The Iron Sky -team is looking for your ideas and comments. Join and show your support for Iron Sky.
This task is closed
| Created at | November 13, 2008 |
| Created by | Timo Vuorensola |
| Closed | November 25, 2009 |
| Shots given | 21 |
| Reference media |
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Thanks *everyone* for great shots and comments! We've had so far very good ideas, and will start designing the Earth Fleet ships based on your ideas.
We're going to need further assistance later on, and we'll put more specific tasks as we move along.
Great stuff!
In Iron Sky, the Earth will stand up and defend itself against the Nazi enemy. In 2018, many of the countries have developed their space program - maybe in the shadows, maybe in open - to also be able to engage in a fight in the orbit or in deep space, if necessary.
In this task, we need ideas for what the space ship of the Russian Federation would look like.
We'd request everything from descriptions to concept drawings, from crude ideas to finalized artwork - whatever is your game.
Few guidelines:
- The film is set in 2018 - so don't get over-excited on tech!
- There's no such thing as "interstellar travel" or "antigravity" invented.
- Be reasonable - try to be functional, and limit your ideas to feasible technologial advancements.
- For ideas, you can look for example the "Venture Star" -program: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_Star
- Also, the ideas can be pretty wacky ones - maybe some huge project a country has been working on is, instead of being what it looks like, a battleship?
We've already discussed the weapons technology in the previous task:
http://www.wreckamovie.com/tasks/show/52
Maybe reading through the thumbed-up -shots (you can sort them in the task) would give some ideas as well.
Included you'll find some concept art of stuff our concept artist Jussi has done. You may use them non-commercially and share them with others, but not claim them your own or charge money from them. Here's more info on the CC-license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/
As the licence in Iron Sky production requires, you need to give all the rights for derivative or original work you do for this task to the Iron Sky team for us being able to use them.
Go for it, people! Let's design the greatest space fleet in the history of film!
Like the title says. If it is Russian, it should have lots of "guns" - whether this means mass drivers, "regular" guns, or whatever, as long as it does not have any fancy "guided warheads", just as many things as you can fit onto a hull that make a nasty "boom" even in vacuum and cannot be jammed, that can fill the nearby space with enough projectiles to make Haunebu-Geräten look like Swiss cheese no matter how nimbly they manoeuver with their anti-gravity drives.
Just look at the Soviet/Russian warships (the watery kind) from WW2 up to the present day: since the Fleet could not rely on aerial superiority (due to lack of aircraft carriers), and missile technology was still lacking (which does not mean they would not have huge amounts of SAM launchers as well), they simply put on as much guns as they could fit. Whereas an American warship might have only one or two dual-purpose turrets and one or two point-defence turrets and rely mainly on friendly aircraft to defend itself, a Soviet/Russian ship would have many times that and in larger calibres. (Of course, an American warship might have just one or two SAM mounts, sometimes sharing the mount with anti-ship missiles; the Russian ship would several dedicated long, medium and short-range launchers in addition to shoulder-launched weapons.)
The same thing goes for the Army: anything that moves has to have some sort of an AA gun. Anything that doesn't probably is one. Again, fear of the lack of air supremacy was originally the key motivator. Though again, SAM launchers would become just as plentiful. By comparison, the American army has a very small number of AA guns or SAM launchers.
As to how they should look like, I would imagine they would be harshly angular, slab-sided, bristling with weapons (I cannot stress this enough.) Alternatively, they could be formed of globes and cylinders, like a Soyuz but horribly overgrown and grossly mutated. Heavy armour would suit the look just fine. Consider visible rivets in the style of old tanks, even if that is quite unrealistic for a spacecraft. Lots of medium-sized (but not too small) thrusters instead of one big. Greenish colouring (like in the good ol' Soyuz). Oh, and red stars, no doubt. (Aren't they still used as the official insignia on Russian Air Force planes?)
Russian Trained Space Special Forces.
sy jones
March 29, 2009 09:52
6 Thumb-ups
Even though it is supposedly 2018 i dont think we should be looking for a an ultra, futuristic, 21st century look. For any of the different nations. I like the the steampunk idea but i dont think it should be taken to literally. I'd like to see inspiration taken from when the russian space program was at its height in the 60's and 70's. I also like designs of http://www.maschinenkrueger.com/mdls.html
Also take a look a this guy if you havent already http://www.danielsimon.net/
I think his designs would suit the US fleet.!
