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Thor (heavy frigate)

0 (0%)

Hiram (Railgun drone)

0 (0%)

Occido MI (exploding mimic dron)

0 (0%)

Lux (Laser corvette)

0 (0%)

Stone (Solar sail transport)

0 (0%)

BIFROST (Laser drone)

0 (0%)

Pythagoras (Recovery ship)

0 (0%)

Julius (transforming drone)

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: December 13, 2012, 01:24:40 pm

[10ebbor10]

I assume the ships the pirates have aren't optimized for flying in the dusty atmosphere - we could design a hit-and-run fighter that can dip back into the safety of the giant sandstorm that is our atmosphere when necessary.

Giant defensive spacestation.

We don't need to worry about the planet. At all. There's nothing they could want to steal, not with the Haven station standing guard.

Note: A list of ships sizes near the OP would be neat.

[kaian-a-coel]

So our two R&D will likely be:
-the sensor drone
-some kind of atmosphere-to-orbit-and-back shuttle.

I wish to promote my design for the shuttle.

[10ebbor10]

Here's my transport ship's idea. It's a dedicated cargo shuttle. Modified it because most transport will be up, not down.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Valkyrie Athmospherical Transport

Desired volume: Fighter-Corvette (Most of it is empty cargo space)

Team: Brian 'O Donald, Mark Volkov, Tara Jones

Estimated time: 5 months

General description of the idea: A mostly automated Ground to orbit spaceplane. It's not equiped for prolonged use outside the athmosphere, but it should last a considerable time near the ground. The ship is build around it's large cargobay, and uses 4 Heavily Modified RAM jets, which will comfortably work up to 30 km altitude. From there, the airintakes will be shut, and the system will switch to onboard propellant. If needed, disposable boosters can be installed to make it to orbit. Once in orbit the ship immediatly docks with the station, as it's fuel reserve isn't that large.

Reentry is different. The ship takes an incredibly slow angle of reentry, resulting in minimal heating and energy expenditure, but also a very long reentry. As soon as the ship comes below 30 km, it reopens the airintake and returns to normal flight. Normal flight can be prolonged as long as need be, provided no mechanical failures occur. In case of a filter failue, the ship should be fine, as it's capable of gliding to the ground without problems.

Powersource: Fusion
Propulsion: Laserpowered Turbojet
        -Rather than running on a fuel, the engine just sucks in air and heats it using a small, but powerfull laser.(similair to the working of a fusion plant actually). Once the air becomes to thin, it switches to a more conventional rocket engine, though still powered by lasers rather than a chemical reaction. Filters, both physical and electromagnetical protect the engine from invasive dust. Filter failure will most likely result in the engine's inside being glassed, with predictable results.
Flight:
   -Free flight up to 30 km. Rocket assisted above that.
   -Capable of gliding and hovering
Fuel: Fusion
Cargo capability: Significant

Priorities:
Focus IC cost: 3
Neglect Orbital operational distance: 2

[Maxinum McDreich]

Draft of sensor drone. If anyone reckons they can improve it, then suggest away.

Name: Sensor Grid Drone

Desired volume: Light Drone (as small as possible without compromising equipment quality)

Project Team: Brian O'Donald, Mark Volkov, Anton Jones

Estimated time on designing: 1 Month.

General description: Small sensor drones whose purpose is to act as an early-warning for merchant ships. Placed in numbers, their ai inter-link with each other to provide a bigger picture. Drones will be programmed to recognise ships based on their codes they transmit, with unregistered or unknown ones show up as hostile.
They have an outer layer of ceramics to protect the plastic layer inside. The drones are equipped with solar panels for power, as they're expected to go on a long time without outside help. Armour is non-existent barring basic hull to protect the equipment from space debris. They rely on their tiny size and black paint to evade unwanted attention. They are deployed by practically any ship, and feature a simple propulsion system to slowly get into more dangerous areas if needed.

Priorities:
Sensors - 2
AI - 2
Neglect armour - 1

Keep thinking I've missed something out in the description... oh well. Also, if you can think of a better name... name it :3

[10ebbor10]

Black paint doesn't provide stealth. How about absorbant paint, or something else that sounds stealthy.

I would like to propose to give them a laser thightbeam connection. That way they don't give of their location by their radio signals. Or interfere with their own signals. And they can't be jammed. (Unless someone blocks their laser beams, which is highly unlikely).

Also, this thing might be interesting for the scientific community. We're basically building a giant radio antennae. (But multiply that with the entire spectrum). Should give a very clear view of the surroundings. Provided nothing interferes, of course.

[miauw62]

Do we have any basic defense system yet?

[10ebbor10]

Do we have any basic defense system yet?

We have the giant Haven starbase.

But nothing else, no.

[miauw62]

So we'll need to secure the trading routes.
And i ment designs, sorry if i confused you.

[Maxinum McDreich]

I never thought about the scientific connotations!

Damn, I really want to go further with that design now, but the purpose is a quick seller to get us started aswell as some early aid to the merchants to the planet which will aid us in materials for later designs. I think it might be cool to revisit this one later, especially if these drones eventually become obsolete...

Science... sheesh... why did I not think of that XD.

Black paint was more for visual stealth, but yeah, something better would be... better XD.


And reminder, pirates do not attack the planet. They have nothing to deal with the density of the atmosphere, not to mention Haven.


(Little edit: The sensor drones are the first step to securing the trade routes. Right now, they'd let merchant ships know when to make evasive manouvres. Later, it'll help local authorities know when and where the pirates are hitting and respond.)

[miauw62]

Yeah, but if we can secure trading routes, our economy will recieve a boost and we'll be able to produce more ships and bigger ships.

[10ebbor10]

There was my plan for securing the trade route, which is aptly megalomaniacal and might just work. Basically, we make the laser artillery beam, and then deploy modified sensor drones with lenses and very, very good mirrors to redirect the beam onto the target.

Just firing at will and hoping you hit the pirate might work too, if they don't see it coming. Or if we posses overpowering firepower.

[Maxinum McDreich]

Or a laser fence. If we build the sensor drones with reflector hulls along with amplifiers, then each drone takes the laser, up's the power a bit and fires out multiple beams from itself onto other drones. Rinse and repeat.

Though that's quite an... ambitious project.

[Evil Marahadja]

Draft of sensor drone. If anyone reckons they can improve it, then suggest away.

Name: Sensor Grid Drone

Estimated time on designing: 1 Month.

General description: Small sensor drones whose purpose is to act as an early-warning for merchant ships. Placed in numbers, their ai inter-link with each other to provide a bigger picture. Drones will be programmed to recognise ships based on their codes they transmit, with unregistered or unknown ones show up as hostile.
They have an outer layer of ceramics to protect the plastic layer inside. The drones are equipped with solar panels for power, as they're expected to go on a long time without outside help. Armour is non-existent barring basic hull to protect the equipment from space debris. They rely on their tiny size and black paint to evade unwanted attention. They are deployed by practically any ship, and feature a simple propulsion system to slowly get into more dangerous areas if needed.

Priorities:
Sensors - 2
AI - 2
Neglect armour - 1

1+ However I say we remove the AI priority. They don't need an advanced ai for our purpose, instead I suggest we change that to a Stealth - 2.  Oh, and here is 2 name suggestions.
Sensor drone MI
Oculus MI (eyes in latin, woho!)
After we finish this drone I think we should go for Ebbors VAT ship. Right now we dont have materials good enough for a figtingstyle ship.

[Kashyyk]

I'd have thought we'd need a point in AI, so that it can function on it's own.


Also, PTW.

[10ebbor10]

Uhm, we can do multiple things at once. Multitasking is a thing.