Sciencey Science Fiction Starship Design

 This post is free for all patrons and non patrons

When we started the project, we knew there were three important things we knew we wanted to include in Infinite Stars. The first was the Creative Commons aspect of the game, allowing our fans to create their own stories within the Infinite Stars universe. The second was the Utopian outlook on humanity's future, and lastly was the "hardness" of the science fiction we wanted to tell.

I'll never forget the day when I was a kid, discussing science fiction with a much older friend of mine. He told me Star Wars is just a science-fantasy romance story. I was very upset at the time, but came to realize the truth of the statement. (I wasn't yet a teenager at the time)

With Infinite Stars we want the setting and the science to be as realistic as possible, while still having that element of wonder and mystery. The challenge was, none of our team members are physicists, and save for an impressive collection of hours logged with Kerbal Space Program, we also don't have access to a rocket scientist.

So what were we to do? The old adage of "write what you know" has been chanted and regurgitated since the first caveman scribbled a self portrait with a stick in the sand. We briefly discussed putting the project on hold while we each completed a doctorate degree in our chosen fields of expertise, but logic preserved and we realized we could do what any normal person does that wants to impress those much smarter than themselves. We started researching.

And I'll share some of that research with you in the post below.

Lasers in space don't go pew-pew-pew, or whap-whap-whap.

As cool as the sound designs are in pop-culture films, sound needs "matter" to vibrate through, and empty space is a void. So we won't be able to hear the awesome sound effects you paid extra for in your laser design. We also won't be able to hear you scream in frustration (in space)

Dogfights are so WWIII

The sad truth is that epic dogfights is something of the past. Fighter crafts in space will almost exclusively be unmanned and automated by computer. Training fighter pilots are very expensive, and it’s not worth risking their lives by putting them in a cockpit to shoot down other automated drones. Also unless there are huge developments in AI, there will still probably be a human making the strategic choices, but the basics of flying, aiming and shooting will be entirely automated.

Your bridge and your CiC has too many windows

Space is pretty, but it’s also pretty empty most of the time, so even if you had windows, you won’t be able to see the enemy ship approaching until long after the debris of your ships reactor has frozen. Current naval designs have the ship bridges as high as possible, giving the crew a good vantage point. In space all visuals will be through cameras and sensors, and it makes much more sense to have your starships bridge hidden away behind layers of armor. Like most rules, there are exceptions, and the exception to this particular rule is that if you are an enemy starship designer, I would totally recommend your bridge having large windows for the crew to sight see through.

You won’t see it coming

Space battles will be fought over long distances. There is no friction in space, so if you were to fire a projectile weapon, the bullet will keep going, and keep going, never slowing down until it hits something, or is captured by the gravitational pull of a solar body. Battles will be decided from thousands of Kilometers away, long before any visual contact is made. This also means that if China or whomever were to ever leave Earth for Mars permanently, they could just fire their current arsenal of old projectile bullets into orbit, giving them several decades, if not centuries of uncontested space exploration. Anything anyone launches from Earth will be shred to pieces. For some additional nightmare fuel research the Kessler Effect. Expanding on this, the same will count for your traveling starships. You’ll likely be spending the first half of the journey firing your rockets behind you to accelerate, and the other half of your journey firing the rockets in front of you (retrograde rockets) to decelerate.This also means that if you keep accelerating until you run out of fuel, much like the bullet that you have become, you will keep on going at the same speed until forever or you hit something.

Curves are sexy again

Due to the pressurized nature of starships in trying to keep the squishy humans inside alive, the windows we advised against, and all the doorways should have curved corners. This is due to the stress that is constantly exerted on the building materials of your starship. As metal or plasteel gets older and fatigued, micro cracks form from the constant pushing and pulling in different directions. Curved corners, like those used in submarines are better at distributing the applied pressure. Once again, unless you are into designing starships that pop like confetti balloons after a few years, go with sexy curved corners.

The gate is down

Pilots will fly with instruments only, and your navigator should be shouting stuff like “burning retrograde!” It might get a bit confusing here. Humans use “landmarks” to orientate themselves. We know the clouds are up, and if you have read Ender’s Game, you’ll know that the enemy gate is down. In space, up is wherever you say it is, and my up will almost definitely be different to your perception of up. To add some additional confusion to the mess, battles fought near planets or other large gravitational masses will likely include tactics involving orbital mechanics and maneuvers.

FTL is closer to Lord of the Rings than it is to Star Trek

Yup. Utter fantasy. It’s just not possible. Not even if you used all the energy in the universe. Luckily for authors there are workarounds that are theoretically possible like jump gates, or their cousin the wormhole. Traveling via subspace or hyperspace is another possibility. The D&D ELI5 version is that you travel to the ethereal plane where objects are much closer (or further away) from each other than they are in the material plane. Another promising method to research is the Alcubierre drive. If it’s good enough for NASA to consider, it’s probably good enough for your story.

There are plenty more things to take into consideration, but these were the most obvious ones I could think of. If you feel like I missed something very important, let me know and I'll possibly add them to the list.

 I realize the examples are very broad, but I wanted the normal person like myself to be able to understand it.  I realize that some of the explanations are maybe too simplified, ex I know space does have matter particles and isn't just a void of nothingness, but for the sake of my readers, this is the flavor I went with.