The THS Spaceship Thread

[Kitsune]

I open this thread to collect new and interesting ship designs, with which our PC's (or NPC's) can boldly go where no man has gone before.

I start with a design of my own:





Many military experts of the early 22nd century believe that the trend in space warfare is going towards slimer Space Dominance Vehicles, so called LSDV’s. But the most prominent LSDV class in service, the LSDV-5 Hermann Oberth class, as well its variant, the LSDV-6 Soldati, turned out to be weakly armed, equipped with barely adequate sensors, and generally having a rather limited capability profile, greatly disappointing the expectations of especially Germany's Raumwaffe.

With a new German government’s willingness to spend more money for defense, while promoting a “lighter-but-more-advanced-is-better” doctrine at the same time, Systems Technologies newly formed space-ship development division Astrion proposed a new LSDV design of greatly increased abilities.

In spring 2098 the German government signalled its support for the LSDV-7 project, which led to a controversity in Germany, since the LSDV-5 (Herrmann Oberth class) had just been introduced…many saw it as proof that System Technologies had used its power to influence the German states decision making, with the aim being to pocket more tax money. The very high price for one LSDV-7 ship did not help to dispel this suspicion.

Nonetheless, the building of a prototype ensued, named “Fomalhaut” (pronounced "Foh-mull-low"), which was ready for field testing in autumn 2101, within record time.

The Fomalhaut prototype proved to be impressive indeed, featuring unpreceeded performance characteristics and versatility. It’s a very sleek design, measuring a mere 45 feet wide on average and 195 feet long. The front is sharply sloped, although it is not streamlined: the hull is a slightly flattened cylinder with a surface consisting of a multitude of plane surfaces giving it a somehow fractal-patterned appearance. The radiator wings are of a similar design as those of the Hermann Oberth class. Compared to the LSDV-5 ships, sensors, front armor and especially the weaponry have been significantly upgraded. Also, the living quarters are more generous, the Fomalhaut has ample space for a human crew of five and up to eight Commando soldiers for boarding operations.
The most interesting feature of the Fomalhaut is the unique HT/HI AM pulse twin drive. This enables the LSDV-7 ships to combine the long range capabilities and Delta-V of the SDV-90 Resolution/Gram class ships with an acceleration capability during space combat which exceeds those of the Hermann Oberth class. In case of an emergency, both drives can be used at once, resulting in an acceleration on par with an AKV. However, this can be sustained only for about 18 minutes (with extended radiator wings), because of rapid overheating.

Typical payload is 500.3 tons. This includes either four Greif (Griffin) class AKV's or three Griffins and one MRF-5 “Störtebecker” class Personnel Deployment Vehicle (PDV) for boarding operations, as well as five human crewmembers, a fire team of up to eight Space Commandos, cybershells (4t weight assumed for all crewmembers, wether biological or mechanical, and their possessions/equipment), 25t cargo and 9 coilgun ammunition packs.

From October 2101 on, the Fomalhaut conducted test flights in Earth-Lunar space. A succesful deep space testing mission to Aletheia Station and back was conducted in spring 2102.

In early 2103 the ship was finally approved and entered service with the German Bundesraumwaffe on February 1st of that year. However, it was renamed to "Orion", which also became the official name of its class. Further vessels are to be named after stars with names like Sirius, Rigel and Altair being planned.




System Technologies Astrion LSDV-7 (Orion class, former prototype name Fomalhaut)


Crew: Commander (Leadership, Shiphandling, Tactics); Pilot (Piloting (High-Performance Spacecraft)); Navigator (Astrogation, Electronics Operation (Communications), Electronic Operation (Sensors)); 2 Weapons Officers (Gunner (Beams), Gunner (Railgun)); 20 Engineers (Mechanic (Antimatter Drive), Mechanic (Robotics), other Mechanic as appropriate); Medic (Diagnosis, Physician, Surgery). The usual human/parahuman crew numbers five persons (for example Commander, Navigator, one Weapons officer, one Mechanic and the Medic are human/parahuman), the rest are cybershells. The LSDV-7 has enough room to carry up to 8 infantry and associated equipment.

Design:
Cylinder (195’ x 45’, 631.8 spaces), diamondoid structure, extra-heavy frame, smart; cDR/cPF 80/10F, 5/1S, 10/1B (nanocomposite armor). Hull radiators (19 ksf); folding radiator wings (2 x 25 ksf). Chameleon surface.

Modules:
New basic bridge; large ladar, medium ladar; large PESA; large radar, medium radar; 125 HT antimatter pulse drive; 125 HI antimatter pulse drive; 250 tanks (ultralight, nuclear pellets); 0.125 antimatter bay (12.5 grams); 4 10MJ heavy laser towers [S]; 4 2.5MJ light laser towers [S]; 2 coilguns [F], coilgun [B]; 2 new 150’ particle accelerator [F]; 3 cabin; 2 bunkroom, heavy storm shelter (1 space, encloses bridge, 1000 cPF); 4 external cradles (125t each); minifac workshop; large entry module; surgery; 5 cargo (25t).

Statistics:
EMass 4083.64t; CMass 6079.1t; LMass 7579.1t.
Cost M€ 1025.99. cHP 1918. Size Modifier [Hull] +5/+9, [Radiators] +9. HT 12. Maintenance Interval: 1.25 hours. RRA 62.5.

Performance*:
sAcc (HI) 0.1 G. Burn Endurance (HI) 50 hours. Burn Points (HI) 18000. Delta-V (HI) 55 mps.
sAcc (HT) 0.2 G. Burn Endurance (HT) 12.5 hours. Burn Points (HT) 9000. Delta-V (HT) 27.5 mps.
No airspeed.

*HI drive normally used for travelling, HT drive used in combat situations. In cases of emergency “burst acceleration” of 0.3 G is possible for short time periods.