[TML] Honor 'Just call me Horatio' Harrington was Re:Environmental domes

[Richard Aiken]

On 9/8/07, shadow at shadowgard.com <shadow at shadowgard.com> wrote:
>
> The OTU seems to have a lot of ships like that. The Type S scout for
> example. :-)


My new TU is going to be a small-ship TU; nothing bigger than 5,000 dtons
can transit my stargates.  So I'm thinking I'll have most of my ship hulls
cast as single pieces of steel.  When you have solar foundaries which
can turn entire nickel-iron asteroids into molten balls, why not?  For a
simple globular hull, you use a carefully-calculated explosive charge to
turn the ex-asteroid into a bubble.  For other simple shapes - like the
Sulieman's arrowhead design - you could use somewhat more complicated (and
thus more expensive) injection molding.  Only complicated hull designs which
would need to be weilded together out of seperate elements.  This would be
another reason the mercenary "cruiser" has a globular hull.  Not only does
it enclose the greatest volume for the given mass, it's also the cheapest
hull form to manufacture.

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein