What could a future earth space ship look like.

[KJbushway]

Your time to waste. But from now on you might want to say my opinion is, not this is my expertise, and your wrong.

See its easier to understand what I say when actually quote the whole sentence, like up there, I don't see a period so I must have elaborated on what I was saying already.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Your time to waste. But from now on you might want to say my opinion is, not this is my expertise, and your wrong.

Funny how I go back through the entire history of my posts in this thread and not once ever claimed to be an expert in anything.

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

 

[KJbushway]

This is what I think(In my opinion) a future Earth ship will look like.
It will be more oval than round, with visible weapons on top and a shuttle bay on the bottom. It will have many antennas in different spots on top mostly and some on the bottom. There will be some windows, one for the bridge, and the rest for places like lounges and control centers. There would be extended bulges on the sides, where huge solar sails come out for inter-solar system travel takes place. for between solar systems the ship would have an FLT drive similar to Warp Drive.
Inside the ship you may see square hallways at least 8' tall and 7' wide, with titanium doors that come down in-case of a hull breach. I think the crew quarters will be like ST Enterprise. Young cadets share rooms, while officer have their own. There would at least be 2 fusion generators(one in front-one in back), with batteries for emergency power. My guess is that by then, scientist will have some sort of material that creates a small gravitational field(maybe some sort of new metal-materials). The ship will amplify this field with electricity. The bridge from on top will be concealed. There might be some kind of regenerative skin on the outside of the hull and on the inside.
This ship will be built near the asteroid fields between mars and Jupiter, along with its sister ships. I think the dock yard and the crew will be international.
The ship will be At least(little bit bigger) the size of ST enterprise NX. length wise. It wil be at least 15 decks tall, each deck in 10' tall(it includes the crawl spaces where heating, air, pipes, and electricity transfer conduits), and 7 wide. (this doesn't include science labs, quarters, et. Thats just the measurement of the hallways)

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Riiiiiiight....

Found some more McPhail designs on my old HD.

McP's website mentions something about a trans-light drive, but details (in general) are sketchy. He vaguely describes a fusion-based main engine with an FTL distance engine, but given the size of the propellant tanks I could see the same design with liquid hydrogen and an advanced nuclear thermal rocket with an ISP of, say, 1400 seconds. If those propellant tanks are the size of the shuttle's ET (they are clearly meant to be) that's about 400 tons of liquid hydrogen and around 150 tons of spacecraft between the habitat module and the truss structure.

If I feel like it later I might crunch some numbers to figure out whether or not a craft like this could realistically make an interplanetary voyage. Use of a space fold device or some kind of wormhole mechanism would ease these requirements so the ship would only have to maneuver around in local planetary space (Io to Europa, Europa to Callisto, etc).

 

[sojourner]

There would be extended bulges on the sides, where huge solar sails come out for inter-solar system travel takes place.

You do know solar sails take ages of time to build up speed? For example, it would take over a month to get out of Earth orbit?

 

[Crazy Eddie]

^ Well, depending on the specs they are potentially faster than ion engines. Admittedly, that isn't saying much, but if you're sending an unmanned space craft you can afford to be patient.

 

[KJbushway]

The inner walls, I think that there won't be a very large crawl way like you see in star trek, I can see them just big enough to send a fix it up robot to work on air ducts, pipes, and eletrical transfer conduits.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Probably won't be sealed off behind walls or conduits. Conventional spacecraft and most aircraft keep most of that equipment in access bays where a guy with a wrench can easily get at it. Anything you can't access is complex enough to require either a repair facility ore a far more complicated EVA.

Bigeolow's space station designs keep all the electrical and life support gear in the very center of the module, down the central axis of the compartment where it can easily be accessed by anyone with a minimum of hassle. The "rack" structure of the ISS allows entire components to be removed and serviced and then quickly reinstalled by the crew. Either configuration, or variations on that theme, would be a most effective way of conducting routine maintenance, especially on a craft large enough to swap out defective modules and replace them with spares until they can be fully repaired.

 

[sojourner]

^ Well, depending on the specs they are potentially faster than ion engines. Admittedly, that isn't saying much, but if you're sending an unmanned space craft you can afford to be patient.

^True, but he was describing his idea of a manned ship.

Ion Engines have the same limitation as solar sails, High impulse, low thrust. Not a good mix for manned craft.

 

[KJbushway]

^ Well, depending on the specs they are potentially faster than ion engines. Admittedly, that isn't saying much, but if you're sending an unmanned space craft you can afford to be patient.

