Decks: Sample Deck Plans

Artwork by Ed Valigursky
Frau im Mond, 1929.
from The Young Adventurer's Pocket Book of Space Travel, 1951

von Braun Moonship

Personnel sphere of Moonship, W. von Braun, F. Whipple, W. Ley (1953). Artwork by Fred Freeman. Click for larger version.
  • Deck 1: Control Deck. Workstations for Captain, Pilot, Flight Engineer, and Radio Operator. Telescope in the center is for taking navigational sightings through the iris-shuttered astrodome. Note ladderway on the right.
  • Deck 2: Navigation Deck. The large table is the chart recorder. An analog device indicates the spacecraft's current position, which can be compared to the planned position printed on the chart. On the right is the auxiliary astrodome and telescope/tracking camera. On the left is the shower, placed here due to lack of any other place to put it.
  • Deck 3: Crew Deck. The normal crew complement is 30, but the quarters has contour chairs for 60 in case another spacecraft in the expedition has a catastrophic failure. The spare chairs are folded up on the walls and stanchions. To the right is the ship's mess and kitchen.
  • Deck 4: Storage Deck. General storage. Also contains the main electrical distribution panel. The toilet is also located here (but isn't shown).
  • Deck 5: Consumables Deck. Oxygen, drinking water, grey water.
  • Deck 6: Main air lock.

Tintin's Moon-Rocket

From Tintin: Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon (1953) by Hergé (Georges Rémy)
  1. ROCKET
    1. Radio and radar aerial
    2. Reserve tanks
    3. Control cabin
    4. Living quarters
    5. Stores
    6. Storage tanks, air, water, etc.
    7. Auxiliary engine propellant tanks
    8. Air lock and storage compartments
    9. Vehicle and storage deck
    10. Anti-radiation shield
    11. Motors
    12. Exhaust nozzle
    13. Stabilizing fins
    14. Landing-support fairing
    15. Shock absorbers
  1. AIR-LOCKS
    1. Passenger air-lock
    2. Protective-clothing room
    3. Cargo-loading air-lock
    4. Air-lock control room
  2. CONTROL CABIN
    1. Control desk
    2. Air-refrigeration plant
    3. Work table
    4. Observation equipment
    5. Laboratory
  3. LIVING QUARTERS
    1. Electric cooker
    2. Refrigerator
    3. Air purifier
    4. Bunks
    5. Lockers

Readers in the US might not recognize the Tintin graphic novels, but everybody in Europe has read them. This nuclear powered rocket was quite well researched for the time. The main engine is apparently a NERVA style solid nuclear thermal rocket fueled with plutonium. The launch site has a breeder reactor used to cook uranium 238 into plutonium for fuel rods. The rocket lifts off and lands with an auxillary chemical rocket fueled by nitric acid and aniline, so as to prevent contaminating the ground with radiation.

The authors of the indispensable Spaceship Handbook did find one minor mistake. The astronauts lie prone on their acceleration couches, which is pretty much the worst position possible (second only to standing on their heads).

The authors of the Spaceship Handbook suggests that this was due to Mr. Rémy misinterpreting the diagram of the Werner von Braun moonship. In that diagram, the crew members who need to monitor the chart recorder are prone, but everybody in their acceleration stations are properly on their backs.

Anyway this is a minor flaw in a design that gets it right.

The Outrim Queen

The Outrim Queen is featured in Outrim by J. Mauloni, a most scientifically accurate webcomic.

2038 Space Ship

Amazing Stories, December 1938
  1. Pilot and Robot Control Rooms
  2. Stairway & Corridor Foyer
  3. Navigation Rooms
  4. Freight & Storage Sections
  5. Lifeboat & Launching Tube
  6. Passenger Staterooms
  7. Gymnasium & Recreation Rooms
  8. Fuel Tanks
  9. Oxy-Hydrogen Mixing Chamber
  10. Detonator Caps
  11. Major Explosion Chamber
  12. Tapered Main Rocket Tube
  13. Auxiliary Rocket Tube
  1. Engine Rooms
  2. Steering Rocket
  3. Air Conditioning Equipment
  4. Oxygenation Chamber
  5. Water Condenser Units
  6. Magnetic Gravity Rotors
  7. Theatre & Lounge
  8. Dining Rooms
  9. Gravity Main Deck Bearing
  10. Main Shaft & Elevator
  11. Auxiliary Blast Chamber
  12. Insulation Hull
  13. Atmospheric Rudders

Tinsley Photon Rocket

This is a design for a photon-drive spacecraft, boosted into orbit by a chemical rocket. Note that the designer is a tad unclear on the concept. The photon drive is fed gigawatts of electricty by the fusion reactor, while the poor ship relies upon a crude solar boiler for its internal power. Nowadays photon drives are considered impractical, due to their ridiculous power requirements (three hundred megawatts for one lousy Newton of thrust).

  • 1. Bridge deck
  • 2. Cabin deck
  • 3. Airtight access hatches
  • 4. Retractable solar steam plant
  • 5. Electronic navigational and communication gear
  • 6. Stores, spacesuits, special gear, etc.
  • 7. Breathing oxygen
  • 8. Water supply/fusion fuel
  • 9. Fusion reactor (quaintly and mistakenly label a "nuclear pile")
  • 10. Reactor controls
  • 11. Radiation shield
  • 12. Photon drive
  • 13. Tripod legs.
Art by Frank Tinsley for "Light-Propelled Space Ship" by Frank Tinsley
(Thanks to Mr. Griffith Ingram for these images)

Discovery
Blueprint by Cyrille Castellant
  1. Centrifuge
  2. Command Module
  3. Main Pod Bay
  4. HAL's Brain Room
  5. Pod Bay Control Room
  6. Exterior Air Lock
  7. Pod Bay Warehouse

Command Module

Main Ladder

Pod Bay Control Room

Main Pod Bay

Pod Bay Warehouse

Exterior Air Lock

HAL Logic

HAL's Brain Room

Hub

Centrifuge

Pratt and Whitney Space Station

Space Station design by Pratt and Whitney Aircraft (1969), click on image for larger view

Darrell Romick Ion Rocket

Design by Darrell Romick for a nuclear-powered ion rocket (1950)

The Vulture

The Vulture from the TV show "Salvage 1" (1979)

The Satellite

The Satellite from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Artwork by Dick Calkins (1930). Most of the propulsion is by virtue of the handwavium anti-gravity metal "Inertron", but at least the decks are arranged like a proper tail lander.

The Comet

A poor example of scientific spacecraft design. Again they forgot to put in the rest-rooms. And an "aircraft" floor layout as well.
The Comet from the Captain Future novels by Edmond Hamilton, 1969