A very cold February, but with some news. (Patreon)

So I thought I'd get through this winter with no snow.  No dice.  It's been so cold that my work place shut down twice.  It takes a lot to make Amazon close an FC.  Added to that, my heat has died and my landlord's taking their time.  So time where I'd be trying to write has been more occupied with not freezing.  I'm chewing my way through homelands though.

However, I do have some good news.  I'm doing some writing for a game studio, and actually getting paid for it.  It'll be an interesting experience.  I'll share it if I get permission.

Lastly, I have had this banging around in my brain for a bit...

A history of space warship design.

The first space war ships were the 'spindles', and were warships in name only.  These vessels were little more than a habitation module at the head of a long spindle, with a fusion reactor and engine on the far side.  Weaponry consisted of probes that interfered with operations through EMW's.  When Lunar forces placed shaped mining charges on their probes, the spindles proved to be too delicate and unwieldy.

The second warship design were the 'globular' model.  These ships were comprised of two hemispheres separated by a layer of radiation shielding.  By placing the human crew as close as possible to the center of rotation, it was believed they would be spared the worst effects of sudden acceleration.  Globes generally had one large weapon mounted opposite the primary thruster to avoid sudden acceleration.  Globes were extremely cramped and difficult to work with, and their wide profile resulted in high casualties in the War of Martian liberation.

The breakthrough of antimatter conversion paved the way for modern ship vessels.  Antimatter fuel was the densest fuel, and planetary powers wasted no time setting up fusion power plants to generate more.  While antimatter was more hazardous, it required orders of magnitude less radiation shielding and freed up more space for crew and reduced mass drag.  Anti-proton bombardment annihilated protons, releasing heat and electrons in a plasma that could be used to generate electricity for ship operations and thrust.

The globe model gave way to the cigar.  Warship cross sections diminished in an effort to present as small a profile as possible.  Warship nose cones became reinforced with layers of armor to deflect impacts on the point.  Triangular strategy became the order of the day, trying to force a ship to present as much profile as possible so to improve the odds of hitting a target several light minutes distant.  Direct fire turrets were placed in triangular symmetry so as to always have two weapons with direct line of sight.  Missiles and torpedoes (essentially larger, armored missiles) became popular as they could be jettisoned and fired with the minimum amount of profile presented.

However, the cigar design had a major flaw.  First, while it provided more surface area for radiation, it was still prone to overheat.  It was also unbalanced, with heavy drive elements to the rear.  Lastly, it had a terrifying tendency to 'snap like a cigar' when attempting a center of mass rotation and there was even the slightly imbalance in thrust.  Wear and terror on the midsection resulted in a short operational life span before ships had to be recalled, serviced, and sent back out.

Around this time was the Delores incident.  At the time, AI was increasingly incorporated in ship control.  Indeed, some ships were programmed to assume control of the ship entirely, and many questioned if a human crew was needed at all.  The Delores AI was programmed to assume control if their crew died.  The ship was subject to a cyber attack by a much stronger, planet based AI, that triggered a simulation that the Delores' crew was dead and the ship had to finish the mission to target an allied facility.  The Delores' skeleton crew were unable to regain control of the ship, and so breached the antimatter containment and destroyed much of the Delores.  After that, AI was never put in critical control positions on Warships.  They could facilitate hundreds of thousands of individual functions, but they would never be trusted with direct control.  Occasional attempts to do so have met with disaster.  The rule of AI piloted ships is clear: Bigger AI wins, and planetary network AI's trump smaller ship based AIs.  

The cigar gave way to the deck of cards.  Flat and skinny warships, with 3 reinforced profiles, became the norm.  Deck warships were highly modifiable, with various configurations being employed for various missions.  Despite this versatility, the Deck design had many fundamental flaws.  The structures were prone to warping under high acceleration, and 'folding' was a real danger when taking fire under acceleration.  The modules tended to be more fragile and prone to error.  While some deck designs still remain in use, they are primarily cargo freight designs and not used for combat.

The deck design gave way to the dual hull design.  The concerns for warship design were split between crew crew survival, acceleration, accuracy, space, and armor.  Contrary to popular belief, heat was by far the most difficult thing to manage on a ship.  Unmanaged, the crew and electronics would cook before heat could be radiated away.  A variety of specialized radiators were attempted, but they were difficult to manage in combat.  This was solved by implementing the hull in hull design.   A cigar shaped primary structure was constructed with drives and reaction mass and crew environmental, but then had a secondary hull built around it.  This secondary hull would use liquid nitrogen or helium to transfer heat from the primary hull to radiators on the secondary.  By moving many secondary systems into the secondary hull, the overall space of the primary, vital systems could be reduced.

This lead to a terrifying period of 'shucking'.  If the primary hull accelerated, the inertia of the secondary hull could overcome the strength of the connections.  The primary hull would tear right out of its own super structure.  This was overcome with 'secondary drives' installed directly adjacent to the main drive.  These would push the secondary hull as well as the primary, and prevent the primary hull from ripping right through.

