3DMedium Transport Freighter with Modular Cargo Pod

JWWright

This began as a re-imagining of the Millenium Falcon, but turned into its own thing.

It became a study of what vehicles like the MF, Eagle Transporter and Firefly design purposes were; to move stuff from one place to another.

Then I wondered how the function would determine form... the MF seemed to have very little cargo space for what it was designed to do, the Firefly seemed to have a better take on that kind of vehicle, with plenty of room for crew and cargo.

And the modular versatility of the Eagle Transporter still made a lot of sense.

So this is my version of a utility goods transporter vehicle, the pods themselves can be many things: Cargo of course, but also configured for passenger, troop delivery, research facilities, and colony building, you get the idea.

This particular ship is fairly well armed with six dual guns 3 topside and 3 below.

JWWright

As always, I welcome suggestions, observations, critique, etc... thanks!

JWWright

Trying out a few shapes for the primary drive exhausts.

evil_genius_180

It looks interesting so far. Do the pods attach externally, or are they held somewhere within?

The Millennium Falcon supposedly had a cargo hold that we never saw. Though, I agree that it definitely wouldn't carry a lot of cargo. But, I think it was mainly supposed to be used for small goods, passenger transport and smuggling.

JWWright

Thanks, the pods are standalone, the ship's cargo ring, it's hull core has sliding hatches that correspond with cargo pod configurations, the ship descends vertically onto the sitting pod, to secure it. Once connected the pod can be lifted into position where the hatches line up with the ships hatches for crew/passenger access.

Delivery is the reverse; land, lower the pod to the surface, liftoff vertically leaving the pod in place.

evil_genius_180

JWWright wrote: »

Thanks, the pods are standalone, the ship's cargo ring, it's hull core has sliding hatches that correspond with cargo pod configurations, the ship descends vertically onto the sitting pod, to secure it. Once connected the pod can be lifted into position where the hatches line up with the ships hatches for crew/passenger access.

Delivery is the reverse; land, lower the pod to the surface, liftoff vertically leaving the pod in place.

Thanks for the explanation. I thought that was how it worked, but I wasn't sure.

JWWright

The pod is about 3+ storeys tall, there are two hatches on the 2nd floor, which might be repeated on two other sides of the pod, alternating.

There will be umbilical hardpoints on the alternating sides for life support, etc... in the cargo pod variation we see here, there will be a central lift platform for distributing cargo throughout, secured with netting and cables.

The pod is held in place by the lifting mechanisms on the ship, there are slots on 3 sides which correspond to the 3 sets of 3 gears on the ship which move the pod vertically into place, lock it in place and lower it to a surface.

Once the pod is in place, hatch seals extend from the ship into the hatch recesses on the pod.

Sanderlee

Just a form vs. function thing, even at the scale you're talking about, there's not a lot of room behind the pod-bay for the engine room. While much of the engine assembly appears to be external to the hull, there's still going to have to be generators, power distribution trunks (assuming the main engines also power the ship, as is common in most Sci-Fi), fuel pipes, etc.

You might want to de-symmetry the ship on the aft end and extend it just a touch so the engine room isn't so cramped.

evil_genius_180

Looking good. That will definitely hold a lot of cargo.

JWWright

Thanks guys.

Yeah, the main engine situation; I thought about making it a modular section, similar to the Eagle Transporter, with external tank fuel storage, the rear corridor of the main hull will be entirely devoted to engine and ship systems management.

I may also project the structure aftward, and come up with a place for an EVA airlock.

Also, there will be VTOL thrusters for surface contact and re-entry operations, similar to a Firefly.

JWWright

I have egress hatches with ramp built into the legs, and there is enough room to make them airlocks with staging area and storage. I'm adding the landing pads and the RCS manifold, next.

I extended the systems management deck, good call on that, there should be plenty of accommodation for crew and equipment there.

JWWright

Beginning to cut in detail for the tips of the legs:

evil_genius_180

That's looking good.

Man, your little dude likes to live dangerously. Yesterday, he was levitating, now he's standing right next to the thruster exhaust.

JWWright

Thanks!

I go through a lot of those little guys... they have no sense of self preservation.

JWWright

Landing pads and supporting struts modeled, it might be time to tackle the VTOL engines next.

evil_genius_180

Nice job on the gear. It looks heavy duty, like you'd expect on a workhorse ship.

psCargile

Looking great.

Parallel development always amazed me, more so when they are separated by many years.

And my solution to the YT-1300 cargo transportation.

evil_genius_180

Hm, bit of a blind spot on that one that looks like the Falcon with huge cargo containers attached to the front. :shiner:

JWWright

Thanks, yeah I might chunk up the struts, the gear has to look substantial, there's a lot of weight sitting on them.

Those alt Falcon sketches are great, the tripod version is very cool, are you going to model it? I'd love to see that.

