Fictional (But Realistic) Spacecraft

[X-39]

Few are the videogames with realistic space mechanics, such is the case of the R-352 Sepia appearance in the "Zero Gravity"(despite the design in question not being realistic from an engineering perspective) Mission from Ace Combat 3, for which the developers included a unique handling to portray how a vehicle would move in
vacuum, trying to do cool Star Wars style maneuvers without firing thrusters accomplishes... nothing except gimballing the spacecraft while it keeps moving in whatever direction was facing.

R-352 Sepia

The R-352 Sepia is a spacecraft developed by Neucom Incorporated. It's the first star fighter in Strangereal. The Sepia is named after the genus of the Cuttlefish. Originally, the Sepia was named R-302 during development.[1] This was later shared with the unrelated YR-302 Fregata. The R-352 was...

acecombat.fandom.com

it

 

[Tonton-42]

I like the nuclear SST rocket in Adventures of Tintin: Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon.


From Zyldav Aviatzitja Historical Service Archives
Post-1

In my opinion, the best interpretation of this rocket! Exactly the idea that I have had for nearly 60 years ...

 

[publiusr]

I like the Filmation 1980 cartoon version of the Zarkov rocket. Any good drawings of that?

 

[X-39]

Jackal from Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The inclusion of RCS thrusters are the only redeeming quality, aside from looking like a Frankestein breed between an F-35 & ASF-14, with variable geometry wing?! and definitely not realistic physics, banking and doing B-rolls like any normal fighter.

• Length: 19 metres
• Wingspan: 13 metres
• Height: 4 metres
• Speed: 80,000 km/h (Booster speed for escape velocity)
• Jet Top Speed: 5,200 km/h (Dependent on docking in a capital ship to leave larger planets' (Jupiter, Saturn etc) higher escape velocity)
• Defenses:
  • Flare countermeasures
  • Omni-directional IR countermeasures
• Atmospheric Threshold: Survivable up to 98 Atmospheres (Venus' pressure)
• Gravitational Threshold: Survivable up to 4.5G (Jupiter-proof)
• Operational Temperature Range: 427°C to -244°C (Mercury to Pluto)
• Flight Modes: Atmospheric, VTOL, Space
• Propulsion:
  • 8x Rocket Boosters
  • 3x VTOL Intakes
  • 92x RCS Ports

 

[publiusr]

Now, the only way that works would be a mirror matter planet that doesn’t interact with normal matter…except gravity.

So you could have an all atmosphere normal matter envelope that seems to have no planet holding it down. I do go on about Energia-Buran…but once the core that does the heavy lifting is gone…you can have a pretty agile orbiter with a lot of propellant in place of of SSMEs.

A non payload bay Buran made like a scaled up Dyna-Soar but with jets would come down from space and be a full airplane.

 

[The K2]

The Phoenix spacecraft (with lifting body) from the film “Journey To The Far Side of The Sun.”

 

[martinbayer]

Jackal from Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The inclusion of RCS thrusters are the only redeeming quality, aside from looking like a Frankestein breed between an F-35 & ASF-14, with variable geometry wing?! and definitely not realistic physics, banking and doing B-rolls like any normal fighter.

• Length: 19 metres
• Wingspan: 13 metres
• Height: 4 metres
• Speed: 80,000 km/h (Booster speed for escape velocity)
• Jet Top Speed: 5,200 km/h (Dependent on docking in a capital ship to leave larger planets' (Jupiter, Saturn etc) higher escape velocity)
• Defenses:
  • Flare countermeasures
  • Omni-directional IR countermeasures
• Atmospheric Threshold: Survivable up to 98 Atmospheres (Venus' pressure)
• Gravitational Threshold: Survivable up to 4.5G (Jupiter-proof)
• Operational Temperature Range: 427°C to -244°C (Mercury to Pluto)
• Flight Modes: Atmospheric, VTOL, Space
• Propulsion:
  • 8x Rocket Boosters
  • 3x VTOL Intakes
  • 92x RCS Ports

Why would you include a design based on "definitely not realistic physics" in a thread labeled "Fictional (But Realistic) [my emphasis] Spacecraft"?

 

[The K2]

I like the Filmation 1980 cartoon version of the Zarkov rocket. Any good drawings of that?

Hope this helps. Some are original cels and production artwork up for auction.

 

[publiusr]

Those are Ming's ships- the rocket has a long greenhouse cockpit on its spine.

 

[The K2]

Those are Ming's ships- the rocket has a long greenhouse cockpit on its spine.

This must be the one. Unfortunately, there is not more clear or as detailed.

