We start with an asteroid but do we hollow it out or refine it to metal and weld plates together? --- As I've said before, from a purely evocative perspective, as far as imagery goes, I'm very fond of using an asteroid as the ship. I have a candidate whose information I posted in the refernce section. Its name is Kleopatra, its sort of dogbone shaped, over a hundred miles long, and 50 miles or so wide. The two ends of the "dogbone" make natural habitat sections, with the long neck that connects them a great place to put "technology." Its already spinning but if you adjust the spin you should be able to imitate gravity on the inside to allow walking along the walls. I also have a link for asteroid mining techniques here: http://www.digistar.mb.ca/minsci/future/ASTEROID.HTM (This may be a duplicate from the reference page.) Ponder the idea, let me know. Main.EmptyKube - 24 Jun 2004
I like the asteroid. I think we should use it. If we can build NORAD, we can hollow out an asteroid. -- Main.CmAmidon - 24 Jun 2004
Do we use a real asteroid? Will there be a Preserve the Asteroids movement by Green Peace? The size depends a bit on the crew size and the trip time. Off hand I think 50x100 miles is too large. -- Main.DaveK - 25 Jun 2004
Ok, so we're set on the asteroid. As to how the asteroid for a ship is chosen and how it's transformed into a ship, perhaps we can leave that to individual authors depending on their needs. Since each author will have their own ship, I think they can design it as they see fit. IMO, i don't think an asteroid 50-100 miles long is too big. In my ship, I envision a population of a decent sized city 50K-200k with all the necessary infrastructure to support such a large crew, food growing and processing, waste recycling, habitats like an earth city with parks and commercial realestate, control room, science labs, power stations, observation areas, perhaps mining areas to extract useful resources from the ship itslef. I'm sure there's more. --Camidon 5/2/06
It wouldn't be a wise idea to have the habitable sections be on the ends of the ship, as the ends are the most vulnerable and prone to accidents. Would be far better to have the inhabited quarters in the middle where they can be easily defended, and less prone to any stray radiation that might come through. Use the ends for defense, mechanics, flight etc.
How is the ship built?
It wouldn't be a wise idea to have the habitable sections be on the ends of the ship, as the ends are the most vulnerable and prone to accidents. Would be far better to have the inhabited quarters in the middle where they can be easily defended, and less prone to any stray radiation that might come through. Use the ends for defense, mechanics, flight etc.