Orion's Arm - Encyclopedia Galactica - Interplanetary Transport

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Interplanetary Transport

Technology > Application > Transportation > Interplanetary Transport

Interplanetary transport includes the spacecraft and technologies for moving passengers and cargo from point to point within a star system or the immediate environs of a star system up to a distance of about half a light-year. At distances greater than this, transport systems are generally considered to be interstellar class, although craft or systems able to move between the widely separated components of some multiple star systems (for example the components of the Kiyoshi pentad) are also usually included under the "interplanetary" classification.

Articles

Aerospace Engineering - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, modified from the original write-up by Robert J. Hall
A field of engineering that combines aerodynamics, fluid dynamics, propulsion, thermodynamics, aerospace mechanics, virch simulations, materials science, energy use, nanofabrication and vehicular structures.
Antimatter Catalysed Fusion - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Steve Bowers
Propulsion using fusion boosted by relatively small amounts of antimatter
Antimatter Propulsion - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, Mark Mcamuk, Chris Shaeffer
Propulsion using antimatter rockets
Arcjet - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Simple very lo-tech rocket used for short low power thrusters, such as station keeping motors and satellites. A non-flammable propellant is heated (not combusted) by an electrical heat source, causing it to undergo a phase change (from liquid to gas) and is then expelled out of the nozzle under pressure. Although extremely inefficient and low thrust, arcjets are very reliable and require no sentient or subsentient ai controller. Almost any fluid from spare drinking water to human urine to vec cleaning oils can be used as a propellant in an emergency.
Bioship - Text by Steve Bowers
Bioships are either grown partially or entirely using biotechnology or by a close analogue to biological growth: they can be very similar in final composition to other ships but often look distinctively 'organic' in form.
Boostbeam - Text by Todd Drashner
Mass-beam based system used to accelerate or decelerate spacecraft without the use of onboard reaction mass.
Cargo Ships - Text by Steve Bowers and Damon Court
Freighter spacecraft.
Crescent Class Cruiser - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and 'Total Annihilation'
Cycler - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A ship or habitat that travels along an orbit or route in such a way that it rendezvous with other stations, orbitals, planets, or stars along the way. Cyclers may be small or large, sparse or luxurious, slow or fast, interplanetary (also called an Aldrin Cycler) or interstellar (also called a Schroeder Cycler), completely passive (simple ballistic orbit) or with course correction drive units. Depending on the route and speed, a single cycle may take anywhere from a few months to many millennia.
Dragonfly Class ship - Text by Steve Bowers
Dreadnought (ship) - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A Capital Ship of the largest scale (term now rarely used).
Electric Propulsion (Ion Drives) - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Steve Bowers
Propulsion using electrical energy to obtain thrust
Exoatmospheric - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Vehicle or tweaked life-form capable of operating both in a vacuum and in an atmosphere. May be planetary- or space-based.
Explorer Class - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Long range, rugged and reliable self-repairing amat-powered exploration vessel used during the First Federation period. Some remained in service as late as the Empires age, and even today Explorer Class vessels little different from the original design are popular among many minor and independent clades, especially in the outer volumes.
Explosive Pulse Drives - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, Mauk Mcamuk and Chris Shaeffer
Propulsion using explosive pulses of plasma external to the spacecraft
Fission Drives - Text by Mauk Mcamuk, Chris Shaeffer and M. Alan Kazlev
Propulsion using nuclear fission as a power source.
Fusion Plasma Rockets - Text by Luke Campbell
Propulsion using nuclear fusion energy
Gravity Tug - Text by Steve Bowers
Omnicraft - Text by Todd Drashner
Versatile mode of transport designed to operate and provide accommodations in a wide range of environments from planetary surfaces to interplanetary space.
Pacman Miner - Text by James Ramsay and Steve Bowers
Asteroid Mining Ships.
Podship - Text by Thorbjørn Steen
Propulsion Performance Statistics - Text by Mauk Mcamuk and Chris Shaeffer
Statistics for various kinds of Propulsion Technology used in the Orion Arm
Pyrenian Klarion Explorer Seedship - Text by Thorbjørn Steen
A data-only podship exploration design.
Ramscoop and RAIR ships - Text by Steve Bowers, Tim Weaver and Todd Drashner
The Bussard Ramscoop concept, Ram Augmented Interstellar Rocket ships and other Magnetic Scoop devices
Reaction Mass - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, Richard Baker, and David Dye
Fuel used by a conventional rocket ship.
Rotovator - Text by Steve Bowers
Device for transferring cargo or passengers from the atmosphere or near surface of a planet to outer space.
Ship Style and Decoration - Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Anders Sandberg; additions by Steve Bowers
Among the different interstellar empires and colonies, ship design and outer decoration varies widely.
Solar and Microwave Passive Propulsion - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Microwave and optical laser and solar sails have the attractiveness of providing a virtually engineless and fueless craft; photons simply provide the momentum necessary to send the spacecraft to its proper destination. But as with every form of space ship propulsion these, too, have their share of disadvantages: pointing accuracy of laser-driven probes, dependence on ground infrastructure for laser or maser launched and propelled ships, low intensity of solar light outside the solar system for solar sails, ultra-low payload mass (which makes them perfect for nanoprobes but very inefficient at larger scales), vulnerability of the huge sails (hundreds of square kilometers) to accumulative micrometeoriod damage, etc.
Solar Moth - Text by Steve Bowers
Solar Thermal Rockets use sunlight to heat propellant.
Thermal Rockets - Text by Mauk Mcamuk, Chris Shaeffer and Steve Bowers
Fuelless rockets driven by an external heat source
Thicksuit - Text by Todd Drashner
Nanotech/bionanotech vacuum survival suit.
Torch Ships - Text by Luke Campbell
External plasma drives
Tricorn Ship - Text by Steve Bowers
Interplanetary or interstellar ships using a tension design
USS Randolph CSGN-04 - Text by Aaron Hamilton
The USS Randolph was the first of a class of powerful (for the time) interplanetary cruisers built by the declining United States of North America.
Yi Sun-Sin (System Control Ship) - Text by Aaron Hamilton, adapted by Steve Bowers
The Eridanus League used System Control ships like the Yi Sun Sin in an ultimately futile attempt to maintain order and cohesion over worlds many tens of light years apart.