Author Topic: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?  (Read 29322 times)

Offline sanman

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Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« on: 12/11/2017 05:49 am »
So I don't know if this has been asked before - but what are people's picks for favorite spaceships from science fiction?
And what are the reasons behind the choices?

Offline Lar

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #1 on: 12/11/2017 06:21 am »
Gay Deceiver from "The Number of the Beast"  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Number_of_the_Beast_(novel) because someday my Model 3 (if and when) will grow up into a car/spaceship computer as smart as Gay....  The book itself, kinda meh these days (not RAH's best work) ...
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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #2 on: 12/11/2017 07:32 pm »
The Eagle Transporter from Space:1999.



The show itself was a bit trippy for my taste, but the Eagles were beautiful, and semi-realistic* near-term moon-based cis-lunar utility vehicles.

Runner-up: The Hermes, from The Martian. Sadly I can't imagine NASA ever building anything like it - too big, and too complex with the artificial gravity ring.

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Offline AS_501

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #3 on: 12/11/2017 08:04 pm »
The original Starship Enterprise because it looks like it was designed by engineers.  No offense, but the "D" and "E" models (plus Voyager) look like they were designed by fashion designers.  :)

Note:  Another favorite, the spaceship Discovery in "2001", was supposed to have large heat dissipation panels attached to the engines.  But Clarke and Kubrick realized they might look like wings to the general public, so off they came.
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Offline ncb1397

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #4 on: 12/11/2017 08:06 pm »

Runner-up: The Hermes, from The Martian. Sadly I can't imagine NASA ever building anything like it - too big, and too complex with the artificial gravity ring.


According to the link below, the fictional Hermes is only 110 metric tonnes. Much lighter than the ISS. So, I wouldn't consider it too big for NASA. Looking at the movie renderings of it, it looks smaller as well. I agree though that the artificial gravity ring would be dropped.
 
https://www.insidescience.org/news/inside-spaceflight-martian

edit: Apparently, to accelerate a craft of 110 mT at the desired 2 mm/s^2, you need 220 Newtons of force. So, 40 5.4 Newton 100 KW X3 thrusters and 4 megawatts of power.
« Last Edit: 12/11/2017 08:17 pm by ncb1397 »

Offline mme

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #5 on: 12/11/2017 08:06 pm »
Discovery One from 2001. Mostly because I was young and impressionable when I saw the movie and I hoped that something like that could happen in my lifetime.
Space is not Highlander.  There can, and will, be more than one.

Offline AlesH

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #6 on: 12/11/2017 08:19 pm »
Nubian Royal Starship from Star Wars Episode I.

Beautiful, fast, elegant.


« Last Edit: 12/12/2017 06:07 am by AlesH »

Offline Coastal Ron

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #7 on: 12/11/2017 08:51 pm »
While some science fiction spaceships clearly defy the laws of physics (or logic), I like the ones that try to adhere to the laws of physics. Two of my favs are:

1. The Babylon 5 Starfury

2. The Moonbus in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey"
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Offline Arb

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #8 on: 12/11/2017 10:06 pm »
#1 Discovery One, from the business end
#2 Tintin's with its hyper V2 curves

Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #9 on: 12/11/2017 10:12 pm »
2001's 'Discovery' for me. Tintin's - or more accurately Professor Calculus's - ship was inspiring as a kid. And the Eagle from Space: 1999.
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Offline faadaadaa

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #10 on: 12/11/2017 10:31 pm »
Drake Heavy-Lift Utility Combat Shuttle-Gunship from Alient:  Covenant

Offline Arb

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #11 on: 12/11/2017 10:33 pm »
#1 Discovery One, from the business end

And the music to go with it...

Offline Ixian77

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #12 on: 12/11/2017 10:35 pm »
Tholian ships from OST.

Discovery from 2001.

Offline Khadgars

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #13 on: 12/11/2017 10:54 pm »
Has to Enterprise NCC-1701-D!  Grew up on her  ;D

« Last Edit: 12/11/2017 10:54 pm by Khadgars »
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Offline GreenShrike

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #14 on: 12/11/2017 11:04 pm »
I've a few favourites, so I'll hope you forgive me if I instead pick them from different sources.

First, one of the first on-screen space superiority fighters designed for true Newtonian flight: Babylon 5's StarFury. Star fighters should not fly like WW2 aircraft. I'm also fond of the first fully-CGI on-screen fighter: The Last Starfighter's GunStar.

Second is the TriOptimum* corporate research vessel Von Braun, of the video game System Shock 2. Creeping through her corridors with just a spanner and a decrepit pistol containing maybe three rounds while The Many hunt me are some of my favourite gaming experiences -- for me, way scarier than Dead Space's USG Ishimura.

David Weber's Honor Harrington military SF series has a lot of cool ships, but I'm going to have to give the nod to the HMS Fearless, in its second incarnation as a Star Knight-class heavy cruiser, in the novel The Honor of the Queen. As much as I like the HMS Nike, the GNS Terrible, the HMAMC Wayfarer and all the subsequent ships Harrington served on, it's re-reading Fearless' solo death ride straight into the broadside of the twice-as-large battlecruiser Thunder of God that really gives me chills. (All right, that and Fourth Yeltsin.)

Oh, and I need to mention one from anime.  Hmm...  This being NSF, I think I'm going to have to pick the rocket -- unnamed, as far as I know -- from Wings of Honneamise (aka The Royal Space Force). The plot has to do with the nascent space program on an alternate Earth, and a broken man who, while only trying avoid real military service, instead joins the complete laughingstock of a "Space Force" and, in doing so, finds something to believe in. At the end of the movie, his lonely message of hope broadcast from his rickety capsule to an uncaring planet below on the verge of all-out war, guts me every time I see it. Spectacular -- worth a couple of hours if the thought of a fictionalized Project Mercury-type program appeals.

* Yes, like my avatar. ;-)
« Last Edit: 12/11/2017 11:04 pm by GreenShrike »
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Offline Poole Amateur

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #15 on: 12/11/2017 11:08 pm »
The Constitution Class Enterprise(s) from the first six movies. She is so beautiful.

Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #16 on: 12/11/2017 11:23 pm »
Yeah - I always thought the Galaxy-Class Enterprise D was a bit 'squashy' looking.
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Offline Electric Paint

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #17 on: 12/11/2017 11:32 pm »
Both of my picks are the namesakes for the stories they appear in. The USCSS Prometheus, and the XGP-15A-II Outlaw Star.
The Prometheus has a sexy dual-level cockpit design, and very practical four-engine fusion propulsion system that doubles as a landing assembly. The Outlaw Star is very close to my heart, as I adore that series, and it also sports a four-engine sublight plasma drive, with an FTL prop device called the Münchhausen drive. Its robotic manipulators are sturdy enough for close range combat with pesky space pirates, too.

Offline strangequark

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #18 on: 12/11/2017 11:49 pm »
However you feel about the show, you’ve got to admit that MacFarlane’s starship aesthetics are on point with the Orville.

Offline nacnud

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Re: Favorite Spaceships from Science Fiction?
« Reply #19 on: 12/12/2017 12:07 am »
I love me a Starfury but the Rocinante has to take the biscuit at the mo.

Just look at her go...

« Last Edit: 12/12/2017 12:14 am by nacnud »

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