Spaceship Design: What makes sense, and what's nonsense?

[Frost]

Originally Posted by Varyon

An interesting consideration when it comes to gravity is for spacecraft that are meant to operate planetside as well as in space. Planetside, a layout like a modern airplane (long and short) makes sense, whereas in space, a layout like a tall tower (tall and skinny) makes sense, provided constant - or at least frequent - thrust. The Savage Chicken from the webcomic Freefall has an interesting compromise - many of the amenities rotate or are otherwise setup to work under either situation. For example, the tables have booth-style seating, and the seats are setup so that the seat and back are functionally interchangeable, while the table can rotate for either orientation. That example can be see here.

You make a good point aircraft style belly landing would actually be more convenient for managing cargo amongst other things.

But I think it would make more sense to put the main engine in the 'belly' so that gravity and main engine thrust were on the same axis rather than placing the main engine in the 'tail' and having build everything to handle loads in two directions and to reconfigure the ship every time you land or take off.