The Essex class looks really cool. Do you have a callouts sheet that describes what the different parts are? Minor note: If you have fusion technology, why would the ship need solar panels?
Also, what is the backstory on the New Haven Chronicles?
To the point of solar panel and radiators, it does indeed have both. The radiators are attached to the fusion reactors in the back and the solar panels are attached forward of the aft radiation shield. As to why you would need both, redundancy. Technology breaks down and fuel is finite. Solar power never runs out so why not use both.
Here's a quick sectional diagram that details the major components. I don't have the time right now to detail everything, but I do plan on doing so at some point. And there are a few details, that even at the size at which the current image is, are still too small to make out....such as the CIWS lasers and the construction/repair drones. Those will need larger callout images, within the main image, though at this point the main image is already getting difficult to work with. Breaking it down into sections helps some, but it's still a slow process.
A - Sensor cluster Aâ fancy sensors that would takes days to fully explain.
B - Forward Radiation shield
C - Main hull and Cargo-One & Bulkwar laser turrets Aâ Primary Shuttle docking
D - Primary weapons module Aâ Viper Missile Launch Cells & MAC (magnetically accelerated cannon) Turret Aâ Primary Docking arms...
E - Cargo-Two Aâ secondary shuttle docking
F - Secondary Hull - Main Storage Aâ Water/Waste/Liquid Oxygen?
G - Cargo-Three Aâ Solar Panels
H - Aft Radiation Shield & Hydrogen ramscoops
I - Auxiliary support bracing Aâ the fusion engines produce an insane amount of thrust in order to get the Essex Class up to her full speed. The bracing helps distribute the force evenly so that the engines don't tear the ship apart.
J - Engineering Hull & Primary fuel storage & Two mark IX fusion reactors, coupled with four pulse fusion drivers & Primary Radiators
Back story and universe info on New Haven. This is by no means comprehensive. I just tried to hit what I felt were some of the major points and highlights, as well as some things that I think set New Haven apart from similar series.
New Haven is a military sci-fi series (books for now) that I liken to Band of Brothers or Generation Kill, but in the future. The story moves back and forth between two aspects (ground combat on Earth/Moon/Mars-space based combat between ships orbiting Earth/Luna/Mars) of an ongoing conflict between the United Nations and the Alliance of Corporations.
For the most part, from the UN side of things, the story follows various UNMC officers and enlisted personnel. You see other branches of service within the UNEF (United Nations Expeditionary Forces) from time to time, but the Marines get the spotlight. Branches of service include, Marines, Militia, Orbital Support Force, Orbital Guard (akin to the coast guard) and the Navy. The UN navy has no military assets of it's own and is largely a logistical unit, operating the JAG and Office of Naval Intelligence.
A large focus of the story is placed on a the special operations capable forces of the Marine Corps, called the AROS (Advanced Reconnaissance Operations Service) They operate as a combination of paratroopers/force recon. They're special operations capable, but are more often used as direct action force multipliers due to their significant training. AROS is typically pronounced Arrows.
The Alliance military is composed entirely of Guardsmen. There is no distinction between different branches of service. Everyone is a Guardsmen. The Guardsmen are owned and operated, having more in common with private military contractors than a legitimate military force, within the Alliance by the Interplanetary Security Force, one of the few corporations within the Alliance that is not considered a true Solar Corporations. (Solar Corporations are corps that were present within the Alliance when they left Earth and that maintain a headquarters not located on Earth. ISF wasn't incorporated until after the exodus).
One of the few distinctions made within the Guardsmen, is between infantry and Jumpers. While all Guardsmen are heavily augmented with genetic and cybernetic enhancements (augmentation is rated by a T scale. A T1 augment would have very basic augmentation, such as correcting a birth defect or the implantation of a cybernetic organ, while a T3 augment has been genetically altered from the ground up to be a Jumper with enhances across all platforms. There are no T4's...yet. T4's will be the full blending of man and machine, with practically no flesh to speak of...a machine with human consciousness.)
Aside from their enhancements, Jumpers wear a type of synthetic body armor that is as much a part of their body as our skin is to us. Dense nano-fiber carbon and kevlar fibers weave a new skin into the flesh of the user. This requires an extensive replacement of most organs as the body fights to reject these enhancements and the users immune system is suppressed. Jumpers typically run fevers, making them easy to spot with thermal imagining.
Their armor capabilities are only part of their enhancements. With the addition of skeletal reinforcements, retro-rockets, and the jump boot exoskeleton, Jumpers can literally jump hundreds of meters into the air, or survive relatively high drops with little trouble. One particularly favorite tactice, is to assemble outside the weapons range of a base or town and then 'jump' over the perimeter defenses into the center of the base, raining down weapons fire as they descend.
