty and a half percent fuel tanks.

17. Though it's hard to find a use case for rockets, once manoeuvre drives become generally available, and by sheer coincidence, their introduction coincides with jump drives.

18. Considering that an equivalent manoeuvre drive costs five times more than a rocket, but weighs in at half the size, and could in theory, run infinitely on air and sunshine.

19. Outside of cost, the other advantage rockets have are a greater potential acceleration, though it's still a mystery to me exactly how the crew will survive the uncompensated inertia.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Lost in Space and Lifeboats

1. So you misjumped and ended up in an empty hex.

2. Your starship is large enough to have a jump capable lifeboat.

3. Ye default scout costs thirty sixish megastarbux.

4. Outside of the initial capital layout, one assumes even if it's vacuum packed, annual maintenance cost still applies, at thirty sixish kilostarbux, which represents a dead loss.

5. Engineering by itself is valued at twenty three megastarbux, which represents nearly two thirds of the scout cost.

6. So if you can minimize the costs of engineering, you'd pay a lot less for the scout and it's annual maintenance.

7. Being in an empty hex doesn't apply itself well to solar panelling.

8. Add in enough batteries, and the fact that power will be cut during the transition, you don't have to pay for an expensive fusion reactor.

9. And for the cherry on the sundae, a one shot jump drive at around a quarter of the cost.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Engineering and One Shot Jump Drives

1. Default jump drive, 1.5 megastarbux per tonne; minimum ten tonnes.

2. One shot jump drive, 0.375 megastarbux per tonne; twenty percent size reduction, minimum ten tonnes.

3. One shot jump drive, budgetted, 0.28125 megastarbux per tonne; thirty percent energy inefficient; twenty percent size reduction, minimum ten tonnes.

4. One shot jump drive, budgetted, 0.28125 megastarbux per tonne; twenty percent size reduction, twenty five percent size increase, neutralized, minimum ten tonnes.

5. One shot jump drive, budgetted, 0.28125 megastarbux per tonne; twenty percent size reduction, twenty five percent size increase, neutralized, minimum ten tonnes.

6. One shot jump drive, budgetted, highly technologized, 0.46875 megastarbux per tonne; fifteen percent fuel reduction; twenty percent size reduction, minimum ten tonnes.

7. One shot jump drive, budgetted, highly technologized, 0.46875 megastarbux per tonne; early jump, seventy diameters; twenty percent size reduction, minimum ten tonnes.

8. One shot jump drive, budgetted, highly technologized, 0.46875 megastarbux per tonne; thirty percent size reduction, twenty percent size reduction, total forty four percent reduction, minimum seven tonnes.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Engineering and One Shot Jump Drives

Ten tonnes, technological level twelve, thirty percent reduced size, 357.14285714 parsec tonnes.

One tonne core, 71.428571428571 parsec tonnes.

Four hundred parsec tonnes, 2.8 tonnes overhead, 5.6 tonnes core; 8.4 tonnes total.

Three hundred parsec tonnes, 2.8 tonnes overhead, 4.2 tonnes core; 7.0 tonnes total; 3.28125 megastarbux.

Three hundred parsec tonnes, 4 tonnes overhead, 6.0 tonnes core; ten tonnes total; 2.8125 megastarbux.