Tug ship taken to logical extreme

[obtuse yew]

A relatively small ship, not unlike KTA24, but more so.
It can be a refit of an existing frame or completely novel design.

The design goal would ability to mount an arm and to provide a lot of reverse thrust without blasting objects directly in front of the ship.

Defining characteristics would be almost threefold symmetry when looking from "above" - the hull or extrnal frame fitted around the hull forming a triangle, or symmetrical Y shape (think radiation trefoil, or drone/beacon chassis).
At the tips of the arms would be three torches separated by 120 degrees - one aiming backwards the remaining two angled sideways and forward allowing for as much reverse as forward thrust (albeit at 2x propellant expenditure) and ability to direct full thrust in pretty much arbitrary direction (with varying efficiency) - would benefit a lot from variable thrust torches.

It would resemble bald eagle in some ways, and might actually make a decent racing ship, but I'd expect it to perform much worse with much heavier, robust frame and only single forward torch.

High-stress mount would be installed at the geometrical center of the Y or directly in front of it.

Aesthetically it could be modified KTA hull installed on a triangular frame, refitted forward section of Titan (titan't?) or something else entirely.

RCS would generally be of secondary importance and prevented from aiming forward, so I was thinking of maybe 4 sideways RCS thrusters angled for rotation.

I don't have solid ideas regarding remaining hardpoints, excavator/grinder and radiators, but I was thinking somewhat asymmetrical layout to accentuate that it's a specialized utilitarian design, not something meant to look pretty, and to balance its sideways and reverse agility:

• two diagonally opposed low-stress hardpoints, forward and rear on opposing sides (rear suitable for drones, container, or PD, but not fixed tool/weapon).
• maybe offset excavator/grinder (front) and radiator (rear) on opposite diagonal.

[cursive lance]

Something of this shape?

[obtuse yew]

Yeah, could be, with front pointing downwards.

[cursive lance]

that is indeed the front !

[obtuse yew]

I was thinking somewhat bulkier, with maybe toroidal propellant tank, but the thrust frame would basically look like that regardless of how bulky/spindly it would be.

(I recognize the aerospikes BTW)

[cursive lance]

[they were on hand : ) ]

this is just a really quick "sketch" of sorts

[obtuse yew]

Generally think a crab ship - equally comforatble moving sideways as forward, but somewhat slow to rotate. Abble to just grab an object from a very cluttered environment and pull it out or use its mass to quickly reorient using main torches.

[cursive lance]

I made it in like 2 minutes so it's far from what I'd consider a finished ship lol

treat it as the Spine of the ship

[obtuse yew]

I don't sketch nearly as fast in paint/gimp, let alone blender.

(and the less said about speed of doing it on paper, the better).

[cursive lance]

hehehe

I had a bunch of practice in speed modeling during artfight :>

[cursive lance]

felt like working on this so here's a little update !!!

zoink

Actually this could be a good candidate for the tug shuttle

[obtuse yew]

Nice. I have imagined it differently, but it's very nice.

[strange scroll]

why not use vulture?

[obtuse yew]

Because you hate fun.

[strange scroll]

oh but i like fun... i use elon for scavenging 😄

had to sell it yesterday cuz i ran out of money to run it

[cursive lance]

wuh

[obtuse yew]

That's the small, craddle-dockable version, or the large one?

[cursive lance]

Who knows!!!!

[obtuse yew]

Small one could provide a nerfed version of mechanics of my tug companion:
You're guaranteed to salvage, but spend 1 crew for the duration of the dive.
So basically EVA, but you get 1 guaranteed salvage (or retry as long as the ship hasn't blown up) by sacrificing hardpoint.

[cursive lance]

#1070847635348537404 <--- has a similar idea

[tepid ferry]

Put an RCS package with forward/lateral thrust behind each arm of the Y. I'm not it needs three drives to be a tug - you just need long, steady thrust for heavy transit, not really strong thrust, unless you're sprinting. And if you take off the side tanks, there's room for some angled reverse thrust.

Zero thrust directed toward the branch of the shape.