lightmage

The most plausible method for getting the Hope back on the "ground" would be for some kind of hot re-entry, followed by an ocean splashdown. It got me thinking about how the ship's payload was maybe designed to separate from the main ship or at least the propulsion element. Obviously, the separation never occurred due to the ship's temporal rendition. On this design, the main ark section is mounted "belly down" so the top of the saucer is the floor. The ship would be embedded "upwards" to normalise deck orientation for the maps, which would place the engines at the top.  Here the design is reversed. The top is the roof, nuclear thrusters protrude from the skirt -- they bring Hope to a safe speed for splashdown.

  This idea edges away from the low-tech Souped-up-NASA look. It does look more mysterious and more capable of exotic forms of travel. And it looks like a grub. 

  More sketches. These are more in line with a 21st century "urgent" special project, described in the brief. Not a mile long, but very, very big.  Downward-directed thrusters. A bit whale-like but I added then removed a fin as it definitely made this into a Zeppelin. This was actually the first of the sketches I drew. The surface details add to the "sell" although all the designs look better with more going on.  Space boat. Needs some more detailing to sell this as a ship. To be fair, the detailing won't have much impact on the maps, although things like the helicopter pads in sketch one might impact layout / add access points.

  Rough sketches for commission