Can we just take a moment to acknowledge the mad skills of the Captain of the Colonial One ship who, on multiple occasions, actually lands that monster inside the Galactica MANUALLY!?!?!?!?!?!
I know right?? Upon rewatching the miniseries I was like "wait whaaaaaaa-" when that thing was just smoothly sliding into the landing pod RIGHT after Boomer was yelling about how hard it was to land on it with her Raptor.
@@Urzaknight Nah, but he left a lasting impression. That moment in the mini series when they're finding other ships and he changes callsign from Colonial Heavy 798 to Colonial One and has a little smile is an awesome moment.
Best damn deadpan line in the series. Damn, I'm glad Galactica finished the way she did. Serving as a tourist attraction, complete w/food court & the Colonial version of a Starbucks (HAH!...🤣) on all accessable decks just seems beneath her dignity.
@@rsrt6910 He probably "loosed" it at the same English grammar class that taught kids the wrong definition between "loose" (an object not secured down) and "lose" (having something miss-placed or taken from you). Or is this going to turn into an English contest instead of talking nerdy sci-fi facts and such?
"Call the Ball" is another modern day Naval Carrier term that refers to the Source light (also known as the Meatball because of its orange color) on the Optical Landing Systems (OLS) installed on most modern day aircraft carriers. The "Meatball" depicts the landing aircraft's relative position to the glideslope. The term "Call the Ball" is given to the pilot by the LSO, and the pilots reply "I have the Ball" lets the LSO know that the pilot sees the Meatball and is able to use it to properly guide the aircraft in.
A quick note at 2:33, the museum scene: It is literally in honor of the 1978 BSG. It has 'Cylon War era' Raider, a 'Colonial Viper' (aka the MK. I Viper) a Landram (which was used prominently in the old show), a miniature of the old model Cylon Basestar, an actual Cylon Centurion costume from 78 portrayed in a display, and I'm pretty sure a shuttle from the 78 show as well.
@@ancaplanaoriginal5303 You can also see an old '78-style shuttle being used by the colonial representative at the Armistice Station, in the mini-series.
its because in cannon, those ships were used in the first cylon war, you see the old basestars and raiders used in both razor, and deadlock, a brilliant bsg game
Man at first I was pissed of all the re imaging but I love how they acknowledged all the old school stuff. And now I love the new designs more ja. Even bought the models
I think the use of Raptors for taxiing people was done because shuttles lack FTL-Capability and in the event of a Cylon-Attack, they would be unable to do an emergency jump. Landing all the shuttles would take way too long, so the use of Raptors was basically the only way to create a safe exchange of people and most likely also (at least some) goods between the ships of the fleet.
I imagine it's also because those shuttles are quite high-capacity (they appear to have multiple decks, at least) and launching and retrieving them just for short flights of a few people would be complete overkill (not to mention a waste of limited fuel).
And also, the internal sets/external CGI models were already built. A '70s-style shuttle wasn't shown until President Roslyn landed on Kobol (and then only as a grounded CGI model behind her.) Edit: I stand corrected. A few comments below this; someone points out that a '70s shuttle is also on display in the Galactica Museum.)
the big shuttles probably had FTL as well, we see a TOS style version making the trip out to Armistice station in the miniseries opening, and that trip would certainly have required an FTL jump to make in a reasonable time given how distant that station was. and we have the newer style show seeming to operate independently as part of the fleet in several cases. (sometimes appearing in fleet shots flying in formation with much larger vessels) i suspect that the in universe reason to use Raptor's primarily was probably because not all the ships had hangers big enough to handle such craft, or docking systems able to dock them externally, but most ships did have hangers (or cargo loading bays) that could easily fit a raptor. though i suspect that those types of shuttles probably did see use helping to ferry civilians around the fleet between the bigger ships.
I don't think the limited supply of Vipers was ever really a critical issue, the Galactica always had far more fighters available than they had qualified pilots to fly them. Risking structural damage to the fighter in a rough combat landing, in order to guarantee safe return of the pilot was probably a trade-off they had zero qualms over.
except that they didn't have the ability to build new fighters if they did trash one, outside of the period that they had Pegasus for that (though why they put a fighter-factory on a warship is beyond me).
I feel like it was less that the Pegasus had a literal Viper factory production line on board, and more that they had the capability to fabricate replacement parts for their fighters while on deployment. Being able to build replacement parts adhoc gives them the ability to build entire new Vipers. As for the Galactica, they had either 40 or 80 Mk. II Vipers and only ~20 something qualified pilots following the Fall of the Colonies. The Vipers were a whole lot more expendable than the pilots, even if they were never able to replace them.