 

[X-39]

@martinbayer Because as unrealistic these CoD designs may be, they'd still hold a very, very slim remote chance of being plausible and a tad more workable than, let's say, X-Wings from Star Wars, which were originally designed with plane like maneuverability because George Lucas wanted to do WW2 in Space,(and it connects better with the audience)then later retconned to offer an explanation. (just my 5cents opinion anyway)

How do the star fighters in Star Wars fly with no side thrusters?

All the fighters featured in the Star Wars films lack any sort of thrust vectorizing technology, so from a technical standpoint, they probably shouldn't even be capable of getting off the ground wi...

scifi.stackexchange.com

 

[Arjen]

Because as unrealistic these CoD designs may be, they'd still hold a very, very slim remote NO chance of being plausible<snip>

Fixed that for you. Thread drift warning.

 

[Grey Havoc]

The Soviet Union in Space

What if the Soviets had maintained their lead in the Space Race?

neverwasmag.com

 

[zebedee]

The Phoenix spacecraft (with lifting body) from the film “Journey To The Far Side of The Sun.”

Adore that movie even if the plot is utter bobbins... one of my favourite touches is the Rolls Royce logo on the inside of the the Pheonix's lifting body bay...

Slightly disappointed nobody's mentioned the Eagle Transporter yet...

Zeb

 

[Grey Havoc]

Slightly disappointed nobody's mentioned the Eagle Transporter yet...

I'm a little surprised as well. Regarding that classic:

Space 1999 Eagle Transporter

And:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFjpd8ZyITA


EDIT:

EAGLE TRANSPORTER (SPACE 1999)

EAGLE TRANSPORTER (SPACE 1999). 15,161 likes · 4,560 talking about this. Welcome to the page that celebrates your favorite SciFi spaceship: the Eagle from Space: 1999.

www.facebook.com

 

[Grey Havoc]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gxk6V50xx8

 

[publiusr]

Slightly disappointed nobody's mentioned the Eagle Transporter yet...

I'm a little surprised as well. Regarding that classic:

Space 1999 Eagle Transporter

And:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFjpd8ZyITA


EDIT:

EAGLE TRANSPORTER (SPACE 1999)

EAGLE TRANSPORTER (SPACE 1999). 15,161 likes · 4,560 talking about this. Welcome to the page that celebrates your favorite SciFi spaceship: the Eagle from Space: 1999.

www.facebook.com

That’s probably a better fit for Ceres.
With even lower gravity, the fuel would go farther and the Eagles fly longer—flatter…like in the series. Moon Zero Two craft for Lunar hops.


They have small toys of those Eagles again

ALPHA LAUNCH PAD & MICRO EAGLE FLEET

the blog about vintage and modern space toys

projectswordtoys.blogspot.com

 

[The K2]

Slightly disappointed nobody's mentioned the Eagle Transporter yet...

I'm a little surprised as well. Regarding that classic:

Space 1999 Eagle Transporter

And:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFjpd8ZyITA


EDIT:

EAGLE TRANSPORTER (SPACE 1999)

EAGLE TRANSPORTER (SPACE 1999). 15,161 likes · 4,560 talking about this. Welcome to the page that celebrates your favorite SciFi spaceship: the Eagle from Space: 1999.

www.facebook.com

That’s probably a better fit for Ceres.
With even lower gravity, the fuel would go farther and the Eagles fly longer—flatter…like in the series. Moon Zero Two craft for Lunar hops.


They have small toys of those Eagles again

ALPHA LAUNCH PAD & MICRO EAGLE FLEET

the blog about vintage and modern space toys

projectswordtoys.blogspot.com

Most of the Earth-designed spacecraft looked good.

 

[Dynoman]

Movie: Countdown starring James Caan
In the movie the Soviets beat to the US to the Moon **Spoiler Alert** They don't survive

 

[Dynoman]

The MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle) from the Martian

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OucsmOJK7qY

 

[Dynoman]

Description of MAV from:

The Martian: A Technical Commentary

The Martian Technical Commentary Casey Handmer, Adam Jermyn, Matthew Paragano, Peter Lommen, Jeff Nosanov In late September 2015 (la...

caseyexaustralia.blogspot.com

"The MAV employs In-Situ Resource Utilization (or ISRU) to make fuel and oxidizer for the return flight. Two (Earth) years of power from a 100W Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) is enough to make 13kg of fuel (methane) and oxidizer (oxygen) from every 1kg of hydrogen (H2) precursor brought from Earth, for a total of nearly 20T of fuel.

