Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

[CrimsonFALKE]

what did you think of my own ship I posted here?

Can you try uploading it to Imgur or Postimg? It's 404ing for me so I can't see it.

its not a fanfic ship but I was comparing its layout to some of the loroi ships

[fredgiblet]

Drew this in two hours. I'm planning to colour it.

I like.

[RedDwarfIV]

Crimson, that's a nice ship. Not many turrets though, and unless it's black for marginal stealth, it could do with some colour.

[CrimsonFALKE]

Actually it is stealth, the black is a combination of RAM and other stealth materials. It can operate in atmosphere and perform fire support as for few turrets most are hidden although it does leave several exposed of point defense.

[RedDwarfIV]

Ah, cool.

Does it have wings?

[CrimsonFALKE]

Ah, cool.

Does it have wings?

Those are the aft shield generators this ship is a combination of an LAH and a destroyer. its meant to be a cost effective. To maintain level flight in atmosphere it used anti-gravity generators + thrust.

[RedDwarfIV]

Progress:

[GeoModder]

Looks like a cross between a Terran cruiser and an Umiak gunboat.

No windows? The engines look too small compared to the rest of the hull to give the ship a decent acceleration. At least, compared with the engine sizes on Arioch's designs.

[RedDwarfIV]

Looks like a cross between a Terran cruiser and an Umiak gunboat.

Heh, I did notice the similarity, the sort of hammer-head shape.

No windows?

I would expect observation platforms (and windows in general) to be crew comfort features rather than practical ones. The view when orbiting a planet is going to be quite spectacular. You just need to make sure any such viewing areas are outside the armor, and the access points need to be reinforced airlocks.

Besides, it's a small spacecraft. A lot of stuff would be between the hull and crew spaces, for radiation shielding if nothing else. And there is an observation room at the back of the main hull. It's the yellow bits with white shading.

The engines look too small compared to the rest of the hull to give the ship a decent acceleration. At least, compared with the engine sizes on Arioch's designs

Have you heard of the Rocket Equation? Larger ships need more fuel to move their mass, so carry comparitively larger fuel tanks. As for the engine nozzles, well, smaller engines have higher specific impulse. When you don't need a lot of thrust to accellerate quickly, why not have high fuel efficiency too?

[Grayhome]

Why do people keep saying we need windows? We have very nice crisp HD computer screens with tactical HUD overlay, why would we want to add structural weaknesses to the ship when we have no need too? I can understand the romantic desire, but from a practical viewpoint I simply do not see the necessity.

Am I missing something obvious here? What practical use to windows serve that cannot be achieved through a combination of sensor suits and computer relays.

[GeoModder]

Besides, it's a small spacecraft. A lot of stuff would be between the hull and crew spaces, for radiation shielding if nothing else. And there is an observation room at the back of the main hull. It's the yellow bits with white shading.

Ah, now I know in what size I have to see it (hadn't seen the first pic on the previous page when you posted it). I first thought of lots of oversized weapons, but if its a rather smallish hull...

Have you heard of the Rocket Equation? Larger ships need more fuel to move their mass, so carry comparitively larger fuel tanks. As for the engine nozzles, well, smaller engines have higher specific impulse. When you don't need a lot of thrust to accellerate quickly, why not have high fuel efficiency too?

The ship's mass must be quite different before and after launch of the missile/torpedo layout. Slow(er) in the assault phase then the "run for your life" phase after launch?

[RedDwarfIV]

Ah, now I know in what size I have to see it (hadn't seen the first pic on the previous page when you posted it). I first thought of lots of oversized weapons, but if its a rather smallish hull...

97 metres. It's a corvette - in fact, it would be the smallest Terran military spacecraft, barring shuttles and fighters, going by the Terran Warship Classes page.

The ship's mass must be quite different before and after launch of the missile/torpedo layout. Slow(er) in the assault phase then the "run for your life" phase after launch?

Yes.

[Majincarne]

I like the general design look to crimsons ship however its has some serious turret field of fire self masking issues. And I would just continue the forward what looks like missile bays right on back into the main hull so you have better structural bracing against maneuvering stress. I doubt any separation of that system would greatly reduce any damage from a detonating hit as its right up against what appears to be the tactical section of the ship.

[RedDwarfIV]

I finished the spacecraft. It's too late at night to draw a background for it though.



Since the TCA can't miniaturise their particle weapon technology, I suppose the main cannon on this will have to be something less advanced. Perhaps a wide-beam laser, the type that's supposed to warm the enemy to death rather than drill holes in the hull.