Makes sense that the Flight Control Officer is a high ranking position, after all one of a Battlestar's biggest assets is being able to launch and recover its fighters in an efficient manner.
I served in the Navy back in the 80's, and I complement the creators of the re-imagined series at how authentically military they made the series, along with the story and everything else. and I also agree with you about the pilots having to slam the skids down on the flight deck when performing combat landings.
Yeah, it makes sense. We even see the vipers touch down several times and bounce before sticking during combat landing footage. ALSOthank you for yer service.
Personally if its really hectic and my fighter has magnetic landing leags, if nessisary I'd land on the ceiling. Yes i'd be uspidown (if the landing deck has gravity) but i'd be out of the way and secure for the ships to make its escape jump.
@@firstname9954 the problem with yer ping-pong reference, the only thing slowing it down is air resistance and on the bounce also gravity... One if not both are missing here.
@@firstname9954the only thing to impact here are photons of light, not really known for slowing down meteors much less vipers, and the metal of the battle star itself. 0G just takes away acceleration into the deck, assuming its off or it "must" be accounted for as impacts at enough speed make things go crack, we're both heavily in agreement here at least. the moment that viper hits the deck all that electrical magnetic heat exchange all day long but with the ping pong ball along with a lot of your otherwise rather accurate heat exchange jargon, Air is the substance you keep pointing at without naming it directly, this simply isn't a factor at all here, things in a vacuum facing a star don't freeze, they burn air radiates heat faster than infrared re-emission, the latter being a very poor method of removing heat or bothering with resisting... explicitly this is not orbital re-entry into an atmosphere in any sense or shape of the matter this is throwing a pebble at a very empty tin can if the ping pong ball has the same mass as the pebble the they still get there at the same time under the same amount of force. but there's literally nothing between the Viper and the flight deck to even hint at slowing it down if not pull it in faster this includes your electromagnet attraction, except maybe another obstructing viper and/or your ships own thrusters which "could" classify as literally the only plasma or gas in this situation, and its too busy being yoinked apart by that (gasp) vacuum to be accountable for nothing more than vector thrust. also literally the only thing slowing you down from former speed, magnetic attraction, and/or gravity now.... but not because its flowing into a medium of its kin, more gas... quite the opposite actually.
I always considered the haphazard combat landings to be the result of two things, actually. First, it's a matter of recovering all the fighters as quickly as possible and not leaving anyone behind. Second, it has to do with the fact the Galactica's flight pods retract prior to a jump. Vipers landing would be moving perpendicular to the retracting deck, making it riskier to try and be land normally since over-correcting accidentally would likely end with a Viper being bounced around a bit because it hits the wall because it's moving independantly of Galactica. Either of those ends up with a Viper being lost or effecitvely disabled (even if only for the time it takes to confirm it's still spaceworthy), something the Fleet can ill afford for most the series.
Randall Brink yeah the rule of cool wins the day here. Though one thing I don't get is why the Vipers have Skids exclusively, surely it would make sense to have wheels that they can use for ease of maneuvering when in the maintenance bays rather than being dragged along on skids
and how about an inverted magnetic field in the deck or like pulling/shoving "rails" ?! Interacting with the magnetic skids/clamps it would make them Vipers hovering and easy to move around, wouldnt it?!
On the Pegasus flight pods, what if there are two sets of 'below-deck' hangers for each flight pod, one each oriented to the ventral and dorsal. On the Pegasus model shown, the Viper tubes appear to be in both orientations (but not the Raptor one). Then you just need to re-orient the crew when they move from the 'upside down' hangers into the rest of the ship. No need for the complex lift system, least until you need to move craft from one hanger to the other. And on the Raptors being used as taxis instead of the bigger shuttles, the Raptors are probably more cost (limited fuel in the fleet) effective for small loads of passengers and cargo. And for big loads, I always thought the larger ships could just dock with one another for transfers.
The Mercury class Battlestar's launch tubes are all oriented the same way. If you look closely, you will notice that the triangular shapes in between the flight pods are filled in, as it is within that space that you have the operations area of each flight pod (you'll notice that during a Viper launch, the pilot gives a visual thumbs up to the person operating this space.) Regarding the lifts, I think that perhaps the Ventral lifts simply are lowered down, giving the Vipers a platform that is then raised into the hangar, or they just relocate to the Dorsal section for reentry.
The two hanger decks could use one set of artificial gravity generators between them so that gravity 'pulls' from the same point, but from both 'top' and 'bottom' from the pilots perspective. The only question I have is, the line of Viper tubes aren't over/under each other, but side by side. Are the magnetic rails angled so that the ships exit from the same line from either the upper or lower decks? Would LOVE to see blue prints for this.
