Bored? Design me a space-ship!

[Nami nom noms]

Hello, all you glorious Escapists!

(PLEASE NOTE) I have now decided on a design I will use. If there is anything else you would like to contribute then feel free to do so; there are many other opportunities in the story for designs and technology ideas to flourish.
Otherwise, thankyou to everyone who got involved, and now I need to go get on with the writing!



This is a simple enough request/challenge/fun-thing to do that I decided to ask the community:

I am currently writing a sci-fi novel, and one of the things I do in order to add depth, continuity and realism to my story is design, concept and plan everything before I write about it. For example, concept art on planets, people, timelines and descriptions on areas and history, etc.

But what I need right now is a cool-looking design of a ship. It can look anyway you want, but there a few base ideas that it needs to incorporate, and are hopefully used in its design!

1. It is a prototype ship owned by a military.

2. It is built for speed and agility rather then power.

3. It is big enough for 10-3 people. (For example, the Normandy from mass effect is too big, but the Ebon Hawk from KoToR is roughly the correct size).

4. It needs all the facilities required for a small group of people to live comfortably aboard for months at a time.

And that is all! Your drawing doesn't have to be amazing, it's just the ideas and designs I'm concerned about! Feel free to post your ideas here or PM me for further contact!

(Disclaimer - If I don't like any of the ideas I may not use any of them; Additionally, I may take an idea I like and shape it into something that fits my story better. Any design that is used in anyway will be credited!)

Thanks!

 

[Ambi]

Make it the year 2457, and after a major war and various natural disasters in which the majority of violent people died and signs of modern civilisation were mostly buried, no-one cares about history, and what's left of the masses just sit around in a hedonistic anti-intellectual pacifist utopia and abuse substances. A vicious ritualistic cult like the WBC + violence + penis idolatry have survived in another part of the world and make it their mission to repopulate the world and destroy the peaceful idealists with home made weapons.

Meanwhile, the few scientists and intellectuals are left are predicting even harsher weather patterns and are trying to get people to focus on innovation and the rise of the cult but they can't get anyone to care, so they decide to leave earth, but after witnessing what the cult can do, they decide to mess with them first. Some of the intellectuals dig up this on VHS and think "why not build a space ship shaped like a penis and fuck with their heads?" Probably physically impossible and doesn't fit your requirements, but it's sci-fi. Wings and stuff can emerge from it when agility is needed.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

A spaceship designed like a giant sex toy.. The enemies will be so confused they won't notice they are being attacked.

 

[Nami nom noms]

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.

 

[RoonMian]

If you're going for realism I'd advise you to think about making the crew section of the ship spherical. You need to encase the parts of the ship used by living creatures in a dense material (like lead) to shield them from radiation. The sphere has the perfect ratio of surface to volume so with a sphere you'll get the most usable space inside your heavy, agility-and-acceleration-reducing and expensive coffin of lead. That's why most of the ships in the Perry Rhodan universe are spherical.

The downside of course will be that your epic space armada will look like somone spilled a gigantic sack of colossal marbles into space.

 

[Prince Regent]

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. ^^

 

[Vampire cat]

Well uh... I played around with Sketchup a while ago when I was bored and decided my Sith lord should have a personalized Space ship Oo. Guess it's not what your looking for, but I guess I could up it here anyway XD.

Most of the hull made...

The interior of the main hangars and reactor core.

Some text on there...

Closeups of the reactor and hangar.
http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz249/Miki91_bucket/reactor-1.jpg
http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz249/Miki91_bucket/StarDestroyer.jpg

 

[Avaholic03]

Just steal the Firefly design and add some weapons to it.

Also, what's with all the people suggesting space-cocks? Is that going to be a new meme or something?

 

[Nami nom noms]

If you're going for realism I'd advise you to think about making the crew section of the ship spherical. You need to encase the parts of the ship used by living creatures in a dense material (like lead) to shield them from radiation. The sphere has the perfect ratio of surface to volume so with a sphere you'll get the most usable space inside your heavy, agility-and-acceleration-reducing and expensive coffin of lead. That's why most of the ships in the Perry Rhodan universe are spherical.

The downside of course will be that your epic space armada will look like somone spilled a gigantic sack of colossal marbles into space.

Hmm see this is not a bad idea... I remember Starbug from red dwarf was also spherical, as it's one of the strongest structures. However the overall look is usually too bulky for something that I see more as sleek. I still like the points you make though... I'll have to think about that.

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. ^^

There's not always that much friction in the bed-room either, but I'm not looking to make a carnal reference everytime they have to dock with something!

