2300AD: Ship design Clarke Class Explorer

[middenface]

Hi,

1st post. I've been doing some work for Mongoose, I have been creating maps for Traveller and 2300AD.
This is one I did for my self. Done in Sketchup and Illustrator. Its very much in the classic GDW Traveller, so no frills, which means it is easier to read.
clarke-map-c.png

Also created the flight patch too, but thats the old one.

[bartmoss]

Awesome deck plan, and I love the logo.

But.

This is not a 2300AD ship.

Why? Because the plans obviously assume artificial gravity, which does not exist in 2300ad.

[Chashio]

That is a cool plan. =) Nice job. I'd also be interested to see a side view, either flat elevation lines or full body render with materials. The first might fit better with your style, though a render would be sweeet.

[Kearnaun]

Awesome deck plan, and I love the logo.

But.

This is not a 2300AD ship.

Why? Because the plans obviously assume artificial gravity, which does not exist in 2300ad.

Because of the direction into which the reaction drive would develop thrust? Other than that I have to say its a fine deckplan. Gives me hope that one of these days I'll be able to something similar in Blender. Currently I'm ... not even close to a result like that.

[mearrin69]

Love the ship but bartmoss makes a good point. Awesome for CT, though!
M

[Krazma]

Awesome deck plan, and I love the logo.

But.

This is not a 2300AD ship.

Why? Because the plans obviously assume artificial gravity, which does not exist in 2300ad.

There are other 2300AD vessels that utilize a similar configuration. This is obviously intended to land on a planet, which *does* have gravity, so you have to have a deck orientation you can operate in when landed.

[DEWLine]

Not having direct access to all my old 2300 AD stuff at the moment...were any classes of stutterwarp-capables able to safely make planetfall?

[bartmoss]

There are other 2300AD vessels that utilize a similar configuration. This is obviously intended to land on a planet, which *does* have gravity, so you have to have a deck orientation you can operate in when landed.

I actually don't buy that either, the mass ratio of this vessel is way off. Or in other words, without magic gravitic technology, that thing could never land and take off again.

Not having direct access to all my old 2300 AD stuff at the moment...were any classes of stutterwarp-capables able to safely make planetfall?

Yes and no. Stutterwarp efficiency decreases greatly in local gravity fields. Ships need conventional rocket thrusters for takeoff/landings. I don't recall where the cut-off is but basically anything suborbital and below was definitely out of stutterwarp reach. But the design rules do allow you to mount both on a ship. I dont have my books with me either so I can't look up the exact mechanics.

[atpollard]

While the mass ratio appears way off for real life (needs to be 90+% fuel), I am too unfamiliar with ‘Shutterwarp’ and 2300AD tech in general to pass an informed judgement on how much fuel 2300 magic drives require.

That said, the ship appears to have a ducted fan system to provide VTOL lift and control (note the ducted exhaust), a rear mounted MHD reaction thrust system to provide aircraft-like thrust in atmosphere and rocket-like thrust exo-atmospheric (just like the Shuttles main engines), and a ‘Shutterwarp’ drive for (deep space travel?).

Forgive my unfamiliarity with ‘shutterwarp’, but could a shutterwarp drive propel the ship straight up (perpendicular to the floor) at 0.5 G while travelling between worlds or stars in deep space?

Upon approach to a planet, the ship enters orbit leaving the crew operating in zero G (like the ISS or an orbiting shuttle). The MHD drive accelerates (or more likely slows) the ship to a stable orbital velocity and initiates a reentry burn at the desired ‘reentry window’.

The ship enters like the shuttle – aerobraking and thermal protection coating on the belly – until final approach where a flare could initiate a stall and the vectored ducts transition to hellicopter-like flight and a gentle belly landing.

For a launch, the ducts lift the ship off the ground while the reaction thrusters accelerate forward until the wings and body can provide lift. The thrusters continue to accelerate and climb in the atmosphere and eventually transition to rocket mode and accelerate to escape velocity.

As the ship places enough distance between itself and the world, it rotates ‘belly down’ and the shutterwarp ‘magicly’ propels it through deep space at a constant 0.2-0.5 G acceleration creating the necessary ‘artificial gravity’.


For the record, I acknowledge that three different drives make it a bit of a ‘Rube Goldberg’ system … I simply question whether it is necessarily ‘broken’ under the 2300AD rules.

[bartmoss]

Stutterwarp does not provide real acceleration (it is a series of tiny "jumps", each very short, giving the ship pseudo-acceleration - it looks like the ship is moving through space like a regular rocket, but it isn't - it is "tunneling" through space very rapidly - if you know what I mean?). Besides Stutterwarp, 2300AD is supposed to be "hard" science, so if a ship's design is way off, it shouldn't have a place in the 2300AD universe. And just to reiterate, I think this ship is way cool - it just doesn't work in 2300AD.