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What Should Spaceships Look Like?

POSTED BY: KWICKO
UPDATED: Wednesday, July 12, 2023 10:05
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Thursday, July 28, 2011 1:35 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)




As if they even need to ask...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14291992


I have a sneaking suspicion we all have a pretty good idea what the next generation of space flight should look like!


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Thursday, July 28, 2011 1:51 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


This is what a spaceship looks like. Given there are no alternatives, we should treat it with more respect.


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Thursday, July 28, 2011 1:53 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Well, you're right, of course. And people tend to overlook that fact. Hell, we're whizzing through space at near 70,000mph right now! Our spaceship has brought me nearly 29,000,000,000 miles from where I started.

ETA: And it's funny you should bring it up, Earth being our spaceship, because it put me in mind of this little thought exercise I jotted down last week:

Quote:

Sometimes I get a bit blue, thinking how insignificant we as a species really are. We’re on an insignificant rock, circling an insignificant star at a mean average distance of 93 million miles - in cosmological terms, an insignificant distance.

But let’s put that into human terms for a moment.

If we take the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, 93 million miles, and use that to calculate the circumference of our orbit of the Sun, we get (C=πd, or C=2πr ), or just over 584 million miles. That is a not-inconsiderable sum. Let’s put it into even sharper perspective, shall we?

Every year of your life, you are travelling nearly 585,000,000 miles. Impressive? Maybe, but a bit abstract still.

Every DAY of your life, you are travelling nearly 1.6 *MILLION* miles. Now I’m impressed. But wait, there’s more...

Every HOUR of your life, you are travelling nearly 67,000 miles. Think about that: You are, just by sitting where you are, speeding through the vastness of the universe at nearly 70,000 miles per hour. You are, simply speaking, travelling aboard the most magnificent spaceship ever imagined - why, it’s the size of a planet - because it IS a planet.

In my lifetime, my planetary spaceship has brought me more than 28 and a half BILLION miles.

I find that to be significant.


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Thursday, July 28, 2011 2:03 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


I thought about it. Unless someone comes up with faster-than-light alternatives (doubtful), humans will be living in their spaceships for generations if not millennia. That pretty much rules out complex machinery, which will inevitably break.

The OTHER thing it rules out is a ship made of alloys such as stainless steel, because inevitably the metals will corrode and leach into everything and poison the inhabitants with chrome or nickel or whatever unusual metal will be part of the alloy.

So you'll need a skin of good-old rock- silica, iron, calcium, magnesium- something we can tolerate for hundreds or thousands of years even if we wind up ingesting it. And you'll also need a safe energy source, something that isn't going to go BOOM or poison you if it should get leaky... as thousand-year-old equipment has a tendency to do.
----------

BTW- I tend to find comfort in how INsignificant we are. Because no matter how badly we screw up, even if we cause the next Great Extinction (as it seems we are doing) we will still mostly only affect ourselves. In the vast scheme of things, life and the earth will roll on, despite our best efforts.

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Thursday, July 28, 2011 2:48 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


You guys are awesome!

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Thursday, July 28, 2011 5:01 AM

BYTEMITE


You do need some fuel source, and minus nuclear-derived warmth like from the core of the earth (since it is unwise), you probably do need at least some machinery. But, if you have spares, and the ability to produce that machinery while on the ship, perhaps from harvesting resources from asteroids, you can eliminate much of that problem.

However, I agree that certain systems can be made very simple, such as life support - just get some trees up ins. And you probably do want to simplify any system you do have if possible, such as the previously mentioned fuel or climate control systems.

Rock might be a good material for making a hull, as it is not particularly conductive. But, on the other hand, you have micrometeorites and space dust pelting your ship going somewhere in the tens of thousands of miles per hour. Also, rock is brittle under extreme and sudden temperature changes, such as breaking atmo.

Since there is no atmosphere in space for much corroding, metals and ceramics might still be the best option, at least until we invent better materials.

Probably rather than humans making their lives in space it'll be our artificial intelligence robotic descendants. But I live for the dream.

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Thursday, July 28, 2011 7:36 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Quote:


Probably rather than humans making their lives in space it'll be our artificial intelligence robotic descendants.




How much would that suck? We finally get good, cheap, reliable space travel, and our robot overlords force us to build it for them, so THEY can go galavanting around the 'verse while we're stuck here!

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Thursday, July 28, 2011 7:42 AM

BYTEMITE


No, no. I meant that we'll be gone, and they'll be our only survivors. Either because we went into space with them but they live forever, or we sent them into space as scouts for this reason.

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Thursday, July 28, 2011 9:04 AM

KANEMAN


I like the old space ships..you know the ones that look like huge cocks fucking space

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Thursday, July 28, 2011 9:54 AM

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT


Sadly, the good ship Serenity is a bad choice- For interstellar or even interplanetary travel you need something for vacuum to vacuum transport- it needs to be strong and durable and flexible and symmetric for easy manouvering, but not pretty- call it a mother ship.
Needs a control head, a power unit/engineering deck or module and not much else. Could be nothing more than 2 lumps on the ends of a long gantry or truss, and then cargo containers and stuff bolted on however and wherever needed, for whatever function: solar panels, quarters, storage, fuel tanks, utility or service modules. It would have to be assembled in space. The ship in 2001 is kinda like that, and so is the ISS, sorta.
Then you need a landing craft for air to vacuum liftoff and vacuum to air re-entry- call it a shuttle craft-- needs heat shielding and airborne controls, passenger seating and some cargo volume. Could look like Inara's shuttle, or the Star Trek shuttles, or some kind of airplane.

Serenity, love her, but combining the two functions in one vessel is a losing proposition.

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Thursday, July 28, 2011 12:17 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!



Normally, this would be the cue for a certain Star Trek fan to pipe up, and add in his 2 cents.

Justsayinisall.




" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

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Thursday, July 28, 2011 4:18 PM

DREAMTROVE


Firefly is probably one of the best designs for a spaceship I've seen: it has a forward section, a spinning aft and engines are far removed from the cabin. All three of these would be essential to any craft, yet they are almost never includedl i've seen it done maybe two or three other times.


That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Wednesday, July 12, 2023 10:05 AM

JAYNEZTOWN


Moonquake-hunting 'SPIDER' probes could detect lunar temblors on NASA Artemis missions

https://www.space.com/moon-moonquake-seismic-station-mission-funding

China plans to send two rockets for crewed moon landing

https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/china-plans-send-two-rockets-
crewed-moon-landing-2023-07-12
/

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