UREB Ship

Completed 2021-06-13. Available releases:

An ultrarelativistic electron beam (UREB) is a surprisingly powerful ship-to-ship weapon—indeed, the current hard sci-fi "meta" for ship-to-ship combat. Although electron beams spread out rapidly due to electrostatic repulsion, if the electrons are sufficiently high speed, the relativistic effects of Lorentz contraction and time dilation cause the spreading to be negligible over the massive (multiple light-second) distances between ships.

Here we have a fairly basic design for a spinal-mount UREB ship, inspired by discussion on the ToughSF Discord. The structure at the front is a Whipple shield: spaced layers of thin metal that break up incoming projectiles. At the ranges the ship would fight at, it has little to fear from projectile weapons, but the shields also provide some amount of protection from lasers, particle beams, and ambient interplanetary dust. The rotating arm behind it creates artificial gravity for the crew capsules. During combat, these lock upright behind the Whipple shields for extra protection. Also visible are the radiators for the fusion engine; note how they are angled so that they are protected by the fusion reactor's "shadow" radiation shield.

Yes, I know I am the J. J. Abrams of drawing spaceships 😛

This is another digital painting. On a well-calibrated screen, you may notice a discontinuity on the left side as the blue halo fades to black. This discontinuity is very simply explained: my screen was not well-calibrated when I drew it.

Return to visual art listing.