How do i do spaceship floorplans?

[trayn9]

I have been wondering how to know where to position rooms in large spaceships. If anyone could help me it would be much appriciated.

[Chick]

If you find a really good answer to this, NASA might like to talk to you

You might check out this site: http://www.dcmstarships.com/

[trayn9]

Ok, thanks! Its not exactly what i was looking for but its pretty cool.

[jshoer]

Are you going for realistic spaceships, or fantasy sci-fi spaceships? I ask because whether you have certain technologies at your disposal, such as artificial gravity, will determine a lot about your spaceship. Even then, there are many different ways to go. For instance, even if you have magical artificial gravity devices, why would the ship be set up with horizontal decks? Maybe the ship has a central spine that generates the gravity, and the decks are concentric rings around it. Or maybe "top" half of the decks are "right side up" and the "bottom" half are "upside down." Don't constrain yourself by the sci-fi conventions you see in Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica!

What I would do is this:

First, decide how forces affect the crew of your spaceship. This includes gravity (whether a centrifugal force or induced by some mystical grav plating) and thrust. That decision will determine the overall shape available to you.

Second, determine the most important components of your spaceship, at the overall system level. I'm thinking engines, docking ports, and other similar major components. Between this and the first point you will have laid out the available space to plan for human-livable space.

Third, look up information on the interiors of large naval ships, military aircraft, and the International Space Station, to get a feel for how different areas get arranged according to form and function. I think you'll discover a general principle: the components get positioned first, then the people get shoehorned in to any available space afterward.

[trayn9]

Ok, thanks. I had totally forgotten about artificial gravity. I was going for something like Star Wars, but I actually like your ideas more. Thanks again!

[Midgardsormr]

There is also the matter of the size of your ships, their purpose, and a variety of other issues. Here are some observations from my own spaceship design for my Traveller game:

Ships don't use reaction thrust in Traveller. Instead, they have a gravitic drive that pushes against nearby gravity wells, so there is no reason for drives to be at the rear of the ship and have big nozzles. Also, the jump drive is required to generate an energy field around the entire vessel. So the sub-light drive goes at the ship's center of mass, and the jump drive's field emitter is at its geometric center. Artificial gravity is generated by deck-plates, but since many ships can land on a planet's surface, "up" is always pointed away from the surface with the landing gear. That prevents people from falling off the ceiling when planetary gravity takes over. Ships that cannot land maintain a similar convention, with every deck having gravity that points in the same direction. Docking tubes have null gravity, and there's a big yellow arrow on the airlock door that points to local down for the benefit of those passing from null into artificial gravity.

For a military vessel, the bridge and control systems are deep inside the ship, where they are well-protected from damage. Since crew quarters are likely to be empty during combat operations, they're close to the hull, so a hit there isn't going to kill any crew or impair operations. Crew quarters are generally convenient to associated duty stations. Marine quarters are kept separate from naval crew in order to reduce conflict, and they're typically located proximate to whatever landing or assault craft they use.

A passenger liner will have staterooms along the hull, with good views. Crew quarters and most operations will be close to the center of the ship, to keep out of the way of the passengers, with the exception of the bridge, which may be set up with an observation gallery for tours.

A large merchant vessel will have an administration center, and possibly the bridge, near cargo handling in order to be convenient for ship's business. Smaller ships that depend less on sensors and automation will have a more traditional bridge or cockpit near the front of the ship with a large canopy.

Security concerns, specialized payloads, operations duration, and weapons systems will all also influence layout decisions, as will materials availability and engineering capabilities of the shipyard. If ships are expensive and materials are scarce, the ships will be more likely to be cylindrical or spherical in order to maximize internal volume for the materials used. Atmospheric flight, though, will encourage airfoil shapes, even if only to reduce reentry friction.

Anyway, there are a lot of factors to think about, but it comes down to what you like and whether you can justify the decisions you make.

[johnvanvliet]

form fallows function so....

is there "artificial gravity " ?
if so
centrifugal ?
or some unknown means

FTL or slower than light ?
what is the "normal space " drive ?
some magical propulsion ?
or something like h2 fusion or matter / antimatter

has the magical "inertial dampeners" been invented ?
anything over 5 G's for an extended time will need a WATER immersion system for the people
the human body dose NOT like 10 to 20 G's
a 2 to 5 year 5 g burn would be a bit NORMAL for a fusion drive


is it a generation ship ?
if so it needs to be HUGE