User:Dante the Ghost/Sandbox

Overview
The IP-C SC Capital Star-class Eclipse—one of two known vessels, a third under construction—is designed for long interplanetary journeys of between two to six months, depending on the mission. Being the largest, most technologically advanced spacecraft in recent history, outperforming even ancient Hegemony ships, the Capital Stars are among the first of a new line of spacecraft capable of bridging the intersolar gap.

Design
Each Capital Star appears as a gigantic grappling hook with a grip spaced into sections. Equipped with a revolutionary hybrid thruster, an aneutronic fusion/VASIMR prototype, the Capital Star could theoretically reach any Inner System destination in a matter of weeks, unlike Hegemony jumpstars which took a month at their highest speed to go between the Brothers and Twins. Their current deltaV only allows enough for four months. Additionally, the plasma reactor for VASIMR generates a continual electromagnetic field to deflects solar radiation, something aneutronic fusion-powered ships lacked and kept them confined to the Jovians.

During the initial stages of the flight, another revolutionary technology called the photon sail is utilized. Once the ship has achieved a certain distance from Lylat, to prevent gravitic influences, an eighteen by eight kilometer, rhomboidal surface woven of carbon nanotubes and carbyne is unfurled to catch the propulsion laser. This sends the Capital Star into a Hohmann transfer to reach its intended destination, drastically shortening travel time; in this case, the rogue planet Titania orbiting the Brothers' within the Oberon trojans, ahead of the Twins by a few million kilometers. About a third of the way, the laser tapers off and the sail is folded inside a compact compartment smaller than a drone module. By this time the ship is well into intersolar space. Using its RCS the ship flips 180° and coasts the rest of the way, requiring only minor course corrections. By the time the ship nears the Oberon trojans the engines are fired to slow down until it is able to safely cruise the final ten thousand kilometers or so there.

Propulsion
The "hook" end is technically the ship, where its mass and volume are concentrated. Comprising the bulk of body are six tractor-configured engines (containing four reactors) with eight propellant tanks as the bow. Resting in the sections between the engines are four colossal radiator "spine" fins. Normally they rest the length of the tensile truss—the "rod" of the hook—with a hundred meters between them and the cargo section, but when activated they extended outward as an X (hence the illustration) to radiate heat built up during accel/deccel burns. Finally is the sail mast at the extreme tip of the bow. Ironically the sail is larger than the ship itself and is compressed into a very small space.

Truss
The entire length of the diamond/carbyne nanotube composite truss is thermally shielded for the accel/deccel phases. At the extreme other end, toward the "grip", are the cargo and drone containers, and the crew section. Much of the drone carriers are placed around the "hook", the ship's most vulnerable point; the rest are grouped around the cargo and crew.

Cargo Section
There are a total of five hundred cargo modules affixed to the truss of the ship, outstriping the IP-C SC freighter-class by an extra hundred. Arranged in ten ranks of twenty modules each, these carry the all vital energy crystals to assuage the City’s energy crisis. On its way there the Capital Star carries mining equipment, disassembled vehicles, medical technology, preserved supplies, and the latest entertainment for the Expedition. The modules are located roughly two-thirds down the ship.

With a total of fifty drone carrier modules, the spacecraft is well defended. Each module can carry up to eight drones and probes leading to four hundred robots ready for instant deployment. Placed strategically along the ship they bookend the cargo modules, surround propellent tanks, and guard crew habitats. Once deployed they are controlled from the CIC. Only thing they do not protect is the long length needed for the folded radiators, its natural armoring enough to protect against most threats.

A complete complement of twenty multi-jointed limbs, bookending the cargo modules, provide the ship with the ability to help both dock and manipulate containers around. They also ensure pods are loaded onto four TAVs (transatmospheric vehicles) docked to access ports. These tunnels lead to a pressurized tunnel that runs through the truss and connects the crew section. Two Celestial Guardians are also docked here further behind the TAVs for ship defense. For visiting spacecraft there are a total of twelve ports directly affixed to each crew module and separate from the rest.

Crew Section
The crew section itself is uniquely designed. As most crewed ships have no artificial gravity except accel/deccel burns their design was inspired by the Celestial Dock. Because of the enormous length and the ship's design, making accel burns impossible, centrifugal rings have been eschewed for rotating modules. Twelve twenty-by-eight meter long modules lie folded down the longitudinal axis of the ship during burns. In this configuration, gravity is created by the acceleration, all floors and walls correctly oriented to the gravity vector. When not under accel they open—like a flower—and are spun to provide centrifugal gravity. The CIC is also located here.

