I've been working on a universe of my own for several years, now. It's set in the 2220s or so, and the tech is suitably advanced. I started a thread on this awhile back, but I needed a new one for various reasons. I'll post some images from the other one as well. Anyway, I cooked this up in the past hour or so, and thought it was pretty interesting. I have a few ideas to go with here, but any input would be helpful. The main idea is a surface-to-space single-stage military ship. The colorings are just to break up the curves so you can see them, by the way. They won't have any bearing on the finished work.
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Check out the original thread about the Breaking Dawn to get the concept of that ship.
There are two atmospheric engines. Those are the ones out from the center. I haven't added in the atmo intakes yet, since I'm still trying to find a spot for them. There is also a set of high-tech rockets in the rear section, which is the video at the bottom of this post. I can't decide what type of rocket or engine they are, exactly, but they need to be boosters of some kind that push the ship into orbit quickly.
For right now I'm going to concentrate on the rear engine assembly. The intention is to have it function similar to the movie below. The cover raises back and the boosters rise out. I'm not sure if this is stable, but what the hell: it's only fiction, right?:thumb:
Have a heatshield and some materials now. No textures, yet, but I need to get some modeling down before I get to that, anyway.
But I was intrigued when I ran across this thread in the 3D Gallery. The idea of free-floating habitats in the atmosphere of Venus was amazing to me, so I started envisioning my own versions. I have two planned, but only one in the works at the moment. Keep in mind that this is a very rough version right now. I only have the basic parts laid out. The connections and embellishments will come later.
This is a gas mining station. The power system is pretty complex. It starts with the solar panel fields on either side of the station. Those feed electricity to the cable spools (the two cylindrical parts at the rear). These contain kilometers of meter-thick cable that extend up and down through the atmosphere. The engines in the spools then draw atmospheric gasses through the twin collectors at the ends of the cables via potential-driven pumps that utilize pressure variations in the atmosphere. This in turn powers dynamos that power the feed mechanisms to the four main collection tanks as well as the drive engines that keep the ship in constant daylight. Since Venus rotates so slowly (about 1 revolution every 243 Earth days) and in the opposite direction from it's orbit, the major "day" on Venus is about 117 Earth days. Meaning that an object intending to stay in constant sunlight would only have to maintain a speed of around 10 kph, perhaps less. This could certainly be managed with the bleedoff energy from the dynamos.
The center section of the platform is just a placeholder right now. I may use it, but I'll be chopping it up into bits later on if that is the case. The idea is functionality, not aesthetics at the moment. I'll also be adding a rigid sail in the center, so that the station can be steered left and right, as well as elevators someplace that can change it's altitude, although those would only be for stabilization, since changing the pressurization of the main flotation system (the outer, rectangular ring) would change the altitude fairly effectively.
I managed to give life to the other floating station I came up with. This one is purely a habitat. Science and whatnot can be carried out on this one, but no heavy manufacturing or mining. The center section (the actual habitat) is roughly 1.5km in width. The ring around the middle is the same as the ring around the gas mining station. This one will also have the extendable cables like the station, as well as a ring of solar panels like flower petals.
It would spin slowly through the Venusian atmosphere much like the lillies do in water, with just a couple of stationkeeping thrusters to keep it on the dayside of Venus.
Anyway, I've added an Operations Sail to the colony. The intersection areas near the docking bays will be dealt with soon. They are by no means permanent.
I'm guessing pretty much like it would in Earth type cloud (except the colour) though there would still be breaks. Cloud density would obviously be dependent on altitude.
1) The density of the atmosphere is such that buoyancy is achieved by merely filling the station with an oxygenated gas. Regular air would work perfectly. The ring around the exterior of the colony has a core of helium, that can be used as ballast.
2) Since we're well within the actual atmosphere of Venus, the gravity is just about Earth-normal.
3) Venus has a very slow rotation period as well as sidereal day, which would make for a "day" that lasts most of two years of Earth time, meaning keeping in sunlight to take advantage of solar power would be incredibly easy.
This is a shot of the fan that I see every night just before I sleep. Maybe it was a subliminal influence on the way I developed the colony.
Just a random awesome occurrence.