^True, but he was describing his idea of a manned ship.

Ion Engines have the same limitation as solar sails, High impulse, low thrust. Not a good mix for manned craft.

OK, but now your thinking Modern, I said Solar sails, and I will stick to that, because you nor I ever now what the end Sail will look like or be like. Could I add an extra particle impulse engine, yes. If that makes it work sure why not.

He hasn't mentioned Ion engines in his own craft, his main theme, is some kind of Fusion drive. Its up there in his lasts post, even has a link.

As far as the crawl space, I am gonna keep my design, you never know.

 

[sojourner]

OK, but now your thinking Modern, I said Solar sails, and I will stick to that, because you nor I ever now what the end Sail will look like or be like. Could I add an extra particle impulse engine, yes. If that makes it work sure why not.

No, I'm thinking physics. The physics of how a sail works has not changed in the last 4000 years, nevermind the next 4000. A solar sail no matter how large or sophisticated is limited by the medium it's using, in this case the solar wind/photons. It will always be high impulse/low thrust and take lots of time to build speed.

He hasn't mentioned Ion engines in his own craft, his main theme, is some kind of Fusion drive. Its up there in his lasts post, even has a link.

I know, if you actually read my post carefully, you'll see I was actually elaborating on what he said about ion engines.


KJ - This is the science and technology forum. If you just want to make wild ideas about what a ship would look like without basing it on known science and technology you might be better off in another forum. Like the fan art, fan fiction, or maybe the trek technology forum. Here all you are going to get is challenges to how your design works based on known science.

 

[KJbushway]

KJ - This is the science and technology forum. If you just want to make wild ideas about what a ship would look like without basing it on known science and technology you might be better off in another forum. Like the fan art, fan fiction, or maybe the trek technology forum. Here all you are going to get is challenges to how your design works based on known science.

Well SJ, I know this is a science and technology forum, trust me the science of today will be different from future tehnology, seeing how I don't see you have a degree in sails, because the sails of 4,000 years ago work in a different setting for one. Two, you can say all you want about what you've read off the internet about Space Solar sails, but the fact is the material won't be the same as it now. Everyday scientist are going back on what they say, laws have been changed. New scientifical theories and discoveries come everyday, so there is no exact way of knowing what future technology will be like. Now it can be your opinion that we'll be as stumped as were are today in the future and I thank you for it, but its an opinion, not fact. Unless of course your from the future.

 

[sojourner]

KJ - Unless the sun suddenly starts working differently, solar sails will work on the same principle tomorrow as they do today. Not opinion. Not a dream. Cold, hard fact.

Also, under your way of thinking, I could come on this forum and say "in the future humans will eat candy and poop diamonds!". Which has no basis in science and just because I say its "TEH FUTURE!!!" does not make it worthy of discussion in the science and technology forum.

 

[KJbushway]

Thanks for the opinion.
The future is spelled wrong.
That wouldn't be in science and technology, that would be in MISC.

 

[Deckerd]

It's been mentioned more than once and by more than one person that what you're looking for is a Star Trek answer in the real world. Getting all misty-eyed and saying 'but guys we're talking about the FUTURE' doesn't change the fact that ye canny change the laws of physics, Jim.

 

[KJbushway]

It's been mentioned more than once and by more than one person that what you're looking for is a Star Trek answer in the real world. Getting all misty-eyed and saying 'but guys we're talking about the FUTURE' doesn't change the fact that ye canny change the laws of physics, Jim.

I don't even see where I even copied off of star trek in my own ship description, but OK.
No, but we as humans, still have a lot to learn, we haven't even scratched the surface of all thats out there that yet we don't know.

Fine SJ just for you, how about a sail. I leave the solar part out to deflect any confusion.

 

[sojourner]

^lol, that's even worse! now what is your sail using for a medium? Space based lasers are your only choice now, and they obviously won't be available in unexplored star systems.

You really should think about the science a little before just throwing things out there.

Here, read, learn:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail

 

[KJbushway]

Lasers are what have be used now, you never know. Plus I said I could add more engines, what ever floats yout boat.

Sorry I don't consider Wiki(which can be changed by anybody) to be a valid source for scientific information.

P.S.S I said you could take out the solar part if you want. ^ thats article's title is Solar Sails. Try to find something not a blog site.

 

[trekkiedane]

Sorry I don't consider Wiki(which can be changed by anybody) to be a valid source for scientific information.

That's why they have footnotes with links to valid scientific information

 

[KJbushway]

I know, but its not worth all that trouble, when its easier to just go to actual scientific sites first.