Bored? Design me a space-ship!

[Nami nom noms]

There's an awful lot of responses right now so rather then quote everyone I'll summarise my thoughts here:

The spherical design is certainly a sound one, but think about other factors besides just the ship itself... docking with other facilities and ships, interior living space, exterior space should it need to land in a hanger... all are complicated by the sphere design. If you can think of a way to make it work with all these then yes I am certainly interested.

The egg-style shape is the easiest way I can think of doing this currently, but I would like to see something a bit more unique ideally. maybe a bit more low-tech? (but only slightly)

The Perry Rhodan ship posted above actually reminds me a lot of the millenium falcon. Also the other pictures posted... it seems quite a common theme to have these two 'prongs' on the front of a ship... why is that?

Thanks for all the responses so far, you're certainly making me think in directions I never would have without your input.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I always liked the Autobot ship/base from Beast Wars
(the one on the right)

I couldn't find a better pic than this probably because I don't know the name of the ship itself.

Off Topic: Rule 34 hit me on page 1 while looking for this and that's rather sad... On the other hand "beast machines" could sound provocative to the depraved.

 

[RoonMian]

The Perry Rhodan ship posted above actually reminds me a lot of the millenium falcon. Also the other pictures posted... it seems quite a common theme to have these two 'prongs' on the front of a ship... why is that?

The two prongs on the front of the Perry Rhodan spacejet are for carrying light cargo containers. There are field emitters on the insides of the prongs to hold the container in place. Besides this ship uses the Grigoroff-Field-Projector method of FTL travel so they are on the front in those prongs as well. The cylindrical bar at the rear houses the shield system, the thing in front of that is the weapon and the ridge around the hull houses the sublight propulsion and the forcefield to cushion the ship when landing. Actually the drawings always have a legend explaining what is what.

I just took a picture where it's excluded because those are in german and wouldn't help you anyway

 

[Hero in a half shell]

BEHOLD! The Astrobus!

 

[Nami nom noms]

I always liked the Autobot ship/base from Beast Wars

I kinda like this and I could see it going with the egg-style thing mentioned earlier. That said it looks a little too high-tech for what I have in mind.

The Perry Rhodan ship posted above actually reminds me a lot of the millenium falcon. Also the other pictures posted... it seems quite a common theme to have these two 'prongs' on the front of a ship... why is that?

The two prongs on the front of the Perry Rhodan spacejet are for carrying light cargo containers. There are field emitters on the insides of the prongs to hold the container in place. Besides this ship uses the Grigoroff-Field-Projector method of FTL travel so they are on the front in those prongs as well. The cylindrical bar at the rear houses the shield system, the thing in front of that is the weapon and the ridge around the hull houses the sublight propulsion and the forcefield to cushion the ship when landing. Actually the drawings always have a legend explaining what is what.

I just took a picture where it's excluded because those are in german and wouldn't help you anyway

Ahh well this ship certainly wouldnt need to transport anything but supplies, fuel and passengers. And yes, unfortunately I cannot read german. I like the level of thought gone into the design of this ship it's pretty much the same as what I'm going for in that regard, just a different design.

BEHOLD! The Astrobus!

Put some go-faster stripes on there and it's perfect!
Off topic - is that what american school buses look like these days? check out the bonnet on that lol.

well it would need some sort of aerodynamic shape for planetary interactions and you said its for long range and recon. so that shouts alot of space to engines, fuel and a huge ass sensor suite.

i did just picture a smaller version of one of the old rigid airships like the hindenberg. functional, as large as you need it aerodynamic and can be tweaked as desired. not to mention give you ideas from old plans, some were even flying aircraft carriers.. ideal for a small shuttle maybe

Exactly, this is the right track, though the hindenberg thing... maybe I should add that this ship needs to be a small target, largely unremarkable except to those in the story who would recognise it's unusual abilities. The only thing the average civilian would notice is that it is new, has a seemingly big engine and belongs to the military.

 

[SuperToaster]

So, it's a recon unit, it has to be small, it has to be aerodynamic and in shape for planetary interactions.

Your asking alot...
I'll try my best.

 

[kickassfrog]

Lol, ideally I would be looking for something a bit more... practical.

A giant, floating space-cock is more austin powers then what I have in mind.

As there is no friction in space even a space cock is as practical as can be. ^^

First off, I think you mean there's no air resistance in space. There are gas clouds which would offer substantial resistance to a ship travelling in real space though, so think carefully about how the ships get around.

Secondly, assuming zero air resistance, the ships have to be in the optimum shape for storage- e.g. needs fuel tanks, crew quarters, life support, bridge, engineering, do they have weapons, do the weapons use ammo, and the like.

Some specs on the ship would be nice, like what is it's primary purpose?
Is it for deep space exploration, in which case how do they store the supplies, how much fuel does it need, are the crew in cryo-sleep
Or is it an inter-system patrol vehicle, equipped with weapon systems and thicker armour/shield generators.

My own personal favourite is a kind of oblong shape. The crew can live in their quarters along the top of the ship, the engines go to the rear, as well as some on the front and sides, for much greater maneuvering power. The bridge can be some box attached to the top in order to give the crew a view of space if they so wish, or can be placed further inside the ship with sensor feeds if they would like more safety in a battle.
The fuel tanks and life support would go to the bottom of the ship.

EDIT: Basically, the heart of gold, but without the central hole, and more elongated.

