Spaceship comparison
Gizmodo had an interesting picture that demonstrated the relative size of the International Space Station compared to a number of space craft from popular science fiction. It’s pretty interesting (a Battlestar is huge!), so I decided to do one better and give you the relative stats of each ship.
Colonial Viper (new series)
- Size: 8.7 meters
- Max occupants: 1
- Max speed for Mark II: Mach 32.5 in atmosphere, no effective top speed in space, no jump drive for interstellar travel. Top acceleration possible: 7 G.
- Max speed for Mark VII: Mach 32.5 in atmosphere, no effective top speed in space, no jump drive for interstellar travel. Top acceleration possible: 9 G.
International Space Station
- Size: 107.4 meters
- Max occupants: 8
- Max speed: 7.7 km / sec in a low orbit around the earth
Corellian Corvette
- Size: 150 meters
- Max occupants: up to 600 depending on configuration
- Max speed: 2100 G, capable of light speed
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)
- Size: 288.6 meters
- Max occupants: typical crew complement was 400; maximum occupancy unknown
- Max speed: warp 9, but typically warp 6. NCC-1701-A achieved warp 14 in one rare instance.
Battlestar Galactica (new series)
- Size: 615 meters
- Max occupants: crew complement is 2641; maximum occupancy unknown
- Max speed: Faster than light speed
Is Star Wars passé?
“Why are you still writing about that movie? That’s the question my wife posed to me recently and the more I thought about it, the more the question bothered me. Why am I still writing about this movie?
Star Wars, now known also as Episode IV, debuted in 1977, which makes this movie over 30 years old! Three decades - enough time for a Star War fan to grow up, have children and in turn have those children have kids of their own. To say that the original film is long in the tooth is not an exaggeration. A 10-year kid probably looks at me talking about Star Wars like I looked at someone really old talk about the old Flash Gordon serials that were broadcast on the radio back in the day.
