Thrust from drives would still have to go through the centre of mass to avoid generating pitch or yaw when you accelerate. After that it's just a question of whether the hull is strong enough to handle the G force.
Asymmetrical Starship Designs...
- Thread starter Botcho
- Start date
But if it's asymmetrical how straightforward is it going to be to put that thrust through the centre of mass? Or is the asymmetry you envisage minor in nature so as to factor away the COM issue?
Not quite accurate enough. The Center of thrust must be in line of acceleration with the Center of mass. None of the thrusters need to be.
Take a ship with 3 thrusters - two at one side, one at the other. The single is twice as strong...
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╰╯There's plenty of more sophisticated math than I care for to figure out the relationships... but understand that, by coupling the leverage factor and engine sizes, you can have asymmety on 2 or even all three axises... provided you can keep the COT through/behind the COM, including by minor variations of individual thrust and/or extension...
Armais discusses it more clearly. The centre of thrust still has to align with the centre of mass, regardless of whether the hull is symmetrical or asymmetrical. You could have something like:
_____
|.........|
|.........|X=============(@)
|_____|
or
_____
|.........|
|...... X|==X===========(@)
|_____|
With drives on the point (X) if X was on the centre of mass or the average of the centres of thrust sat over the centre of mass. The shape of the ship doesn't matter.
I suggest you have a tinker with Kerbal Space Program - the physics engine is fairly realistic and it will teach you a whole lot about this.
Here's an example of an asymmetric ship in Kerbal Space Program. The physics in KSP are realistic enough to use to demonstrate the principle.
The design below is asymmetrical, with three engines. With a little frigging I moved the engines and outriggers so that the centre of thrust and centre of mass line up. The ship will fly more or less stably, at least stably enough to control it with the (admittedly overpowered in KSP) reaction wheels. Note that the aerospike engines used on the design do not support thrust vectoring, so the only attitude control mechanism is the reaction wheels.
First, here's an asymmetric ship design
And here it is seen from above, with the centre of mass (black/yellow ball) and centre of thrust (purple) showing.
And, here it is flying, more or less stably.
The design below is asymmetrical, with three engines. With a little frigging I moved the engines and outriggers so that the centre of thrust and centre of mass line up. The ship will fly more or less stably, at least stably enough to control it with the (admittedly overpowered in KSP) reaction wheels. Note that the aerospike engines used on the design do not support thrust vectoring, so the only attitude control mechanism is the reaction wheels.
First, here's an asymmetric ship design
And here it is seen from above, with the centre of mass (black/yellow ball) and centre of thrust (purple) showing.
And, here it is flying, more or less stably.
