Battlestar Habakkuk......the space aircraft carrier?

[seadude]

As I'm sure a lot of people know, I built the Project Habakkuk ice aircraft carrier a few years ago. Well, as I'm sitting here at my comp doing more research for a potential 1/350 scale Habakkuk in the future, another thought just hit me: What about a futuristic Habakkuk space aircraft carrier? Not made of ice, but rather the normal steel and other materials that starships are made of.
The Habakkuk space carrier would still share some of the same characteristics that the ice aircraft carrier had which are:
1. Thick hull/armor.
2. Very large size vessel.
3. Large complement of fighters and other spacecraft.
4. Heavy defensive AA armament.

What other design characteristics should be included? How should it be built? What should such a vessel look like?

[deathjester]

Actually, I think that you are missing a trick here;

In space, no-one can hear you scream...also, ice doesn't melt!

In and around asteroid belts, there are massive chunks of ice, just waiting to be cored out, and turned into a carrier!

You could just fit them out with sealed habitation / navigation, and engine modules, and a truly humongous hangar bay right in the middle!

Would be completely in keeping with the name too...and if anyone could pull it off, it's you!! 

[Cliffy B]

Oooooo me likey!!!! DO IT PLEASE!!!!!!! 

[Hobbes]

Actually with that name I'd expect it to consist of a hollowed-out asteroid. Propulsion at one end, armament and sensors on the surface, machinery and hangars inside.

[seadude]

In space, no-one can hear you scream...also, ice doesn't melt!

It does melt in space if hit with directed energy beam weapons which generate.....heat.

Not sure I'd want to build something that looked like it came from an ice chunk or asteroid in space. I still prefer gold old fashioned carrier type designs. The only source I know of that can give me good inspiration is the old Space Battleship Yamato anime series and some of the carrier designs on that show.
I don't want to take a chunk of styrofoam, paint it, add weapons, engines, etc., then call that a Habakkuk space carrier. Just seems too "cheap" to me.

[PR19_Kit]

In space, no-one can hear you scream...also, ice doesn't melt!

It does melt in space if hit with directed energy beam weapons which generate.....heat.

So does steel or titanium. 

Of course you could use Unobtanium but it's not easy to get hold of at the moment. The big advantage of that is that its molecular structure is changed when directed energy weapons are used against it and the beams are directed right back at the original user...... 

[Cliffy B]

How's Unobtanium stand up against nukes? 

[deathjester]

In space, no-one can hear you scream...also, ice doesn't melt!

It does melt in space if hit with directed energy beam weapons which generate.....heat.

Not sure I'd want to build something that looked like it came from an ice chunk or asteroid in space. I still prefer gold old fashioned carrier type designs. The only source I know of that can give me good inspiration is the old Space Battleship Yamato anime series and some of the carrier designs on that show.
I don't want to take a chunk of styrofoam, paint it, add weapons, engines, etc., then call that a Habakkuk space carrier. Just seems too "cheap" to me.

Well, ok - I just thought you'd like to stick to the 'ice theme'

How about researching the ships from 'Wing Commander' Film and games, and the ships from 'Space: Above and Beyond'.  Pretty good idea of what star carriers would be like...

[scooter]

In space, no-one can hear you scream...also, ice doesn't melt!

It does melt in space if hit with directed energy beam weapons which generate.....heat.

Not sure I'd want to build something that looked like it came from an ice chunk or asteroid in space. I still prefer gold old fashioned carrier type designs. The only source I know of that can give me good inspiration is the old Space Battleship Yamato anime series and some of the carrier designs on that show.
I don't want to take a chunk of styrofoam, paint it, add weapons, engines, etc., then call that a Habakkuk space carrier. Just seems too "cheap" to me.

Well, ok - I just thought you'd like to stick to the 'ice theme'

How about researching the ships from 'Wing Commander' Film and games, and the ships from 'Space: Above and Beyond'.  Pretty good idea of what star carriers would be like...

You forgot about the Battlestars from both TOS and New Battlestar Galactica.  Although, they're more of a battleship/carrier hybrid

[PR19_Kit]

How's Unobtanium stand up against nukes? 

It depends on the phase of the unobtanium.

Alpha Phase UB asborbs the blast, thermal shock and neutron flux and then gets stronger after a short period which the users call 'The Gulp' in which nothing seems to happen at all apart from the blast seemingly sucking back in on itself.

Beta Phase UB theoretically absorbs the blast, thermal shock and the neutron flux and then explodes so violently that the entire Earth vanishes. Needless to say no Government has issued a licence to test this theory.....

[pyro-manic]

Also ref. Babylon 5, Games Workshop's Battlefleet Gothic game, and a million other anime series besides SB:Yamato. Legend of the Galactic Heroes in particular. I'd also highly recommend the ConceptShips blog for stacks of concept art.

I do think the idea of using an ice asteroid is a good one, particularly with the name Habakkuk. It wouldn't just be a "chunk of styrofoam with engines" - the body would be hollowed out (you could do a cutaway?), and the surface itself would have to be carefully worked to balance the centre of gravity with the engine thrust lines, as well as providing good sites for weapons and sensor emplacements, communications and power lines, access ports, hangar entrance doors etc.

[Geoff]

You could hollow out a nickle iron asteroid with a small clean nuclear bomb (see Transhuman Space not my idea - and no Radish its not about frocks) Then fill with the necessary gubins. Armed with drones like Cylon raiders???

[seadude]

I know most of you would rather see me go the route and use an asteroid or other large ice chunk such as a comet, but I really feel like I don't want to do that. I much prefer good old fashioned hulled ships. I'm thinking of a design right now, but it will take some time before I can commit a design to paper to show. All I know for sure is the following:
1. To be built in 1/700 scale. About the same length as my regular Habakkuk model ship which is about 3 feet long.
2. Have 4 launching bays.
3. Crew spaces, workshops, engineering, etc. buried deep within the ship.
4. Large landing area on top of the ship.
5. Still have a bridge superstructure reminiscent of Navy carrier ships.
6. Massive AA defensive armament, but unsure if I should add anything of a bigger calibre for anti-warship?
7. Paint the ship white with various blue highlights and designs.

I've been searching various sci-fi tv shows and movies to give me inspiration, but there is very little designs that I like or that would help.

[Steel Penguin]

take you asteroid,  heat using any conveniant method ( tachyon system, meson projectors, lasers, gavity wells etc) spin, the speed will determine you wall thickness and the migration of the various metals, use tunnelling lasers to give entrances and attach systems to the inside/ out side as wanted.  but you now have something that as far as any sensor system goes is no longer an asteroid,  one of the resons for the striod body is that if you careful ( and have the tec) you can pass off a stroid bodyed ship as an un modyed stroid,  ( use remote sensors with non directional data streams to keep its eyes open).
ooops im starting to think again, ill have to watch out or itll be anouther attack of fire fusion and steel

[pyro-manic]

Fifth Element battleship:



Owes a lot to the Star Destroyer, obviously, but cool nevertheless. Flatten the top deck for your landing strip, add launch bays underneath. Oodles of AAA turrets along the sides.

Alternatively, get a 1:350 CVN (that's about the size you want) and do the same thing to it that Leiji Matsumoto did to the Yamato to get a space carrier. Just bump the scale up and use 1:700 fittings and superstructure.