So far we've only seen three types of Starfury. The normal one, the two seater version of that and the Thunderbolt, which in my opinion looks more like an X-Wing.
THE ORIGINAL STARFURRIES LOOKED PRETTY GOOD, THE IMPROVED ONES LOOK A LOT LIKE THEY CAME FROM
BATTLESTAR GALITICA. LOOK GUYS, THIS IS OUTER SPACE, DO WE REALLY NEED WINGS ON THESE SHIPS?
Starfurries? So Hentai/Manga has hit scifi eh?
MABE I SHOULD USE SPELLCHECK HUH?
THIS IS OUTER SPACE, DO WE REALLY NEED WINGS ON THESE SHIPS?
The whole point of the improved ones was that they could go into the atmosphere. The first time we ever saw them was when they were used to bomb ground targets on Mars, something that classic starfuries couldn't do.
Charlie, please stop yelling. Learn to use the shift key, and turn off caps lock... PLEASE!
But Mars doesn't have an atmosphere, Brian. I think the "wings" are just for distancing the engines and thrusters from the cockpit.
Mars *DOES* have an atmosphere. Some of the recent Mars probes used aerobraking and/or parachutes.
Not only does it have an atmosphere, Metrion (you might have been thinking of the Moon), but one plan is to use that atmosphere for rocket fuel for when our guys journey there sometime in the next decade or two.
Bob Zubrin, head of the Mars Direct Project at Lockheed Martin Astronautics, wants to pattern the journey after the American homestead pioneers. Because carrying all the fuel needed on one trip would take up 80% of the mass of the spaceship and cost $450 billion, one such proposal was killed. Zubrin’s thinking is, the settlers of the American West didn't bring tree logs with them on their journey; they chopped down what they found when they got there. Instead of taking all the fuel they'll need for the entire journey on one ship, a return ship would be sent to Mars in advance, where it will land, suckk in some atmosphere, and process it into rocket fuel. An absorbant powder in one chamber takes in CO2. The gas is mixed in a second chamber with a small amount of hydrogen, the only raw material that would have to be brought from Earth, and in a third chamber, electrolysis would produce the oxygen needed to burn the fuel. After the craft carrying our guys arrives and stays for 18 months, they use the return craft.
Also the orginal starfuries as well as the thunderbolt starfuries have the engine's mounted on pods way out at the end of the crossbar arms so that they are more able to manouever in space by having the center of thrust out fromthe center of gravity. this allows for a 0feet turn radius. If a auroa entered an atmosphere since it had no flight controls for atmosphereic flight (even a thin one like on mars) it would follow a rather ballistic course if it went below the minimum depth. the thunderbolt's have the flight control surfaces which rotate out from the engine pods which allow them to control their flight path in an atmosphere.
Yeha I saw that Luigi that's also what they did in Red Planet.
Really? I didn't know that. I never saw that movie.
Yeah well oops I got my Mars movies confused. I was watching Red PLanet with the wife last night (she is a big Val Kilmer fan) and discovered that I was wrong about that. In Red Planet somehow I thought the Russian Mars probe had made the fuel using the air and all but it was just some that was left over in the tanks from when it landed. oops. Mission to Mars did the create the fuel for the return journey using the martian atmosphere thing. Since both movies came out and I saw both they sometimes bleed over into one another if I don't stop and think about it. Teach me to post before thinking. Sorry about that ol chap.
One thing that bugs me is why is Garabaldi able to pilot one. I wouldn't think that every Tom, Dick, and Harry would be trained in the use of a military combat vehicle. IIRC, when Garabaldi first joined Earthforce, he had been in Infantry.
according to the babylon 5 security manual the chief of security for a space station is trained in the use of starfuries due to the fact that every hand may need to defend the station. It comes from the minbari war when the minbari where wacking anything with an earthforce symbol on it and everybody had to be crosstrained. At least thats the info i have at hand. If I go pull the RPG books out or some of the other notes i can probably find specific references.
I think Starfury Aurora models can go into the upper atmosphere of some planets but only just.