# Space ships in sci-fi - which is the most 'realistic'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 13, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644 "2012-02-13T00:19:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/41 "2012-02-13T10:51:56Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I don’t think the Falcon is a cargo ship, its a passenger ship. It’s stock type is a [YT-1300f](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/YT-1300_light_freighter) light [freighter](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Freighter). My understanding has always been that the “Special modifications” were in the area of engine capacity and smuggler hidey-holes, but the basic layout is still that of a light cargo vessel (25-100 tons). If it were a passenger ship, it would be laid out in the [YT-1300p](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/YT-1300_light_freighter#YT-1300p) configuration, but[it’s not](http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070217103320/starwars/images/1/1a/MillenniumFalconInterior.jpg). > [@](#): > > Ditto for the Serenity, in one of the early episodes where they find that ship that has been raided by the Reavers you can see how big and open a real cargo hauler is. That was a colony ship. But I didn’t mean the Firefly class was some sort of equivalent of a bulk Cargo ship (that’s the _Nostromo_.) _Serenity_ is a [“Multipurpose, Mid-Bulk Transport”](http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/03-K64-Firefly#Series_3) - the cargo hold is clearly the largest feature in her design (payload is listed as ~ 80 tons) and she’s designed for easy access to the hold for loading. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/42 "2012-02-13T11:23:39Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > as mentioned above, a sphere makes much more sense. max volume per surface area and structurally strongest shape. Correction - a sphere makes much more sense when you’re trying to contain heat or pressure. It makes no sense to have a big unpressurized ship that is shaped like a sphere, it makes no sense to have your machinery in pressurized/heated areas, it makes no sense for all your habitable areas to be in a single sphere that could be compromised. Probably the best arrangement would look something like an unfinished Death Star, arranged differently. You’d have equitorial/polar structural rings where you’d mount weapons, sensors, maneuvering, and docking apparatus. Possibly supporting an exterior layer of radiation/kinetic shielding here. Mounted along the internal supports would be the power plants, life support systems, etc. Surrounding those, in pods like grape clusters, would be where you’d find the spheres. These would be partially for human habitation, but they’d also help insulate the internal systems against damage. The battle bridge would cover no more than half the habitation modules. In case of danger you would just rotate it to the side facing away from the threat (assuming such a favorable rotation exists). The hab pods would absorb all the damage first, and everybody would just have to sleep in the bridge until repairs could be done. So in summary, yeah, overall the ship should have a round-ish plan, but nothing needs to be strictly spherical except the 3-5 meter pods where the perishables live. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/43 "2012-02-13T11:26:10Z")
I must speak up for the interior of the _Dark Star_, in that it was a total shithole with crap strewn all over the place, and looked like it stank, just like it would be likely to be with [del]four[/del] three guys living in it bored out of their minds for years on end. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/44 "2012-02-13T12:43:27Z")
The _Discovery_ in _2001_ does seem a probable design, and it’s notable that it very closely reswembles the ship in his much earlier story _Breaking Strain_ Robert Heinlein’s ship in _Rocket Ship Galileo_ still seems reasonable to me – a chemical rocket built for point-to-point transfer on the Earth (much like a comercial jet that hopped through space) retrofitted with an atomic engine (a reactor that heats its reaction mass – in this case zinc – to high-energy vapor). It’s not the most efficient ship, but it is sup;posed to be what a small operation could build with existing materials (assuming the existence of a thriving rocket-ship transport system). When they turned it imnto a film (with a lot of changes in the plot), the ship became a built-from-scratrch-by-industry ship, but still with the same basic atomic engine. Heinlin wrote long and lovingly about the back and forth involved in building a control room that could both seem practical and reasonable and could also be filmed, in his essay _Filming Destination Moon_, which has been anthologized more than once. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/45 "2012-02-13T12:55:22Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > How in the hell have we made it 7 posts in and no one has mentioned the grandfather and grandmaster of realistic spaceship design:\*\* 2001: A Space Odyssey\*\*. > > I present the nuclear powered [Discover 1](http://spyhunter007.com/Images/a_space_odyssey_discovery.gif). It emits no sounds audible from the outside (as one would expect in space), has no visible exhaust, travels at realistic speeds, and abides by the laws of physics when it comes to maneuvering. It also features an internal centrifuge that creates artificial gravity, but only for a specific area of the ship. > > And of course, this is just one of several practical spaceships featured in the movie, again showing why **2001: A Space Odyssey** is almost more science-fact than science-fiction. Except for HAL. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/46 "2012-02-13T13:15:55Z")
