Inside the ship, the atmosphere must operate at homeworld standard pressure or, at least, a pressure that supports life. In other words, spacecraft are big balloons. The structure must be sealed tight and not leak. Outside the spacecraft is the vacuum of space. In order to support life within a starship, it must contain atmosphere for the passengers. Shape, windows, and manned fighters are the easiest and most pertinent changes to make. To make practical spacecraft, lessons from current design’s failures need to be studied. This is accomplished by having great engineers, and the discipline of engineering is based on learning from failure. Rather than having to repair poor designs, ship operators would want to get the most use possible with the least downtime. Physics would still apply to post-scarcity societies. They’re made to elicit that feeling of awe, but a ship designed from the viewpoint of economics 1 and efficiency would be rather boring. From a practical standpoint, most starships in SF are poorly designed. Really, who doesn’t? From the Minbari Sharlin to the Empire’s Star Destroyers to the Borg Cube to the Heart of Gold, aesthetics rule. Science fiction loves a beautiful starship. You can find his musings on the arts on the STL Counterpoint blog. He writes fiction about philosophers and non-fiction about martial arts. He’s already provided some great posts on realistic fighting abilities and how to ask an expert. About the ExpertĮric Primm is an engineer for Boeing and has spent the past nine years making sure the wings don’t fall off various aircraft. Please join the mailing list to be notified every time new content is posted. Each week, we tackle one of the scientific or technological concepts pervasive in sci-fi (space travel, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, etc.) with input from an expert. This article on practical spaceship design is part of the Science in Sci-fi, Fact in Fantasyblog series.
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