Aurora class Slipstream Prototype

This ship is an oldie; I stumbled upon her while searching for another design (there's like 100's of drawings scattered around two drawers), but when my eye fell upon her I just had the urge to do something with it. I could use some ideas in how to model the deflector housing, though. My vision for this prototype is that it's made from a Starfleet perspective, not Arturis' race: the energy for the slipstreamtunnel is channeled through four emitters on the nacelles, because afterall, Starfleet uses nacelles for their propulsion, not deflectors. That results in a fairly normal deflector, perhaps with a fallback system so that the deflector can aid in the stabilisation of the slipstreamtunnel, but it will most definitely not be the main source.




This is one big organic shape mess, so any help is appreciated

There we go: that secondary hull isn't exactly the way I want it, but to get it in such way I need a SketchUp plugin that's still in development. For now I like it, though

Cool deal.
I like that aft shot.

[Thomas P]

No help here on how to set up the deflector I'm afraid. Real nice work so far though!

Here's a render for the deflector area



I'm kind of wondering if this is the best way to go, but I really want to stay away from a Dauntless deflector as hard as possible. Suggestions, anyone?

[ulimann644]

Cool design - I especially like the sketch of this ship

I've always been a fan of streamlined ships and I have to say this one is shaping up nicely. The deflector is a nice touch, keep up the work.

[gmd3d]

OII I seamed to have missed this BorgMan. I'm bad

damn fine start on this ship ..as pointed out by Enigma the deflector is a nice touch and the detailing around it

Nice work. Looking at the rear aspect of this design makes me want to put a shuttle bay door on it. As for deflectors, May be a Buzzard ramjet concept may work or a modern fighter intake from an F14 etc. There could be a way of combining the two ideas in to one concept.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet
Here's a wiki link to the 1960's concept. It may give you an idea or two.

^ Thanks for that psyco, not a lot of usable stuff but it atleast highlights the use of the collectors

Here's two shots from the cargo bay situated behind the shuttlebay:

[gmd3d]

nice work .. hope to see more more more .. did I say more bty

Here's the work in progress sketch of the Spine: the first generation slipstream core that the Aurora uses:



As you can see, there are several pipes leading off of the main core. They do... something, my Treknobabbler came up with a use for them:

Originally Posted by Babbleon Engine Technology Group

Quantum Slipstream Prototype USS Aurora:

Inspired by data gathered by USS Voyager (see attached files). This file introduces basic slipstream physics and serves to offer non Engineering personnel a basic primer on slipstream drive operation.

OVERVIEW: Conventional warp-drive as envisioned by Vulcan and Human science involves a gross distortion of real-space via the application of a hyper-spatial electromagnetic/gravametric field. This field is generated by the interaction of certain energetic byproducts of matter-antimatter reactions with a specific class of densifed matter arranged into paired coils. The resonance of these coils provides the spatial distortion that drives the vessel forward.

This has been the status-quo for over 200 years.

A new understanding of the quantum-level structure of the universe has allowed us to create a new form of drive. By projecting converging gravametric beams to a pre-determined point it is possible to open a psudo-wormhole. Entering the wormhole bypasses normal spacetime, allowing incredible velocities to be achieved. This is not a true wormhole, as the endpoints travel with the vessel... in effect the vessel can create a wormhole at will and exit it at a destination point. Interaction with normal space is very limited, therefore the ship can travel with shields offline as there is matter or obstructions within the slipstream nor is there any way for an object in realspace to interact with the vessel.


As with conventional warp drive the heart of the drive is a matter-antimatter reactor. For slipstream drive power is applied to four redundant gravametric beam generators and a subspace matrix projector. The system can operate with two of four generators offline. The interaction between the intersecting beams and the subspace matrix create a massive alteration of the very fabric of space, in effect a tunnel. The tunnel at this point is three meters high but no thicker than the diameter of a neutron. The subspace matrix is altered to force open the tunnel and stretch it to the dimensions of the vessel. Once this occurs the ship enters the tunnel and applies a specially tuned spatial interaction field generated by the nacelles, this forces the tunnel to remain open. The collapse of the tunnel behind the nacelles pushes on the energy field produced by the nacelles, imparting tremendous velocity upon the vessel. So long as the matrix is projected ahead of the vessel the vessel moves forward.

Stopping the vessel at a specified point involves creating a window in the matrix and a controlled sequential power-down of the nacelles and the near simultanious creation of a standard warp field... This in effect ejects the vessel from the stream where it gradually slows to sub-light velocity in the normal method.

