more starflight

The inner spheres of the interstellar Carrier are as large as Bernal Spheres. The hulls are connected by tubes with airtight doors and the decks are also separated by airlocks for safety in the event of catastrophic hull breach. The outer hull consists of layers of carbon nanotube composite 200x stronger than steel. The hull provides 3 tons of radiation shielding per square meter, mostly water, of surface area. Layers of energy absorbing carbon nanotube composite and aerogel in the "nose" provide impact protection. The Carrier is like a huge living thing, with pipe lines carrying fluid, breathing air ducts and nerves of electrical and nano-fiber optic cables.

Star Carriers don't maneuver rapidly. They have radars, telescopic sensors and fusion thrusters for collision avoidance. Shield vehicles proceed ahead of the Carriers. Layers of c-nanotube composite and super lightweight aerogel on the forward side serve as a shock absorbing impact&erosion shield that can take on hydrogen atoms and dust particles even at 66% light speed. Aerogel is mostly gas, weighs next to nothing, and particles will vaporize upon contact like meteors. Some of the aerogel and C60 will vaporize also. The vaporized gaseous matter will be deflected by the protective magnetic field. These "bumpers" might also actually deflect particles in their path. Magnetic deflectors are the primary defense. The physical shields are secondary. During acceleration, plasma ions from the DRIVERS are pulled through the central magnetic coil and fired ahead of the ship to clear out dust and atoms in the way (that's another G.David Nordley idea) and propell the shield vehicle. The shield vehicle is also pushed ahead by magnetic repulsion. Ionizing bow lasers and magnetic deflectors are also used. In the supercold of interstellar space, objects become paramagnetic and can be deflected by magnetic fields. The interstellar path is well mapped so there will be no collision with comets or other objects. If all else fails, the hull might absorb a collision with an errant rock. Power from the Carrier's fusion reactors is beamed to the shield vehicle to power its lasers. If the shield vehicle is demolished the Carrier also has lasers and a magnetic deflection shield. The magnetic field is not great enough to cause much drag with the interstellar medium.

Star Carriers maneuver thru solar systems by riding the destination star's solar wind with mag-sails or magnetoplasma sails. Fusion thrusters and tugs are also used. They dock at O'Neil colony sized Star Terminals that can handle very large numbers of people and spaceships. Tens of thousands of people arriving in the Alpha Centauri system, for instance, will have many different destinations on planets, moons, asteroids and at orbital habitats of that system. Interplantary liners take them on the final leg of their multi-year voyage. Interplanetary journeys may take months and star farers may choose to hibernate only at this time!

A Star Carrier is made mostly of that super material of the future-carbon 60 nanotube composites. The multiple layers of the hull have water and hydrogen impreganted nano-fibers in between because hydrogen is the best cosmic ray shield material; water is cheap, it is needed for the closed ecosystem of the Carrier, and it makes good radiation shielding. The outer hull layers are partitioned, sort of honeycombed, so that a puncture won't let all the water leak out.

A Bernal Sphere is BIG. You feel like you're outside when you're in it. Why so big? Why trees and plants, farms and villages and all that in one of these things? Well, these things were built for colonization purposes and interstellar luxury cruises. Basically, they are high-speed world ships with their own ecology and everything. Life can be normal on multi-year voyages at 66%c, as it is in an O'Neill type habitat, an underground or domed city, or on Earth's surface. There's danger from collisions, but space is pretty empty. Space is well mapped also, so the Star Carrier won't crash into any brown dwarfs, etc.

Star Carriers have mag-sails thousands of kilometers wide generating magnetic fields tens or hundreds of thousands of kilometers wide. A colony ship might go on a one-way journey to another star system and the settlers will create new homes and someday build a Propulsion Node, a complex of Driver Beams surrounding a star with the help of replicating AI robots that use asteroidal resources to build mega-structures. Interstellar luxury cruises can only be conducted between major Nodes, because two way trips are demanded by the passengers! Of course, you're a free person with your own suite of rooms, equivalent to a nice home, aboard a Star Carrier, or you might as well be frozen and packed into a small beamrider like a slab of meat. There's every hedonic activity imaginable-good food, drink, games, social life, libraries, classes, clubs, live and electronic entertainment, dances, sex, etc.

The teardrop shaped hulls are arranged around the coil in a triangular or quadrangular pattern and are connected by tunnels. Cables of diamondoid monofilament ( C60, Buckministerfullerene) tie the hulls to the loops of superconducting cable that composes the mag-sail.

We are taking an excursion into science fiction, so read on. Why is the Carrier so large?
ANS: To acheive economy of scale. The larger the sphere, the better the volume to surface area ratio, so its easier to shield more people with a larger ship, since the shield doesn't have to get any thicker. The various inner spheres have pressure, humidity, temperature and light levels tailored to the preferences of different kinds of beings on different decks. The crew is largely robotic. Sulfur plasma lamps illuminate the simulated Outdoor Areas. The Carrier does not rotate during acceleration. Acceleration substitutes for gravity. Once cruise velocity is reached the Carrier rotates and the inner spheres move into the proper positions. During deceleration the inner spheres move into positions opposite those of acceleration.

Decks

Ablation material

The shield vehicle and the Star Carrier are both built around cylindrical superconducting magnetic coils that generate the deflection fields. This magnetic field also repels cosmic rays. Stern lasers ionize the beams of neutral particles from stations near the Sun so that they can interact with and apply pressure to the mag-sail which consists of a loop of superconducting cable to which the vessel is attached.

Fusion thrusters