and after looking closely at the schematics the 1500 meters, only about 500 of it is actual crew spaces. other then the engineering crawl spaces and other access tubes everything from the flight deck end to the rear is engines engineering and engine supplies etc.
There are some spaces in the midship and aft ends, which we haven't drawn yet. As well, there are decks D thru H below that still have to be drawn. Most of those are berths, offices, shops, cargo, machinary, labs, etc...
Midship has some areas for servicing the quads when they are retracted, and to access the heat exchange systems. Aft, there are the reactor rooms, various control centers, and main propulsion.
Getting from the forward section to the aft section us best down by a shuttle that rides down a fore-aft track. Otherwise, its about a ten minute walk.
OK kinda a dumb question BUT why are there no safety harnesses for the crew on the bridge? make em like the ones the stock car drivers have. A four point restraining harness with a recessed button about chest/stomach height for an easy release? I know that Aroura is supposed to be a ship of discovery/diplomatic vessel, even that type of ship can still run into trouble/battles every now and then. Would suggest you add to the ship?? OR have a restraining arms that encapsulate the crew at there bridge station (even for the marines that stand at the doorways while at battle stations so they do not get thrown around.
Helmsmen and planesmen on submarines are harnessed in. Seems a reasonable precaution when maneuvering.
There are some spaces in the midship and aft ends, which we haven’t drawn yet. As well, there are decks D thru H below that still have to be drawn. Most of those are berths, offices, shops, cargo, machinary, labs, etc…
Midship has some areas for servicing the quads when they are retracted, and to access the heat exchange systems. Aft, there are the reactor rooms, various control centers, and main propulsion.
Getting from the forward section to the aft section us best down by a shuttle that rides down a fore-aft track. Otherwise, its about a ten minute walk.
Does this mean that you will be releasing plans of decks below B deck?
I'd rather see a napkin sketch of the Celestia and how much remains to be fitted, and then send Ryk back to the dungeon!
While the ship looks pretty close to how I imagined her – lovely lines, BTW – I am surprised by her size. Maybe I missed it in the books, but is she really almost 1500m long? Also, based on how long it takes people to move about her, it doesn’t seem like she is quite that size.
If I read the specs right, she has 3M of armor all the way around the hull. This should account for maybe 7-8 additional meters of overall length. So it’s not a whole lot of extra added size.
Yes but its "profile" is only ~160m and I assume that the hull will by layered with supply sections, service corridors and various automated system (e.g. comm arrays and weapons) for additionally protection. With living quarters and action stations situated across the center of the ship, I think that moving about would be fast enough.
p.s. it seems to me that the majority of the aft section is devoted propulsion and power generation and middle to flight deck (a bit too small?). Although I agree that at times the ship sizescope is hard to glimpse from the descriptions.
top armor plating and hull thickness 3 meters think 10 feet thick.
bottom armor plating and hull thick ness 6 meters thick think 20 feet thick
now these are solid metal plating with bulkheads for structural integrity
so we have used say 10 meters of 160 and we have 8 decks with 2 meters in between decks
each deck is 10 meters in height plus 2 meters so 12 by 8 is 96 meters which make huge tall decks by the way, which leaves 54 meters of crawlspace conduits and translation tunnels.
the flight deck is 4 decks high im guessing
oh and if you still think 1500 meters is huge, think track and field, they run 1500 meters in 4 minutes I think.
Telles says they run the loop every morning for their normal PT multiple laps
The majority of the Aurora's interior is NOT pressurized crew accessible spaces. The Aurora is actually a ship within a ship. The pressurized interior is basically a long rectangular box with its own hull and frame. (There are a few protrusions here and there, like the hangar bays.) Contained within this inner hull are the regular crew spaces, life support, cargo areas, and the two backup fusion reactors. If you stripped away everything outside of this inner hull, the inner hull would still be space worthy, and would still protect and support the crew. (Life support, supplies, power, etc...) It just would be adrift.
