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Posted by Baloo (Member # 5) on :

There's a contest going on in another forum. The challenge is to do the X-33 shuttle replacement. I went a little farther than the explicit instructions. The following is an X-33 based design for an interstellar explorer, the Cochrane Interstellar Explorer (CIE) 07:

--Baloo

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"Tourist comes into town, big seafood buff.
He gets into a cab, asks the driver, "Where can I get scrod?"
Cabbie turns around, looks at him. "Bud," he says, "I've been asked that many times, many ways. But that's the first time I ever heard it asked for in the pluperfect subjunctive."
-- Old Joke
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Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

Baloo, can I just say that I think that your art work, especially your colouring/shading is getting much better and looking quite spiffy!

Keep it up... the art work I mean...

*looks around*

*backs out quickly*

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"Who wouldn't be the one you love
Who wouldn't stand inside your love." - Stand Inside Your Love, The Smashing Pumpkins

[This message has been edited by AndrewR (edited April 03, 2000).]

Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :

Hey, that's really awesome. Like a micromachine I would like to grab from the screen.

Cochrane? So it's supposed to have warp drive already, or an allusion to the future?

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Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Well, it says it's "interstellar", and it's post-Valiant, so I'd say that puts it in the warp era...

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"Good. I'll look forward to your report, Mr. Broccoli."
-Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, TNG: "Hollow Pursuits"

Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :

*And* it has warp nacelles!

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Posted by Baloo (Member # 5) on :

I still haven't started a description for it. It's supposed to be a commercial venture by Cochrane, Inc. rather than a UESPA design. It's designed to take off and land horizontally when there is a large enough landing strip available, but also has VTOL capability for landing on (and taking off from) planets without commercial airports.

The "impulse engine" is a linear aerospike that uses laser ignition of a working fluid such as liquid H₂O, ammonia, or even liquid hydrogen to provide thrust. Power for the impulse, auxiliary VTOL engines, and warp drives comes from a high-efficiency fusion powerplant.

It's designed to be cheap to operate, easy to repair, and rugged. It isn't very roomy, however. I haven't figured out the dimensions of the cockpit, crew accommodations, and cargo compartment, but the combined space is probably about the size of a small camping trailer (perhaps the size of a postal delivery van or an English milk float, if the latter is the size I think it is). I still haven't thought out all the details (for example, the bussards may turn out to be retractable -- I think they'd interfere with proper control during the aerodynamic stages of an atmospheric reentry).

--Baloo

Posted by Baloo (Member # 5) on :

Well, it isn't an explorer (at least not exclusively anymore), and it's twice as large as originally planned. Here's the description: http://www.geocities.com/cyrano_jones.geo/CIE07.htm

--Baloo

[This message has been edited by Baloo (edited April 05, 2000).]

Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :

I see. I read X-33 and saw the design looked similar, and this is why I rather thought this would belong to the pre-warp era. However, aerodynamic considerations are still valid for a warp ship, so you get a "go" from me on this one.

Posted by Federation Shipmaster (Member # 15) on :

Very cool. Except the right and front views kind of nullify the ultimate coolness of the top view.

Posted by Baloo (Member # 5) on :

Yeah, well... I agree that those views look kind of klunky, but that's the way the real X-33 looks in those views (minus the nacelles, of course). I was going for accuracy, even if it offended my sensibilities. Now that I've got the basic design done, I may eventually work out a larger, slimmer vessel than that one.

--Baloo

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"Just because you know you're right doesn't mean you are."
-- Me
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