Spacecraft Structure, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Mecha

I’ve decided to start putting entries regarding my projects on the blog. These can be considered “design notes” or “work in progress” — but mostly, they are here to keep me involved and motivated. I really dislike blogs with no fresh content, so it’s a good way to keep me disciplined — and writing.

This time I’m mostly working on Project 7, which is a science-fiction setting that I intend to use for fiction and maybe even a tabletop RPG, if I find (or design) rules I can live with. Number 7 is a weird hybrid: I’m going to attempt to mix transhumanism, hard science, and mecha in one place.

I know what you’re saying, mecha are not hard science. They look cool but they totally break suspension of disbelief. Other types of specialized vehicles would do better. Well, maybe there’s a way…

First, let’s take a look at a basic spacecraft layout:

The proportions of the components do not necessarily reflect real world designs, but it’s only a schematic, so please bear with me. Examples of this are already flying today: think of a Soyuz ferry, for example. The Apollo CSM and the upcoming CEV also match this layout. You can play with the technology — use a NERVA nuclear engine, or an ion drive — and still get something similar, with just the overall proportions changing.

So far so good. Where am I going with that?

Come back tomorrow for part 2.

Posted by vman at April 23, 2006 09:26 PM