Maybe take inspiration from george lucas. he didnt want star wars to look to modern. He made sure everything from the ships to the environments had that knackered,dirty, tired look which i think would suit the film perfectly.
I did some math and came up with numbers that say travelling the distance between Earth and Moon orbit takes about an hour at constant acceleration and deceleration of 3g (maximum acceleration you can stand indefinitely without blacking out unless you wear special g-suit). This is straight line path so let's say Nazi's obey laws of physics and use realistic Hohmann transfer orbit approach (Hohmann was a German after all, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_orbit for physics details). That should give Earth about 24 to 48 hours to prepare for the first wave of invasion.
And now to Russian space fleet (somewhat similar to what Jokke Kaksonen suggested earlier):
1) Cold war nuclear missile satellites. This is a must-have.
2) Rushed MiG/Su refit for space combat.
And that should be it. Maybe a few experimental military space ships but nothing combat ready (because of international treaties).
The backstory behind jet fighter refit should be that Russians were planning orbital fightercraft for quite some time and experimented with laser cannons (still too big for normal jet fighters but small enough for marine battleships). So when they detect nazi approach, generals order engineers to refit as many jet fighters for orbital combat as they can, first batch to be launched in 12 or so hours.
So what can you do with a jet fighter in 12 hours? Not much. Strip it of any useless atmospheric flight junk, replace landing gear with magnetic clamps, fix maneuvering thrusters on wingtips and cockpit, put a small rocket engine under its belly, stuff oxygen and hydrogen tanks into jet engine chambers and seal cockpit. All of that using A LOT of duct tape. These parts should be as common as jet engines now because of all the space tourism.
The cool thing about space combat is that you can load your fighter with 10 times more ordnance than it could carry in atmosphere. And refitted jet fighters have huge useless wings, so you can mount marine battleship sized laser cannons there.
As for launch and landing, refitted fighters can be launched from ground on normal cargo rockets and land on any space station (ISS or any of half a dozen space hotels). Since jet fighters have no airlock, pilot will clamp the fighter to space station hull, depressurize cockpit and use emergency jetpack to enter nearest airlock. Atmospheric reentry is impossible due to lack of heat shield. Space stations should have equipment for refuelling small orbital shuttles which could be used to refuel refitted jet fighters as well (they're built from parts used in tourist ships after all).
Rolson
March 02, 2009 20:00
6 Thumb-ups
experimental battle cruiser codename: "crazy ivan"
weapons x3 main cannons: basically works by stressing fusion reactor to overload itself but at the last peak of time transmits highly ionized energy in 3 main cannons
history.... this is 7th attempt to make this one work, 6 predecessors has blown up... only 2 of them during main cannon test :)
this may be bit to futuristic technology but we have test reactor under construction in france ;P so spare me from over critique
I feel that one of the countries, and I think Russia fits best, should have a steam-punk motif. Sort of a steam engine, holding on by its own bolts, solid steel sorta tech. I feel their has been a lot of steam-punk enthusiasts that have made really cool current tech look very old school.
Here's some example of some cool things that have been converted, and space technology could be easily be converted to this style.
what about the 1998 game, Battlezone? in which in an alternate version of the 1960s in which the United States and the Soviet Union use alien technology to wage a secret war across the solar system, fighting for control of the rare resource bio-metal. The game starts in 1952 when a group of meteorites falls near the Bering Strait, which both the Americans and the Russians are able to recover. In these meteorites they find "bio-metal", and discover that with it they can build vehicles with amazing features, such as the ability to hover. Both the Soviets and Americans send forces to the Moon; the Apollo program is revealed to be a cover-up for the massive American military operation there.[5] The American space military force is called the NSDF, for National Space Defense Force, and the Soviets' is named the CCA, for Cosmos Colonist Army (However, manuals for the earlier version of the game call the CCA the 'Communist Cosmonaut Army'). The Soviets force the Americans off the Moon by destroying the main American outpost there, called Eagle's Nest 1. The NSDF relocates to Mars, only to discover that the CCA is already there. An alien artifact is discovered there by both sides, presumably by the same race who created the bio-metal. A weapons factory built by this civilization is also found on Mars. It is revealed that the race in question called themselves the Cthonians, and lived on a planet called Icarus that occupied the orbit of what is now the asteroid belt. According to the game, Greek myths were based on visitations of Earth by the Cthonians.
