Reaction-Drive Campaign - New Ship Designs

[Mithras]

My non-grav, reaction-drive Solar System game called STL is now under production, and I'm creating vehicles step by step. Working upwards toward the big warships.

First - the ubiquitous lander - the Nomad.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v299/lord_mithras/?action=view&current=nomad1.jpg

With this sorted, and a couple of other small craft, I can move on to interplanetary craft. I envisage the Nomad riding at the tip of a deep space vehicle (over 400 tons). Like this:

 

[Strangelove]

Why worry about rotating people in Cold Sleep? Only a few crew(~10 ?) would be awake during the trip and have any need of gravity for comfort.

Or does this ship have a significant number of non-frozen passengers? Even if it did though what is the rationalization of spinning the cryo-tubes instead of just packing them like cargo in a zero-G section?

Also you may want to consider two spin sections rotating in opposite directions unless you don't mind the body of the ship rotating opposite your spin arm at a slower speed.

I dig the little cockpit cross section on the lander picture in the link...I'm a fan of step decks in ships

 

[Marchand]

Depends on the burn time achievable by your fusion drive, but if it's providing even 1g of thrust for an appreciable chunk of the journey, you may not need spin sections - just orient the decks perpendicular to the direction of thrust, and crew will experience pseudogravity.

 

[Mithras]

Yes, you're right, cold-sleep passengers may as well be in zero-G. Save on power and tonnage. I will be re-writing the transport in that regard!

Why worry about rotating people in Cold Sleep? Only a few crew(~10 ?) would be awake during the trip and have any need of gravity for comfort.

Or does this ship have a significant number of non-frozen passengers? Even if it did though what is the rationalization of spinning the cryo-tubes instead of just packing them like cargo in a zero-G section?

Also you may want to consider two spin sections rotating in opposite directions unless you don't mind the body of the ship rotating opposite your spin arm at a slower speed.

I dig the little cockpit cross section on the lander picture in the link...I'm a fan of step decks in ships

 

[Mithras]

No there's lots of cruise time ...

The transport needs redesign, to be honest - counter-rotating accomodation sections would be good, although not required, particularly since the staterooms of the crew make up only a fractional tonnage of the craft. In other words, for counter-rotating sections, you need quite alot of space in gravity, and if you haven't got the requirement - then you just don't need it. Low berths should probably be put in zero-G also.

Depends on the burn time achievable by your fusion drive, but if it's providing even 1g of thrust for an appreciable chunk of the journey, you may not need spin sections - just orient the decks perpendicular to the direction of thrust, and crew will experience pseudogravity.