Near Future Patrol Ship

[VALKYRIE013]

well i remember an old movie.. i think with andy grifith.. where he went to the moon in a privatly built ship to collect an LM lower half.. and he used constant acceleration.. got him there in 1 day i belive... plus a number of books using the concept.. more of a distance thing going from planete to planet than just lazing about in orbit..
i know that iss crew memebers spend over 6months in microgravity with not to many ill effects... just puting out there for comfortsake to put a bit of artifical gravity in there
and i'm a sci fi geek as well... i have days going threw wikipedia just researching ftl, and near future drives just because it interests me

[Dallidas]

Originally Posted by TheUnlogicalOne

I could easily expand the crew area up one more deck, but I can't think of what to put there.

space couches! maybe a terminal with lots of books, movies, or games in it or something? to keep them occupied

[nyrath]

I have read that a crew space which is cramped for a submarine is much more spacious in a spacecraft in free fall. The ability to float makes more of the area usable.

How do inflatable modules do when it comes to weapons grade radiation shielding? They are about as effective as a bullet-proof vest composed of wet toilet tissue.

You could use the radiation shielding for the outer wall of the habitat module, but the stuff is so heavy it would cut down your payload capacity to the point where you could not carry any crew or weapons. According to my figures anti-radiation armor starts at four-fifths of a metric ton per square meter of armor (796 kg/m^2). That's basic armor, if the nuclear warheads are really flying you'll need thicker armor.
Atomic Rocket: Radiation
(scroll down to section that begins "In Space Propulsion Analysis and Design they give the specs on a typical shadow shield."

You'd probably be better off putting your radiation armor around the control cabin.

Inflatable module skins are not particularly resistant to weapon lasers either, but you can get away with using sheets of carbon for armor.
Atomic Rocket: Space War: Defenses
Carbon sheets can be placed over the inflated skin, or over a titanium skin if you don't want to fool with inflatable habitats.

[nyrath]

Originally Posted by VALKYRIE013

well i remember an old movie.. i think with andy grifith.. where he went to the moon in a privatly built ship to collect an LM lower half.. and he used constant acceleration.. got him there in 1 day i belive... plus a number of books using the concept.. more of a distance thing going from planete to planet than just lazing about in orbit..

You are talking about the TV series Salvage-1. The show did have quite a few scientific mistakes.
But what I said still stands: to do a constant acceleration like that is going to take an advanced propulsion system with an exhaust velocity over 100 kilometers per second. A solid core NTR just ain't gonna cut the mustard.
Do the math.

Originally Posted by VALKYRIE013

i'm a sci fi geek as well... i have days going threw wikipedia just researching ftl, and near future drives just because it interests me

Ah, but I claim trump over your geekdom, since I actually wrote a website on those topics. Thus I am more pathetic than you are.
Atomic Rocket main page

[Dallidas]

Originally Posted by nyrath

You are talking about the TV series Salvage-1. The show did have quite a few scientific mistakes.
But what I said still stands: to do a constant acceleration like that is going to take an advanced propulsion system with an exhaust velocity over 100 kilometers per second. A solid core NTR just ain't gonna cut the mustard.
Do the math.


Ah, but I claim trump over your geekdom, since I actually wrote a website on those topics. Thus I am more pathetic than you are.
Atomic Rocket main page

noo...just my knowledgeable!

[nyrath]

Originally Posted by Dallidas

space couches! maybe a terminal with lots of books, movies, or games in it or something?

Stock the terminal with Everquest and World of Warcraft.

[Dallidas]

Originally Posted by nyrath

Stock the terminal with Everquest and World of Warcraft.

no...they would never get up to exercise and die from drinking to many red bulls

[TheUnlogicalOne]

Alright, what I think I'm going to do is increase the size of the rec/mess deck to the full size of the compartment. Put the cargo hatches on the "floor" instead of a single one in the "ceiling". I was only planing on putting any serious shielding only around the command and rec decks, as those are where the crew sit during combat, but I can easily have all of them on the command deck.

Inflatable looks like the way to go. I don't think it would ever shrink like the current designs do for launch, but would simply be made of flexible materials instead of metal etc. If you are close enough to be getting cooked by a laser I figure you are in serious trouble anyways, so no worries there, just a basic reflective outer armor would do.

Originally Posted by nyrath

Stock the terminal with Everquest and World of Warcraft.

Wonder what the lag would be like out past Mars?

[VALKYRIE013]

I bow to your geekdom

great website btw nyrath love the old scifi stuff.. always like when worlds collide and the old von braun designs..

"sir we've run out of red bull" " damn it i said it a thousand times storage for redbull!"
"turn around now, misson failer!"

maybe a double cabin... a heavly sheilded control cabin that could be jetesoned as a life raft, and an inflatable one for crew quarters etc. when not in a battle save some weight that way..

never liked the idea of being cramped into a sardine can alla apollo csm..

shuttle to orion..is like going from an rv to a pinto

[nyrath]

Originally Posted by TheUnlogicalOne

Wonder what the lag would be like out past Mars?

It would average to more than twenty-four minutes With an additional second of lag for every half light second of distance added ("half" since the signal has to travel both to and from Earth). A half light second is about 150,000 kilometers, or about half the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

I was thinking more in terms of those games restricted to players actually living inside the ship.

If you have such games linked to players in other ships or planets, you are just making it easier for fiendish space hackers to infiltrate the ship's master computer. Very bad, especially if the ship is a military vessel and the hacker belongs to the enemy.
Atomic Rocket: Space War: Weapons