What no mention of The Ark from Starlost? No hand waving of the speed of light. Just a big sub light speed ship. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/47 "2012-02-13T13:54:27Z")
Some of the Alliance ships in _Firefly_ were basically flying cities/skyscrapers, which I thought was a neat idea. The biggest disadvantage, though, is if you are at the top of one tower and have to go to the top of another…_all the way down_, over, then _all the way back up._ Inefficient. But cool looking. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/48 "2012-02-13T16:27:02Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > What no mention of The Ark from Starlost? No hand waving of the speed of light. Just a big sub light speed ship. With artificial gravity. So far, it’s Heinlein, followed by 2001’s Discovery. ---
**Author:** ![theR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@theR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theR)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/49 "2012-02-13T17:15:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The crew quarters would probably be a sphere, as would the fuel tanks, to get the most volume per skin area (skin is mass, after all). But it would probably make sense to have a long truss of some sort between the engines and the crew compartment, since whatever your engines run on is probably radioactive. > > For a warship, it would make sense to make the whole thing spherical, with partitions inside for crew, fuel, equipment, etc. A warship’s skin should be armor, which makes the weight of it that much more critical. Neal Stephenson’s _Anathem_ might be relevant: [spoiler]The Daban Urnud from Neal Stephenson’s _Anathem_ uses multiple spheres inside a larger structure that is an icosahedron (looks like a 20-side die). The propulsion is explained generally in the book but without a lot of detail. [Daban Urnud | Anathem Wiki | Fandom](http://anathem.wikia.com/wiki/Daban_Urnud) (site has more spoilers)[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/50 "2012-02-13T17:31:32Z")
> [@Malden\_Capell](#): > > And what about those poor crewmen who maintain the nascelles, in among the radiation? Don’t they get suits? In the TV shows, it seems they don’t. The crewmen you see are in main engineering, not in the nacelles. There were times when people had to suit up to climb into the Jeffries tubes, which connect the nacelles to the secondary hull. [/QUOTE] > [@MrDibble](#): > > It’s stock type is a [YT-1300f](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/YT-1300_light_freighter) light [freighter](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Freighter). My understanding has always been that the “Special modifications” were in the area of engine capacity and smuggler hidey-holes, but the basic layout is still that of a light cargo vessel (25-100 tons). If it were a passenger ship, it would be laid out in the [YT-1300p](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/YT-1300_light_freighter#YT-1300p) configuration, but[it’s not](http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070217103320/starwars/images/1/1a/MillenniumFalconInterior.jpg). It looks like to get stuff into the holds you usually have to go through another room, like engineering. Why isn’t there direct access into the holds? ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/51 "2012-02-13T17:36:27Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > as mentioned above, a sphere makes much more sense. max volume per surface area and structurally strongest shape. Humans don’t effectively use the space in rounded structures though. If we were gelatinous amoeba-men, sure, but people do better with right angles. Everything we make is built to fit in right angled living-space. Put a refrigerator in a geodesic dome house or a couch or hang a flat screen TV. If you build a sphere, you’ll need custom-rounded everything. Else, you’ll build right angled walls within, but then you lose all the extra space the sphere granted you. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/52 "2012-02-13T18:36:35Z")
I think the way ships like the Millennium Falcon were supposed to work was that you’d fit a big rectangular cargo container (like the ones we use nowadays) up front in between those two big triangular protrusions, then detach that and pick up a new one at your delivery point. The ship itself was basically just a semi tractor. ---