 

[Nami nom noms]

Well uh... I played around with Sketchup a while ago when I was bored and decided my Sith lord should have a personalized Space ship Oo. Guess it's not what your looking for, but I guess I could up it here anyway XD.

Most of the hull made...

The interior of the main hangars and reactor core.

Some text on there...

Closeups of the reactor and hangar.
http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz249/Miki91_bucket/reactor-1.jpg
http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz249/Miki91_bucket/StarDestroyer.jpg

I can definately see the whole Star Destroyer thing here. It's a nice design for a carrier but one thing this ship will not need is a hanger.
Nice to see some people getting involved

 

[RoonMian]

Perry Rhodan writers try to make their science-fiction as "hard" ( http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness ) as possible. Actually, they go so far that they dedicate a section of a book every few issues to theoretical physics. So again, if you're aiming for realism the Perry Rhodan universe is a good place to get inspiration. Just google for "perry rhodan" and "risszeichnung".

An example for a small ship like you had in mind would be the Gribbon class space jet.

 

[Prince Regent]

How about a ship shaped like an egg, but with a hole in the middle instead of the yellow part.

A cross between this

this

and this

 

[Vampire cat]

I can definately see the whole Star Destroyer thing here. It's a nice design for a carrier but one thing this ship will not need is a hanger.
Nice to see some people getting involved

Bit of a rubbish attempt I know, but you get the basic idea... It's based on Darth Maul's infiltrator... <3 Maul <3

I'm no good at drawing ships, and since I lost my access to the office 3D modeling software I can't seem to get the results I want with Sketchup or Blender X3

 

[SouthpawFencer]

But what I need right now is a cool-looking design of a ship. It can look anyway you want, but there a few base ideas that it needs to incorporate, and are hopefully used in its design!

A couple of questions:

Will the ship need to make planetfall? If aerodynamics aren't necessary, it might allow more design options.

What is the ship going to be built for? A recon ship will have different requirements than a gunship or a long-range exploration vessel (although an exploration ship might be a modified recon craft). A ship designed for boarding actions (either hostile entries onto ships or routine custom inspections) would be different still.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

I'm going to try my hand at this. I will be back, I hope, so keep an eye out for an update to this post.

UPDATE STATUS: Don't hold your breath.

 

[Davesdepository]

I think it might be a good idea to give us an ideato the level/type of technology you are using in your story. This will have a large impact on the size and shape of the ship due to levels of miniaturization and tehnical skills available to produce said craft.

 

[The Lugz]

If you're going for realism I'd advise you to think about making the crew section of the ship spherical. You need to encase the parts of the ship used by living creatures in a dense material (like lead) to shield them from radiation. The sphere has the perfect ratio of surface to volume so with a sphere you'll get the most usable space inside your heavy, agility-and-acceleration-reducing and expensive coffin of lead. That's why most of the ships in the Perry Rhodan universe are spherical.

The downside of course will be that your epic space armada will look like somone spilled a gigantic sack of colossal marbles into space.

^ this. the strongest easiest to craft most structurally stable shape is a sphere.

any scifi that has 'space dragsters' really looses my interest fast, it's my biggest jip with star-trek, 90% of the star-trek ships are structurally unsound.
walnut / arrow shaped craft for landing purposes spheres for deep space cruises, there is no other practical justification for a ship other than 'it looks good'

the other thing that's always overlooked in spaceship scifi is ramming, the most devastating weapon in the universe that i can think of is a ship warping into you at absurd speed factors of light a 'warp mass ballistic missile' would be an unstoppable force and devastate entire planets with it's impact, let alone other ships

 

[Nami nom noms]

But what I need right now is a cool-looking design of a ship. It can look anyway you want, but there a few base ideas that it needs to incorporate, and are hopefully used in its design!

A couple of questions:

Will the ship need to make planetfall? If aerodynamics aren't necessary, it might allow more design options.

What is the ship going to be built for? A recon ship will have different requirements than a gunship or a long-range exploration vessel (although an exploration ship might be a modified recon craft). A ship designed for boarding actions (either hostile entries onto ships or routine custom inspections) would be different still.

Yes the ship needs to be capable of landing and taking off from various planets, and for flying within the atmosphere. The methods in this story are very conventional, much like present day reality... So some aerodynamics are preferred but a design that looks good is more ideal.

The ship is a single (yet-expensive) prototype designed purely for speed and long-range operations. It is not really designed for durability nor for firepower though it should have some of each. I guess recon would be its primary focus but it needs to be fully capable on its own if the need requires it.

Hope that helps

 

[Nami nom noms]

I think it might be a good idea to give us an ideato the level/type of technology you are using in your story. This will have a large impact on the size and shape of the ship due to levels of miniaturization and tehnical skills available to produce said craft.

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.