DSEV Discovery (Not strictly Star Trek, but heavily Star Trek based!)

Discussion in 'Fan Art' started by GalacticWierdo, Oct 4, 2013.

  1. GalacticWierdo

    GalacticWierdo Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2011
    My latest pet project. It came about after thinking that, from a structural standpoint, that the designs of Starfleet and most other organizations in the Star Trek universe don't seem totally suited to how space works. For example, I've always found it strange that the nacelles aren't vertically opposed. I also just kind of assumed before I got into it that the saucer spun to provide artificial gravity. So I present this: The Deep Space Exploratory Vessel Discovery.
    [​IMG]
    (Mrs. Sketchup lady standing on the saucer guide track for scale.)

    A few notable things:
    -The impulse engines are the smaller nacelles, pointing (arbitrarily) port and starboard.
    -The Warp Nacelles are the larger ones, the struts pointing dorsal and ventral.
    -The disk is the primary work and habitation environment, with artificial gravity provided by spinning when the ship is on a constant trajectory or in orbit.
    -The bridge (or "hub") is at the core of the disk, and provides a passage between the disk and the rest of the ship.
    -To give some comfort to engineers working at the reactor in the secondary hull, there are several rings throughout the hull that rotate to provide a low level of gravity (when in orbit or a constant trajectory.)

    The ship itself is about 630 feet long.

    In this alternate reality, I've chosen to knock out artificial gravity and transportation from the repertoire of sci-fi fibs. One still has to keep a form of warp drive to cruise the galaxy, of course, so it's sort of the "One big lie" trope.

    Thinking about sketching up what I think some of the interior spaces would look like.
     
  2. BigJake

    BigJake Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2013
    Location:
    No matter where you go, there you are.
    Re: DSEV Discovery (Not strictly Star Trek, but heavily Star Trek base

    It looks very neat.

    One quick question: is there any particular reason the main habitation area is saucer shaped, if it's spinning to provide artificial gravity?
     
  3. GalacticWierdo

    GalacticWierdo Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2011
    Re: DSEV Discovery (Not strictly Star Trek, but heavily Star Trek base

    From a visual standpoint, I kind of prefer it to a spoked wheel. I thought, primarily, that the areas closest to the hub would be crew quarters, because sleeping lying down renders the effects of gravity pretty much useless anyway, so the outer ring would be used for workstations and other such things. For visual interest I may poke holes in it at some point, but I just prefer the clean lines of a disk.
     
  4. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2008
    Location:
    Just around the bend.
    Re: DSEV Discovery (Not strictly Star Trek, but heavily Star Trek base

    For centrifugal artificial gravity, that's about the worst orientation you can use on a spacecraft. It may make it look like a Star Trek style saucer this way, but it's painful to look at from an engineering standpoint.
     
  5. GalacticWierdo

    GalacticWierdo Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2011
    Re: DSEV Discovery (Not strictly Star Trek, but heavily Star Trek base

    Thank you for explaining just why you think it's so stupid. I assume that it's because it would be better to treat the neck of the ship like an axle rather than a fork for a spindle. I'd say a reasonable argument for orienting the disk like it is that it decreases the frontal area of the ship, meaning that the ship is less likely to run into debris at speed, and one could say that by being able to place the nacelles closer together would allow for less energy usage in the spacewarp process.

    Plus it looks prettier than either a sphere or a front-facing disk/wheel. At least I think so.
     
  6. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2008
    Location:
    Just around the bend.
    Re: DSEV Discovery (Not strictly Star Trek, but heavily Star Trek base

    It has to do with angular momentum. With the disk oriented the way you have it the ship is going to continually try to turn left (or right depending on the direction of rotation of the disk). If you're going to make it a star trek ship, just go with gravity plating to explain the AG and drop the centrifugal stuff.

    Also, think about it, whenever the ship is accelerating, some of the walls are now floors, some of the floors are now ceilings, but which ones depends entirely on where the wheel stopped when you decided to accelerate. If you had it perpendicular to the direction of motion then whenever acceleration occurred then you would have one particular wall become the ceiling and one become the floor, for the entire disk. A much easier condition to plan rooms for.
     
  7. The Librarian

    The Librarian Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2002
    Re: DSEV Discovery (Not strictly Star Trek, but heavily Star Trek base

    Another problem is that the disc is so thin that there's no space for separate rooms. Basically the only dividers would be radial ones. Rings in the secondary hull would be very problematic as well.
     
  8. GalacticWierdo

    GalacticWierdo Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2011
    Re: DSEV Discovery (Not strictly Star Trek, but heavily Star Trek base

    Points well taken. I concede. Suppose it's back to the drawing board with this one, but I'm not done yet!