[Grayhome]

Why not just build a shit ton of disposable drones with PD Gauss cannons/mass drivers. I would think they would be much easier to manufacture in massive quantities and easier to deploy (fuel-wise) than frigate and destroyer class vessels. Even if the drones had a terrible survival rate, I would expect a crap load of Gauss cannon holes drilled through even the toughest of Umiak/Loroi vessels would present a catastrophic problem.

Also, since there seems to be only a few routes into and out of the isolated bubble of Terran space, they could be easily deployed in mass against any attacker from any direction. They do not necessarily have to destroy an invading craft, just cripple the engines so it cannot engage it's FTL drive to move it into Terran populated systems. Cheap and efficient.

[Username]

Why not just build a shit ton of disposable drones with PD Gauss cannons/mass drivers. I would think they would be much easier to manufacture in massive quantities and easier to deploy (fuel-wise) than frigate and destroyer class vessels.

Even if Humanity had the time and resources to make the staggering number we would need to cover the jump zones effectively (keep in mind that those are 1 AU across at least). The ships in outsider are far too fast for point defense mass drivers to hit. You would have to literally blanket the entire jumps zone in all three dimensions to the density of 300 or so meters apart for effective system denial. I'm not denying that it might work, heck if we could incapacitate some ships and harvest the tech it would be great. I just don't think it's realistic.

@ RedDwarfIV That thing looks sick man! Huge respect for being able to draw something like that (I know I couldn't ).
I can sure imagine it in the picket lines for the TCA.

What kind of speed is it capable of ?

Have you tried drawing any of the official ships ?

[RedDwarfIV]

Its engines are designed for high-efficiency so it can get the most out of an interplanetary burn. It's slower than the larger TCA spacecraft.

I haven't tried drawing the canon ships, no. It might be interesting trying to work out what they look like just from their silhouettes though.

[TrashMan]

and on rail/coil guns, unless you can figure out some way to some serious cheating against the laws of physics, they ain't gonna be no good in space at any range for anything except lobbing things as transportation, or giving missiles/torpedoes initial velocity away from the firing platform due to basic physics and range.

I disagree. Remember, the scenario is one in which you can close in effective range.

Missiles will always be limited. They are - as ordinance - more expensive to produce and bigger. Also, they can't survive the same acceleration or stress a pure sabot round would.
After all, the sheer amount of electromagnetic force would wreak havoc on missile guadance system and any electronics. Not to mention that such rapid acceleration might frak up various other internal components.
A slug has no such thing. You can launch it at far greater speeds and in the end get a lot bigger bang. Altough you reach a point of diminishing returns.
If you can one-shot a loroi ship with a current big mass driver, dumping more energy into the mass driver does seem wasteful.

[Mr.Tucker]

and on rail/coil guns, unless you can figure out some way to some serious cheating against the laws of physics, they ain't gonna be no good in space at any range for anything except lobbing things as transportation, or giving missiles/torpedoes initial velocity away from the firing platform due to basic physics and range.

I disagree. Remember, the scenario is one in which you can close in effective range.

Missiles will always be limited. They are - as ordinance - more expensive to produce and bigger. Also, they can't survive the same acceleration or stress a pure sabot round would.
After all, the sheer amount of electromagnetic force would wreak havoc on missile guadance system and any electronics. Not to mention that such rapid acceleration might frak up various other internal components.
A slug has no such thing. You can launch it at far greater speeds and in the end get a lot bigger bang. Altough you reach a point of diminishing returns.
If you can one-shot a loroi ship with a current big mass driver, dumping more energy into the mass driver does seem wasteful.

I agree, they would be great if the TCA ships could get close enough to use them. I've been bashing my head on that for a while, and all I could come up with is that if the slug were some sort of bomb-pumped laser they might get us somewhere. At least they'd have to shoot them out of the sky before they got in range to explode and douse the alien ships in X-rays. I also tend to think rail and coilgun firings wouldn't be as evident as particle beams (slight heat-up of the ships vs shower of high-energy radiation). Finally I don't think a civilization explores all technological avenues throughout it's history. Take the repeating crossbow, the girandoni air rifle or steam car (be aware that steam engines ARE more efficient than gasoline or older diesel engines). Opportunity and societal cost is just as important as industrial cost.

[fredgiblet]

Rail/coilguns would let off an enormous EM signature when they are fired.