@@kirkbyers6882 Firstly, these tubes do not utilize a magnetic rail for the Viper itself, but rather a catapult (much like a RL carrier), which latches onto the front skid of the Viper. Then a counterweight runs along rails in the opposite direction flinging the Viper out. Secondly, as I said before, the Triangular shapes pointing down are not tubes, as that area contains the operations office for each tube, wherein the tubes are operated by Flight Deck NCOs.
One thing they could have done is that the elevator on the bottom could rotate 180 degree when the raptor is magnetically lock so when the it bring the craft up into the hanger it not upside down
For the Pegasus lower landing pods, I always assumed the artificial gravity was reversed on the flight deck (no need to flip the lifts) with 0G corridors leading to the ship proper to avoid any sudden gravity reversal.
It's artificial...upside down is right-side up in those landing bays. EVERYTHING is upside down. Storage, maintenance, everything. Even the launch tubes are inverted.
Agreed. My assumption was that “down” was some kind of device, so arranging that device as a flat plane in the middle of the two flight decks would create two different areas oriented 180 degrees from one another, so the real challenge is when moving from the inverted area to the rest of the ship (which makes me greatly appreciate the canonical solution to artificial gravity in The Expanse).
Also, I liked the layout of the flight pods in the reboot. They just made more sense, especially considering the possibility of a botched landing or a fouled deck...just add throttle and keep going. The original Galactica wasn't designed to allow that as only the rear portion was for landing with the middle portion being the service hangar, and the forward section occupied by 4 forward angled launch tubes....all on the same level.
Flipping the fighters would be as easy as using a different kind of door. Instead of an elevator type door, just use one on a hinge. The "floor" you're sitting on swings in and ends up on the back side of the landing pod "floor".
For the ventral hangars... Instead of a 'Lift' per-se, you have the taxi deck 'flip' to be reoriented to the relative artificial gravity of the rest of the ship. The deck would lock into place with pistons or some such, and when a Viper or a Raptor lands on it, the deck would rotate to flip the ship 'upright' into a chamber large enough to accommodate the ship. An outer door seals the chamber now below the fighter, and the whole thing is brought up on tracks like a heavy duty elevator, and pops up on the deck between [if you had more space between those two hangars]
Related to BSG again I'd like to see more information on the Point Defense and artillery pieces of both Galactica and Pegasus. The show seems to bounce back and forth between semi- and fully automatic models during engagements, and the main guns are so rarely used. Also the missile tubes.
During the Pegasus last battle you hear Lee say “Set main battery to auto fire cycle B” as they abandon ship. So the Pegasus has the capability to have her guns be fired with the very minimum crew present. And the Pegasus has so many point defense guns, no way you could have a crew to man them. They are likely modeled after the Phalanx and Goalkeeper point defense guns in use today. Crews are only needed to reload them at some point and maintenance. The Galactica’s main battery turrets have people actually in them, you can see them in the windows during close ups. And during the resurrection ship fight, Adama says “Have batteries Alfa through Echo switch to salvo fire.” So Galactica guns are manually controlled and fired. They are likely slaved to a central fire control battery, you see that in the Nebula battle, but that’s it.
The battlestar's main battery was also its flak battery, so most of the time the guns were used to fire flak to protect it from raiders and fissile missiles. The exception was the 'Bow Battery' on the Pegasus/Mercury class, which was 4 fixed dual forward firing guns even heavier than the main battery, and used solely for firing at enemy base ships. This is why there is the common misconception Pegasus could have outfought those four base stars in the episode she was destroyed, given how she easily dispatched the first one. That was purely by surprise, hence Pegasus could use her 8 bow battery guns and her 60 main battery guns entirely against the base ship - after that she needed to use the 60 main battery guns for flak as she was under VERY heavy raider and fissile missile attack, so she only had those 8 bow guns for offence. In the other large scale engagement between battlestars and base stars (the resurrection ship battle), the base stars fighters were drawn away, while the battlestars fighters were concentrated on the resurrection ship - meaning both battlestars could ease off their flak and devote more of their main battery to what they call 'salvo fire' - ie firing at the base ship itself. Galactica is credited with 48 main battery guns (anti-ship OR flak), and 1028 point defence guns. Pegasus is credited with 8 bow battery guns (anti-ship), 60 main battery guns (anti-ship OR flak), and 'numerous' point defence guns (almost certainly more than the Galactica, probably over 1500). All the guns (bow battery, main battery, point defence) on both Galactica and Pegasus, are mounted in pairs. Galactica's main battery turrets are individually manned, her point defence turrets are manned remotely. All Pegasus's guns are remotely manned.
I've taken measurements of the 3D model of the Pegasus. She has TWO hangar decks for viper maintenance. In all likelihood they are oriented with the landing bay that they service. As such, the connection between decks is somewhere between the two and not between the hangar and landing pods. It also means that the launch tubes are all angled down very slightly from their respective deck, given that all of the tubes meet on a single line on the exterior of the ship.
All I know is that a lot of Navy and Air Force vets will be happy to know that they are using flight commands in this show and it also can be a prelude to the future when we reach that level of tech. But we would still use military style commands in order to make sure that the human forces can get home.
@@frankpinmtl That might be them. They only appeared in a few episodes; not much is known about them. I remember an issue of Starlog Magazine having a pull-out section of the Eagle Transporter schematics in one of their issues. Wish I still had that one; it was a great reference.
This is my kinda video. Love a bit of deep lore when it comes to things that go unnoticed in sci-fi like radio chatter and docking procedures. I'm gonna look for more on your channel now!
In modern carriers the "ball" is a reference object near the back of the ship with lights or flags that tells the pilot if they are coming in high or low and whether they are coming in too fast or too slow. It isn't the landing strip on the deck itself. I suspect Galactica has a similar mechanism on the back of the landing pods.
I love stuff like this. Please do more of it. Especially related to combat and how the weapons and combat systems work on a Battle Star. BSG is my favorite sci fi series. It’s based enough in reality to really draw you in. I love BSG enough that i bought a EagleMoss BSG Galactica diecast. It’s a shame that we can not get a First Cylon war mini series.
Hotdog getting ready to launch as Galactica is falling through the atmosphere of new caprica and going "this will be different" is my favorite 10 seconds of the show
@Spacedock A tactic used by some ships I have seen is where there is no mechanism that flips the ship just a entry to a elevator that is the right way up with lights designating to the upside down pilots to use RCS thrusters to rotate their ship to the correct orientation, then drifts in the elevator area to be lifted up into the hangar. The runway is kept upside down to allow more space so other craft can land. In Battlestar Galactica the ships have runways not only for landing but there is a tactic used that I believe that Pegasus can make use of. That being carrying a large taskforce of Vipers, Raptors, and/or bombers maglocked on the runways while all the launch tubes are filled. Once the ship jumps in the tubes launch all the vipers in there while the maglocked ships take off slowly from the runways. This tactic will allow a Battlestar to carry 2 to almost 5 times their normal payload of vipers.
Thank You!! Just binged my 10-year-rewatch & the ep w/ Kat on Stims: "YOU HAVE THE BALL!" was driving me crazy: *What BALL?!!* 😂 Wanted to mention that i noticed the vipers ALWAYS came in, in the Exact same pattern EVERY TIME they had to jump away: 2, then 1 off to the side. Probably saved a ton on production costs, which: WHEW! Thx again! ✌💗
Not sure if someone else has said it as well, but there are actually three Raptor launch tubes on each flightpod according to the 3D model of the Pegasus, with each one at the beginning of a group of launch tubes, making a grand total of 6 Raptor launch tubes. And seeing as the Raptor is much wider than a Viper, I think these Raptor launch tubes can also launch Vipers safely from them as well.
Hi Spacedock Team :) Great Video as always! But theres something I'd like to add concerning the Pegasus flight pods. I don't think the ventral inverted flight decks feature a rotating elevator system but a standard elevator and above the ventral flight deck an also inverted 2nd hangar deck. My theory is that from top to bottom relative to pegasus standard gravity the internal decks of the flight pods are: - flight deck - hangar deck - launch tube deck (ZERO G, access from both sides) - inverted hangar deck - inverted flight deck - This theory came to my mind while looking at the flight pods broad side. the triangular shaped cross section of the viper tubes can be seen. but unlike galacticas launch tubes they are not oriented the same way (pointy upwards) but instead they are alternatingly inverted. so i think pegasus has a top and a lower (inverted G) hangar deck and the vipers are being loaded into the launch tubes via elevator into a zero G launch tube level from top and bottom. i believe any other way it would be nonsense to build the launch tubes inverted on a single standard G hangar deck. anyone would agree on that i guess. as for the inverted area Crews, they would simply pass through a zero g passage way in the launch tube level and just turn upside down before climbing "up" into their hangar deck. What do you think? Let me know and thx for the great videos!! :)
For anybody who has the game Space Engineers, there's a Battlestar on the Steam Workshop that perfectly explains how all of this works as you can physically traverse the ship. It really lets you get an idea of how the whole ship is laid out.