The Americans learn that the Cthonians were divided into two warring parties who battled throughout the solar system. Each side apparently pursued an ultimate weapon that would destroy the other. To follow the trail of this weapon, called a Fury, the Americans travel to Venus. Another artifact from a Cthonian city is recovered, pointing the way to a weapons research facility built by the Cthonians on Io. When the Americans arrive at Io, they find a relic from the facility and begin to bring it back to their base. However, one of the tugs carrying the artifacts is piloted by a Soviet defector, named Dr. Wilheim Arkin, who steals the Fury relic and brings it to the Soviets. Enraged, the Americans conduct a secret operation on Europa to steal a Soviet Flanker and tap into the Soviet communications network to discover the whereabouts of the Fury relic. It is found that the relic has been moved to the main CCA base on Saturn's moon Titan.
Why not just use the CCA Cosmos Colonist Army for the russians and the NSDA the National Space Defense Force for the two sides?
Keeping that in mind, I would assume that their fleet would consist mostly of current, well known technology.
1. Air-to-air missiles modified for space combat (fins aren't of much use in space). Payloads, conventional explosives and nuclear.
2. Ground launched earth to space missiles.
3. Orbital defence stations. Basically a platform filled with missiles and a radar system, also visual targeting in case of radar jamming.
4. Maintanace spacecraft, with some crew to keep the platforms functional and to resupply missiles.
5. Normal fighter jets modified for spaceflight. Cockpit airtight and pressurized. Small nuclear engine that enables long spaceflight time without refuelling. Ordinary missile set under wings. Machine guns replaced with some kind of ray weapons (more practical to fire energy that weighs nothing than bullets, if you have to carry everything that you fire from the earth by supply rocket). The jets get launched into space by a piggyback ride on a normal sojuz rocket.
6. A couple of spacecarft carriers. Basically huge metal frameworks that have docking stations for the fighters, crowded sleeping quarters, food and water supplies, as the fighter jets are never ment to return to earth (no heatshields).
7. Spaceminefields and methods of slowing down the enemy (into mind comes a russian scientists comment when they asked if he is worried about the US spaceshield program, his answer was that if they put up some weapon satelites there, they might have to respond by putting up a couple of buckets filled with rusty nails in the same orbit, having a cloud of rusty nails hit the satelites a few times each day should do the trick).
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What I would like to see is a broadside. Imagine, a huge ugly, rusty block of steel floating in the orbit, turning it's side towards the nazies and BOOOM! blasts a way incredibly huge and inaccurate broadside shot, hitting the small, friendly, escort fighter that was behind the big ship.
I agree..
The Russian/Soviet war machines have always been geared full-on toward raw power, performance and functionality rather than finesse.
Like a sledgehammer in comparison to the fine-tech driven united states' swiss army knife.
Their submarines and AK47s are klunky and ugly, but they work.
Hell, they built rockets that fly underwater... it won't hit anything, but it's a rocket that flies underwater!
So this should be visible on the ship..
While most countries' ships probably try to maintain some kind of aesthetics with their ships, looking more like how hollywood would build them - You know, like the nasa space shuttle, being a "flyable" design for no real reason other than looking good, where Soyuz in it's simplicity beats it hands down in every respect
- the Russian ships would look primarily functional..
Not 'crap' with wires hanging out or such, but rugged in that how it looks is completely an afterthought once the functional design had been laid down and half built already.
Oh, and while a wide variety of armament would probably be realistic, making them completely massdriver based just Feels Right(tm)
Rows of gatlin guns and oversized naval cannons seeding the sky with arcs of depleted uranium... *drool*
Or just put a cast-iron penis the size of new zeland in orbit and call it a day.
Yeah, thats it. Big bulky ships, grey-green and rosty, with lots of big ballistic guns and huge armor. But there should be more or less no high-tech and computers, therefore inside lots of big levers and buttons for control. Maybe a gunner in a glas capsule for each gun. With a shiny green atomic reactor for energy production at the end of the ship and then from the US copied nuklear propulsion.
Maybe also a China / Russsian joint venture? One big ship, fighting part russia with all the guns. And the engine part with the atomic propulsion a chinese building. This engine part could be copied or stolen from the NASA's early 80's experiments with a nuclear engines. Still the NASA sign on some parts...