posted
I'm collecting and comparing long ships because... well, just because. It occured to me to do so. So I'm doing it. Makes a change from Star Trek ships.
Thing is, after taking a quick inventory, I realise that I can only think of 3! I really thought I'd be able to think of more than that.
So far I have - Discovery from 2001 - The Star Wars medical frigate - Event Horizon
After I got stuck on movie ships, I cast the net wider and came up with Larry Niven's tether designs for ramscoops and other ships with propulsion systems that are highly inimical to human life. The Protector, for instance. A big ramscoop with a pair of fusion drives and a set of magnetic coils on the end of a 30 mile long tether, towing a heavily shielded crew compartment at the end.
Now I'm stuck. I have the feeling I'm missing something really obvious, but can't think what it is.
btw, does anyone know of any good images or models of the Event Horizon anywhere online? An image search turns up very little except movie posters. Surely someone with a dab hand at 3D modelling has done a set of orthographic views or something? It's a very impressive looking design.
Registered: Jul 2006
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Now I'm stuck. I have the feeling I'm missing something really obvious, but can't think what it is. Duh! Spaceball One!
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posted
If you're interested, a lot of the ships I've made for my little imaginary race of space-going folk are long with long bits in the middle clicky.
There's also the EAS Cortez from B5...
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Well, it's never been made as a movie AFAIK, but there was some Niven story about some alien named Pssthpok or something like that & he had a ship that was like 12 miles long. It was like...3 small pods connected by miles of thin string. Or such. I don't know, I don't read Niven, btu a guy I went to HS with raved about it.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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What about that spindly Enterprise thing you see for about 3 frames in TMP. Does that count?
The Leonov would be long and spindly if it wasn't for that big rotating bit in the middle.
Oh, oh, what about the D7, or is that not long and thin enough?
Erm... There's the titular Lexx I suppose. Ok. Now I'm struggling.
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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Concur about Event Horizon the movie. I have always thought that Event Horizon was a complete waste of a perfectly good opportunity to make a decent space opera. Instead they had to blow the whole SFX budget on a crappy horror movie with spacesuits. Even Sam Neil couldn't rescue this mess from mediocrity and pointlessness.
Shik, I think that was the Protector as well. Niven had at least two instances of Protector. One was an alien and one was a large asteroid equipped with fusion drives in which parts of the interior were hollowed out as hangars, cargo spaces and living quarters.
I'll have to dig out my copy. You should give it a go sometime. Very good stuff, mostly. Not lately though. He's getting old and it's starting to show. In particular, if you wish to consider yourself a true SF fan, you must read Ringworld. It was actually published as two different editions. The second version was an amended copy which included revisions to the design and function of the Ringworld as suggested by the readers, who wrote to him about problems with the first design after reading the first edition.
Chris, interesting designs. I particularly like the inclusion of exposed scaffolding. I understand and appreciate Roddenbery's logic that advanced manned spacecraft would have smooth exterior hulls because all the high maintenance stuff is kept inside. However, every square centimetre of exterior plate that isn't there for a very good reason is just extra mass that costs extra fuel.
This is a particularly appealing feature of designs like Niven's. There is also the antimatter rocket design (select Valkyrie from the menu in the following link): http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3aj.html which is a design for super lightweight interstellar relativistic spacecraft. Tethers are potentially revolutionary because their use eliminates all the structural reinforcement that a tail end "pusher" configuration requires, as opposed to the towed or "puller" configuraion.
Wasn't the EAS Cortez the ship which that fella who was Captain of Excalibur captained before he took over Excalibur?
Registered: Jul 2006
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Ginger, good suggestions. I suppose I didn't really consider the D7 because the "head" is so small, it doesn't really have the same look as, say, the medical frigate. The long neck is more like an extension rather than a major section of the main hull.
That spindly Enterprise thing being the so-called SS Enterprise with two huge rings at one end and something not unlike the D7's "head" at the other?
Lexx. Now there's a spliff induced design if ever I saw one!
Registered: Jul 2006
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Well I could tell about some Star Wars expanded universe ships with the long part, but in canon terms the Rebel Blockade Runner has a long part.
Registered: Feb 2005
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Oh yeah, the Tantiv something ship that got nabbed at the start of Episode IV?
You know, take away those extensions on either side of the central spine and replace them with big fuel tanks that can be jettisoned, and you're probably looking at a pretty realistic looking orbit to orbit spacecraft of the sort that we might one day observe tramping between Earth and Mars. Possibly.
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
That's what I get for skimming. Also, eff a Ringworld.
Cortez was Jack Maynard's ship. Gideon's had no nmae mentioned.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
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