That was solid. I would imagine the artificial gravity for the lower area would be nonexistent, and activated when the craft flips over for the proper orientation once inside. Gravity seems to be functional on Raptors so they must be lower powered and controlled enough to manage that.
Hello there. Thank you for the information on the Galactica and Pegasus. I am a original fan of BSG, from the seventy,s up to the 2000s. , 23/Jan/2021. My wife and I are still watching both sets of the Galactica DVDs along with the Caprica dvds. Stay safe. “ So say we all”. : Sara and John in the UK.
My take on the "combat landings" is that it was about more than just getting as many fighters on the deck as quickly as possible. In peacetime, it's easy to teakettle to the deck of a ship that is maintaining constant speed and bearing, but in combat the Galactica herself would be maneuvering, sometimes violently. Trying to RCS yourself gently onto a pad would risk you touching down hard during one of those maneuvers. Better to come down quickly and get magnetized to the deck ASAP.
From what I remember seeing, the Pegasus' landing bays are mirrored dorsal and ventral so the lower deck is always upside down relative to the ship itself. This includes the working deck and hanger/launch tube spaces.
Call the Ball is a current CV instructions to landing aircrafts abroad modern Aircraft Carriers. The Fresnel Lens that provides a visual reference to pilots concerning their altitude / glide slope relative to the ever pitching flight deck of an Aircraft Carrier. When a naval aviator captures visual reference to the Fresnel Lens the callback is, "I have 'the ball'." Our galaxies are not that far apart seems to guess.
Thank you for at least addressing the gravity assumptions of a double stacked reverse flight deck, that one always has bothered me though I'm in the camp with you that it was an awesome idea.
Calling the ball refers to the Optical Landing System (OLS). The OLS is not the sequential landing lights. The actual ball is centered on the stern of each flight deck, just below the landing deck itself center mass. You see a red series of lights which looks like an "X" going three lights in the vertical and 4 lights off each side in the horizontal. The vertical is your glide slope adjust, and the horizontal is for centering both small and larger craft on the deck. LArger craft like Colonial One would need to center on-line with the lights since there wasn't any auto-landing systems. I hope this helps!
Just to jump in on the whole Raptors are always used as shuttles. I think it's a simple matter of fridge brilliance. Raptors have FTL. We don't know if the shuttles do. You wouldn't want officers or VIPs caught in a non-FTL capable craft if the fleet got jumped by the Cylons during a ship to ship transfer. QED...use Raptors. In reality...they build a whole Raptor set and it wouldn't make sense to build another set just for the ten second scenes of flying ship to ship. Great video as always. Can't wait for more!
To rotate craft on the ventral bay the elevator might rotate first and then be pulled up into the hanger bay, just a thought. Love the vid, always enjoy SD vids.
@Spacedock If you read the Battle Star Galactica Series Bible, Checkers Red/Green actually refers to which elevator to land on. It is actually in fact, not the condition of the deck, even though it only seems to change based on deck condition."Checkers Red" is often used when there are non-combat situations, and "Checkers Green" Is only really ever used in combat scenarios or when there is no/limited contact with the ship. Not sure why this is but I would assume they lower into different compartments of the hanger that do different things or have different equipment available.
"The Ball" is not used just to center the flight trajectory away from the walls if it's used the same way wet navies do. The lights are arranged and filtered so that they can only be seen at predetermined angles. The purpose is to show that the approaching craft is on the correct approach vector (or glide path, when speaking of atmospheric operations) for a safe touchdown on the deck. If you are coming in too steeply or too shallowly, you see a different pattern of lights that indicate what you're doing wrong. The deck observer is also watching your approach and will wave you off if you're not on the correct vector.
I think the bad combat landings on Galactica make perfect sense. Because the landings are executed by people who my be extraordinary competent but are also in fear for there lives. Even the best pilots I know(I know some pretty good ones) just have bad landings some times. That's without fear for your life with a timer attached. "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing" -Everone in aviation at least once
When you showed the launch tube on the Pegasus for raptors, if you looked at the other launch tubes for the vipers, you would see that every second tube is inverted. This implies the lower launch bay on that pod is inverse gravity to the upper, with the two bays meeting in the middle of the grav field, so recovered vipers can be launched in the same orientation they were recovered in regardless of which bay took them in. I think that's your answer to the Pegasus launch question.
