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.
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