At various points of the novel, Weir describes the MAV as weighing 32 metric tons when fully fueled, and standing 27m tall. This implies that it is very long and skinny, which is unnecessary in the thin Martian atmosphere. Not only that, this means a lot of rocket mass relative to the amount of fuel it can carry (spherical rockets are vastly more efficient, absent significant atmosphere). Needless to say that's a bad thing. By comparison, the Falcon 9, a long and skinny rocket by usual standards, is about 70m tall and weighs about 600T on launch. The MAV could easily be a conical shape perhaps 5m wide and 10m tall.

Weir states that it has two stages, though one stage is perfectly adequate for the relatively low delta-V required to reach Low Mars Orbit (4.1km/s). Nevertheless, with a 325s Isp methane-oxygen engine, a two stage system would have a 16T first stage, a 8T second stage, and a 8T orbital module, with an implied mass fraction of 81% fuel vs 19% metal in each stage.

Towards the end of the novel, engineers at JPL describe the MAV as having an unrealistically low launch weight of 12,600kg (12.6T) - similar to a fully-loaded Dragon capsule. So we'll assume this is the dry mass. Let's assume, then, that the orbital module is 8T, the first stage is 3T, and the second stage is 1.6T, empty. The 19.397T of fuel is distributed accordingly, implying an engine Isp of 405s in order to reach 4.1km/s of Low Mars Orbit. This is low for H2/O2 engines, but extremely high for a methane-oxygen engine. Even SpaceX's planned monster Raptor engine has a notional vacuum Isp of 380s.

In order to get to 5.8km/s and intercept the Hermes, the mass of the orbital module needs to be reduced from 8000kg to 4280kg, a reduction of 3720kg. This takes into account adding 780kg of fuel, removing 500kg from the first stage (pulling off an engine), and so on. The accuracy of the numbers indicate that Andy Weir did the math, but it's not clear on what metrics he designed the MAV and its launch system.

More generally, given that the total delta-V needed to get from Mars to Earth is *only* 7.8km/s, a MAV that flies all the way back to Earth is completely possible, though it would probably need to be bigger than the MAV presented here to have adequate life support. But given that the fuel/delta-V is most easily obtained on the surface of Mars, rather than brought from Earth, a direct ascent architecture actually makes a lot of sense."

 

[publiusr]

MADV actually looks more science-fictiony

 

[Dynoman]

The early MAV concept was smaller, but appears to have more of a look of a Saturn upperstage. Also, an alternate version of MAV.

 

[Dynoman]

Although very hookie and meant as a comedy, Operation Crossbow from the movie Real Genius was a neat looking spacecraft.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTx_qTwQqjU

 

[Grey Havoc]

Regarding the spacecraft of the 1969 movie Moon Zero Two:

Moon Zero Two Part 1

Moon Zero Part Two

 

[steelpillow]

Some early SF writers tried hard to portray realistic spacecraft. Some harder than others. Sorry, no pictures.

The most seminal must surely be the moon rocket described by Arthur C Clarke in his Prelude to Space. It was a step-rocket, but the first stage at least had wings and it was launched off a giant ski-jump built up the side of a mountain. The jump was a railway track, to solve the steering problem. Clarke was writing in 1947, three years before he published his famous technical introduction to Interplanetary Flight, in which he first described geostationary orbit, and a couple of decades before the Royal Navy rediscovered the benefits of the ski-jump for V/STOL aircraft.

Another which sticks in my memory, though I cannot recall the author, was an inflatable space station, somewhat predictive of the modern Bigelow technology. The short story it appeared in was trivial, and inevitably highlighted the perils of throwing sharp weapons inside plastic inflatables.

Nor can I recall the author of the one about the guy who rescued himself in zero-gee, making an emergency rocket drive by knocking the bungs out of over-fermented beer barrels....

One might also make a case for the interstellar Bussard electromagnetic ramjet, although the technology remains well beyond us.

There are surely plenty more collecting dust in my long-suffering attic.

 

[southwestforests]

Another which sticks in my memory, though I cannot recall the author, was an inflatable space station, somewhat predictive of the modern Bigelow technology.

That brings to mind a bit of real life hardware - here, have some articles which just happen to have pictures;

Space Station Model - NASA

This 1961 prototype of an inflatable space station concept with a solar power system collector was 24 feet in diameter with internal fabric bulkhead that could be separately pressurized in an emergency.

www.nasa.gov

This 1961 prototype of an inflatable space station concept with a solar power system collector was 24 feet in diameter with internal fabric bulkhead that could be separately pressurized in an emergency.

Also from NASA, this history chapter which includes inflatable station among other content, has interior image,

ch9

Space History Photo: Inflatable Station Concept

The Inflatable station was one of only a few concepts to make it into the production phase, though it was never flown.

www.space.com

NASA Considered an Inflatable Donut for a Space Habitat

Once upon a time, NASA contemplated building an inflatable solar-powered space station. Unlike most early concepts for bringing humans to space, this one

gizmodo.com

 

[steelpillow]

Am I allowed to mention my own fictional space station Effie III from my novella Nobody Steals My Air? It is a minimal one-or-two person habitat with artificial gravity. I call it an H-type, as it looks rather like a two-headed lump hammer with a stubby cylinder crossways on each end of the central handle. The hub with its airlock can travel along the handle, so that as the occupants move themselves and their stuff about inside, it can align with the centre of rotation when a shuttle approaches. So the handle is really a hollow girder with tumble-dryer-like flexible shafts connecting to the habitable end modules.
There is also a large solar array, which can be folded in and retracted for travel to a new location. The rocket is again in the hub, and to avoid excess coriolis forces the thing must be de-spun before it can fire them. All intended for things like an asteroid miner moving from one drifting rock to another.
It also has an AI somewhat more advanced and mentally stable than HAL.

 

[archipeppe]

The most seminal must surely be the moon rocket described by Arthur C Clarke in his Prelude to Space. It was a step-rocket, but the first stage at least had wings and it was launched off a giant ski-jump built up the side of a mountain. The jump was a railway track, to solve the steering problem.

What Clarke described in Prelude to Space was essentially a sled launched TSTO (Two Stage To Orbit), where a manned reusable spaceplane was used to place in orbit a manned lunar spacecraft.
Clarke envisioned the nuclear propulsion to solve the mass ratio issue.

Conceptually it was derived by the Sanger "Silbervogel" wartime project.
It became the basis for the Pan Am Orion III portrayed in 2001 movie.

 

[archipeppe]

The most seminal must surely be the moon rocket described by Arthur C Clarke in his Prelude to Space. It was a step-rocket, but the first stage at least had wings and it was launched off a giant ski-jump built up the side of a mountain. The jump was a railway track, to solve the steering problem.

What Clarke described in Prelude to Space was essentially a sled launched TSTO (Two Stage To Orbit), where a manned reusable spaceplane was used to place in orbit a manned lunar spacecraft.
Clarke envisioned the nuclear propulsion to solve the mass ratio issue.

Conceptually it was derived by the Sanger "Silbervogel" wartime project.
It became the basis for the Pan Am Orion III portrayed in 2001 movie.

View attachment 688180

Even if not explicitly mentioned in the 2001 movie, all the spacecrafts depicted are nuclear propulsed. The Orion III, in particular, had a couple of nuclear engines in the rear section. Such section could be detached in emergency, leaving the front part as single delta glider. It is possible to spot the retrorockets holes just after the Pan Am logo. The double delta rear section has a separation joint at the same level of retrorockets holes.

 

[Michel Van]

Even if not explicitly mentioned in the 2001 movie, all the spacecrafts depicted are nuclear propulsed. The Orion III, in particular, had a couple of nuclear engines in the rear section

i wonder how good the radiation shielding are on that Spaceplane ?

or they used the serpent engine ?
That was proposal by British Interplanetary Society
were Nuclear reactor heat Lithium (radiation shielding) what cooled with Helium
that Hot Helium pass a Turbine and is cooled by Hydrogene (not radioactive)
the turbine powers a Arc Jet that is afterburner on Hydrogene in nozzle

advances:
less radioactive as NERVA engine
high Thrust of 2,000,000 Newtons.
or higher ISP of 1300 seconds

disadvantage:
heavy, a simple engine weight around 45 metric tons do Heat exchangers.
unwieldy, do need for radiators

source

Realistic Designs R-Z - Atomic Rockets

www.projectrho.com

 

[archipeppe]

Even if not explicitly mentioned in the 2001 movie, all the spacecrafts depicted are nuclear propulsed. The Orion III, in particular, had a couple of nuclear engines in the rear section

i wonder how good the radiation shielding are on that Spaceplane ?

or they used the serpent engine ?
That was proposal by British Interplanetary Society
were Nuclear reactor heat Lithium (radiation shielding) what cooled with Helium
that Hot Helium pass a Turbine and is cooled by Hydrogene (not radioactive)
the turbine powers a Arc Jet that is afterburner on Hydrogene in nozzle

advances:
less radioactive as NERVA engine
high Thrust of 2,000,000 Newtons.
or higher ISP of 1300 seconds

disadvantage:
heavy, a simple engine weight around 45 metric tons do Heat exchangers.
unwieldy, do need for radiators

source

Realistic Designs R-Z - Atomic Rockets

www.projectrho.com

Dear Michel, you got the point. I didn't thought about the radiation shielding issue....