@spacedock, those shuttle you don't see in the show are from Galactica's 1980 (I assume you already know). I believe that's why they don't see there. Thanks for the video, was interesting and give me some ideas. :-)
They were seen when they land on the original earth series 4 episode 12. They are large and probably wasteful to use for simple crew transfers, also of they don't have jump drives they risk being left behind if between ships in a surprise attack. So the mission profile for them doesn't come up often.
We see that the Mercury class has some of its lanch tubes also upside down relative to the rest of the ship so maybe they have a lower hanger bay for anything landing on the lower deck. Thats what I always thought anyway.
Day Vid yeah, but it doesn't explain exactly how/if they're righted 'up' relative to the ship's gravity once they do. We don't even know if the entire underslung flight pod just has...reversed gravity or something.
So maybe it's launch tubes are on their own deck below both the hangers? So it goes upper landing deck, upper hanger, launch tubes, lower hanger, lower landing deck and both hangers just lower fighters into the tubes when its time to scramble.
Either whoever wrote the wiki I looked at didn't have that info or someone came up with a cool idea for an effects shot in the show, which now needs fleshed out with some proper geeky specs
i think there is a zero G launch tube deck. and the vipers are being loaded via elevator from both hangar decks above and below the launch deck. that would make perfect sense to me
Daniel, I've also noticed when the flight chief says, "Trejector is green..." I cannot remember where, but it seemed to happen just before a landing or after launch, or during an in-flight situation.
We do it on a carrier every day during flight ops. In the Navy You land and catch one of four wire and are taxied off to a side slot and are dropped to the hanger when needed or after flight ops are completed. Old carriers have four elevators, the new class have three elevators. Look up carrier flight operations, The Flight Deck is one or the worlds ten dangerous jobs.
@Spacedock. I don’t think the Pegasus rotated the vipers/raptors that land on the ‘under flight deck’ as when you showed the raptor launch tubes ( 4:13 ) it had viper tubes that looked to be upside down so the Pegasus may have 4 hander decks in total just 2 by 2 at the floor with grave generators and a way for the crew to orientate themselves to whatever is up at that time.
As a lover of reading fanfictions, you have caught my interest like the #3 wire on a landing deck. What would be the name of this mentioned fic, and where is it posted?
@@BikerDash I actually lost interest a while back and stopped writing it. Never posted it either. It kind of sucked TBH, so just as well. Sorry to disappoint.
I could see the ship recovery system being akin to the plates (treads) on a tracked vehicle's track system. The plates each hold 1 viper, you guide the viper onto the plate attached by standard magnetic attachment, and the ships from below are righted as the belt goes over the end pulley so to speak. This allows multiple vipers to be recovered in short order. Even assuming only 2 plates on each flight deck you could recover 4 fighters at once. And all 4 fighters could be loaded onto or unloaded from the plates simultaneously meaning 8 vipers moving at once (4 loading and 4 unloading).
Great video and pretty informative. How about covering space craft from Classic Traveller? There is a good variety of amazing spacecraft for this venerable table-top RPG.
Something to talk briefly about next: the Gates in Cowboy Bebop. Just rewatched your ship video, and their version of fast space travel is nifty with some history scattered throughout the episodes. A little more scifi talk of the series could be fun.
idea for an episode: the USS Enterprise VS the USS Dreadnought in "Star Trek: Into Dearkness". Mid warp combat has always been a weird grey area in star trek. it seems they cant use phasers during it but they can use torpedoes, but it changes every now and then. I always thought that the Dreadnought, in the time period it was in, must have a unique combat warp drive which can first cancel out the warp field of the target, envelop and trap it, which then allows them to open fire at close range in a surprise attack, before dropping the ship out of warp at a point of their choosing. its a really quick scene but i was always interested.
an alternative option for the Mercury's Ventral landing bays, its mentioned how ships like Colonial one can fit in the pods of the Jupiter class, but doing so poses risks/limitations for combat situations. Having two large pods that could fit ships of a size similar to Colonial one, as well as clear strips for fighters/smaller transports could make sense. This would also allow the Mercury to serve as a command ship and carrier for vipers/raptors, but perhaps two-four small gunships/corvette sized craft.
I love the tech in BSG, it's still solid sci-fi but so much more grounded and believable compared to things like Star Wars or Halo ect. Only thing that stands out is how the FTL functions, it's very different compared to almost every sci-fi, i'm thinking space folding maybe?
The BSG FTL jumps remind me of a BattleTech JumpShip jumping. Recharging is different, as is jumping in a gravity well. BattleTech is a slow (days or weeks) recharge and gravity messes with the jump. BSG can charge fast and from anywhere, to anywhere. They are both similar to having a max jump distance and jumping in a 'flash'.