The dual hull was soon joined by increased use in Armor.  Mechanized armor that could be used in combat on planetary bodies, inside habitats, urban centers, or even underwater with proper modification.  Armors were initially used for maintenance and exploration, but were quickly weaponized.  In the Jovian war, they proved critical to securing Io for the Northern Hemisphere Alliance, breaking the Southern Alliance's access to Ganymede and Callisto.  Armors, however, necessitated significant alterations to ship design, as bays for armor maintenance, storage, and weaponry grew more predominant.

This culminated in the 'Tri hull' design.  Advances in thrust technology and structural engineering allowed for larger and lighter ships.  This allowed for the construction of a crew accessible 'secondary hull' closer to the center of mass, allowing space for more weapons, AI, or armor bays.  Warships became more specialized according to their roll, with secondary hulls growing or shrinking to meet demand.  The primary hull still protected the crew quarters, main computer, and drive.  Everything needed for a crew to return home safely.  But most weapon systems were relocated to the secondary hull, with the tertiary hull acting as armor and radiator alike.

One notable invention was the vectored drive system.  Instead of merely accelerating in one direction, vents could be opened that would reroute the ship's plasma to spray forward at a 45 degree angle.  While not as efficient as rotational deceleration, the vent system allowed a ship to slow and swing its acceleration while not exposing its drives to enemy fire.  Vectored thrust did have its downsides.  The thrust both compromises the radiative abilities of the tertiary hull, and baths the ship in ionized radiation.  This is overcome by 'hotcooling'.  Liquid helium would be used to move heat from the Tertiary hull to the thrust itself.  Many crews become understandably nervous when coolant is used in such a manner.

While many seem to think that ships are long, in reality the interior architecture of a ship is 'high' and many developments in the construction of sky scrapers were implemented.  Elevators and ladders predominate transportation, and most warships maintain one G of 10 m/s acceleration to compensate.  Modern warship design are fixed on the 'pod' design, in which areas humans sleep, work or predominately spend their time are in life supported pods that orient themselves to sudden acceleration.  When crew are in pods, atmosphere can be lowered to reduce stress on the hull and prevent a catastrophic loss of pressure.

Life aboard ships are tense with crews serving for months, if not years deployed in developing systems or maintaining claims.  Warfare can have the same crew cycling in and out of battle for up to a decade.  Crew camaraderie and cohesion is a critical element, with multiple crew trained in a variety of specializations.  Food, water, and air are all recycled.  Waste is broken down to component elements, and refabricated into new edible material call 'bars', though many colorful nicknames have been invented.  To maintain crew morale, shipwide games and media are vital to eat up free time.  When possible, many crews are presented with the opportunity to train in greater specialization or for when service ends.  Navy personnel are extremely sought after post service, as many use their spare time to earn certificates and accreditation.  While some navies feature all male and all female crew, most ships employ mixed genders and quietly facilitate 'stress relief pods' between crew members off shift to try and prevent problems and safety risks.  Privacy aboard ships are non-existent for enlisted personnel and even some officers may share close quarters.

Space combat had been described as the most terrifying boredom imaginable.  Because of the hours, or even days, required for munitions to reach targets, much of space combat seems mundane and routine.  It's easy to become lulled into complacency, but any second the ship could easily be ripped into pieces, or start melting around them.  The psychological stress is high, and not all can withstand it, falling into depression or crippling anxiety.  Most crew actually prefer 'a fight' to 'a snipe', even though the former has a much higher risk of personal injury or death.  Closing to within a light minute is generally considered 'fighting distance' and puts both ships at high risk.  Closing to within 10 light-seconds is often called 'knife fighting'.  Though still hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, munitions can be aimed even without AI assistance.  The sight of ships in clear physical view of each other is called 'assault range' and is generally avoided at all costs.  It is conducted only when attempting to board enemy orbital infrastructure, or to insert into an orbit allowing for optimal bombardment of planetary facilities.  Needless to say, it is the range most favored by media dramatists.

While FTL Drives were revolutionary, they did little to change warship design.  This is because of the drive's limitations, forcing them to emerge in gravitational coordinates, or 'jump points'.  When a hostile fleet arrives, usually their first effort is to destroy any traffic control infrastructure that could assist AI sniping, and then to scatter out of 'the barrel'.  Because of the delay between jumps and the vulnerability of ships immediately after jumping, most FTL engine design is trying to traverse 'out of pocket', arriving farther and farther from the predicted center of the jump point between systems, or to detect unmapped jump points or coveted 'trap door' jump points, that are unknown.  Jump points can be mined with IFF enambled mines, and many an AI's furious task is disarming, intercepting, or weathering attacks by these weapons.

Any questions?