 

[steelpillow]

Even if not explicitly mentioned in the 2001 movie, all the spacecrafts depicted are nuclear propulsed. The Orion III, in particular, had a couple of nuclear engines in the rear section

i wonder how good the radiation shielding are on that Spaceplane ?

or they used the serpent engine ?
That was proposal by British Interplanetary Society
were Nuclear reactor heat Lithium (radiation shielding) what cooled with Helium
that Hot Helium pass a Turbine and is cooled by Hydrogene (not radioactive)
the turbine powers a Arc Jet that is afterburner on Hydrogene in nozzle

advances:
less radioactive as NERVA engine
high Thrust of 2,000,000 Newtons.
or higher ISP of 1300 seconds

disadvantage:
heavy, a simple engine weight around 45 metric tons do Heat exchangers.
unwieldy, do need for radiators

source

Realistic Designs R-Z - Atomic Rockets

www.projectrho.com

The US did in fact recognise the practical issue of using the radioactive primary reactor cooling fluid to heat the working fluid in the nuclear ramjets they were testing, and experimented with a conceptually similar secondary circuit to reduce radiation emissions. But they concluded it was too heavy and inefficient to be worth pursuing. One could look at SABRE as Reaction Engines' overcoming that limitation.

Now I remember, Arthur C Clarke had a kid climb up inside one of the nuclear ramjets and go to sleep because it was nice and warm in there. Sadly it was the radiation keeping it warm.

 

[Michel Van]

Now I remember, Arthur C Clarke had a kid climb up inside one of the nuclear ramjets and go to sleep because it was nice and warm in there

odd i remember the scene different:
Clarke described in Prelude to Space a Saboteur who climb into Moon rocket to damage it.
he take the big nice Opening a end of Moon Rocket, It NERVA engine full with enriched Uran and Plutonium
he fell unconscious, only wo wake up by Waldo arms, who try pull him away from Reactor...

 

[archipeppe]

From "The Dream Machines" by Ron Miller...

 

[steelpillow]

Now I remember, Arthur C Clarke had a kid climb up inside one of the nuclear ramjets and go to sleep because it was nice and warm in there

odd i remember the scene different:
Clarke described in Prelude to Space a Saboteur who climb into Moon rocket to damage it.
he take the big nice Opening a end of Moon Rocket, It NERVA engine full with enriched Uran and Plutonium
he fell unconscious, only wo wake up by Waldo arms, who try pull him away from Reactor...

I confess that my memory should not be regarded as a reliable source. Or can it? I can't seem to remember...

 

[martinbayer]

Now I remember, Arthur C Clarke had a kid climb up inside one of the nuclear ramjets and go to sleep because it was nice and warm in there

odd i remember the scene different:
Clarke described in Prelude to Space a Saboteur who climb into Moon rocket to damage it.
he take the big nice Opening a end of Moon Rocket, It NERVA engine full with enriched Uran and Plutonium
he fell unconscious, only wo wake up by Waldo arms, who try pull him away from Reactor...

Just checked the story - the doomed character is a Luddite junior accountant from Pittsburgh named Jefferson Wilkes, to whom chapter twenty six is dedicated. While he might have had the mind of a child, I guess technically he qualified as an adult .

 

[TomS]

Some folks online have been playing with some very interesting designs under the moniker of The Lunar War.

Like this render of USSF Alan Shepard. (Hard to see in this image, but the nose is a laser/optics ball)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1500874533359788033

View: https://twitter.com/L5Resident/status/1500874533359788033

 

[Michel Van]

I confess that my memory should not be regarded as a reliable source. Or can it? I can't seem to remember...

That book was written long time ago 1947 and publish it in 1953, i read the german Translation some were in 1980s...

From "The Dream Machines" by Ron Miller...

I can confirm that
in book The 2001 File about Harry Lang Design of 2001: a Space Odyssey
some of early Orion III concept look like Falcon 9 but later went TSTO
One concept was SSTO starts from launch track like Sanger "Silbervogel"

What Ron Miller depicted, is label in Lang book as "Spaceplane with detachable rocket booster"

 

[Hood]

The Discovery suddenly having chemical booster rockets on its escape from Jupiter in the film 2010 always nags me. Looked impressive on screen but completely wrong given it was nuclear powered (and probably never needed such thrust given it was designed for long spaceflights with its crew mostly in hibernation and was built in space).