3DUESPA Announces Launch of Earth's First Warp Ship

uniderth

The launch of the S.S. Valiant ADC-11031 in February 2065 will be a landmark occasion. For the first time humanity will reach beyond the limits of our star system at faster than light velocities.

The S.S. Valiant began life as a cargo freighter primarily serving the asteroid belt and nearby colonies. The Valiant fell into the hands of its current owner and operator after the initial nuclear strikes in 2054. It was used to rescue several survivors and transport them to safety. After this it remained in service among the various solar colonies and even bringing aid to areas of the earth devastated by the war.

With Zefram Cochrane's historic discovery on April 5, 2063 and many subsequent tests; Mr. Cochrane, working in conjunction with the United Earth Space probe Agency(UESPA), was finally ready to test Warp drive in a fully functional ship for extended durations.

The Valiant was selected to host this experiment because of its durability and service history. In addition to the new warp drive, the crew compliment of the Valiant will be upgraded from five to eleven.

The first mission of the Valiant will be to deliver supplies to the colonies at Alpha Centauri (founded by the Icarus in 2048) and Bernard's Star (founded by the Adameve in 2050).

Our hopes and dreams ride with the Valiant and her crew.

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I had an idea to make a fan mini or short series about earth's first warp starship, the S.S. Valiant. I've been working on a model which is based on Greg Jein's model, as well as some back ground information.

I thought it would be fun to promote this project by making it seem like a current event. I'm working on a website and facebook page for "live" update. So it would seem like we are experiencing the "real" project. The website would include "historic" information about UESPA and the Valiant. It would also have "archival" footage of the Valiant. This would It would be cool if I could set of a "live" webcam of the Valiant so website visitors could watch the upgrade of the Valiant. All CG of course.

My brother, my cousin, and I were discussing making a video project and I think this would be something fun.

Here are some renders of the model so far. I've also made the UESPA logo from the Friendship 1 Probe which was launched in 2067; and a morphed image of Zefram Cochrane for potential use on the website.

evil_genius_180

Sweet. I see you're going with the Star Trek Chronology configuration for the Valiant. I've always liked that one. Of course, we all know how the Valiant's story has to end.

Vortex5972

Very interesting idea. The ship looks cool. Zef's eyes look a little off, though. The rest of the morph looks great.

Aresius

Nice work, I like the backstory.

uniderth

Some paneling work and the equipment attachment port.

uniderth

I redid the paneling and added most of the greeblies to the upper hull.

evil_genius_180

The paneling is looking great. I love that little attachment port.

Jeff

I'm not particularly a fan of greeblies (although, ironically, I am a fan of the term "greeblies"), they almost always strike me as someone's attempt to make a model or illustration of a subject look more real simply by adding unnecessary or ill-concieved detailing to the surface of whatever the subject is, creating the opposite (to me) of the desired effect. Then we find ourselves saying "ooh, look at all that realistic detailing to make the Nostromo (or whatever ship) look huge. It has become almost de rigueur and is nearly always overdone. Having said all that, this seems to strike just the right balance and scale for such detailing, well done. Now having said all THAT!!, what is the scale of this ship? I'm not terribly familiar with it but that seems to be a cockpit/control module thingie at the fore end and if so this is a not very large craft, which I think is wonderful as so many of the ships in the Trek universe are so large that they lose proportion, human scale is lost.

uniderth

Jeff I agree with you about greeblies. Fortunately with this model I can make little mental excuses for them. "Oh that's an antenna, or a sensor pack." As far as scale I don't think there is an official scale for this ship. But what I'm shooting for is that front area is one deck. So small and very cramped. The basis for this design is that the ship is an small cargo ship used prior to World War 3 (2050's). So the layout I'm doing initially is before it was upgraded with a warp system. The front module is a command and crew quarters. This can separate and be used as an escape pod or docking shuttle. The smooth section behind the command module is the main crew area. It includes the infirmary, galley, workshop, control for the equipment attachment port, gym area. I'm also seriously considering that this is a zero-G ship, meaning no artificial gravity. The artificial gravity would come from magnetic shoes or something.

