Re:The aesthetics of science fiction spaceship design
by Retric on Monday September 03, 2018 @05:30PM
(#17904984)
> saturated with laser light
You’re assuming these ships have weapons. That may not be the case at the start of a civil war where both sides just have civilian craft. Or what happens when two prospectors booth find a very valuable resource. Even today in an age of nuclear weapons and drones etc, people still occasionally beat each other to death with sticks.
The thing missed in the video is that there would be no close flybys, unless both sides royally fucked up. The warring fleets would see each other across half of the solar system at least, much more if under acceleration. From there until the end of the fight, one would expect the space between them to be like one huge rave party, pretty much saturated with laser light.
> Dissipating heat or solar pannels may involve something that looks a lot like wings.
Yup, with current technology, that would be the most recognizable part of any ship, as all interesting functional parameters of the ship itself scale with radiator surface area.