Carrier for my own story idea the UES (united earth ship) Leviathan - its almost finished - just a few little bits here and there to go but thought i would throw it into a simple flyby scene
[video=youtube_share;JPX6xPPnwZY]
argh gave it 2d tag by mistake - and cant seem to edit it
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yeah spins are unnecessary but you got have a little fun while out on a boring patrol - besides if i was going to be accurate they wouldnt be moving like aircraft while in space and they wouldn't need the engines on all the time either but for the fighters i think i'm going to go with aircraft physics rather than spacecraft physics, will keep that for the capital ships.
most ships in my universe will be zero gravity affairs with a bit of genetic engineering of the crew and centrifuges to sleep in - higher rate of rotation shouldn't matter so much if your lying down - so only long duration mission ships will provide gravity
space stations on the other hand will have rotating sections for living in but the spacedock/assembly facilities will be 0g for obvious reasons - the space dock has 5 capital ship docks which serve as refueling, repair and contruction stations, there are 2 such space stations one in orbit of earth the other at the the Jupiter L1 point, the stations can be largely self sufficient - recycling nearly everything as long as they have energy -in the inner solar system the sun can provide that energy in the outer solar system fusion reactors provide it - fuel can be mined from icy bodies in the outer solar system and excess oxygen generated when separating the hydgrogen can be used for anything from supplying visiting ships with air to fueling fighter craft
these stations also act as communication relays and command and control centers, a third station is being built but is still several years from completion
anyway first look at the station - its not finished yet but the design is getting there - i put the carrier in which is just under 600m long in for size comparison so this station is large
Also...I think its a pretty inaccurate statement to say there are no asteroid fields that dense in reality. While it may be true there are none in our star system who is to say they don't exist somewhere in the endless reaches of an infinite universe.
as for high density asteroid fields they could exist but on a galactic timescale they wouldn't last long (a couple of thousand years maybe if one is lucky) as in such high concentrations they would begin to collapse into a planet or moon, if one considers a big field of asteroids at close range then you find those on the edge of the field have a gravitational force pulling them inward toward the other rocks but no significant force pulling them outward so they gradually collapse into one body. if the asteroids are very widely spaced though the gravity attracting those on the edge of the huge asteroid field is so weak it can be comparable to gravitational forces acting the other way due to planets and stars, hence maintaining a field of separate asteroids rather than producing a single ball.
station and new cruiser - cruiser is faster over short distances than the carrier but less fuel reserves - carriers actually has more firepower because they are combined carrier/battleship design - but cruisers carry similar range of weaponary in a smaller cheaper to build package
once again i like your animation, having the rings counter rotate will be a great way to prevent any problems such as the rest of the station beginning to rotate when the rings are first spun up.
nuclear thermal rockets ideally wouldn't release radioactive material into the atmosphere but with the temps in the device its inevitable that you do get contaminants into the fuel - they could be used for atmospheric flights inside say saturns atmoshphere - would give you pretty much unlimited range since could take in gases to use in the engine and be damned about contamination - also handy concidering that if you lose power your dead - fortunatly with saturn the surface(not sure you can call it surface) gravity is around 1g despite its size - jupiter much higher so doubt you could climb out of the gravity well as easily - might have to design afew more specialised fighters for gas giant use but once hit things like awacs and bombers think will switch to fusion systems
as for the station yeah that was the idea with the contra rotating sections - sadly would still induce a twist effect and would need another 2 wheels to prevent that - could possibly add them as heavy solid counter weights or jsut accept some thrusters to hold its orientation
provides radar coverage around battlegroups - has a small anti-air ai controlled turret
say about 50% better than human fighters in space - 50% worse in atmosphere