[ChrystalR]

Hey,
I am doing some research on spaceships, because I am kind of trying to create a type of my own, its a prosject of mine. Anyways, even though I am a Science Fiction fan, I am really bad with the technical stuff, so I am trying to educate myself, by looking at different models, trying to figure out how they are built, and what they consist of. As I said, I really suck with these things, so I am wondering if anyone know of good sites, were they portray different models, and types from a lot of different movies and series.
Good sites, some names that you know on models and ships, shuttles and such.

I am working with a writing prosject that should have been a fantasy novel, but now turns out to be Science Fiction-ish instead, so I have to do a lot of research. Any hints or tips on good sites, or forums more directed to writing Science Fiction would be nice :)

Thanks in advance!

Chrystal.

[kged]

Hello Chrystal, welcome to SFFW. The most "realistic" spaceships I've read about were in Mary Doria Russell's books "The Sparrow" and "Children of God". They weren't ships, as such - they were hollowed-out asteroids, fitted with engines and living quarters. Do bear in mind my scientific ignorance, so I may be well off course here, but they always seemed very plausible to me, at least more plausible than shiny metal tubes/saucers.

[Aneurin de Batz]

Try and sketch the layout so you get some kind of proportioning going. And a vague idea how the thing should pan out. And you don't end up putting sleeping quaters under an enginte room, which, of course, would not be a very good idea. If all else fails, invent your own materials - and why not? Could be some hitherto undiscovered element or compound if you're setting it in the future, or if it's an alternate reality, why should everything have the same name?

Beyond those tips, I can't think of any websites other than wikipedia, and I'm not sure how good that would be for you. It does, however, have information on pretty much every fictional spaceship, along with all the real ones on it, so it may be some use to you.

[goldhawk]

I would start by looking at what has currently been built and flown, especially things like MIR and the Space Station. Another source of design could be boat and ship design. They are designed to be at sea for weeks at a time.

And don't forget the toilet. You'd be surprised at the number of spaceships that don't have them.

[Rocket Sheep]

In the early days Star Trek's Enterprise was a good example for two main reasons... 1. the Tachyon drive, 2. the huge disc used to spin. Spinning is good for many reasons. Mainly because it provides a kind of gravity... provided you walk with your feet pointing towards the outer edge of the disc, and each floor would have a different amount of gravitational pull because of the distance it was from the center and the speed at which it was travelling... which meant at the center you'd be weightless and on the outer edge, quite heavy. Endlers Game utilised gravity well.

Another good reason to spin a ship is so that when you meet hot objects in space all that radiation isn't blasting at the same side for long enough to melt it. The Enterprise's design didn't suit that. Deflectors that can pop up like butterfly wings and rotate might also be useful for cooling the hull.

Also you have to think of possible huge appendages like solar sails and hydrogen collectors, depending on your power source.

I don't know of any good sites for this stuff tho. National Geographic seems to always be up with the latest space tech and some theoretical stuff.

[James Carmack]

PopSci is also worth a look. They do a lot of stuff on the latest technology as well as stuff that's still theoretical or in development. Like Goldie said, start with existing technology and branch out from there. The level of advancement of the civilization you're portraying will play a major role in the sort of tech you get to work with.

[netghost]

The great thing about science fiction is you have limitless tools at hand. By saying this, I mean: if you don't know what tool you need, make it up.

Modern ships can't take a human outside the moon. They just can't. The technology isn't there yet, and if it was, they'd be too expensive for just anyone to purchase. Think military.

Your ship will depend on the when of the story. If it's near future, you'll be looking at military vessels. Past that, you'll be looking at cruise ships that will take you to colonies on Titan or Europa or Mars. Past that, you're looking at hyperspace drives, which are easiest to write about, because there's absolutely no limitations.

Keep in mind that faster than light travel is impossible. It always has and always will be. PM me if you want a detailed explanation on how.

Power wise, think nuclear or atomic. Cold fusion/fission (one of those two) is good too. You need something that gives you lots of power from very little, without the use of fossil fuels. Our planet is running low on those, and you'd be hard pressed to find any on a planet that never supported life.

Think about how you'd achieve gravity on the ship if you want to have it. Centrifugal force is one way - the main cabin spins fast enough that it keeps everyone on board pulled to the floor.

Make sure the ship doesn't take over the rest of your story. A good story has a background and a foreground. The characters are in the foreground, and the background is what they live in. The world becomes much more realistic if the ship is in the background.

Good luck!

[Pulp]

Also, slightly OT because its not technical per say, but also look at modern warships and passenger ships to give an idea of what kind of crew and what jobs are required aboard a vessel.

[Radthorne]

Depending on the type of story you're doing, you'll probably either want to A) make at least scientifically-probable ships (which will take a lot more research) or B) just come up with something cool. :) It all kind of depends on how important the 'science' part of your sci-fi story is. If you're doing hard sci-fi, then the science, including the ships, needs to be pretty tight. If, on the other hand, you're mostly concerned with things other than the science and it's just a 'futuristic' story, you may have more options (I always like to use Firefly for my examples, since they made darn good stories, and the only explanation for how the ships worked was that there was a big rotating thingy in the engine room. No more science needed in order to tell a good tale...)

Anyway, I have a bunch of links, most of which are Star Trek related, but from which you can glean ideas of how space ships need to be physically laid out in order to do whatever it is you want them to do (decks for people, engine rooms, maintenance, that sort of thing). How much of that you need depends on the needs of the story.

Utopia Planitia (http://www.utopiaplanitia.info/index.html) is a pretty good one, particularly in their Blueprints section, for ship layouts.

Starship Dimensions (http://www.merzo.net/) is pretty cool, an attempt to make size charts for ships from all manner of TV and movie series. This can give you a good idea of what sorts of shapes can work, as well as how big things can get.

Wolf Pack (http://wolf359a.anet-stl.com/image.html) has a lot of great images made from 3D models of ships from Star Trek, Star Wars, and Babylon 5, again good fodder for getting ideas for shapes and different ship types.

Have fun!

[jerdrift]

A couple ideas on propulsion to look up

Solar Sails are pretty neat, light-speed as your exhaust velocity.

Fusion engines...

Tokamak Reactor?

A Ramscoop. A good idea, but speed and collection can be an issue.

Less Plausible \/

Wormhole drives? Creating a stable wormhole somehow to travel though.

Opening a wormhole to a place full of reaction mass, keeping on end inside your reactor?

Controlled dual-singularity ships are intense, although very improbable

:o

An important thing to look into as well is what the crew will do while traveling. Unless you're going for a really far-flung future, with very very fast ships. Even with relativistic flight dilation...it's a long time to most other places in our galaxy. Some type of stasis? Cryogenic freezing? Or just alot of patience maybe?

Good luck! :p