A more realistic spaceship / enterprise.

[SpaceMouse]

So, I wasn't entirely sure where to put this. In the strictest sense its a addon but, I kinda wanted to treat it more as a "real science and spaceflight" thing.

So, I've been messing with a more realistic layout for a warpship in KSPI for a while and have been fiddling with a more realistic version in Blender to go with it. Drawing the main idea if it's mission from classic trek, along with a more realistic layout / science from the IXS enterprise concept. Nothing's set in stone really so PLEASE feel free to scrutinize it.

(With the obvious exception we're assuming we can ever even make a warp drive.)

I expanded the centrifuge into the front of this to give it a bit more interest, as it was mostly just a cone before. The nose will likely get a indent for various FTL scanning equipment.

I've messed with the back quite a bit with different engine layouts. My current  is a dual-reactor fusion setup With a rear hatch that opens to double as a Deadalus / fusion drive.

At it's current KSPI weight of roughly 500 tons I wonder if I can even realistically fit the one or two SSTO's I was originally planning on and perhaps more importantly, can I get enough radiators in a warp bubble to dissipate somewhere around 50GW?

I'd Love to hear @FreeThinker's opinion and everyone else's.

I'm sure @RocketRaccoon will find this topic of interest.

[RocketRaccoon]

WOO! Super Heavy Warp Drive/Ship! Thank you SpaceMouse!

[Greatness101]

Interesting!

What is going to be the size of that starship? I assume the centrifuge itself will be pretty large and Daedalus drives are usually huge.

11 hours ago, SpaceMouse said:

I've messed with the back quite a bit with different engine layouts. My current  is a dual-reactor fusion setup With a rear hatch that opens to double as a Deadalus / fusion drive.

At it's current KSPI weight of roughly 500 tons I wonder if I can even realistically fit the one or two SSTO's I was originally planning on and perhaps more importantly, can I get enough radiators in a warp bubble to dissipate somewhere around 50GW?

If I were you I would make the radiators directly attachable to the surface of the warp rings as well as the edges to increase available surface area.

Spoiler

Also could you please make a cool futuristic control bridge part for this starship? That would be awesome.

 

Edited January 9, 2018 by Greatness101

[SpaceMouse]

15 hours ago, Greatness101 said:

Interesting!

What is going to be the size of that starship? I assume the centrifuge itself will be pretty large and Daedalus drives are usually huge.

If I were you I would make the radiators directly attachable to the surface of the warp rings as well as the edges to increase available surface area.

  Reveal hidden contents

Also could you please make a cool futuristic control bridge part for this starship? That would be awesome.

 

I haven't measured it but, the centrifuge is only one deck tall or around two meters so really crude estimates put it at probably 40m diameter and around 100m long. This Daedalus is much smaller. It might not be ideal but there really wasn't anything else that had enough thrust and ISP. Maybe that long particle accelerator decay tube thing but I'm trying to stay sciencey and not carry dead weight when I don't need to.

Originally I had cut the ring in half to give it a LITTLE trek reference but I was told that wouldn't work for a warp ring si I went back to the full ring. I'll probably wedge some more radiators in  but the top and bottom need to stay clear to get ships in and out. I might wrap the radiators around the inside of the ring too. That should look cool.

The Bridge will probably mostly look like a airliner cockpit with some inspirations from Trek. If I ever get to that. Realistically you'd probably pilot everything remotely from stations on your centrifuge.

Edited January 9, 2018 by SpaceMouse

[SpaceMouse]

Fiddled with a array of radiators. Think it helps the shape....

[Greatness101]

1 hour ago, SpaceMouse said:

Fiddled with a array of radiators. Think it helps the shape....

Looks good. I would decrease the height and thickness of the radiators though. Right now they take up too much space to be eye-pleasing

[SpaceMouse]

22 minutes ago, Greatness101 said:

Looks good. I would decrease the height and thickness of the radiators though. Right now they take up too much space to be eye-pleasing

It's definitely not final, I'm still messing with things to get the best usage of space. still feels too long to me...

[SpaceMouse]

Got pretty motivated yesterday and today. did animations for the reactor doors, Made a electric RCS system just did a deployable hydrogen/atmospheric collector. The secondary reactor has been downsized and will now be contained entirely in the drive hull.

More fiddling's in KSPI even have me set on a reactor now, and I have a idea for a SSTO. It will either be a tail-stander rocket thing or I might do something with some similarities to a Harrier.... but that would be awfully complex...

[Greatness101]

Wow, love the bells and whistles you're implementing into this

[RocketRaccoon]

Cool! Good to see progress being made .

More inspiration:

Spoiler

Something like this for the SSTO would be cool.

 

How about having the living quarters/centrifuge in the middle like this? You could have a dedicated zero-g bridge in the front

 

[SpaceMouse]

23 hours ago, Greatness101 said:

Looks good. I would decrease the height and thickness of the radiators though. Right now they take up too much space to be eye-pleasing

The idea is partly to show exactly how much cooling you'd need IRL. That's probably a bit on the small side actually.

2 hours ago, RocketRaccoon said:

Cool! Good to see progress being made .

More inspiration:

  Hide contents

Something like this for the SSTO would be cool.

