Mon, Mar 22, 2021 at 9:04 AM
David,
In total agreement with your take on the size and number of thruster drones.
I'm including another render here, this time of the cargo frame with the connection bumpers fore and aft. This particular class of cargo frame only connects front-to-back and not side-by-side. Thus one could have a single cargo frame or else a train of two or even three together.
Of course, extra frames require extra thrust, either in the form of yet another pair of box haulers per frame or a tiny fleet of thruster drones to meet the minimum thrust requirements for the mass being transported.
Those bumpers are not yet finished, I'm seeing a bit of modelling for the actual point of contact, again in a conical mating form.
- Ignatz
Mon, Mar 22, 2021 at 11:18 AM
Ignatz,
I had a thought about how the frames are slowed down in space. They are designed with a blade tower only on one end, which would normally make it difficult-to-impossible to decelerate. Starjump would be integral to how this vessel is utilized, since the pocket dimension created by the ship is much like the real universe, except that space and time are subjective and controllable through the jump engine.
With this technology, ships maintain the same speed and momentum upon exiting extra-dimensional space as when they entered, but they are free to choose the actual direction they're facing when they come out. A Tottenberg cruise, therefore, would reappear in normal space "backwards", facing away from the direction of its momentum. Firing the engines at that point slows the cruise down. It's like turning around in space, by turning space around you.
A little hard to picture, maybe, but it would be very effective.
-David