Currently, our understanding of slipstream physics is limited. The nacelles generate the interaction field by bouncing a tuned particle stream between two tetryon field mirrors. The interaction between the particle stream and the tetryon field create a subspace distortion capable of interacting with the quantum tunnel.

In traditional warp-drive, dilithium crystals are used to convert and tune the energetic reaction products to useful energies. In slipstream drive, the same matter and antimatter streams are used but the useable product is produced by interacting the streams with a benimite crystal. Benimite is a very rare and precious commodity at this time, true stable benimite can only be created under laboratory conditions. This is a very labor and energy intensive process, and currently the yield of stable crystals is less than 5% of all crystals produced. In the event of the loss of the ship, recovery of the crystals takes highest priority over all other operations.

So... The sketch is practically to scale to fit the space available in the rear of the ship, though the deck layout is nowhere near final; neither are the "spinal columns" along the core (that's actually my mistake; I thought I had centered the slipstream converger / Dilithium chamber properly. I was wrong >_<). Anyway, C&C would be highly appreciated

Allrighty... I have worked pretty hard the last couple of days to give you this:

The Spine.




This core is a combination between a normal warp core and the slipstream core seen in Hope and Fear; litteraly. As said, this is the first generation, meaning that with the switching of the crystals (detailed in a former post) the energy output changes as well, necitating in two seperate PTC's: one for regular plasma, two (above and below the original PTC) for the transport of the Benimite focused stream.

I am not sure yet how to show the plasma globe-like discharges in the core but I'll get there eventually. The entrance is 3,5 meters high, though I'm not sure yet how it translates to the deck layout once I install it (very bad: I haven't checked it just yet) so perhaps I'll have to make a risen platform in the beginning to let them allign properly. Anyway, enjoy, and please give me C&C on this one. If I'm correct, this will be the first modelled Federation slipstream core so I could use all the help I can get

[ulimann644]

Looks pretty cool so far - very good work !!
Unfortunatelly I know not so much about the slipstream-core tech so it´s very interesting for me to see, what are you creating here... :thumbup:

Allright, a small step away from the core until I know a little bit better what to do with it. I've started work on the bridge, including the conference room and the captain's ready room. Due to the somewhat unique shape of the hull the last two can't be placed next to the bridge as is common with a lot of starships, so instead they are moved to the back and the front, respectively. As always, C&C is appreciated, it's been a longtime since I've designed a bridge so I might be a little rusty

Here's the first render of the bridge itself. I'm really in a hurry so this is all you'll get from me for the weekend

[Crusader]

looking good so far from what I can see, B-man, but do you have some larger images to see more clearly? Those thumbnails are very tiny!

Have you tried clicking on said thumbnails?

[Crusader]

i just see url links in the thread and when i click on it, it opens a thumbnail in a new window?

Well that's odd. I've placed all the images of the Aurora in a single photoalbum, maybe that helps? You can find it here

The bridge is now filled a lot more: bulkheads have been placed, extra consoles (including XI inspired window consoles) and the helm and XO (I think) console is in place as well. Also, I broke up the shape that was the pit with a platform in which the underside of the holographic projector rests, and deepened the pit itself a bit more: makes for a much more interesting view. Ideas about how (and IF) to place wall mounted consoles would be appreciated ^_^




I forgot to close the entrance to the bridge, so that light that's coming from the outside won't bethere on the final version. Just saying

[airwolfnight]

Looks good.^^

Severe Necro Post - but I think you'll like it ;-)

Imagine looking out of a windows into deep space. Beneath, over and in front of you are thousands of people, working tirelelessly to produce new ships. As you ponder, a ship gets towed past your windows, it's sleek silver hull reflecting the small sun you're orbiting.

Now rewind. This is not Utopia Planitia. There are not thousands of people working here, but only one hundred. And that ship that gets towed by most certainly has a silver hull, but it's riddled with dark specs and it's not as shiny as a new ship is supposed to be. Next to that, aside from some support ships, it's the only one in this facility.

Now imagine that you are one of the one hundred people, and that a second one is standing behind you. "This was to be prevented!" You cringe as the words form images in your mind. She is right.

You see, commander Arness is in a pretty rotten situation. The ship that gets towed by wasn't on it's way to the next step in the production cycle. It gets taken back into the asteroid's concealed drydock, before being transported to a new location. It was his job to make sure that absolutely nobody got to know about the project that was unfolding before his eyes. But, as you guessed it, somehow, someone knew. And that someone made sure that the Romulans knew as well. Arness shivered with the thought of what happened to the commander who let the Rommies hijack Starfleet's last secret project.