 

How about having the living quarters/centrifuge in the middle like this? You could have a dedicated zero-g bridge in the front

 

SSTO will be form follows function.

The command module is in front with the centrifuge behind it. Its not too obvious since i blended them together more.

[SpaceMouse]

Redid the front. Bridge will probably sit right on the top in front of the centrifuge.

Centered all the parts better so they line up correctly. Collector will probably get moved to the rear To make room for a airlock so there's a easy way to get to the habitat.... and so it's not taking up room fuel tanks could be in.

[SpaceMouse]

Probably the last pic for a couple days. I moved some things and putting docking bays in the front feels a whole lot more logical to me. It DOES create a few other issues with placement but I think I can work around them. It means I could casually get 30% bigger ships in so.... yeah.

Moved the collectors back and redid the radiators in a slightly more logical placement. Fiddled with fuel tank placeholders a bit too.

Probably the last pic for a couple days. Real life things need doing.

Edited January 17, 2018 by SpaceMouse

[RocketRaccoon]

Any new progress?

Edited February 14, 2018 by RocketRaccoon

[SpaceMouse]

Not yet. I've been playing alot of Elite Dangerous and stumbled on some scientific news that may require a partial redesign.

[RocketRaccoon]

On 2/26/2018 at 6:20 PM, SpaceMouse said:

Not yet. I've been playing alot of Elite Dangerous and stumbled on some scientific news that may require a partial redesign.

Interesting...

I cannot wait to see it

[SpaceMouse]

So, I went back and did a bunch of work on this today. Here's a pic with the radiators off to show the changes better. I moved the rear RCS so they clear the radiators, filled in the rear considerably, stuck a docking airlock towards the front that's mostly a placeholder right now, and added plenty of fuel tanks. I like it mostly but feel I need to do something with the upper and lower tank. I was thinking maybe split them into two each though I won't get anywhere near as much fuel in there.

Thoughts?

[SpaceMouse]

So, time for the SSTO mock-up. I'm not real sure how I want to go about this. I'd really like @FreeThinker's opinion if he could spare the time.

Or anyone else that can nitpick the hell out of this.

Currently, this mock-up is about 1.5 decks tall, and kinda a combination of Space Shuttle and Harrier. In a Atmosphere, it would use it's reactor to heat atmosphere and vector it out the sides for vertical landing, OR possible a huge air tank for it to launch itself into the air via the same nozzles and then fly conventionally. The front is a bit snub-nosed, my reasoning is you'd be able to vary the thrust around various lift surfaces like is looking may be the future of control on aircraft.

Highlighted is where I want to put the cargo bay. as the whole bottom would be heat resistant, I'm not sure how good a idea though the harrier style thruster protrusions are, as I believe anything exposed at hypersonic velocities is know to cause heating issues.

Not quite as much going on at the rear yet. My basic question is what am I going to power this with? I'd like to be able to achieve orbit from a 2G world, I was thinking I might do another Daedalus style fusion torch but, it seems like it might be overkill, and not as useful at this small scale. Preferably, something I could use in a atmosphere without irradiating everything, although the planned ascent route is use atmosphere to fling the ship as high as possible, and then activate the orbital engine, well clear of the atmosphere. I'll probably extend a bottom lip over the engine SpaceX BFR style. as a heat-shield.

[FreeThinker]

Intresting but could you make it look more like the Venture star

The large belly would not only provide excellent lifting surface, it would also provide an ideal surface wight for beamed power

[SpaceMouse]

11 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

Intresting but could you make it look more like the Venture star

The large belly would not only provide excellent lifting surface, it would also provide an ideal surface wight for beamed power

I am rather confined by the dimensions of the cargo bay, that's one reason I went with a short-nose. I've got to add folding wings as it is. I could probably make it a bit wider though. I was thinking about a thermal power receiver since there would be a convenient huge reactor in orbit to provide extra shove. What are your thoughts on propulsion?

[Nightside]

On 2/26/2018 at 6:20 PM, SpaceMouse said:

Not yet. I've been playing alot of Elite Dangerous and stumbled on some scientific news that may require a partial redesign.

What was the information that caused the redesign?

love the work so far!

[SpaceMouse]

23 minutes ago, Nightside said:

What was the information that caused the redesign?

love the work so far!

I was referring to reactionless drives as a way to save fuel but some even recenter news put a big cloud over it, so i didn't change anything.

Dual-mode reactor/torch drive is cooler anyway.

[Nightside]

7 hours ago, SpaceMouse said:

Dual-mode reactor/torch drive is cooler anyway.

That’s for sure!

[SpaceMouse]

Pic before off to work. Made some shape changes to the SSTO. bulged it up a bit at the reactors and passenger cabin, moved the intakes up and back. (hard to see here)

Added some FTL greebles to the front, Indicating some if it's direct inspiration from the IXS. The front cutout will get smaller, kinda thought I was gonna add more, gonna add a few dishes too. Wanted to indicate visually warp is not a simple process.

I'd still really like some opinions / feedback.

Edited June 18, 2018 by SpaceMouse

[SpaceMouse]

More Greebling at the front. FTL is complicated, Yo. 

Are the dishes too Event Horizon pointy?

Should I keep the IXS stuff on the sides or move them to the middle like before?

What do you think?

Edited June 24, 2018 by SpaceMouse