Mallacore on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/mallacore/art/Near-Future-Spaceship-Texture1-254232134Mallacore

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Near Future Spaceship Texture1

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Starting on the texture work for my near future spaceship model.
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1366x1536px 423.24 KB
© 2011 - 2024 Mallacore
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Seyvaro66's avatar

Interesting engine placement. Having the engines at the front allows a reduction of mass because a tension structure like a cable is generally lighter than a compression structure like a girder, but the downside is the risk of blasting the ship with its own exhaust. The propellant tanks look a little small but if those are VASIMR engines as another comment suggests it won't matter as much due to the efficiency (exhaust velocity) of such engines. I'm guessing the structure at the back with the four panels is a nuclear reactor powering the lasers and VASIMRs, either of which would need a lot of power to achieve good performance. The two large fins running the length of the ship are most likely radiators for the reactor. The six smaller fins look like solar panels, possibly as a backup power source to allow the reactor to shut down (conserving nuclear fuel) when the ship is not using its drives or weapons. The front section looks like a habitat for crew, probably not a lot of crew given the size of the ladders on the outside. The reactor is currently cold, the radiators would glow red or orange due to incandescence when in operation. The use of VASIMR engines suggests low acceleration and long burn times, however VASIMRs do have the ability to trade efficiency for acceleration when needed. I'm guessing there's only one laser that can fire from either turret (which is possible because laser turrets don't contain the whole laser, just the optics). This allows the ship to retain its full firepower even after losing a turret, and by pointing both turrets at different targets it can switch to the next after shooting one down faster than its turrets can turn.