There are enough shipboard consumables to last up to six months max, with them being recycled to the maximum extent possible to reduce wastage and increase survivability. Oxygen is reclaimed from carbon dioxide by distillation of the ship’s atmosphere, which also removes all gaseous contaminants. Additionally, this process removes water vapor and purifies it for drinking. Steam distillation is used to reclaim more drinking water from urine and solid body waste. The solid waste is packaged for return home. In addition one out of three habitation modules is dedicated to hydroponics.

Communications & Defense
The Communications Array contains all of the electronic equipment necessary for communication home, powered by solar power and the ship’s main reactor. Four omnidirectional satellite dishes behind the crew modules bolster long-range communications if Lylat is in the direct path; otherwise signals are beamed to left over Neorepublic transplanetary satellites under Kōnerian control, which send them to Lylat and back. They extend out beyond the Whipple shields’ protection and are folded when under laser acceleration. Grouped along with the Communications Array are six panels, three to a side, which provide power when the ship’s reactors are powered down. Since the Fundament system always has a sun shining no matter where one is, power is a constant guarantee.

Five extendable Whipple shields each a hundred meters apart, located at the extreme rear (normally the front when crusing) of the ship, protect the ship from vaporization by the propelling laser. Since journeys to Titania can take up to four months, protection is needed against particle grains and/or solar radiation that can potentially destroy the ship and the crew. Magnetic fields are provided naturally by the Jovians' combined magnetic field, and in interplanetary space the VASIMR reactor provides a substitute.

Production information
Manufacturer: Kōneria City

Class: Capital Star

Role:
 * Cargo transport
 * Mobile command base
 * Military transport

Specifications
Length:
 * 4900 meters (16076.12 ft.)—total; does not include habitation module
 * 400 meters (1312.34 ft.)—propellant tanks
 * 800 meters (2624.67 ft.)—front-to-back
 * 600 meters (1968.5 ft.)—engines
 * 3500 meters (11482.94 ft.)—truss
 * 20 meters (65.6168 ft.)—individual habitation module
 * 204 meters (669.291 ft.)—spar radius
 * 224 meters (734.908 ft.)—with module
 * 448 meters (1469.82 ft.)—full diameter

Width:
 * 300 meters (328.084 ft.)—avg.
 * 100 meters (328.084 ft.)—propellant tank
 * 200 meters (656.168 ft.)—side-by-side
 * 150 meters (492.126 ft.)—engines
 * 300 meters (984.252 ft.)—side-by-side
 * 50 meters (164.042 ft.)—truss
 * 8 meters (26.2467 ft.)—individual module

Height:
 * 75 meters (246.063 ft.)—avg.
 * 100 meters (328.084 ft.)—propellant tank
 * 50 meters (164.042 ft.)—engine
 * 50 meters (164.042 ft.)—truss
 * 8 meters (26.2467 ft.)—individual module

Volume:
 * 4000000 cubic meters (141258666.9 cu ft.)—propellant tank
 * 1280 cubic meters (45202.77 cu ft.)—individual module
 * 15360 cubic meters (542433.28 cu ft.)—all modules

Engine:
 * Photon sail
 * 6 hybrid aneutronic fusion/VASIMR engines
 * Multiple hydrogen/oxygen RCS engines

Power source:
 * Deuterium-Tritium Fusion
 * Energy crystal catalyst/supplement

Hull:
 * Diamond/carbyne nanotube composites
 * Thermally shielded
 * Foam composites—cargo and hab. modules

Armament:
 * 200 pebble-killers
 * 20 laser-cutters
 * 1 dumb missile launcher
 * 20 missiles
 * 1 centrally-mounted axial railcannon
 * 5 Whipple shields

Complement:
 * 50 personnel
 * 200 cosmonauts
 * 400 drones/probes
 * 4 transatmospheric vehicles (TAVs)
 * 2 Celestial Guardian ships
 * Various dumb A.I.

Cargo: 550 modules

Service information
Commissioned: 12.19.798/998.M28

Launched: 15.12.799/999.M28

Fleet: InterPlanetary-Capable SpaceCraft (IP-C SC)

Known commanders: Captain Gawain Lombardi

Known ships
 * Eclipse
 * Ascension
 * Angel—under construction

Affiliation: Kōnerian Spatial Command