(This is one of the few areas that push things further beyond believability than anything else in the series. In some ways, the Alliance is used as a way to explore more out there sci-fi ideas, while the UN tries to be more realistic. It creates a unique dynamic I think.)
The Alliance consists of about a dozen Corporations that specialize in various space faring technologies, which were developed through the twenty-frist and twenty second centuries as the National Space Agencies began to decline for various reasons. Because of this, the Alliance owns and maintains the bulk of space faring infrastructure within the Inner Solar system where the entire story takes place. Humans have yet to travel beyond the inner asteroid belt at this point.
The UN rose to prominence after a long decline, when it became apparent that the Alliance wasn't going to share the vast tech benefits being developed through the exploration of space travel. While basic fusion technology is available to everyone, Alliance fusion tech is far more advanced. This technological superiority is maintained throughout most fields of progress, with the exception of Artificial Intelligence. The UN has four fully sentient AI's, which is in part one of the reasons why the Alliance started the war. They're desperate to acquire a working AI cortex for study and possible reproduction.
The name New Haven, comes from an artificial island off the coast of Newfoundland, that was built by the founding members of the Alliance, as an internationally independent location to conduct certain technological experiments. It was on New Haven that the first Fusion reactor was brought online, powering the entire island and parts of Newfoundland. Later, when the Alliance left Earth in a mass exodus to live in space, the UN moved in to occupy the island. The UN maintains control of New Haven to this day and while the island is strategically insignificant, it's seen by both sides as a point of contention and
When the story begins, the war is in it's second year and the UN is up against the wall. The aforementioned fusion technology which powers much of their war machine, is running low on fuel. The Alliance has struck most of their heavy helium3 production/refinement facilities and blockaded Earth from receiving shipments from independent contractors.
The entire UN fleet remains in orbit of Earth, as the Alliance controls Luna and Mars.
Orbital dynamics plays a large role in combat in space, in that all objects are in orbit of a larger celestial body. So if ship A shoots at Ship B, you're not shooting at where ship B is, but rather where you think it will be in it's orbit. If your weapon is a rail gun with limited line of sight capabilities, and Ship B changes speed or altitude, then you're going to miss. If your weapon is a missile that can also alter it's course, you still might also miss if Ship B can alter it's speed and altitude to a degree that makes it impossible for the missile to catch you, effectively making the missile expend all its fuel chasing you.
Ships on both sides fight with with missiles that are akin to ICBM's though instead of nuclear warheads, the warheads are fusion powered x-ray lasers. So ships fire volies of missiles at each other and try to intercept them with laser and rail gun fire.
Space battles never happen with ships being within eye sight of one another. Effective engagement ranges are plus a hundred thousand kilometers.
Most of the ground combat is limited to earth and is somewhat conventional, by design. There are Unmanned Drones, drop ships, armored vehicles, and the like.
There are no aliens, no FTL, and everything happens between the orbits of Earth and Mars. While it's definitely not Hard Science Fiction, I do try to maintain a level of believability and not flat out break certain rules. For example, there are no space fighters in open space. Unmanned drones are heavily used by both sides and there is no artificial gravity aboard UN vessels. Officers and crew where nano-velcro soled boots that allow them to 'stick' to the deck and are typically buckled into the seats with a multipoint harness. Touch screens, motion controls, and interactive 3d holograms are abound, though on occasion you will still find manual switches, knobs, and levelers.
The story is both large and personal, with aspects focusing mostly on the military aspect of the war, in addition to the politics of both sides. There is also a strong presence of espionage based tactics, it is explored from the perspectives side however. While I know I'll get it completely accurate, I've tried my best to create what I believe is a liveable futuristic depiction of a real military force.
Anyway, I could probably keep going, but this is already running into four pages so I'll stop there for now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
A bit of an update, trying to draw a camo-scheme for the first time, adding and tweaking more details...still need to work on the weathering for the engines. Went a bit overboard. Hope to have more soon.
So, I have a couple of design questions.
#1, what is the reason for that tail wheel? It is so far up the tail that it would have extend pretty far to keep the tail from striking, so what is it for?
#2, are there main landing gear for the craft to land on, or is it a belly lander?
#3, is there a main hatch under the tail?
#4, does it carry vehicles at all?
I neglected to turn on the layer that has the landing gear, and that's not a tail wheel, just a wing.
The new pick shows the actual landing gear.
There is an aft hatch, under the tail, similar to the hatch on the MH-53, which the Cayuga was originally inspired by. The new pick also shows roughly where the aft hatch is and is by no means final.
The Cayuga can carry one vehicle, a standard Bushmashter TCV (pictured under the wing), though it's not an easy process to get it loaded. As is stands now, the Bushmaster won't clear the Cayuga's tail. Even with it's variable ride height suspension in it's lowest setting, it still won't clear the aft sensor package. To get around this, the Cayuga can also adjust it's suspension. So by lowering the nose and lifting up it's back end, the Bushmaster can just barely squeeze in. Ideally, the Cayuga isn't intended to carry vehicles, at least not internally. It can support an additional Bushmaster via tow cables, though its main cargo remains personnel.
