These are some concept models of your first spacecraft in TorchShips. It is an armed freighter – rebuilt for light combat, scouting, and convoy raiding. Approximately 150 meters long. It is crewed by 5 people.
Here is a comparison shot alongside the USS Saratoga – a US Navy carrier launched in 1955 (the Saratoga is 324 meters long).
(USS Saratoga model credit – WilliamT)
The frame is built around a central reinforced truss. The habitat ring is nestled deep in the structure, very near to the center of center of mass to reduce crew stress when the ship changes orientation quickly.
Corvette (no fuel tanks attached)
From left to right we have the reaction drive (blue), aft armor shield, secondary fuel tank (gold), habitat ring (green), reactor (gray), 3 weapon mounts (dark grey cylinders), magazines (black), and the fore armor shield.
Corvette – with fuel tanks attached
We’ll write more about ship design in later posts – but it is safe to say that form definitely follows function in the TorchShips universe – you won’t see a lot of fins or wings on deep space capable ships. A good reference if you’re interested in realistic spacecraft design is Atomic Rockets – specifically basic design.
What kind of reactor do these ships use? Seems awfully close to the crew hab.
Original design had it as an advanced nuclear reactor – we’re re-thinking this – plus debating its location on the ship frame as well. You’re right it is dangerously close to the crew hab 🙂
Hi, I am definitely thrilled by your project!
After looking on your ship design and comparing data from atomicrockets, etc. I came up with a somewhat different ship concept, paying attention to locating radiation sources away from the crew, provide artificial gravity during cruise, make tanks less vulnerable and double-use them as shields.
I put together some explaining text and 3D renderings in a pdf file located at:
http://home.arcor.de/francisdrakex/download/Flower%20Torchship.pdf , 1.6 MB
Have a look if you like!
francisdrake
Francis – this is great! do you mind if I post to a kickstarter update?
John, feel free to use it! I am glad to support your project not only as a backer on kickstarter but also by providing some usable input 🙂
Just saw your kickstarter through spacebattles.com, love the idea. I was wondering where radiators are going to be for the spacecraft, or do the armour shields double as radiators?
Love the concept, found it through spacebattles.com. I had a question about the ship design, where are radiators going to be located or do the armour shields serve as radiators? Or is there some other method for eliminating waste heat?
fore and aft armor doubles as ‘standard’ radiators, will also have some type of droplet release radiation system – debating if we’ll also have actual radiators that can be folded/tucked away during combat (Attack Vector uses ‘extending radiators’ as a surrender signal for example)