posted
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
------------------ "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 http://www.geocities.com/cyrano_jones.geo/
------------------ "When You're Up to Your Ass in Alligators, Today Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life." -- Management slogan, Ridcully-style (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent, Discworld) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prakesh's Star Trek Site
posted
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
------------------ "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 http://www.geocities.com/cyrano_jones.geo/
------------------ "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 http://www.geocities.com/cyrano_jones.geo/
[This message has been edited by Baloo (edited April 05, 2000).]
posted
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.
------------------ "Species 5618, human. Warp-capable, origin grid 325, physiology inefficient, below average cranium capacity, minimum redundant systems, limited regenerative abilities." Ex Astris Scientia
posted
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.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