 

[Nami nom noms]

So, it's a recon unit, it has to be small, it has to be aerodynamic and in shape for planetary interactions.

Your asking alot...
I'll try my best.

Yes, but imagine you're one of the scientists developing this ship for your nation! We need all these things to have an advantage over the other major players in the universe!

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

Some specs on the ship would be nice, like what is it's primary purpose?
Is it for deep space exploration, in which case how do they store the supplies, how much fuel does it need, are the crew in cryo-sleep
Or is it an inter-system patrol vehicle, equipped with weapon systems and thicker armour/shield generators.

My own personal favourite is a kind of oblong shape. The crew can live in their quarters along the top of the ship, the engines go to the rear, as well as some on the front and sides, for much greater maneuvering power. The bridge can be some box attached to the top in order to give the crew a view of space if they so wish, or can be placed further inside the ship with sensor feeds if they would like more safety in a battle.
The fuel tanks and life support would go to the bottom of the ship.

EDIT: Basically, the heart of gold, but without the central hole, and more elongated.

As mentioned earlier, the ship is designed for speed, exploration/recon and long-range operations into the unknown. It needs room to keep a small crew alive for at least 2 months. There is no cryo-sleep technology here, just fast speeds! It also needs to be able to stand up to some combat, though it's not the kind of ship you'd want to hang about in; far easier to simply out-run larger enemies.

The oblong shape is nice, if it can be adapted to atmospheric flight aswell?

 

[kickassfrog]

-snip-

The oblong shape is nice, if it can be adapted to atmospheric flight aswell?

Probably, you would just need some drag fins and for the very frontmost point of the ship to be more than halfway up the side of the thing- if that makes sense.
I'm not an aerodynamics engineer but those things should allow it to land more easily.

The problem is we don't really have any optimised vehicles for both space and aeronautical transport presently, so I'm basing it off guesswork as to how the aerodnyamics might go. It would probably mostly land like a plane though- so either retractable wings or fins, and some sort of landing gear, preferably with wheels.

 

[Aitur]

Good point... The level of technology is something akin to that seen in the Star-Wars/Firefly/Warhammer 40k style. Star-trek/mass effect technolody is a bit too clean-cut for my setting, though it would exist to those with the money to obtain it.

Damn you! I was all set to finally sit down and play New Vegas, but no I decide to check out the forums first and then you had to pique my curiosity with a design a spaceship challenge.
Oh well, I can always shoot innocent townsfolk tomorrow...

Back on the subject at hand, this is my attempt and making a spaceship from scratch, I did originally have a sleek design but after you said the above I tried to make something a little more boxy, sadly the atmospheric flight requirement does limit the design choices so my attempt is probably a little mundane -

Spoiler

The nose needs more work, I really couldn't think of what to do for the cockpit

Spoiler

You wanted engines, I give you engines!

Spoiler

Spoiler

The primary weapon bays close, the missile bay covers shut and the point defence turrets guns retract and the little doors shut for atmospheric entry/flight, most of the antennas would also retract to avoid being ripped off.
Landing skids on the engines and in the centre that would drop down to the same level as the engine skids.

On the last picture the little rectangle in the circle would be the airlock, amusingly it's on the same level as the large cannon thingy.
Size, it's probably around 3 main decks, plus a command deck, might be a little big, or not, who knows!

If your interested I can add some more detail in the front section, colours etc. If not then I'll go back to shooting people with a plasma pistol, but do with it as you will.

 

[Nami nom noms]

Damn you! I was all set to finally sit down and play New Vegas, but no I decide to check out the forums first and then you had to pique my curiosity with a design a spaceship challenge.
Oh well, I can always shoot innocent townsfolk tomorrow...

Back on the subject at hand, this is my attempt and making a spaceship from scratch, I did originally have a sleek design but after you said the above I tried to make something a little more boxy, sadly the atmospheric flight requirement does limit the design choices so my attempt is probably a little mundane -

Spoiler

The nose needs more work, I really couldn't think of what to do for the cockpit

Spoiler

You wanted engines, I give you engines!

Spoiler

Spoiler

The primary weapon bays close, the missile bay covers shut and the point defence turrets guns retract and the little doors shut for atmospheric entry/flight, most of the antennas would also retract to avoid being ripped off.
Landing skids on the engines and in the centre that would drop down to the same level as the engine skids.

On the last picture the little rectangle in the circle would be the airlock, amusingly it's on the same level as the large cannon thingy.
Size, it's probably around 3 main decks, plus a command deck, might be a little big, or not, who knows!

If your interested I can add some more detail in the front section, colours etc. If not then I'll go back to shooting people with a plasma pistol, but do with it as you will.

Wow! I really like this design, in fact I think this is so good I will use it (though with a few small changes... shrinking the ship in size for example), so thankyou very much for all your effort. Though I'm glad I was able to prolong the lives of the poor wastelanders for another day

That goes for everybody who posted too; you guys really helped me out and I hope it was fun for you too I have learnt things about spaceships I never would have known, and I've also learnt that the Escapist has the best community ever!

So thanks again, if anyone still has any ship designs they were halfway through, or ideas they want to share, then please feel free to let me know, there are plenty of other vessels in the story after all!

 

[Aitur]

Snip

Yay! Glad I could be of some help!
If you want anything else added/adjusted/whatever feel free to shout, or you can have the models file if you want.

I will of course be looking forward to the next ship design challenge.