USS Trenton (CA-1) Blueprint Shot

[amaysingstories]

After the tragic destruction of the USS Sword of Liberty (DA-1) by the approaching Deltans, the US government realized their preparations were woefully inadequate. Not only did they need to step up their destroyer construction program and finally bring in coalition nations, they also needed a new design -- a bigger, more resilient, more powerful model to act as the flagship of their fledgling fleet.

The USS Trenton (CA-1), the first astrodynamic cruiser, sports nearly four times the weaponry of the Sword-class destroyers, with 288 Excalibur missile cells, two turret mounted railguns, and ten defensive laser emplacements. Its survivability is enhanced by the addition of an auxiliary pebble fission reactor, larger capacity internal heat dumps, and reserve radiator panels which can be extended should the main radiators be damaged in battle.

From my novel-in-progress, "A Sword Into Darkness", a chapter of which can be checked out in the SF Writers Forum here on SFM. Done in C4D and Photoshop LE. All meshes and images by me. Many thanks to the visitors and contributors to the "Astrodynamic Cruiser" 3D WIP -- I couldn't of done it without y'all.

Comments appreciated.

- Tom Mays

[Lentowsky]

Very cool design, nice to see a good solid combat vessel round here.

Gotta ask though, what is the definition of astrodynamic?

[Monkey Boy]

Aerodynamic: def- the study of air in motion and of the forces acting on a solid in motion through air.
relate that to Astro=>space, I guess you get a craft designed specifically for motion through space.

She looks great amaysingstories, like a shark, not so dangerous until she opens her mouth - and has the same subtle grace as a shark too - beautiful!

[amaysingstories]

Monkey Boy hit it in one. Astrodynamic is the actual description for something built to operate in space. It's basically an overly formal way of saying "Space Cruiser", but overly formal is exactly what you get with a bunch of engineers working on a project, determined to not look silly. Automatic industry-geek defense mechanism: if the concept is risable, instantly tack on an acronym, techno-jargon, or a fancy, overly-elaborate definition in order to make your work more significant -- and "astrodynamic" rather than "spaceship" is exactly the sort of thing I'd see them doing.

Also, I needed a military designation for these classes of ships. For the destroyer, I toyed with DS (space destroyer, but then I would eventually have a DS-9, and I can't risk conflating myself with Star Trek), DO (orbital destroyer, but they're not always in orbit), DD (just forget trying to identify it as going into space and stick with a classic). I eventually decided on DA-1, astrodynamic destroyer, so the cruiser just went right along with that -- of course, now the ship designation evokes thoughts of highways in California. I just can't win.

And thank you to you both, Lentowsky and Monkey Boy!

[Lord Ravensburg]

Looks good Thomas, believable and sturdy. I like the rail gun turrets.

[amaysingstories]

Thanks, my Lord!

[Edward]

Really cool, I love Hard SF ships. We need to ween pop-culture away from it's Trek fixation.

I am wondering about the scale... a missile could have a diameter of one meter, so the écoutille (I mean... hatch, the little door on top of the missile tube) would be like 2 meters wide. So based on that...

Ah... but I failed, please tell me how long is this vessel?

[amaysingstories]

Hmmmmmm. You would ask that. As a schwag, I'd say about 260 meters or 850 feet. The mission hull (forward) is slightly over 100 meters, the radiator shaft (amidships and mostly empty space) is another 100 or so meters, and the reactor and propulsion module (aft) is just over 50 meters. More or less about half again as long as a modern American cruiser or destroyer.

And thanks for the praise! If you look, you can see a few other painted in shots of this ship, as well as my destroyers, and a chapter of the book itself is available in the SF Writer's forum. Enjoy!

- Tom Mays