20 Nov 2020 No Comments
The Tech Side #14: Imperial Starships – Shuttles & Shuttle Bays
Shuttles are often a feature in sci-fi, and the Galaxii universe is no exception. Shuttles are generally smaller space craft used to carry crew or cargo between space ships or between a space ship and a planet. Sometimes they’re used as lifeboats.
The notion of a ship carrying smaller craft dates from the days of sailing ships, when it was found necessary for a ship to carry a longboat for the purposes of traveling ashore at a nearby port of call without endangering the ship by getting too close to land. The danger of holing the ships’ hull on rocks or beaching was significant. Lifeboats too need no introduction.
In this article for The Tech Side, I’ll be looking at Space Fleet shuttles and shuttle bays.
25 Nov 2020 No Comments
The Tech Side #15 Airlocks
Airlocks – sci-fi is full of them. Virtually every sci-fi series or movie out there makes use of the airlock as a plot device or at least as a feature of the story – we’ve seen them in Star Trek, Event Horizon – and who can forget Sean Connery’s escapades with airlocks in Outland?
Airlocks are a safety buffer or transition zone between areas of unequal air pressure. They facilitate the transfer of personnel from one vessel to the other in a way that doesn’t endanger either. More plainly, they protect a ship from depressurizing if a crew member goes outside or comes back in again.
They’re hardly a new invention, airlocks have been around since at least 1830 when Sir Thomas Cochrane registered his patent for use in building underground constructions. Watertight doors (a form of airlock tech) appeared in oceanic ships in the late 19th century. Airlocks were added to submarines to allow submariners to leave the sub in shallow water since before the First World War. They’re used in ships and submarines today, as well as in space shuttles and the ISS in orbit around Earth – and even in medical applications at bio laboratories and at the CDC.
Today we take a closer look at the airlocks aboard Terran Space Fleet vessels.
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by ChristinaEngela in the tech side Tags: airlocks, diagrams, future, Galaxii, indie, schematics, sci-fi, science fiction, starship, tech, technology