Internet Launch of the Botany Bay

[Pipcard]

Parts of the backstory are based off a non-canon novel series, but it is a well-made animation. Obviously, the launch is an edited version of the Space Shuttle's.

 

[vsfx]

Parts of the backstory are based off a non-canon novel series, but it is a well-made animation. Obviously, the launch is an edited version of the Space Shuttle's.

Thanks I made that video a couple of years ago now when I was able to get on 3DS Max

You are right I used HD night launch footage of a shuttle flight so it wasn't too hard to extract the rocket glows and add them in to animation. Those definitely aren't shuttle SRBs though, they are at least 100 metres in length! Also you might wonder about the KSP aerodynamics but the video is based on a picture that appeared in an episode showing it this way.

 

[Pipcard]

I never thought that the maker would be on O-F. Amazing work!

 

[Staiduk]

MAGNIFICENT!

It simply wouldn't have been complete without Enterprise closing on the derelict vessel.

How beautiful and how wonderful - my thanks! Must watch 'Space Seed' again with new eyes!

 

[Cras]

Those definitely aren't shuttle SRBs though, they are at least 100 metres in length!

They look like they could be Shuttle SRBs.

 

[Staiduk]

I have a technical question: In the video the Botany Bay is boosted into orbit without fairing of any kind - what would that large square-fronted fuel tank (at least; I'm assuming it's a fuel tank) and the bridge sail have done to the areodynamics of the vessel as she burned for orbit? I know nothing of aerodynamics or orbital mechanics but it seems to me they would have produced tremendous drag on the vessel as she drove for space.
Just curious.

 

[garyw]

Considering the advanced tech in trek I'd assume that a fairing wouldn't be required and instead it had some sort of rudimentary structural integrity field that was shaped to allow the airflow?

 

[Staiduk]

Uh... I respect your opinion enormously Gary; but I must point out that Botany Bay is 1990's technology - at least the 1990's of the Trek universe. I may be wrong - I have been so many times in the past - but I doubt that SI equipment had been invented yet. I think we must assume that Botany Bay was exactly what she appeared to be: a spacecraft designed along submarine lines - a technology the Earth powers knew well - built for long-distance durability. I suspect the answer will be far more mechanical than that.

Cheers!

 

[PennyBlack]

I wondered about the square'ish shape of the vessel myself pushing through the atmoshpere and a rudimentary structural integrity field seems plausable for an alternate reality 1990's sci-fi themed tv show. Maybe it would have been better to have had an areodynamic, jettisonable module fitted over the front of the vessel in the video and have it release when approaching LEO, but it's sci-fi, and there is a huge "lets pretend there is" thing going on with it. Hell, I've even learnt to adapt that "lets pretend there is" to most of my reality.

I enjoyed the video, good editting.

 

[vsfx]

I have a technical question: In the video the Botany Bay is boosted into orbit without fairing of any kind - what would that large square-fronted fuel tank (at least; I'm assuming it's a fuel tank) and the bridge sail have done to the areodynamics of the vessel as she burned for orbit? I know nothing of aerodynamics or orbital mechanics but it seems to me they would have produced tremendous drag on the vessel as she drove for space.
Just curious.

Pasted from the YouTube video description:

Regarding the non-aerodynamic design of the DY-100 (getting alot of comment on this, although this is how it is portrayed in a image seen in an episode):
A DY-100 ground launch was shown as a background image in the Voyager episode "Future's End" and also featured in the Star Trek Chronology book.
http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/images/2/29/DY_100_painting.jpg
My theory is that a crude and early form of forcefield was used to create an aerodynamic shape around the hull during the atmospheric launch phase and this would be inkeeping with the other advanced tech on the spacecraft such as gravity plating and and impulse engines. In the novels this is said to be the result of reverse engineering technology from the future. Since it has appeared on-screen in this fashion it is canon and it's up to us to work out the inconsistencies...

The video is based upon the Eugenics Wars novels by Greg Cox which explain that the DY-100 is partly based on decades of research and reverse engineering of alien technology in US possession, such as the Ferengi shuttle that crashed in Roswell in 1947, ("Little Green Men", DS9 episode) the Klingon weapon and communicator left by Chekov in 1986 in "The Voyage Home" etc. Aerodynamic, structural and gravitational systems would all likely come about from this, but perhaps launching the thing still need relatively low-tech giant SRBs as they couldn't figure certain things out.

For best quality watch the video on Vimeo:
[ame="http://vimeo.com/59292570"]"Escape of Khan" - Launch of the Botany Bay - Vimeo[/ame]

 

[Staiduk]

OK, thanks. I'd forgotten the Roswell episode.

 

[garyw]

And if Gary Seven was involved he may have tweaked the the configuration to provide additional structural integrity.

But think about this, The Botany Bay was launched in 1996. This ship needed SRB's to get it into orbit, sure, but it had artificial gravity and impulse engines. To me, that's enough future tech to allow for a structural integrity field.

Cochrane launched the phoenix 67 years later which had warp drive so that must have had a structural integrity field and I can't imagine that much was invented during world war III so I'm still going with the theory that very basic structural energy fields allowed for non-fairing launches.

 

[streb2001]

..can't imagine that much was invented during world war III

War does tend to drive invention, I am thinking about radar, jet engines, atomic bombs etc.

I agree with the SI field though. My first thought on seeing the lack of streamlining (on this excellent video btw) was that a streamlined fairing would have been used. Would have made rubbish visuals though!

 

[garyw]

Agreed on war driving innovation but World War III was partly nuclear and I also imagine it to be a bit like Afghanistan is today but played out over a global scale so some innovation for sure but not as much as seen in WW2.