**Author:** ![slowlearner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@slowlearner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowlearner)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/53 "2012-02-13T19:14:11Z")
but if you understand the fundamental laws of nature and are able to transcend them and fly faster than light none of the designs or plot scenarios make any sense, 2001 takes place within the limits of current human understanding, thus everyone you meet in space is petty, avaricious, or boring and the scientists on the moon are portrayed as a bunch of union carpenters shooting the shit on break… ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/54 "2012-02-13T19:19:34Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > With artificial gravity. > > So far, it’s Heinlein, followed by 2001’s Discovery. If you want to go with written works there are a lot of hard SF out there that has realistic depictions. I was trying to come up with something from tv or movies. The gravity thing is often just easier and cheaper to do than try to show weightlessness. It’s rare to see a show or movie that obeys the universal speed limit. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/55 "2012-02-13T19:19:49Z")
Do we ever see the big engineering room of the Millennium Falcon? Actually, the only sets I recall are the cockpit, the turret gun, the entrance ramp, a couple of the corridors (one with the hidey holes), and the corner of the hold with the chess table. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/56 "2012-02-13T19:28:01Z")
The Mass Effect series of games has some interesting info about their ships. Most notably, a “stealth device” is essentially a heat sink, and does nothing to make the ship invisible like Star Trek’s cloaking devices. The idea is that ships are usually so far away from one another that visual detection is useless anyway. The ship has to radiate a lot of heat, though; otherwise it would quickly build up and broil the crew. A ship has panels on its hull designed for dissipating heat efficiently, but make the ship as conspicuous on thermal scans as a road flare on a moonless night. A stealth device on a ship channels waste heat to an internal heat sink instead of to the hull panels, making the ship inconspicuous for a time. Leave the device on too long, and it overheats, breaks, and turns the ship into an oven. Also, they use weapons that [need to be aimed carefully](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLpgxry542M). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/57 "2012-02-14T06:42:50Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It looks like to get stuff into the holds you usually have to go through another room, like engineering. Why isn’t there direct access into the holds? One freight room is right by the freight loading area (which has the freight ramp), another by the freight elevator. > [@](#): > > Do we ever see the big engineering room of the Millennium Falcon? Yes, when they’re reparing the hyperdrive in ESB. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/58 "2012-02-14T08:56:26Z")
Possibly the _only_ realistic method of interstellar travel is beamed propulsion; you send a stream of particles from a fixed transmitter towards the ship, and the impact transfers momentum without any need for on-board fuel. One of the few examples of this kind of ship in fiction appears in Karl Schroeder’s _Permanence_, although I’d be interested to hear of others. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/59 "2012-02-14T09:15:44Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Humans don’t effectively use the space in rounded structures though. If we were gelatinous amoeba-men, sure, but people do better with right angles. Everything we make is built to fit in right angled living-space. Put a refrigerator in a geodesic dome house or a couch or hang a flat screen TV. If you build a sphere, you’ll need custom-rounded everything. Else, you’ll build right angled walls within, but then you lose all the extra space the sphere granted you. so why is the ISS all made of cylinders then instead of being a rectangular box? [http://timgeorgedesign.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/iss\_exploded\_acronyms.jpg](http://timgeorgedesign.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/iss_exploded_acronyms.jpg) If your building a spaceship, you can design all your engineering and vent shafts, ducting etc to use the curved space and have rectangular walls on the interior. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644/60 "2012-02-14T11:49:01Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I always assumed the thin sections connecting the Enterprise was so they could use explosives to blow them in an emergency. They do this in one episode of TNG(blow the saucer section free) And I think in Enterprise too? (the saucer and engines seperate). Actually, the saucer on the Enterprise D was designed to be separated from the rest of the ship. There were two bridges, the main one in the saucer, and a “[battle bridge](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Battle_bridge)” in the secondary hull. Since the “D” carried families, they could be left in the saucer section at a safe distance from a battle while the rest of the ship was commanded from the battle bridge and would engage the enemy. Once the battle was over, if the Enterprise was victorious, the two sections would rejoin. If the secondary part of the ship was destroyed, the saucer was capable of self-propulsion and would seek safety at a Federation starbase or an allied Federation world. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-ships-in-sci-fi-which-is-the-most-realistic/612644.md?page=4)