Basically. It's an instantaneous jump between two areas. The other term they use is the "red line", which is the maximum distance you can safely jump to. The computer makes calculations based on speed and trajectory. Beyond the red line and you risk disaster like teleporting into an asteroid or planet. You have to keep in mind that light travels at 300,000km/s, so when you look up at the Sun, or the nearest star, you are seeing them in the past (8 minutes for the Sun and 4 years for Alpha Centauri).
in the pc game Fractured Space (free to play), you command capital ships and perform similar space tech to get to distant locations. some vessel have the capacity to perform quick and short jumps to ambush foes or avoid enemy fire.
To clarify, "The Red Line" is the maximum distance from Kobol you can jump accurately. I think it's a function of computational power and the thoroughness of the astrogation charting of the area around Kobol. It's a bit like driving fast down a road you know intimately at night versus one you've never seen in daylight. By extension, the less accurate the jump the riskier it is, but the cliche of "jumping into a sun" only applies if you're trying to jump close to a sun, because space is pretty damn empty. An inaccurate jump isn't, in of itself, riskier. But mostly you try and jump close to important things rather than into empty space.
jump drives are the second most common FTL system (the most common being star Trek-esque Warp/Hyperdrive systems), they were a lot more common in books than they are in shows, so you just don't see it much.
Interesting. The double landing pod gravity thing makes me think of the design problems that the Rocinante from The Expanse has. In the books she is said to be able to land on her belly, so 90 degree out of her thrust gravity plane. I get the feeling the series will just have her land arse end down most likely to keep the set design simple, but that would mean a pylon landing or sticky out feet and that cannot be as stable as a belly landing. Would love to hear what you think, especially as the series moves forward.
While it could technically land on it's belly, the vessel's frame is not made for it, and on top of that, the interior of the vessel is top down. If the body had any gravity you would be walking on the walls, which is not a good idea
In the TV series I would agree and I have struggled to wrap my head around how the Roci would land on her belly and still be accommodating for her crew. In the books it does say that she lands on its belly/keel, and in fact is capable of landing on planets. I won't spoil more than that for anyone who hasn't read all the books. It might just be that the books will be the books and the TV series will be the TV series -- still interesting to think about;-)
it looks like on the launch tubes with them being inverted next to normal that there are in fact 2 landing decks one for the upper bay and one for the lower, each deck has the gravity opposite, so that each has a deck in relation to each's orientation, this makes sense as only personnel and stores need to be moved through the gravity zones, making the "flip" part a lot simpler. it also allows to compact the launch tubes better as you see. Pretty simple really.
My guess is the Pegasus's rotating landing platform would look like the mechanism inside a self-inking stamp which has rails moving down in a thunderbolt pattern. I also like to think that the moment the Viper passes through that inversion point rookie pilots tend to lose their lunch giving the veterans another reason to mock them lol
If you look at the model of the Pegasus that show the Raptor launch tube, you will see right side up Viper launch tubes and upside down launch tubes. My guess would be that the Vipers are launched in the orientation that they land and that the launch tubes are angled from each hanger bay. Each hanger bay, one for each landing bay is probably directly below each landing bay.
Re: double hanger decks...one would need to flip the Vipers, they could stay “inverted” (presumably the ships’ artificial gravity works in whatever direction it’s needed; if not electronically selected, then it would be installed and “hard wired”). The pilots and maintenance peeps could either climb an Escher-like stairs/ladders or into a spherical elevator, walking inside to match the rotating gravity field.
I would really like to hear about "realistic" spaceship design. Your explanation about your personal ship designs are nice, but they are more "form over function" when they need to fit your storyline (I am referencing another of your videos, sorry). But having a lecture from you or perhaps a mini-series of Spacedock episodes describing various necessities of spaceship design from a pragmatic perspective would be really nice to watch. Perhaps Ark ships that describe life support and long-range propulsion solutions or considerations for space-station designs. I really like your dry and information packed videos. keep up the great work!
That was kind of awesomly done. I'd assumed the hanger areas for the Pegasus were on the same level as the dorsal landing bays. It's just that the dorsal bay was interrupted by the hanger area. I'll admit to not having looked at it closely.
On the Pegasus for the double deck I think the lateral lights are used to check the right approach orientation.. As in exemple pilote have to check if the two green lights are always on their right!
I'd love to see Spacedock review Space Engineers builds. I do a lot of building and worldbuilding for my own SE faction, Hades Driveyards. Spacedock presenting a build of mine would be the best thing I could hope for. It's not going to happen I think, but it would be awesome.
