I'm probably looking at a 25-50GW reactor of some kind, primarily since it's enough to power a warp drive.

When you are talking about levels of energy this high and assuming you can control them effectively and use it, then I don't see a problem with electric propulsion.

Alternatively, despite substantially lower thrust i was thinking of possibly a VASIMR system since it can be fueled with virtually anything that could be collected in-situ, perhaps from a gas giant.

It may be possible to fudge those numbers a bit in favor of better thrust, so don't let it limit your imagination.

I was going to take inspiration from a BBC sci-fi docudrama thing I watched a while back that used a similar system, for a trip around our solar system. I can't remember the name offhand. Last time i looked for pics of a artificial magnetic field generator i had less than great luck. That's similar to what i remember though.

Is that the one where they let someone's body out into the rings of Saturn?

When you are talking about levels of energy this high and assuming you can control them effectively and use it, then I don't see a problem with electric propulsion.

It may be possible to fudge those numbers a bit in favor of better thrust, so don't let it limit your imagination.

Is that the one where they let someone's body out into the rings of Saturn?

Would feel kinda wasteful hauling around a super-heavy reactor to not put it to use.

Since we're still talking probably 75 years bare minimum... I'd agree.

I Believe so, yes.
[youtube]qOyu3dlEFTU[/youtube]
Who wouldn't want there own Northern Lights?

Ok, so after much playing yesterday i decided my reactor wasn't anywhere near big enough. It needed a 'power bulge'. So i designed a section that should easily fit a Toroid(Tokomak) or a spherical Fusion reactor. Problem is I'm not sure it fits my theme. I was trying to stick with the basic TOS geometric shapes but, blending the structure is definitely not TOS. Also, I'm still not sure if i should taper the back after it down or leave the kinda nifty rounded shape. Also, where to put the magnetic field generator ring at the rear? Before the reactor where it wouldn't fit well or after? wouldn't that have issues reacting with the reactors magnetic field? Also I don't think this is going to carry SSTO's anymore. That reactor takes up a whole lot of space.

Thoughts?

I like it so far, it will probably look much better on the front when you add some texturing.  If I think of anything I will definitely give some suggestions 

Meh. Tried putting rings on the front and back. I don't like it. It should be under hull-plating anyway so i'll just bulge the section out a little instead of huge ammounts of coils.
Now. I need a legitimate science-y reason for glowing spinny bussard ramscoop collectors.....

Now. I need a legitimate science-y reason for glowing spinny bussard ramscoop collectors.....

Make up a magic technobabble reason

So Believe it or not, this project is actually NOT dead. I've just been mostly updating it VIA KSP's forum.


I'd really like some input on the front, cuz I'm not totally happy with the results. I've got a bunch of greebles in the middle, and a cockpit/bridge module up top but, I'm not sure what to do with the rest of it. The front looks a little too much like the Hitchhikers guide ship which i probably should like but, actually don't.

A ton more pictures are on my KSP forum page. I'd like any opinions.
KSP page HERE.