EVERYTHING ELSE is outside of this inner hull. Propulsion, maneuvering, jump drive, emitter arrays, weapons, sensors, communications, main power (antimatter reactors)...everything that makes a space vessel able to do anything. (Other than support the lives of her crew.)
The outer hull isn't just a bunch of armor plating. Yes, it has armor, but it's not like 10 ft thick armor plating. You have layers of hull that are designed to rob incoming projectiles (from both weapons and just crap in space) of their kinetic energy. Think layers of material that looks much like cardboard boxes. Honeycombs of material, some of it filled with gels and such, all designed to slow down anything that penetrates the outer armor to prevent it from getting inside the hull, especially the inner hull. That's why all the hull breaches that they've had thus far are at locations where there is the least amount of distance between the outer hull and the inner hull. (In some spots, they are only a few meters apart.)
Now, the majority of the Aurora's bulk isn't even around the inner hull where the crew normally functions. If you look at the drawings of the Aurora, everything from the forward end of her reverse thrusters doors at the outer/front edges of the rear section...this is all power and propulsion! The only crew accessible spaces (other than access tubes and such) are the two torpedo bays. So a whole third of her mass right there is nothing but propulsion and power generation, which makes sense because it takes a lot of power to travel in FTL. (Not to mention jumping.)
Add in propellant storage, which is all over the ship, and all those rail gun bays as well as their ammo bays, and then the entire missile deck where you have not only the missile launcher but also upwards of 80 missiles, you start to realize that when you consider everything that IS onboard it's surprising that she isn't bigger.
[...] you start to realize that when you consider everything that IS onboard it’s surprising that she isn’t bigger.
Thanks for the overview of Aurora insides, it certainly helps to clear up Aurora layout in my head.
As for its size personally, I had no problem with it, especially after i grasped the size of its propulsion system (iirc it accounts for half of Aurora mass), my issue was the size to crew ratio i.e. usually when I think of huge Aircraft carrier, I think of US super carriers one of those can have up to 6000 crew, and can easily fit into Aurora. So each time that Aurora get pounded and vlad has to fix it with total crew of 300(?) I can but think that its way too little. (Some thing for reference on a supper carrier) Then again maybe I am over thinking this 😉
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OK kinda a dumb question BUT why are there no safety harnesses for the crew on the bridge? make em like the ones the stock car drivers have.
Because just like exploding consoles, its a "staple" of SciFI? otherwise ship combat in space would be a bit boring. However overall I agree, even if the original designers hasn't thought that 'safety harnesses' are necessary, they should have been added as lesson learned from Aurora previous encounters long time ago. (the military is kind of anal that way)
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[...] you start to realize that when you consider everything that IS onboard it’s surprising that she isn’t bigger.
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Thanks for the overview of Aurora insides, it certainly helps to clear up Aurora layout in my head.As for its size personally, I had no problem with it, especially after i grasped the size of its propulsion system (iirc it accounts for half of Aurora mass), my issue was the size to crew ratio i.e. usually when I think of huge Aircraft carrier, I think of US super carriers one of those can have up to 6000 crew, and can easily fit into Aurora. So each time that Aurora get pounded and vlad has to fix it with total crew of 300(?) I can but think that its way too little. (Some thing for reference on a supper carrier) Then again maybe I am over thinking this
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OK kinda a dumb question BUT why are there no safety harnesses for the crew on the bridge? make em like the ones the stock car drivers have.
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Because just like exploding consoles, its a “staple” of SciFI? otherwise ship combat in space would be a bit boring. However overall I agree, even if the original designers hasn’t thought that ‘safety harnesses’ are necessary, they should have been added as lesson learned from Aurora previous encounters long time ago. (the military is kind of anal that way)
Most of the SF I read, when it has space combat, everyone is wearing a combat suit that allows the wearer to survive for hours if not days in space. Usually, they can see the enemy coming far enough in advance that they have time to put the suits on. They don't do that on TV because is cheaper not to. And because a helmet would interfere with camera angles.
