Star Ship Polaris

[Venardhi]

I like the look of the nose itself, but somehow the way it grows out of the clean body and the way the ring sits so far forward is somewhat disconcerting or frustrating on a gut level. Some sort of subtle 'wrongness' that literally gives me a knot in my stomach to look at. As much as I like the concept, I'd say the panels were a better fit if the options are just "with or without"

 

[B.J.]

You guys don't get it.

The Polaris Defense Systems Manual consists in it's entirety of the following items:

1. Don't get hit.
2. See Item (1). Nothing else is going to matter.

I'm guessing you guys have been paying attention to the lessons in Winchell Chung's Atomic Rockets site?

 

[Vektor]

Are the panels permanently gone from the nose? Because me like.

Well, I hadn't intended to delete them permanently, but I'll admit I kinda like the look. I can almost imagine they were damaged and no suitable replacements were available or somesuch.

Still, those are awfully critical components to just leave dangling out there. I imagine they would have covered them up with something no matter what, so they will almost certainly reappear before all is said and done.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

You guys don't get it.

The Polaris Defense Systems Manual consists in it's entirety of the following items:

1. Don't get hit.
2. See Item (1). Nothing else is going to matter.

I'm guessing you guys have been paying attention to the lessons in Winchell Chung's Atomic Rockets site?

I read that site a lot when I was putting Polaris together. You can see it in the oddest little things about the movie, if you know where to look. For example, our standard sidearm has a pistol butt resembling that of the 1950s Whitney Wolverine pistol, because I saw a discussion of that gun at "Projectrho," liked the look and went searching for replicas on eBay.

 

[Redfern]

Plus, Nyrath who runs the site is a really swell guy. He graciously let me convert his mesh of the Al Nozaki war machine from George Pal's War of the Worlds and share it with the 3D community.

(I know this has little to do with the discussion, but I just had to acknowledge Mr Chung.)

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[sojourner]

Atomic Rockets is my go to website for a lot of research and also one of my favorites to recommend to people. Usually people in the sci/tech forum strangely enough.

 

[Maverisms]

Atomic Rockets makes me sad inside.

Then it makes me think of clever ways to have my cake and eat it too.

Then it makes me sad inside all over again.

The lesson I've taken, as a writer, is you gotta break some rules if you are going to Sci-Fi. If you want that Sci-Fi to be any good, you gotta study the rules before you break them, and try to make the breaks unobtrusive.

 

[JES]

Are the panels permanently gone from the nose? Because me like.

Well, I hadn't intended to delete them permanently, but I'll admit I kinda like the look. I can almost imagine they were damaged and no suitable replacements were available or somesuch.

Still, those are awfully critical components to just leave dangling out there. I imagine they would have covered them up with something no matter what, so they will almost certainly reappear before all is said and done.

Agreed, they look way too important to leave exposed. I'm guessing that the nose is supposed to be some sort of navigational deflector (hey, you have to have one at FTL speeds, because Hawking radiation gets so intense at those speeds that they could cook the crew. You need some sort of shielding), or a bussard collector (every time I look at it, it reminds me of the front of the nacelles of your Enterprise). Either way, not a good thing to loose and then expect to make a good getaway.

 

[sojourner]

^It has been explained that the nose is part of the FTL drive system used to compress space ahead of the ship while another globe at the rear expands space behind the ship.

 

[Vektor]

It does include a bussard collector, however; That's what the vents are.

 

[JES]

^It has been explained that the nose is part of the FTL drive system used to compress space ahead of the ship while another globe at the rear expands space behind the ship.

I must have missed that part, thanks.

Now I definitely think the ship is akin to one big warp nacelle. Incidentally, I think that if/when we do build interstellar vessels, they are much more likely to look like this than use a pair of external drive units.

 

[Vektor]

Some recent discussion about the pod bays got me thinking, which in turn got me painting in Photoshop:

I drew that up in about 2-1/2 hours. Now that I've made the leap from line drawings to painted illustrations, I'm gonna have start working on color.

 

[sojourner]

I approve!

 

[Horizon]

...I drew that up in about 2-1/2 hours...

Not to be indelicate about it, but HOLY HELL THAT'S GOOD!
2 1/2 hours?
I am very jealous of your talent.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Would those happen to be Von Braun-ish bottlesuits lurking just inside the airlock?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Would those happen to be Von Braun-ish bottlesuits lurking just inside the airlock?

And a.k.a. the "pods"?

 

[Vektor]

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=4561960&postcount=413

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Righteous.

 

[sojourner]

Interesting pods. The design begs the question, if they are going to have mechanical hands, why be manned at all?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Asimov suggested an answer to that question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feeling_of_Power