Posts
Also, what is the backstory on the New Haven Chronicles?
cool work on the cayuga dropship. once again i congratulate you on the essex, hard scifi deigns look brilliant when done this well.
Here's a quick sectional diagram that details the major components. I don't have the time right now to detail everything, but I do plan on doing so at some point. And there are a few details, that even at the size at which the current image is, are still too small to make out....such as the CIWS lasers and the construction/repair drones. Those will need larger callout images, within the main image, though at this point the main image is already getting difficult to work with. Breaking it down into sections helps some, but it's still a slow process.
A - Sensor cluster Aâ fancy sensors that would takes days to fully explain.
B - Forward Radiation shield
C - Main hull and Cargo-One & Bulkwar laser turrets Aâ Primary Shuttle docking
D - Primary weapons module Aâ Viper Missile Launch Cells & MAC (magnetically accelerated cannon) Turret Aâ Primary Docking arms...
E - Cargo-Two Aâ secondary shuttle docking
F - Secondary Hull - Main Storage Aâ Water/Waste/Liquid Oxygen?
G - Cargo-Three Aâ Solar Panels
H - Aft Radiation Shield & Hydrogen ramscoops
I - Auxiliary support bracing Aâ the fusion engines produce an insane amount of thrust in order to get the Essex Class up to her full speed. The bracing helps distribute the force evenly so that the engines don't tear the ship apart.
J - Engineering Hull & Primary fuel storage & Two mark IX fusion reactors, coupled with four pulse fusion drivers & Primary Radiators
Back story and universe info on New Haven. This is by no means comprehensive. I just tried to hit what I felt were some of the major points and highlights, as well as some things that I think set New Haven apart from similar series.
New Haven is a military sci-fi series (books for now) that I liken to Band of Brothers or Generation Kill, but in the future. The story moves back and forth between two aspects (ground combat on Earth/Moon/Mars-space based combat between ships orbiting Earth/Luna/Mars) of an ongoing conflict between the United Nations and the Alliance of Corporations.
For the most part, from the UN side of things, the story follows various UNMC officers and enlisted personnel. You see other branches of service within the UNEF (United Nations Expeditionary Forces) from time to time, but the Marines get the spotlight. Branches of service include, Marines, Militia, Orbital Support Force, Orbital Guard (akin to the coast guard) and the Navy. The UN navy has no military assets of it's own and is largely a logistical unit, operating the JAG and Office of Naval Intelligence.
A large focus of the story is placed on a the special operations capable forces of the Marine Corps, called the AROS (Advanced Reconnaissance Operations Service) They operate as a combination of paratroopers/force recon. They're special operations capable, but are more often used as direct action force multipliers due to their significant training. AROS is typically pronounced Arrows.
The Alliance military is composed entirely of Guardsmen. There is no distinction between different branches of service. Everyone is a Guardsmen. The Guardsmen are owned and operated, having more in common with private military contractors than a legitimate military force, within the Alliance by the Interplanetary Security Force, one of the few corporations within the Alliance that is not considered a true Solar Corporations. (Solar Corporations are corps that were present within the Alliance when they left Earth and that maintain a headquarters not located on Earth. ISF wasn't incorporated until after the exodus).
One of the few distinctions made within the Guardsmen, is between infantry and Jumpers. While all Guardsmen are heavily augmented with genetic and cybernetic enhancements (augmentation is rated by a T scale. A T1 augment would have very basic augmentation, such as correcting a birth defect or the implantation of a cybernetic organ, while a T3 augment has been genetically altered from the ground up to be a Jumper with enhances across all platforms. There are no T4's...yet. T4's will be the full blending of man and machine, with practically no flesh to speak of...a machine with human consciousness.)
Aside from their enhancements, Jumpers wear a type of synthetic body armor that is as much a part of their body as our skin is to us. Dense nano-fiber carbon and kevlar fibers weave a new skin into the flesh of the user. This requires an extensive replacement of most organs as the body fights to reject these enhancements and the users immune system is suppressed. Jumpers typically run fevers, making them easy to spot with thermal imagining.
Their armor capabilities are only part of their enhancements. With the addition of skeletal reinforcements, retro-rockets, and the jump boot exoskeleton, Jumpers can literally jump hundreds of meters into the air, or survive relatively high drops with little trouble. One particularly favorite tactice, is to assemble outside the weapons range of a base or town and then 'jump' over the perimeter defenses into the center of the base, raining down weapons fire as they descend.
(This is one of the few areas that push things further beyond believability than anything else in the series. In some ways, the Alliance is used as a way to explore more out there sci-fi ideas, while the UN tries to be more realistic. It creates a unique dynamic I think.)
