Reliant, an early Earth starship.

I totally agree with the artificial gravity thing - it does seem too advanced for the late 21st century. My problem was with the fact that I really wanted to put a deflector dish into the design, just because it looked cool. So if there is a forcefield technology already on the ship pushing space dust out of the way, why wouldn't there be artificial gravity pushing crew to the floor?

My compromise is to have gravity only on the deck with the ring of big windows (on the same level as the deflector dish). This keeps all 'experimental' forcefield technology in a localised environment during an era when Earth isn't capable of full artificial gravity.

It's a bit of a logical fudge, but I can live with it if it means I can keep the deflector. :P

 

Hmm. Interesting thought process. I like the idea of there being a "gravity deck" of sorts. So go for whatever works for you.

I never thought of deflectors as forcefield technology. Though I suppose in the loosest sense they are fields of force. My concern is that space dust is way smaller than a human. So, would the same technology even work? But then again the mass of space dust apparently amplified by FTL velocities would probably be way more than a human. So there's that. I guess I never really considered the deflector function as being applicable for artificial gravity. But I suppose magic tech is magic tech.

 

Don't forget, that in the Star Trek timeline, Earth science had access to some kind of artificial gravity as early as 1996. "Space Seed" shows us functional gravity being generated on the S.S. Botany Bay which is a 20th century ship (from before the year 2018, when advances in propulsion technology made sleeper ships obsolete.)

So I have no complaint with artificial gravity on a ship of this vintage!

--Alex

 

Debatable. There's just as much evidence that the Enterprise somehow provided the artificial gravity remotely. I think that makes much more sense than earth somehow having magictech artificial gravity in the 1990s.

 

I heartily disagree. There is no indication at all of Enterprise somehow projecting gravity. I can't think of any evidence in any episode at all (of any of the series) that any ship even has that ability. Nothing about the interior of the Botany Bay suggests it was ever meant to be used in free-fall conditions. There are no hand grips on walls for pulling oneself about, the walls are widely spaced enough that any poor sap who happened to be floating in the middle couldn't reach anything to grab or push off of. Astronauts in there would just be stuck if it were not for the gravity.

Also remember this show was made in the 1960s. The advances of the last thirty years, from pre-WWII steam and diesel to the maturing of nuclear fission, made people looking forward to the next thirty years totally okay with the upcoming invention of artificial gravity. Lots of shows made in the 60s, but set in the 90s had artificial gravity. So I think it's clearly the producer's intent that the DY-100s could create their own magical gravity somehow.

How? I dunno. But one old theory was inspired by the TAS episode "The Slaver Weapon" where it's revealed that Starfleet's artificial gravity is based on an ancient Slaver flying belt that was in a stasis box that was discovered on Earth's Moon. If that box was discovered by an Apollo mission and secretly returned to NASA, who then studied and reverse engineered it in time to install the prototype on the DY-100s.... well, it works for me.

--Alex

 

Nailed it!! That is just the perfect early UESPA starship!

 

I can see Discovery evolving into this.

Maybe the Searcher was the final sphere ship?

 

This looks great!

It reminds me a bit of EC Henry's Daedalus redesign from his fan production. They would fit comfortably in the same era, I'd say.

 

I'm sorry, but I'm not quite following

I'd say you were right, there are some definite similarities - especially the relocation of the primary hull (although mine went past the center line and ended up a tad lower.)

I've spent a couple of evenings making a start on Reliant's shuttle. It's based on something I put on top of an old Falcon Heavy model:

But I never finished it. I still like the basic design so I'm adapting it for the Star trek universe. The cockpit window is meant to look like a forerunner to those on the NX-01 shuttlepods.
It's still very much in the draft phase, with lots of details left to fill in, but here's where it's at right now:

 

This is full of awesome.

 

I believe he's referring to the Discovery XD-1 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, not the Discovery from Star Trek: Discovery. Your Reliant does look like it could have followed a lineage that began with the ship from 2001. Which is a good thing, because that movie is great!

--Alex

 

Pretty little shuttle.

 

I wasn't quite following either, but only in regards to the Searcher. Then I remembered the ship from the 2nd season of Buck Rogers, which would fit the theme here.

 

Excellent.

 

Ah, I see. Well I'm perfectly happy to be following the trend that these ships have set
I hadn't thought of the similarity between Reliant and the 2001 Discovery, but it's obvious now! The dark grey circular shapes on the lower half of my sphere are reminiscent of the pod bay doors on Discovery. Mine are also pods - escape pods that are roughly the shape of Apollo Command modules when you pull them out of the sphere - should I choose to do some sort of disaster scene...

I haven't stopped working on the shuttle, and hopefully will get more time to work on it next week.

 

I logged in to do nothing more than like the images of this ship.

 

Wow, I can't believe what I'm seeing! This is unbelievable. You should be hired for any new production if one gets made. This is a perfect blending of pre- and post-onscreen Trek technology. It sort of reminds me of the Pacific from the Pacific 201 fan film group, but I have to say I like this design you've come up with even more. Outstanding.

 

Forgot to say... that shuttle (2nd pic) is really wild! I wonder if the 'wings" are too small to be of use or have enough of an effect in real life but I like the design nonetheless. Great work.

 

The wings may change in proportion as I add detail, I'm not too sure yet. My thinking for sizing them as they are is based on the x-plane series of aircraft from the sixties. Many of them were lifting bodies with short stubby wings, and to quote a line from Toy Story; 'they didn't fly, they fell with style'. That kinda fits with what I need for this design; something that could negotiate a descent through an atmosphere, and scrub off a lot of its velocity. At the same time it's lacking huge amounts of lift, which would only interfere with the terminal phase of descent, when it flips onto its end and lands Falcon 9 style.

Thanks for all of your very kind comments, you make a newbie feel very welcome