The Perry Rhodan universe has some enormous spaceships, kilometres in...
size. Here <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7DCPfXj1MA> are some
fan-made CG renderings, with some statistics on each one.
Breathtaking.
Now, imagine a planet-side spaceport where giants like these are
routinely coming and going: as a fan of CG, I enjoying seeing a
depiction like this <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axmDhWsaBfc>.
Trouble is, it seems to me completely unrealistic.
The Perry Rhodan universe has some enormous spaceships, kilometres in
size. Here <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7DCPfXj1MA> are some
fan-made CG renderings, with some statistics on each one.
Breathtaking.
Now, imagine a planet-side spaceport where giants like these are
routinely coming and going: as a fan of CG, I enjoying seeing a
depiction like this <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axmDhWsaBfc>.
Trouble is, it seems to me completely unrealistic.
Why? Consider how fast they?re moving, that close to the ground. In
that last clip, I counted about 13 seconds for that last one that was
coming in for a landing to move through a distance equal to its
diameter. If that diameter is one kilometre, that?s a speed of over
250 km/h! An object that size, moving at that speed, is going to be displacing enough air to raise gale-force winds over an area of
several square kilometres around.
(Also, that landing must have been pretty rough, but never mind.)
Secondly, each craft is going to become the centre of its own weather
system. There?s going to be a major atmospheric temperature
differential between the base of the craft when it?s landed, and the
top. Assuming they are primarily made of metal, which is a good heat conductor, that?s going to give rise to some interesting phenomena as
the temperature differential gives rise to large heat flows through
the hull of the craft itself. A permanent ring of rainstorms around
the base?
Another point, of course, is that, on that scale, an atmosphere like
that on our Earth is not going to look so clear. From the ground, the
upper parts of each craft are going to be noticeably dimmer in the
haze. Also, if this was an Earth-sized world, the curvature of the
surface should be more noticeable. (It might actually be smaller, if
the large planet in the background indicates that this world is a moon
of that one.)
And if a craft has just come in from outer space, is it going to come
in fast enough to heat up its outer shell? Or will it land with it
still carrying most of the cold of outer space? That, too, is going to produce some peculiar effects.
So, at a bare minimum, you?re not going to park a bunch of these craft
so (relatively) close to each other on a plain open surface like that.
You will want more than just a few kilometres of separation between
them: you will likely want carefully-demarcated areas for each landing
space, well-separated from each other and having plenty of buffer
space in-between, with various isolation and control systems (e.g. weather-control towers?) managing the environment within each one to
ensure that atmospheric and other happenings in each landing area
remain stricly contained.
On 5/19/2026 7:40 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:...
The Perry Rhodan universe has some enormous spaceships, kilometres in
size. Here <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7DCPfXj1MA> are some
fan-made CG renderings, with some statistics on each one.
Breathtaking.
Now, imagine a planet-side spaceport where giants like these are
routinely coming and going: as a fan of CG, I enjoying seeing a
depiction like this <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axmDhWsaBfc>.
Trouble is, it seems to me completely unrealistic.
On 5/19/2026 10:30 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
On 5/19/2026 7:40 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:...
The Perry Rhodan universe has some enormous spaceships, kilometres in
size. Here <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7DCPfXj1MA> are some
fan-made CG renderings, with some statistics on each one.
Breathtaking.
Now, imagine a planet-side spaceport where giants like these are
routinely coming and going: as a fan of CG, I enjoying seeing a
depiction like this <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axmDhWsaBfc>.
Trouble is, it seems to me completely unrealistic.
The 3,500 km to 4,000 km planetoids in "Mutineer's Moon" are way bigger...
Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
The Perry Rhodan universe has some enormous spaceships, kilometres in
size. Here <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7DCPfXj1MA> are some
fan-made CG renderings, with some statistics on each one.
Breathtaking.
Now, imagine a planet-side spaceport where giants like these are
routinely coming and going: as a fan of CG, I enjoying seeing a
depiction like this <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axmDhWsaBfc>.
Trouble is, it seems to me completely unrealistic.
Why? Consider how fast they?re moving, that close to the ground. In
that last clip, I counted about 13 seconds for that last one that was
coming in for a landing to move through a distance equal to its
diameter. If that diameter is one kilometre, that?s a speed of over
250 km/h! An object that size, moving at that speed, is going to be
displacing enough air to raise gale-force winds over an area of
several square kilometres around.
(Also, that landing must have been pretty rough, but never mind.)
Secondly, each craft is going to become the centre of its own weather
system. There?s going to be a major atmospheric temperature
differential between the base of the craft when it?s landed, and the
top. Assuming they are primarily made of metal, which is a good heat
conductor, that?s going to give rise to some interesting phenomena as
the temperature differential gives rise to large heat flows through
the hull of the craft itself. A permanent ring of rainstorms around
the base?
Another point, of course, is that, on that scale, an atmosphere like
that on our Earth is not going to look so clear. From the ground, the
upper parts of each craft are going to be noticeably dimmer in the
haze. Also, if this was an Earth-sized world, the curvature of the
surface should be more noticeable. (It might actually be smaller, if
the large planet in the background indicates that this world is a moon
of that one.)
And if a craft has just come in from outer space, is it going to come
in fast enough to heat up its outer shell? Or will it land with it
still carrying most of the cold of outer space? That, too, is going to
produce some peculiar effects.
So, at a bare minimum, you?re not going to park a bunch of these craft
so (relatively) close to each other on a plain open surface like that.
You will want more than just a few kilometres of separation between
them: you will likely want carefully-demarcated areas for each landing
space, well-separated from each other and having plenty of buffer
space in-between, with various isolation and control systems (e.g.
weather-control towers?) managing the environment within each one to
ensure that atmospheric and other happenings in each landing area
remain stricly contained.
The Perry Rhodan spaceships of the first 100 books, after the Stardust,
are made of Arkonide Steel, an unobtanium metal that we cannot even
conceive of today. Today's best steel is only good for sustained 1,600
F. Our ceramics are good for 2,600 F (35% simple cycle efficiency gas turbine) with a new variant that has just come out good to 3,600 F
(almost 50% simple cycle efficiency gas turbine).
Also most of the space ships in the Rhodanverse are flattened discs of
20 m ??? to 100 m ???, the Gazelle. The truly spherical space ships
start at 200 m IIRC and go up to 1,500 m IIRC. A lot of resources go
into building the spherical space ships.
But to be tough enough to accelerate to 70% of light speed, a space ship should be able to withstand the buffeting of other space ships taking
off and landing near it. But the humans won't be able to withstand the buffeting.
I forget what the surface temperature of the Space Shuttle was at
landing. Maybe 3,000 F at the nose ???
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