The Alliance consists of about a dozen Corporations that specialize in various space faring technologies, which were developed through the twenty-frist and twenty second centuries as the National Space Agencies began to decline for various reasons. Because of this, the Alliance owns and maintains the bulk of space faring infrastructure within the Inner Solar system where the entire story takes place. Humans have yet to travel beyond the inner asteroid belt at this point.
The UN rose to prominence after a long decline, when it became apparent that the Alliance wasn't going to share the vast tech benefits being developed through the exploration of space travel. While basic fusion technology is available to everyone, Alliance fusion tech is far more advanced. This technological superiority is maintained throughout most fields of progress, with the exception of Artificial Intelligence. The UN has four fully sentient AI's, which is in part one of the reasons why the Alliance started the war. They're desperate to acquire a working AI cortex for study and possible reproduction.
The name New Haven, comes from an artificial island off the coast of Newfoundland, that was built by the founding members of the Alliance, as an internationally independent location to conduct certain technological experiments. It was on New Haven that the first Fusion reactor was brought online, powering the entire island and parts of Newfoundland. Later, when the Alliance left Earth in a mass exodus to live in space, the UN moved in to occupy the island. The UN maintains control of New Haven to this day and while the island is strategically insignificant, it's seen by both sides as a point of contention and
When the story begins, the war is in it's second year and the UN is up against the wall. The aforementioned fusion technology which powers much of their war machine, is running low on fuel. The Alliance has struck most of their heavy helium3 production/refinement facilities and blockaded Earth from receiving shipments from independent contractors.
The entire UN fleet remains in orbit of Earth, as the Alliance controls Luna and Mars.
Orbital dynamics plays a large role in combat in space, in that all objects are in orbit of a larger celestial body. So if ship A shoots at Ship B, you're not shooting at where ship B is, but rather where you think it will be in it's orbit. If your weapon is a rail gun with limited line of sight capabilities, and Ship B changes speed or altitude, then you're going to miss. If your weapon is a missile that can also alter it's course, you still might also miss if Ship B can alter it's speed and altitude to a degree that makes it impossible for the missile to catch you, effectively making the missile expend all its fuel chasing you.
Ships on both sides fight with with missiles that are akin to ICBM's though instead of nuclear warheads, the warheads are fusion powered x-ray lasers. So ships fire volies of missiles at each other and try to intercept them with laser and rail gun fire.
Space battles never happen with ships being within eye sight of one another. Effective engagement ranges are plus a hundred thousand kilometers.
Most of the ground combat is limited to earth and is somewhat conventional, by design. There are Unmanned Drones, drop ships, armored vehicles, and the like.
There are no aliens, no FTL, and everything happens between the orbits of Earth and Mars. While it's definitely not Hard Science Fiction, I do try to maintain a level of believability and not flat out break certain rules. For example, there are no space fighters in open space. Unmanned drones are heavily used by both sides and there is no artificial gravity aboard UN vessels. Officers and crew where nano-velcro soled boots that allow them to 'stick' to the deck and are typically buckled into the seats with a multipoint harness. Touch screens, motion controls, and interactive 3d holograms are abound, though on occasion you will still find manual switches, knobs, and levelers.
The story is both large and personal, with aspects focusing mostly on the military aspect of the war, in addition to the politics of both sides. There is also a strong presence of espionage based tactics, it is explored from the perspectives side however. While I know I'll get it completely accurate, I've tried my best to create what I believe is a liveable futuristic depiction of a real military force.
Anyway, I could probably keep going, but this is already running into four pages so I'll stop there for now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Knight26, no plans for 3d right now, at least from me. If someone else wants to take at them, they're welcome to try.
Looks great. Too bad if this were real life the Canadian Gov't would take 40 years to buy it :flippy:
#1, what is the reason for that tail wheel? It is so far up the tail that it would have extend pretty far to keep the tail from striking, so what is it for?
#2, are there main landing gear for the craft to land on, or is it a belly lander?
#3, is there a main hatch under the tail?
#4, does it carry vehicles at all?
The new pick shows the actual landing gear.
There is an aft hatch, under the tail, similar to the hatch on the MH-53, which the Cayuga was originally inspired by. The new pick also shows roughly where the aft hatch is and is by no means final.
The Cayuga can carry one vehicle, a standard Bushmashter TCV (pictured under the wing), though it's not an easy process to get it loaded. As is stands now, the Bushmaster won't clear the Cayuga's tail. Even with it's variable ride height suspension in it's lowest setting, it still won't clear the aft sensor package. To get around this, the Cayuga can also adjust it's suspension. So by lowering the nose and lifting up it's back end, the Bushmaster can just barely squeeze in. Ideally, the Cayuga isn't intended to carry vehicles, at least not internally. It can support an additional Bushmaster via tow cables, though its main cargo remains personnel.