Admiral V'tal took a few steps as to have the same view as Arness had. "You are in luck. I cannot afford to bring more people in to replace you; doing so would only make the chance of leaking even more likely. However..."

Another cringe.

"you will not fail again. Make sure that no one finds out, and if someone does, make sure they do NOT take Aurora away again. Within the coming twelve months, her slipstream reactor will be operational and you can imagine that a recovery action might be a whole lot more difficult if they manage to activate it!"

As the admiral walks away without greeting, Arness sighs. So, back to the drawing table...

The year is 2420. The major powers of the Alpha Quadrant all have access to slipstream technology. But the ships just make short leaps, significant enough by warp standards, but nowhere near the distances the fake Dauntless could travel. And now, Starfleet holds the key in hand to make it happen... that is, if they can make sure nobody steals the technology and beat them at their own game. That was Arness' job. And as you might have noticed, he kind of failed that specific part of his job description. Only because the core was not quite finished was Task Force Aurora able to retrieve the hull. The Rommies had trouble enough infiltrating the ship itself, satisfying themselves with the hull and the partially completed core. It had no computer cores installed, no schematics lying around, nothing. That was Arness' rescue, because if the schematics would have been transfered to Romulus he'd be in a lot more trouble than the commander of the Prometheus project was.

However, Arness is no fool. He did went back to the drawing table, and he made sure that the next time the Romulans found out where the Aurora was (they always do), he was ready for them. Because this is what the Rommies saw when they entered the asteroid:



That's right. There was no bridge. Where the bridge was supposed to be, there was a hole. The Romulans managed to enter the hull, thinking they could bypass everything that the bridge should have handled and get away with the hull anyway, as they have done so many times in the past. Guess who was wrong...



The Aurora's bridge is an entirely independent vessel, docked to the main ship during normal operations. It has it's own warp reactor, which is capable of accelerating it to warp 9.7, independent computer systems, replicators, and a transporter. On one side of the bridge is a small mess, the other side features the same room but empty, used only during emergencies. Here's the catch, though: without the bridge, the slipstream reactor won't respond to slipstream commands. While the reactor is a dual core (pardon the pun), managing both slipstream and warp speeds, the slipstream part will refuse to activate without the encrypted signal coming from the bridge module, at the same time denying every attempt to get at the slipstream schematics. This also makes every bridge in the Aurora class line unique.

If you want to steal a ship, you'll first need to find a bridge unit. If you then manage to steal it, good luck in finding the correct hull if there's more than one Aurora docked. And even if you manage that, it means that by the time you've reached the hull you'll probably have been shot down. If that happens, the hull gets taken back to a shipyard to receive a new bridge and encryption decoding squence. It's not entirely fail-proof, but so far it made sure that at least three Aurora's were recaptured from an enemy government.

So, there you have it. All this time of secrecy was to make sure I could make this bridge, which is litteraly a ship of it's own. The small warp reactor I showcased a few (or a lot of...) months ago? It's installed in here. The impulse reactor and computer core? Same story. So now you all know why it took me so goddamn long to post updates

Don't mind those strange shapes on the saucer, though. I thought it would look cool but I have decided to hide the airlock behind panels I'll post some more updates on the ship pretty soon as well, when I have finished the bridge itself and made sure that stuff like the turbolift access is positioned correctly

[evil_genius_180]

That's not a severe necro post, it's only a moderate one. It's the noobs who dredge up a 5-6 year old WIP thread to ask a question or make a comment just to get their 5 posts to be able to download. That's a sever necro post.

Very nice work as usual, BorgMan. Not only on the ship but on the story as well, you had me captivated. The separate bridge unit and the slipstream only working with it docked is a really neat idea. I can't wait to see more.

Well, I did some finishing work on the small lounge, which meant that I could finally puzzle all the bits and piece together to form the bridge. Right now I'm rendering it so you'll have to make due with this export from within SketchUp

[evil_genius_180]

I like the wireframe, it's sweet. It probably shows more than the render will anyway. Nice work as usual.

The lounge!

Odd thing is that the border of the painting was supposed to light up as well. Need to check out why that didn't happen...

[gmd3d]

stunning work.....

[evil_genius_180]

That looks great.

Well, then enjoy some shots from the outside