Air and Space Photos from Alternate Worlds.

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cortz#9

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Just Leo

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This thread seems a little slow. Here's a contest. Name these Twin engine GA aircraft. First prize is a free dance lesson. Second prize is ten free dance lessons.
 
trekchu

trekchu

First in a sort-of series of these posts, now that they've FINALLY fixed the Constitution-Class model.

Jane's All the Galaxy's Fighting Starships (2399 edition) #3

Name: U.S.S. Shran (NCC-1138)
Type: Escort Cruiser
Class: Vindicator - Class (234th of 500)
Nationality: Federation Starfleet (United Federation of Planets)
Service: 2192 - 2256
Armaments: 5x Phaser Banks, 2x forward/1x aft Torpedo launcher
Speed: (Type 1 Scale) Warp 8 (Max Cruise), Warp 10 (at extreme risk)

Description: As one of the first truly mass-produced all-Federation Cruiser classes, the Vindicators had quite a task on their hands, but they had the advantage of thirty years of systems integration, so the problems that plagued earlier development efforts in the area were absent here. Produced in just about every Fleet Yard that was large enough to take them, the Vindicators were the face Starfleet presented at numerous first contacts (in fact Captain T'Son of U.S.S. Traveller held the record for the most first contact until James T. Kirk assumed command of the Enterprise) even though they were designed to fight the Klingon D-6 ships. By the time the two-year Axanar War started, both the Vindicators and their Klingon counterparts were becoming obsolescent with the Constitution and D-7 classes respectively taking over for them.

The first U.S.S. Shran was originally supposed to be named either Ark Royal or Baltimore, but in late 2191, General Shran, war hero and personal friend of then Federation President Jonathan Archer died when the warp core of his yacht suffered a containment failure. Grief-stricken, Archer instantly approved the name when Starfleet Command proposed it and personally added it to the then fairly short Roll of Honor where the name stands beside the likes of 'Enterprise' and 'Excelsior' today.

For most of it's lifetime, the ship saw distinguised, but otherwise fairly unremarkable service, yet that changed when the Axanar War started in 2235.

Shran was undergoing a life extension refit at the time the Axanar opened fire, and then the Federation Council declared war, she was assigned to 5th Fleet and fought as part of the forward raiding force for most of the war. However, when Captain Garth assembled his Task Force, Shran happened to be available and was assigned to it. During the battle she suffered considerable damage, and there were suggestions afterwards that she be scrapped and the name assigned to one of the new Constitution - Class ships, yet she was repaired and served with 5th Fleet for the remainder of her life. Eventually she suffered the fate of the rest of the class, it's small size preventing further upgrades and the antiquated drive getting too hard to maintain and she was retired in 2256, the name assigned to the first Batch II Constitution in 2264.

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trekchu

trekchu

Jane's All the Galaxy's Fighting Starships (2399 edition) #4

Name: U.S.S. Shran (NCC-1138-A)
Type: Heavy Cruiser
Class: Constitution - Class (13th of 100)
Nationality: Federation Starfleet (United Federation of Planets)
Service: 2268 - 2306
Armaments: 18 Phaser Emitters, 2x forward Torpedo launcher
Speed: (Type 1 Scale) Warp 8 (Max Cruise), Warp 9.5 (at extreme risk)

Like all the other Classes that counted a ship of a certain name among their numbers, Shran had a difficult time stepping out of the shadows of a ship named Enterprise, yet under several crews and Captains she managed this fine. Taken into service in 2268, her entry into service was delayed by almost two years when what would become known as the "Constitution Refit" standard was applied to her while she was still in spacedock. However because of this, she was the first ship to have this standard applied from more or less the ground up. Even though the Class was never produced in the numbers of the Vindicators or the later Excelsiors (due to the latter being introduced a short time afterwards) 100 units were built and saw long service, the last units being retired in the 2330s.

Shran distinguished herself on the frontier and carried out two five-year missions during her lifetime, with a number of first contacts and other missions, such as carrying the first Federation Embassy to Cardassia Prime, re-contacting the Tholians for the first time since the Enterprise had encountered them and First Contact with the Mintari that same year.

Yet she was also part of a rather infamous occurence. In the aftermath of the Genesis detonation in the Mutara Nebula, Starfleet established a quarantine around the planet. When the then-rouge Enterprise approached the planet, Shran was perfectly placed to intercept her, and being manned with a full crew instead of jury-rigged automative systems, she would have been better placed in the admittedly extremely unlikely event of Kirk putting up a fight. Yet somehow, she suffered a complete malfunction of her main sensor array just when the Enterprise should have appeared in her sector. Starfleet investigated, but no one was ever disciplined and that Shran had been under the command of Edward Morrisson was officially seen as coincidence even though he just so happened to be the eldest son of the younger brother of Winona Kirk and therefore James Kirk's first cousin.

