TYCHO BRAHE

STELLARCLIPPER
ND-17

[ABOVE] The starship Tycho Brahe holds a pivotal place in the annals of history. In orbit of Demeter (Tau Ceti Four) January 1, 2042ad (80uc01-01), as the planet celebrated Earth’s New Year, the captured HVL Cygnus (renamed Tontine by the Legion), reached orbit in an attempted to seize the Tycho. Ultimately, Tontine fired upon Tycho striking her amidships of the command module, causing a catastrophic failure resulting in the loss of the ship, and the death of her crew.
 

[LEFT/MIDDLE] The NASA-esque Stellarclippers were the culmination of American astronautical design and concepts; incorporating elements from the STS space shuttles, the International Space Station, and the early Apollo spacecraft. [RIGHT] Here the CG model is rendered against a NASA satellite image (catalog number unknown).
 

[LEFT] The Tycho Command Module (CM) is topped by a rendezvous station that overlooks (aft) the deployable cargo bay w/manipulator arm. To the sides are the hatched external cargo bays (eight in total). Below are the rendezvous / docking antennas, followed by two massive heat exchangers. [MIDDLE] Inspired by the Apollo-Soyus docking module; the standardized two-meter cargo dock. The four glide extensions contain the primary latching hardware, supplemented by eight (four pair) sliding latches housed on the face of the hatch (color coded green). At the center of the 3D docking target (the metal ring and quartered B/W circle) is the docking alignment camera. [RIGHT] The retractable solar panel arrays; topped by the ship’s parabolic communication / telemetry antennas.
 

[LEFT] Seen here (minus two of its four tanks) is the central, tubular construction, box truss that acts as the ship's backbone. The tanks are reclaimed and refitted external fuel tanks from the space shuttle. The service modules run down the center of the box truss. [MIDDLE] The ship's main engines, reactor, and Trans-Light Drive (TLD) generator. Flanked by two sets of conventional chemical engines is the centerline Impulse Engine; basically a microwave-induced, open-ended fusing reactor. The four large cylindrical protrusions at the back are the TLD variable capacitors. [RIGHT] As in the time of the Apollo missions, the Tycho was intended to act as the mother ship for transporting other vehicles, in this case docked noise-to-noise with a HVL. (see: Cygnus).
 

ADDITIONAL
 

Manufactured by Daniel HyperDyn Technologies at the Frontier Aerospace Industries Shipyards, Homestead, Luna America (the Moon), the primary components are fabricated on-site and boosted to low lunar orbit for final assembly; with specialized sub-assemblies being ship in from Earth-side facilities via the Freedom One space station.
 

The Tycho Brahe ND-17 is a Horizon class command module mated to a Stellarclipper class drive section. The ship's overall dimensions are 126.97 meters x 30.10 meters to a maximum of 48.24 meters to the ends of the extended telecommunications antennas.
 

Ships of the Horizon (I) / Stellarclipper class:
Newton ND-15, Copernicus ND-16, Galileo ND-18,  Kepler ND-19,