Re: [OFFICIAL] Freighters/Merchants question....

> 
> > JMO, but I think interstellar freighters will be spheres unless
> there's a
> > technological reason they're not practical.  That gives you the most
> volume
> > for the least surface area which means the least amount of
> construction
> > materials needed to build it.
> 
> Material cost is trivial compared to safety of the contents and ease
> of handling.
> 
> 

    The "truth" of the matter is that future freighters would be
primarily
  defined by their ftl drives.	How the ftl drive works is likely going
to be
  the most important factor in all your ship designs.  If your ftl drive

  generates a spherical "warp field" for instance, then you're going to
have
  ships that fit that field with the drive in the center.  If your ftl
drive
  creates a "hyperspace jump point", then the ship is going to have be
designed
  to pass comfortably through that jump point.	If you generate an ftl
field
  around the skin of your vessel, then you're going to have a ship with
a 
  continuous hull.  The variety found in modern cargo vessels is as
driven by
  the port facilities they need to access as it is by what they're
carrying.

    All that said, it seems unlikely to me that you will see the
spherical
  vessel with gianty empty cargo space within unless the economy of the
time
  allows for all the cargo to go to one place.	The real strength of
  "containerized" cargo is that it allows partial offloading and
reloading at
  stops and waypoints and simplifies reshipping the cargo onto different

  transport to elsewhere.  For the most part, the sphere design makes
accessing
  internal storage past the first few layers too difficult.  Now, if all
the
  ships cargo is going to point B from point A, then that could be a
different
  story.  There are ways to work around this limitation though, so you
*could*
  see the big round ships if other factors (like ftl drive) require
them.  If
  not though, I wouldn't expect it.

   grant