Behind the crew area is the large cylinder. The forward part of this is the cargo area. The aft portion is the engineering section. The two cylinders on the side are the fuel containers. I'm not sure what role the cutaway halfway through plays. Robotic arms, external cargo attachments?

evil_genius_180

I think it depends on the greebles. I was just having a conversation with someone on another forum about the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars greebles. On most Star Trek ships, the greebles are well thought out and serve a specific purpose. This differs from Star Wars, where the ships from the original trilogy were detailed using boxes of parts from battleship kits, so the greebles are there just to make the ship look more detailed and serve no practical purpose. I think that's one reason I prefer to build Star Trek ships as opposed to Star Wars ships, even though I'm a huge Star Wars fan.

Aresius

As per the greeble and size question, I think those two depend on eachother. The bigger the ship, the smaller and more numerous the greebles must become. A sensor palette or antenna is always something hard to use, because given the technological advances, an antenna can be small 10'' diameter dish, or a 5 foot diameter monster. What can be a good use are entry hatches. A big one for a hallway should be between 1 - 1.5meters (ca. 3 - 4 ft) broad and about 2meters (7ft) tall... And so forth. So using such fixed things can help making a sizing easier. And especially given that we're talking about a vessel that was made long beforebeaming was even conceived as a basic idea, using hatches and docking ports is the only way to enter or exit a spaceship.

About the size itself. I always thought that the vessel had 2 decks in total, one deck going completely through fromthe frontal "bridge" up into the huge area (which I call engine section), and one under that. But thatlower one only on a very small area, like the engine rooms on every starship.

uniderth

I've been working on the aft details. I've also started on the engine. I'll just model one then make three copies.



As far as scale I was really debating between one and two decks. However I really wanted to have a small crew of about five for it's regular use as a cargo ship. Also based on the how cramped my S.S. Enterprise is (almost 100 years later) I felt this ship needed to really be cramped. Lastly there is what seems to be a window on the Greg Jein model command section. All of this information is how I arrived at the scale I did. I think having such a small ship out there in the great void of space would really help give a sense of isolation and wonder.



My approximate scale:

evil_genius_180

If it has a crew of five, then everybody plus one died when they encountered the Galactic Barrier. Though, I'm assuming you're thinking it had a larger crew for that mission, since you said it has a crew of five for its "regular" use. (it was obviously refitted when it was given warp drive and re-purposed as an explorer)

The scale looks good for something you'd expect to be hauling cargo around the solar system 50 or so years from now. The engine is also looking good so far.

uniderth

Yes. I'm planning on upgrading the crew to about ten or eleven.

The regular crew breakdown is:
1. Captain
2. Pilot
3. Medic
4. Cargo Master
5. Engineer

The refit crew breakdown is:
1. Captain
2. Pilot
3. Medic
4. Supply Officer
5. Engineer
6. Warp Specialist
7. Warp Specialist
8. Navigator
9. Scientist
10. Scientist
11. Possibly a Vulcan Representative

I'm still on the fence about #11. If you are going someplace for the first time you usually hire a guide. But then again this is earth's first warp ship. I know plenty of people wouldn't want a Vulcan on the ship.

evil_genius_180

According to Enterprise, Vulcans had served on Earth ships prior to T'Pol being assigned to Enterprise. Though, if memory serves, the record for a Vulcan serving on an Earth ship prior to her was two weeks. No Vulcan could supposedly handle being surrounded by the emotional humans at that time, or something like that. So, I think an extended mission into deep space would have been a no-go. Though, that was also something Phlox pointed out to T'Pol in the mess hall one day, he may not have had all the facts. (geez, I'm a nerd )

uniderth

I has a wild thought that it would be interesting if the Vulcan observer was the one who got the superpowers from the barrier. That would be wild. But when I think about it, it would really be weak compared to having a human character we know and love be the one to go crazy. Also I think Spock would have mentioned something in Where No Man Has Gone Before is a Vulcan had served on the Valiant. I can also see the humans being completely arrogant and wanting to explore all by themselves without Vulcan help.