Got the VTOLs in place, 3 sets of two on each leg.

evil_genius_180

The VTOL engines look good.

bosun

JWWright wrote: »

Thanks, the pods are standalone, the ship's cargo ring, it's hull core has sliding hatches that correspond with cargo pod configurations, the ship descends vertically onto the sitting pod, to secure it. Once connected the pod can be lifted into position where the hatches line up with the ships hatches for crew/passenger access.

Delivery is the reverse; land, lower the pod to the surface, liftoff vertically leaving the pod in place.

For a ship to descend onto the pod like that, the pilot will have to position the ship with amazing accuracy as he lands on top of the cargo pod. Have you considered making the pod tapered inward at the top, sort of a truncated pyramid shape? That would allow the ship to center itself as it slid down onto the pod, and the piloting skills wouldn't be quite so demanding.

JWWright

There is a margin between the pod and the hull, about 6-9 inches all around. The capstan gears on the inside surface of the cargo ring are variable tensioned - springy, that push against the gear rack strips on the pod. Once in place the hydraulics lock the capstans forming a 9 point grip on the pod (3 capstans on 3 sides).

At that point, umbilicals connect to the pod, the pod type determining which systems are connected; electrics, atmosphere, computer systems, water, hydraulics, etc...

Pilots likely would have to, with computer sensor assistance in the form of graphic readouts, diagrams, audible cues, be able to manually successfully couple with a pod to get their wings among other skills to qualify, but routinely this maneuver is performed entirely by computer control. This can be performed with existing tech today.

The pyramid shape is a good idea, though, thanks!

JWWright

Beginning detail work on the leg hull shell, I wanted windows so I thought I had better sort out the decks inside the leg segments.

With a central gangway there is room for 4 crew berths on each side of the upper leg segment, the forward leg segment will of course house the flight deck where pilot and navigator will command the ship.

As you can see, below decks appear to be able to accommodate machinery, equipment, and consumables storage like fuel, air and water.

I also put in a recessed sensor pallet on each side of the legs, still working out components for that, I'd like to see exposed conduits and more sensor-y looking things featured in that space.

evil_genius_180

The interior looks very sensible and like it makes good use of the space. Will there be ladders to go down into the forward areas and up into the back? (ladders make the most sense to me)

JWWright

Thanks, man, yeah steps actually, ladders between the deck and below decks in the cargo ring hull.

The rear legs will have a few more berths, and all important restrooms and showers, in addition to more storage and a small med facility and machine shop, you never know where breakdowns will occur, and they usually happen when you're nowhere near a parts store.

I like the idea of a common area as seen aboard Firefly freighters, I may put the ship's mess behind the flight deck.

evil_genius_180

Serenity was a well thought out design, in my opinion. Everything fit into the ship nicely and they had good explanations on how things got done on the ship. Plus, they did smart things like toilets that folded up into the walls in the crew quarters. Though, I don't think they ever showed where the showers were on the ship. Too bad Fox had to torpedo that ship and kill it. (typical of Fox)

JWWright

Cutting a few details along the lower hull, hatches for ship stores, and various maintenance portals.

Yeah, it was a shame Firefly was cancelled, I still love watching the eps on DVD, it was great! It struck me as a sort of a Han Solo TV show, a great space cowboy series.

evil_genius_180

The details look good.

I missed the entire run of Firefly on TV because I was deployed to Afghanistan during its entire run. However, I heard that Fox frakked up the airing order so that the series didn't make a lot of sense. (they did the same thing with Almost Human last year) The story is that Fox didn't like the way Joss Whedon was waking the show, they thought it needed more action. So, they basically aired the more action filled episodes first, which messed up the story. Fortunately, I took the advice of some friends on 3D Gladiators a few years ago and got the whole series from my local library on DVD and watched and loved it. I'm glad the DVDs have the episodes in order, it makes it easy to watch them as they were intended to be seen, not as Fox aired them.

JWWright

Afghanistan? Thank you for your service, you guys deserve a lot of respect.

I missed the TV run too, the movie they made was pretty good. It wouldn't hurt them to put out a prequel, a story about the Browncoats battle of Serenity would be pretty interesting.

Got some more hull detail in place, fresh handcut polygons!

evil_genius_180

I like the plating, or whatever it is.

Yeah, Serenity is a good film. Though, I saw that first and I actually like the TV show better. Though, it was cool to finally get to see River do some of the cool stuff they programmed her to do, but how could they kill Wash and Book? Seriously, two of my favorite characters. (though, I like all of them) I agree, it would be cool to see some Browncoats stuff. I know Joss has hinted at possibly doing more Firefly stuff, but I don't know if he ever will. For one thing, I don't think he's been able to get a network to pick it up. Plus, Nathan Fillion is on Castle.

psCargile

No, I don't plan to model my old sketches. I found some more of them; I was doing concepts around 2002 for some guys starting Galileo Games, but nothing that I know became of that project. I like the look of this design. It's well thought out.

I never saw Serenity when it aired either. I was working second shift and didn't hear much about it, and actually heard it was terrible (BLASPHEMY!) I got the movie for Christmas one year, and was blow away, then got the series on DVD.

Wonder what Whedon would do with a Star Wars movie? Or Trek?