That's only a problem if there is only one maneuver drive at one spot accelerating the entire thing. Place a maneuver drive at the back of each nacelle, place one at the back of the main body, and one at the back of the Saucer section and have all those maneuver drives operating in tandem distributing the thrust to each section in proportion to their masses so everything accelerates uniformly, you can have them all powered by the same reactor, but you would want each section to have its own reactor for when they seperate, one jump drive for the whole thing of course.
ISS Enterprise
- Thread starter Werner
- Start date
This here’s poor rocket science. You only need thrust through the center of mass of a starship. If the nacelles are negligible mass coils (like all the greebles we see in some ship design books) then the center of mass is the aft point between the neck and saucer, which is conveniently where most impulse arrays are in Trek ships. You can also angle that thrust if necessary to be thru-axis, and it won’t cause spin.
More importantly, in Traveller, Thruster M-Drives either move the ship inertialessly or is compensated by grav plating in the ship... grav plating that also negates most if not all structural loads on the starframe. Grav assisted structures are a known quantity in Traveller, to the tune of huge skyscrapers or floating cities. Air/Raft are ubiquitous.
With all that in mind, you can make trekships in Traveller rather easily.
More importantly, in Traveller, Thruster M-Drives either move the ship inertialessly or is compensated by grav plating in the ship... grav plating that also negates most if not all structural loads on the starframe. Grav assisted structures are a known quantity in Traveller, to the tune of huge skyscrapers or floating cities. Air/Raft are ubiquitous.
With all that in mind, you can make trekships in Traveller rather easily.
Sounds good. I think I'll do a writeup for T20. Maybe some eccentric noble builds one. It think the ISS Enterprise should be armed with bay weapons, beam lasers at the top and bottom of the saucer section and missile bays at the Port and Starboard of the main body, these substitute for phasers and photon torpedoes.
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If you want, I think a sort of jumpframe situation makes the most sense as with Battle Riders: a separable piece of the ship left in orbit to let the rest of the ship conduct atmospheric ops. Something like the Nova Class where the nacelles and a skeleton piece of the after hull float off and the rest of the ship finds a body of water to go surveying things from.
Alternatively consider something like the Starfleet Museum designs, writ small. They have a lot of interesting Trek hullforms to play with, like the Comet.
Having Jump-6 really reduces the maneuver potential because the fuel requirements take up so much space, so it will look like a fat Enterprise with a small saucer section.
One of the deck plans I used in Traveller is a Trek style ship. The warp nacelles were fuel tanks and it almost worked out correctly. Close enough for game play at least.
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mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
The warp nacelles as drop tanks...
apart from the glowing bit at the front.
Some graphics of the Enterprise had a white globular feature at the back, while others had what looked like exhaust ports.
Perhaps the nacelle is a frame for the drop tank...
apart from the glowing bit at the front.
Some graphics of the Enterprise had a white globular feature at the back, while others had what looked like exhaust ports.
Perhaps the nacelle is a frame for the drop tank...
Unless they’re being left in orbit for retrieval after atmospheric flight, perhaps? If you have a pinnace doing refuel it makes sense.
Depends greatly on someone else not stealing them.
True, though not all tanks are created equal, and what use would a 600dTon Pirate have for a pair of 1600dTon drop tanks owned by the IISS ? Perhaps some.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
You don't have to drop them...
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Another thought - the saucer and the 'warp nacelles' could actually be carried craft, that is warp nacelles are super pinnaces.
The secondary hull is where the jump drive is, and when maneuvering in normal space with all subcraft on their docked positions you have thrust from the nacelles and the saucer section.
Not sure if this is a dispersed structure or close structure configuration - dispersed would be my best guess.
The secondary hull is where the jump drive is, and when maneuvering in normal space with all subcraft on their docked positions you have thrust from the nacelles and the saucer section.
Not sure if this is a dispersed structure or close structure configuration - dispersed would be my best guess.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Saucer's breakaway, so flattened sphere, possibly streamlined lifting body.
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
MgT2 has breakaway hulls for this purpose. Each section can have its own config.
I guess we can do something similar with T5 and subhulls.
