United3dArtists Archive

I started doodling in trueSpace and a few hours later I was building a rocket engine. Why does this always happen to me?



It's actually a triple hybrid, a fusion powered hydrogen and air-breathing rocket engine.

Not sure yet where I'm going with this. I may just end up building a ship around it as well.

Excellent! The most detailed model I've seen you do yet! !!! Can't wait to see more. My question is, which part is the fusion reactor?

Thanks Draise. It might become the most detailed model I've ever built, it isn't yet though. That would probably be the Aquarium or the NH90 helicopter.

As for the fusion reactor, it's... not there yet. I modeled the radiators as part of the coolant loop for either a nuclear engine or a small fusion reactor. Each with a small turbopump and the option of venting the coolant in case of overheating.
The fusion reactor will come later after I finish the rocket itself and build the heat-exchangers for the air intakes. Somehow it will all have to fit in there without getting in the way of each other. It will be quite a puzzle. If all that fails I may just put a larger fusion reactor inside the ship itself.

Here is a small update on the FUROENGINE.



Started on the air-breathing portion. Realized I had very little space left for the fusion reaction... like I thought I would, somehow thinking ahead didn't help me here.


I also had to make these diagrams just to keep my brain from leaking out of my ears while modeling. Having a written down idea of how something is supposed to look is way better than constantly keeping the entire thing in your head.



Different modes:


Air breathing:
Air and goes through a series of heat-exchangers which cool it down from over 1000C to minus 150C, after which the air goes through a turbo compressor and is mixed with the fuel in the pre-burner.
Alongside this a hot air stream is mixed with Liquid Hydrogen fuel in the ram-jet burners.

Oxidizer and hydrogen closed cycle:
Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen are mixed in preburners and hot gases are pumped through the main gas manifolds to the combustion chamber.

Hydrogen fusion:
Liquid Hydrogen is injected directly into the main combustion chamber where magnetic coils compress and ionize the liquid to create a plasma that is ejected through the magnetized nozzle.
Note that radiation shields are necessary to protect the ship and crew from radiation. For this reason Hydrogen fusion is not used while in-atmosphere and near spacestations/other ships.

Final update for today:



Gimbal components are finished. Magnetic coils are in place and I've started on the electronics.

MikomDude, all your modeling skills are excellent which everyone here would agree! Your models always look like they just came off the show room floor. I would love to see you dirty some of them up sometimes. Keep up the great work modeling....but I would love to see "you" explore textures, dirt, burns, aging etc. Are there no re-entries in your world?

@Steinie Honestly, I just don't like texturing (Or even rendering for that matter) What interests me about doing 3D modeling is always the building itself. This is why I prefer to model all the details instead of using bump maps and texturing tricks. I mainly use textures for decals and such. Maybe this mentality comes from making scale Airfix models and LEGOs as a kid.

Still you're right, my ships do tend to lack grimy detail. Over the years I've slowly started using more and more textures and I'd like to think my renders have improved as well but when I started out I usually just took a screenshot of an untextured model in the workspace window and edited it in the GIMP.
This model for example has no textures whatsoever (yet). It's all workspace materials.

I want one !

@Emmanuel Great! Just hand over the four billion dollars and it's yours

Update, Added ramjets, inner shell and started on the pre-cooler/heat exchanger:

'Beepin' A!
Nice work Dude!

Thanks Dragneye, still modeling on. Speaking of which, last of update of the day:

Update 6:

Yeah she's pretty much done. Right? ....

I know I didn't include the radiators but when I first made those (as you can see on w.i.p-01) I was building an entirely different thing, probably a nuclear rocket. This would still require some cooling but not necessarily in the same way... I may still add those radiators. Haven't decided yet.

Scratch that... its not finished yet. Still feel like I need to find a way to implement the radiators.

Radiators:


Large Image

I decided to get rid of the old design and build radiators better suited to space. I will admit... I may have gotten a little carried away on this one.

The FuroEngine is now finished.

An idea for a possible massive space shuttle, the Bering Space Bus:



It's a fun idea but I think it's a little too big this one. Still... a spacecraft with eight FUROEngines would be awesome.

Liquid hydrogen (2) and oxygen and here I've forgotten my water wings.

Looking great MikomD!