"Building a Space Battleship; the Technology of a Trope " Topic

" The trope of a 'Space Battleship' is one of the more persistent themes of SF, especially in the visual medium. In most SF the trope takes the form of spacecraft classes that might not have any applicability to spacecraft; Battleship, Destroyer, and the often abused Dreadnaught. It also extends to tactics, with many space battles in movies closer to a fight between two oceanic naval forces than a battle in 3D space. In the most extreme form the spacecraft take the actual appearance of a seagoing battleship, as in the case of the Yamato, which was built from the wreck of the WWII battleship of that name.

The innumerable physics and engineering-breakers contained within most examples of this trope make it one sure to raise the hackles of any Hard SF fanatic. Thrust at right angles to deck layout – what happens when artificial gravity fails and hallways turn into mines hafts of death. Bridges that projects from the main body of the ship, robbing themselves of protection from the main armour of the mull, and not giving any advantage in the vastness of space. Battles fought at close range with guns. Turrets on only one side of the hull… I could go on.

But while a Space Battleship may not ever be the design of choice for the most science-centric 'Verse it does hold potential for those worlds which, while the author takes care not to 'break physics', are intended to follow the aesthetic of a battleship in space. This post is intended to look at how that can be accomplished; what technologies and conditions are needed for a space battleship to be logical…"

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