Earth, 2098: A gigantic 65 kiloton cargo hauler moves into orbit, escorted by two equally blocky Chinese space warships. There's no aerodynamics up here! By Fan Wennan. www.artstation.com/artwork/xYoEZ2 - ThreadSky

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toughsf.bsky.social • 376 days ago

Earth, 2098:
A gigantic 65 kiloton cargo hauler moves into orbit, escorted by two equally blocky Chinese space warships. There's no aerodynamics up here!
By Fan Wennan.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xYoEZ2

Comments

mythsearcher.bsky.social•376 days ago

Are these nuclear powered? I don't see solar panels but also very little heat radiators.

psiop.kawaii.social•376 days ago

I assume so, but we don't get a very clear view of the cargo ship in it's entirety. Perhaps fuel tanks are internal with the cargo frame serving as the outer structure? I imagine the whole ship might be assembled and disassembled in port during cargo handling.

psiop.kawaii.social•376 days ago

The warships by comparison have a much cleaner visual language. We can see a weapons section, and a drive section. The Radiators are relatively more conspicuous so I must assume they are capable of more energetic maneuvers. but I doubt any of these craft are built for speed.

psiop.kawaii.social•376 days ago

The cargo ship's radiators are less conspicuous because it's comparatively larger and uses less energy. Literally just a pile of containers. It might not even have engines. Could be accelerated, released, caught, and then decelerated by tugs, drifting most of the way.

toughsf.bsky.social•376 days ago

Yes, nuclear powered!

psiop.kawaii.social•376 days ago

I imagine if we could see from the back there would be a cluster of nuclear thermal engines in a grid pattern under a fairing. The Fuel tanks would be clustered spheres for redundancy and ease of manufacture. (One giant sphere would be ideal, but probably impractical)

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