Re: Droyne Architecture

Scott Kellog writes:
>Hum.  I don't see much of human anatomy in something like say:  The
>Space Shuttle.  Nor do I see it in a Saturn V.  Nor do I see it in a
>Sapwood ICBM...  Ariane...  Mir... Skylab... Abrams MBT... F-14 Tomcat
>Nimitz class carrier...  Los Angeles class fast attack sub...  MiG-29
>Fulcrum...

Of those, the Saturn V, the Sapwood, and Arianne are the only ones
not significantly affected by human anatomy and anthropometrics.

The Space Shuttle has to be big enough for three things: Big cargos
due to DOD specifications, wings for crossrange capability in re-entry,
and a seven-man habitation space up front.  The hab space is very much
dependent on human size.

Mir was sized to be the minimum space two people can comfortably
live in for 6-9 months.  Skylab's interior was broken up into spaces
based on what human size could handle, in terms of operating machinery and
such.  The Abrams MBT is that size and shape muchly to fit the people
in... trust me, crew position is one of the hardest issues in armour
design...  The F-14 Tomcat was sized to carry three payload items to
Mach 2.4 off a carrier deck: a large radar, a bunch of big missiles,
and _two flight crew and their work stations_!  Of those, the crew
are arguably the largest item, and the canopy the crew are under is
quite a bit of total aircraft supersonic drag.

The Nimitz is that size because of the number of aircraft it needs to
carry and the size of those aircraft.   The size of those aircraft
to a large degree determines overall size.  The Los Angeles would
be a lot different if its crew were a lot smaller or larger; you need
a certain crew size to keep everything operational, and that drives
some pretty painful relationships as larger crew require more space
per crew which requires more machinery which requires more crew...

>The laws of engineering don't change, vertibrates need a good internal
>structure, and so are governed by those laws.  But the things we build
>are not constrained to only those solutions which have been solved by
>evoloution.  Humans and other advanced alien societies do not adapt
>themselves to fit their environment, they adapt their environment to fit
>themselves.  (For the most part)  A space ship is not bound by evolution.

Yes, and the rules on which advanced societies build things are carefully
and closely linked to things like size.  Try spending time in Japan for
instance; the average Japanese person is several inches shorter than
in the US, and they have smaller buildings (in all dimentions, and not
just a little) and vehicles than we do.  Lots smaller.

- -george william herbert