Rocket Wednesday: Spaceships in Films

Other than a lucky few who actually have seen a spacecraft in person, the only outlet that people get to experience a spacecraft close up is in the movies. From the terrifying Star Destroyers of the Star Wars universe to the sleek agile Federation ships of Star Trek there are quite a variety of ships presented within movies.

The ships presented in this jocund analysis are "feasible" in that they are based around a real propulsion method so here we go.

so many ships to choose from, so little time

(rest after the break)

1. TIE Fighter (Star Wars) 

The TIE fighter is a small agile ship that relies upon twin ion engines (thus the TIE part). Ion engines are real and are in use on some current space mission, and while they hardly are what is displayed within this ship, with a bit of tweaking and some futuristic technology, this ship would be entirely feasible propulsion-wise. As for the actual design, it is extremely vulnerable especially to micrometeorite impact and unless it is properly shielded, would be disastrous in a solar storm.

Feasibility: 6/10

2. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (Star Trek)

What to say about the Enterprise, it is cool, though it has some serious design flaws. It functions off of a warp core system for longer faster flights. While currently it is entirely fantasy, there may be some truth to the idea that changing your reality a bit may allow you to move faster than light. That is far off in the future though. As for actual design, this ship would be much better than a TIE fighter, just as long as you moved the command area to a central area of the ship. If you were to find yourself engaged in space combat, it would be inconvenient to have your center of operations taken out because it happened to be on top.

Feasibility: 7/10

3. Icarus II (Sunshine)

Apologies as I geek out for a second, if you are into space movies, watch Sunshine, it is good fun and though it loses its touch with science near the end, it is still impressive (their science advisor was the famous Dr. Brian Cox). Icarus is a different type of spaceship, it has a goal and a design to achieve that goal. The entire front (right side of the image) is a gold plated heat shield designed for shielding the cabin (left side) from the sun. it has everything needed for a long mission including oxygen gardens and gold plated spacesuits. If we are to go to space our ships will look much more like this than any of the above.

Feasibility (other than the heat shield): 9/10

4. USSC Discovery One (2001: A Space Odyssey)

Another classic spaceship with some real possibilities. Number one, I have already gone over its intended form of propulsion, nuclear, so that should be no problem for it to exist. Number two, it has some advanced features that would be helpful for the future of space travel including decks that spin to create gravity, a computer that monitors the progress of the mission (hopefully our future computers won't go crazy), and shuttles. number three, it is just pretty cool overall, not much more to say.
Feasibility: 7/10


5. Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space (TARDIS) (Doctor Who?)

As this weekend is the premiere of the new series of my favorite television show out of the U.K., I felt it was necessary to include this. Despite being based off of alien technology conveniently disguised as a London Police Box, the TARDIS has been used to help out humanity countless times. From a realistic view, it is beyond impossible, there is no way yet that we can make something bigger on the inside than the outside nor is time travel (except forward slowly) a reality. Still there is a dreamer inside of me that hopes someday we can make ships like this. Oh well.

Feasibility: doesn't matter I want one.

Given that this is a fun topic to write on, if I receive positive comments I may throw one of these in every now and again. Hows that for comment motivation.