Her command changed several more times after that, and eventually she came under the command of Captain Ruunos, an Andorian and mostly known for the at the time infamous Tolara incident where he acted against orders and intervened in that planet's civil war. Appropriately enough he managed to let himself get caught with his shields down while the ship was in the lower atmosphere of the planet for reasons that have yet to be clearly established and the ship was subsequently destroyed by a massive barrage of tri-cobalt devices. If the ship was a direct target or was merely caught in the crossfire is also unknown as the Tolara Emergency Government denies the Federation access to their system to this day, trading with the galaxy at large through third-party intemediaries.


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steamboy

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Image featured on Winchell Chung’s Atomic Rockets site, Realistic Designs page, Link: Nuclear OTV Commercial Transport Diagram.

In the System States Era asteroid mining operations thrive throughout the asteroid belt and among the moons of Jupiter and Saturn the Martian terraforming program has left legacy: a sprawling archipelago of island stations and industrialized moons, Bernal Sphere's and O'Neill Cylinders, Spindle and Wheel cities, and a population of humanity growing into the millions. Space colonies are independent city-states and trade is their lifeblood. Entire generations are born and live their lives in spinning cylinders, bubbles, and torus shaped habitats, harvesting, mining, and fabricating all they need from the environment of the outer solar system.

Orion and Medusa style nuclear pulse freighters haul payloads of raw materials across interplanetary distances, while nuclear orbital transfer vehicles (OTV’s) provide light freight and passenger service between space habitats in Jupiter and Saturn orbit.

For a table of Delta V required for travel using Hohmann orbits among the moons of Saturn see
Why Saturn on Winchell Chung’s Atomic Rockets site. Scroll a little further down the page and you will find a Synodic Periods and Transit Times for Hohmann Travel table for Moons of Saturn.

Nuclear propulsion Systems: Operational Constraints

The abundance of various chemical ices for use as reaction mass among the moons of the outer system gas giants makes NERVA an excellent option for commercial application. Nuclear thermal rockets provide excellent efficiency; they also impose certain operational restrictions. The engine emits significant levels of radiation while firing and even after shut-down, and while passengers and crew are protected by the engines shadow-shield and hydrogen tanks, you wouldn’t want to point the engine at other spacecraft or space platforms. During the U.S. nuclear thermal rocket engine development program NFSD contractors had recommended that no piloted spacecraft approach to within 100 miles behind or to the sides of an operating NERVA I engine. The only safe approach to a spacecraft with a NERVA engine is through the conical “safe-zone” within the radiation shadow created by its shadow-shield and hydrogen tanks. Docking NERVA propelled spacecraft to a space station or habitat is problematic because structures protruding outside the conical safe-zone can reflect radiation back at the spacecraft, irradiating the passengers and crew.

These facts impose a set of mandatory operational parameters and flight rules for nuclear operation. An exclusion zone for nuclear propulsion (60 kilometers minimum) is imposed around every orbital platform. Orbital Guard units would hold broad discretionary powers—violate an exclusion-zone or disregard traffic-control and the local guard will cheerfully vaporize your spacecraft. No warning shots, no second chances. A crew that violates flight rules doesn’t live long enough to worry about fines or attorney fees, and the public’s time and funds are not wasted with trials of incompetent captains and crew.

Nuclear Freighters “park” propulsion modules in station-keeping orbit with their destination, and the freight/passenger module undocks, separating from its nuclear propulsion module, proceeding to birthing under thrust of a chemical maneuvering unit.

Because the nuclear propulsion modules are valuable, and are potentially deadly missiles if mishandled — codes to access the autonomous flight computer and possession of the nuclear propulsion module are temporarily handed over to the local orbital-guard for safe keeping.

For a good example of Space traffic control see the entry on Winchell Chung’s Atomic Rockets site here and scroll down to quote from Manna by Lee Correy.

At this point in my future history, 750 years post Martian colonization, spacecraft are essentially stacks of common modules which can be swapped out to suit application.

Independent Operators, like today’s truckers, might “own” only the CMOD (Command Module) with other units being leased per flight. The Freight Carrying Structural Spine, essentially a rigid frame with mountings for cargo modules, might be leased by the shipper and loaded with cargo (but owned by a separate freight transport supplier) and since different payloads mass differently it might be the responsibility of the shipper to lease suitable nuclear and chemical propulsion modules rated to the task. Passenger transport services might likewise lease passenger modules of varying capacity and Transport Brokerage firms would coordinate freight and passenger payloads assigned to same destinations and offer these in an open-bid market.

Propulsion Modules

Different payload masses require different propulsion module configurations, the light freighter detailed here requires only a single Solid-Core nuclear thermal rocket. A heavy payload freighter might use clusters of solid-core, or Open-Cycle Gas-Core, nuclear thermal rockets.

A timeline for my future history is to be found here: Timeline
Click to expand...

All from here - http://william-black.deviantart.com/art/Nuclear-OTV-Commercial-Transport-Diagram-471977472 this guys stuff is well worth a look.
 
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