Aresius

Yeah, considering the human behaviour, they might really be so "arrogant" to refuse a Vulcan guide/aide/observer on their first warp-capable vessel.

About the size... Considering it's a cargo-vessel, the engineering section should need to have 2, or even 3 decks for a cargo bay... Perhaps the area where the warpcore was installed?
Right before the actual engineering room (originally just for the sublight drive).

evil_genius_180

The chief engineer was the one who got powers. That's not "canon," but it's from the novel Valiant. If you haven't read that book, it's a good read. It not only tells the tale of the Valiant itself, but also how Picard came to be in command of the Stargazer. The Stargazer also goes through the barrier, but with 24th century shields, so nobody mutates.

Knight26

uniderth wrote: »

Yes. I'm planning on upgrading the crew to about ten or eleven.

The regular crew breakdown is:
1. Captain
2. Pilot
3. Medic
4. Cargo Master
5. Engineer

The refit crew breakdown is:
1. Captain
2. Pilot
3. Medic
4. Supply Officer
5. Engineer
6. Warp Specialist
7. Warp Specialist
8. Navigator
9. Scientist
10. Scientist
11. Possibly a Vulcan Representative

I'm still on the fence about #11. If you are going someplace for the first time you usually hire a guide. But then again this is earth's first warp ship. I know plenty of people wouldn't want a Vulcan on the ship.

*cough* *cough* this might help, and it does do small ships now
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?80075-Crew-Calcualtor-Version-6

uniderth

I haven't read the Valiant novel. But it sounds like it's worth checking out.

In the mean time I've added some engine details. I've also done a position test and I can see that compared to the model my engines appear to have a slightly larger diameter. So I will have to scale them down a smidge.



And the underbelly which has not yet been greebled.



Knight26 that crew calculator you made is awesome!

evil_genius_180

The engine details are looking really good.

uniderth wrote: »

I haven't read the Valiant novel. But it sounds like it's worth checking out.

I think it's a good read. Also, I was wrong, the title is actually "The Valiant." I really like Michael Jan Friedman's Stargazer series, and that's the precursor book. (technically, a prequel/follow up to his TNG novel "Reunion")

Knight26

uniderth wrote: »

Knight26 that crew calculator you made is awesome!

Thanks, if you use it, please post the results or any problems you have with it. I'm always looking to improve it.

uniderth

For the engines I just need to work on the port and starboard engine struts.



I wanted to mock up what it looks like when the ship lands. It will help me figure out the cargo door details and landing legs.

evil_genius_180

It sure seems like it wouldn't balance that well when it lands that way. (sorry, I couldn't resist :devil:)

Seriously, it's looking good.

Aresius

^,_,^ Yeah, the landing would be kinda awkward that way, you *may* want to rethink that... xD

As per the exit,I'dmake it broader. Keep in mind, it's a cargobay-door essentially. If you want to be totally geeked about the crew-access, add a ladder or 2-person lift to the cockpit floor. :P (just kidding!)

oldmangreg

Or put a door on each side; larger area to work with and easy access. Maybe attach the doors to the landing gear. Or something.

publiusr

Very nice.

spacefighter

nice design but it might benefit from some more struts to hold the engines. in generaql you seem to have managed to make the panel lines and greebles fit the hull rather than conflicting with the overall form.

uniderth

I guess I didn't explain the design properly. Because it actually does land like that. On the inside there is a system of weights. At the far edges there are arrays of accelerometers that monitor any tipping. Then the computer moves the internal weights accordingly so that it will be perfectly balanced and not require any landing gear.

Ok, no. It really will have landing legs.

I agree that that front door needs to be bigger. But I'm torn between following the original model and making more practical changes. However the biggest changes would be the cargo door and the engine struts. The struts on the model just seem way too wimpy. I think I might scale the struts up a bit and add some vertical bracing.

uniderth

Logo for the birth place of one of the main characters:

evil_genius_180

I like it.