Hello,
Yes I’m back, many thanks for the comments, I'm gald to see I have sparked an interesting debate. Before I begin on trying to explain a bit about the ship I’d like to ask Wayne another question.
If the year was really 1969 and we were all in a lecture hall and you were promoting James T Kirk’s Star Trek communicator as one of the most ingenious and revolutionary inventions ever, and I suddenly stuck up my hand and said actually the communicator is very primate by design, because all it is, is a two way radio. In 40 years we’ll have communicators with the processing power of every computer in NASA (1969 NASA) They’ll surpass Trek’s gadgets by decades. You’ll be able to call up maps to see where you are in the world, watch live video, take pictures, play music and lots of other things including being able to talk to whoever we wanted. And we will call these communicators ‘mobile phones’ Now back in 1969 wouldn’t you think I was a bit barmy for imagining all that? Perhaps a flight of fancy.
Okay now to the ship most of you have been asking about. Some of you asked if I have blueprints to it. If by blueprints you mean a detailed schematic right down to the last nut, bolt and mathematical equation er.. no I haven’t sorry.
I designed this ship several years ago now, it was the first bit of artwork I put on my website, and remains to this day my favourite ship design, despite the fact that I have done dozens of different Spaceship designs since. The reason I like this one so much, is because I think it’s a representation of what we could achieve within the next 50 to 75 years. Ok I’ll admit I have got the scale a bit wrong, but being a big scifi fan, big spaceships are a part of that genre. I would guess a ship one quarter of the size of this ship is a plausible possibility given on our technology is progressing.
The range of this ship would be limited, perhaps only being able to travel out to Uranus or perhaps close enough to have good look at Neptune.
To explore the solar system this ship would utilize a number of methods to get around. One of these methods would be to use the gravity of some of the gas giants, a sling shot manoeuvre just like the NASA new horizons mission to study Pluto. Secondly it would make use of the ion propulsion rockets, fuelled by the fission reactor at the rear. Fission reactors have been designed on earth, as well as proposed Ideas for ion rockets. I believe space.com has mentioned the use of ion rockets.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/s ... 00816.html
And you will find information on Fission here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reactor#Fission
The front cone section can break away, powered by remote, it could be used to chart a course through the asteroid belt, it is equipped with a radio telescope to analyze background radiation in the far reaches of our solar system. One possible mission is for the main ship to orbit Uranus, while the probe could be launched to study Neptune. Another mission for the remote probe it to collect gaseous materials from Jupiter and Saturn, which would be stored in the capsules attached to the side of the ship.
One of the ships power supplies would come from the solar panels attached on the side, perhaps drawing a little power from the fission reactor. There are two radio telescopes attached to the top of the ship, which will be used to peer deeper than ever into the cosmos. Another use for these is to see how strong telecommunication signals from earth are and to study how much these signals have degraded since leaving earth, thus giving us an accurate representation of how far signals from earth reach before they are lost as background radiation.
Behind the front cone section is the main habitat module it does have windows or view ports, but because the scale that I have built this model to its too big to see. At the rear of the habitat module is the service module, where oxygen is recycled, and also laboratories where material from outside are studied. Obviously science would have evolved in the next 50 to 75 years that food can be artificially grown, I have seen news stories about experiments being conducted involving growing food in habitats designed for a future mission to mars.
That’s about it in a nutshell, I could probably go on and on about other features. I am laying out a timeline that hopefully look realistic. I’ll keep you posted on that.
One final word to Wayne, yesterday when you first responded to my post, I have to admit I felt totally defeated. I read what you said about Einstein’s theory of relativity and thought, he absolutely right, that’s poured cold water on my ‘flight of fancy’ as you called it. But here’s the thing, in my explanation of how this ship works I haven’t mentioned one single warp drive, hyperdrive or improbability drive, which is what I would call ‘Unexplained science’ If you’re going to demote me at least give me a little dignity and put me in the science fiction section, after all how much science fiction has now become science fact?
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