Can we get a spaceships thread going? Specifically, I'm looking for primative/low tech/ "realistic" type ships

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I should have some stuff around here. What're you planning on using it for?

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Does this count?

Considering the kind of ships that are being worked on right now, these supposedly realistic "hard sci-fi" ships are going to become the equivalent of steampunk retro-futurism pretty soon.

Sad to say but given its current level of "funding", the Skylon is hardly more realistic than anything else in this thread.

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Post warships

You don't need aerodynamics for space-bound crafts.

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Why the fuck would you use SRBs on a gun platform?

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You do if they're entering or leaving atmosphere.

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It's a single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane.

Most ships won't ever need to do that.

How? It looks wasteful.

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It uses a novel sort of hybrid engine.

At low altitudes, it's a normal air-breathing jet, but as it enters the upper atmosphere, it operates like a rocket.

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Posting just the manual cover with out posting the ship itself should be some sort of crime.

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For when "FUCK YOU!!!" just isn't enough.

Wartime kit-bash. A good chunk of it is parts scavenged from a WWII Iowa class battleship, because something something the invading space elephants don't "get" sea travel or surface navies.

I am sadly, totally serious.

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The only thing realistic about Skylon is the engine. That airframe is ubsurd.

>Why the fuck would you use SRBs on a gun platform?

It's not a gun platform. It's a gun SHIP. It has to maneuver in orbit.

It and several others like it, plus a few mothballed shuttles, are carried into orbit by an Orion spacecraft. Once in orbit, the gun ships are meant to engage Fithp's smaller space craft while the Orion & shuttles attack the Fithp's huge generation ship. Because an Orion ship can carry shit tons of stuff and because no one has ever built an orbital warship before, the ship is built with a mixture of old and new weapons in the hopes that something will work. There are masers and railguns along with 16" and 5" guns stripped off a battleship. The battleship guns are firing nuclear shells though.

The Fithp are taken by surprise because they've never really invented anything on their own. They are a partially uplifted species which survived when the sentient species uplifting them somehow killed themselves off. Knowing they were dying out, that patron species made records of their technology inscribed on nearly indestructible plinths. The Fithp had been copying that knowledge ever since rather than developing anything themselves.

It's all explained in the novel and, every time this design and the Orion ship design is posted in threads like these, we have to explain it to folks who have never read the novel.

Is the novel worth reading?

I really like Rogue Systems "FireArc"
Also glad that it seems to be out of hiatus. Was a bit worried there.

>Is the novel worth reading?

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote it back in the early 80s. They're the pair that wrote "The Mote in God's Eye". They also wrote it while they were part of an organization of sci-fi writers and scientists trying to advise the government on space policy while also pushing for the Strategic Defense Initiative.

I enjoyed many years ago, but haven't bothered to re-read since.

>Double cone with tappered radiators
Mah niggah

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If the guy who designed them first on CoaDE forum doesn't put them on the Workshp, i'll upload a stock compliant version of that design so that people can just grab it and replace items piece by piece with their own modules.

I just checked that game on Steam. Is it any good? Worth the (admittely very friendly) pricetag?

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>I just checked that game on Steam. Is it any good? Worth the (admittely very friendly) pricetag?
Well, it has barely any content at the moment. You can fly one ship, the ship systems work, docking n-Body simulation works. But beyond some flying there is not much to do right now.
However Michael (the dev) just came out of hiatus with a patch that implemented the last primary element of gameplay. So now he'll focus on content and smaller gameplay elements.
If you want a game that has great content etc. that's not it. Not yet at least. So if you want content wait.
If you are fine to jump in early and are fine with - for now - just having a prototype of what can become a (imo) very promising game, go for it.

The audio design is fucking great, by the way. Nothing like hearing the stress on the hull during high accelleration. Or the humming during starting up the superheated plasma core.

But it's pretty high on autsim. Check out deephacks video tutorials, or Scott Manleys video on the game, maybe.

youtube.com/watch?v=V0TwDWk4pEM
If you done the startup a few times it should take about 5 mins. And later much of it will be automated by an on board computer (while still having the manual buttons in case of emergency)
And I'll just note that the long time between the last two updates is very unnormal. He has been very quick before that. And hopefully will be again now.

For me, definitely worth it. Mostly for what I hope will come out of it in the future.
Before it was on steam, purchasing was done on the website and there were different packs. Sadly I only got core iirc. Others contained post 1.0 releases like Free-play mode and Multiplayer. Core will only be mission driven iirc.

thanks for the answer, mate, the video definitely raised my interest for autismo-riddled space game. I will probably get it before this week-end.

Totally forgot to drop this link. The sound of firing up the plasma core: youtube.com/watch?v=8jnPANrnKK0
iirc audio design has changed a bit since then. But still the same guy and still great quality.
A more complete audiotour: youtube.com/watch?v=sdiq9GfQfS8 (toward the end he made a smol mistake. He disabled the magnetic shielding for the plasma core, hence the warning noises)

No problem. I really like the game. So whenever someone shows interest I'm really glad. Deserves much more attention imo.

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What duties could spaceship crew have during a regular travel? I'm not talking about specialists like pilots or navigators, but just regular crewmen. The engines and stuff would probably be automated, so other than for maintenance stuff like cleaning or cooking what could you even need a large crew for?

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Not bad, pretty appealing design

Preventive maintenance, watchstanding, etc.

Repair. In a realistic scenario every crewmember would be either be an engineer of some form, or could at least double as an engineer.

Uncrewed ship will always be cheaper, but crewed ships will be more likely to actually make it to the destination.

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These look a bit more advanced

Oops, too lazy to read the OP. Thought it was just a generic spaceship thread.

This hurts my head

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I've got a few OP

I like this ship design too cause they're closest to what we might actually see sailing in space in the future, and yet in some far distant future they might seem as primitive to humanity of that era as we look at sailing boats of past eras today though for us these designs are cutting edge.

Also theres a lovely sort of simplicity to them that I really like too, in the way that they're designed, its like 90% function over form

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Why is it that we don't have nuclear ships? We had the ability and facilities to make them in the seventies. We had the plans made up like Orion.

Because the idea of detonating hundreds of nuclear bombs in the atmosphere every time you launch a ship isn't very popular with the people on the ground that will get irradiated.

Public nuclear-phobia plus the Outer Space and Comprehensive Test Ban treaties.

You're probably too young to remember the horseshit NASA had to go through just to launch the Galileo spacecraft because it used two tiny RTGs with plutonium. Lifting a couple hundred tac nukes into orbit to power an Orion craft would have the Usual Suspects foaming at the mouth.

The 60s Outer Space treaty banned WMDs in Earth orbit and placing weapons on any celestial body. The Comprehensive Test Ban of the 90s banned all nuclear detonations for an purpose in any environment including very high altitudes.

Finally, one the Orion design's major selling points is that it can put a HUGE FUCKING PAYLOAD in Earth orbit. You're not going to build something the size of a battleship in orbit. You're going to build it on the ground and have it lift itself into orbit.

Suggesting the peaceful use of a few dozen tac nukes in the atmosphere will have everyone screaming.