The realism of fighter operations is so much better in BSG than other sci fi series. Launch and recovery happen in two distinct areas and recovery is perpendicular to travel of the carrier. That's really important, although slightly less so in space.
On the Pegasus, notice that half of the Viper launch tubes are "upside down" relative to the other half. So, the Vipers landing on one of the underside landing bays would basically have an "upside-down" hangar/launch bay. There are 2 of these bays between the flight decks on the Pegasus, with opposite artificial gravity. So basically, the guys on the underside bays feel like they're "right-side up" and they are lowering the Vipers "down" into the launch bays. "Down" in this case is in the direction of the middle of the pods.
on the Pegasus, they could maybe just roll the pad into correct orientation without lifting/lowering much. As I think of it, having the flight deck inverted could really speed up operations since the elevators are kinda slow... Also the Ball wouldn't be the stripe, it would be something sorta like this... --O-- Or this if you were too high __O__ Like an artificial horizon with you as the "ball"
6:39 The 3d model of the Pegasus where you showed the raptor launch tube clearly shows every other viper tube as 'upside down'. Maybe their artificial gravity systems were precise enough that there was no need to flip vipers. They could be serviced and stuffed into the tubes in the upside down (with respect to the rest of the ship) orientation.
Daniel - love the videos! How about a sit fest video. Battlestars are huge even vs a galaxy class ship. Would love to see a slug fest between these two.
for the Pegasus i cant believe i didnt think of this earlier but i think she has, much like the double runway, double staging areas in each pod due to the way the pods orient themselves. When you see the launch tubes on the Pegasus they are inverted in a repeating pattern, IE one "Upright" and one "Upside down" relative to the ships normal "Up", meaning they might have separate loading sections for the vipers, which are then lowered down and pushed into the tubes which meet at the center. this means the artificial gravity generators might be in between each section of the ship, and allows for faster recovery, refueling, and rearming of vipers since you have 2 dedicated sections devoted to it without having to reorient the ships. it would be more sensible than just having the vipers be re orientated as they make it in to the tubes since then the area where the tubes would be located would be "Thrust G" relative to the vipers ensuring no weird 2 G force feelings on the pilots end resulting in a sudden spike in Positive/Negative G forces. Edit: little bit of an after thought but considering the Pegasus is supposed to have a larger wing of Vipers compared to Galactica it would almost become necessary to field it this way so as to lauch as many vipers as possible in a short amount of time since if it was like Galactica all those rotations would eat up more time to get them into the launch tubes
Others have pointed out that there are up/down viper launch tubes (from the still you show the Pegasus with the raptor launch tubes). I'd suggest that there are two landing decks, two maintenance decks, and a shared launch deck that is zero-g with the craft being held in place by magnetic systems (and any crews using magnetic boots). This makes the most sense as you can orient your gravity plating as necessary and don't have to reorient your craft through a complicated lift system (simple is always better in a combat ship). As for why the set of "inverted" launch tubes are blocked off is because you would not launch vipers from both decks simultaneously - it would screw with your pilots immediate post-launch flight coordination and orientation. You'd want a wing to launch in the same "position" and to be able to orient to their wingmates. More importantly, you wouldn't want the relatively "inverted" launch tubes open to space if you weren't planning on an immediate launch, just in case you're doing maintenance on a lift and might have that tube exposed to the interior of your maintenance deck. There's probably a little transit vehicle that goes between these decks that flips the crews around, or even a moving walkway where there's a zero gravity area on the deck that allows you to simply clamp onto the walkway with mag boots and ride it to the other maintenance deck through the launch deck.
In response to your bit about the ventral pod needing to 'flip' the craft to match the internal gravity of a single unified launch/resupply deck. In your close-up of the Pegasus launch tubes, it looks like there are inverted-orientation launch tubes for vipers interspaced with those for the 'upright' tubes. To me this implies that there are actually 3 decks sandwiched between the dorsal and ventral landing surfaces in the flight pods. Each pod has two repair decks, that are oriented with internal gravity to the two flight deck surfaces. In between those decks is the 'launch' deck. Presumably those repair decks have launch slots that move ready vipers into the unified launch deck so you can launch from both the dorsal and ventral repair decks. So vipers are coming out upside down and rightside up all at the same time! Crazy :)
I've never understood the Sci-fi fascination with skids over wheels. It seems like it would be so much harder to move fighters and whatnot around the deck because you'd need some kind of external lifting device to do it. Seems like a waste of space to me. Magnetic skids could also be used in conjunction with wheels.
While I don't remember it ever being shown, I believe there are wheels in the skids themselves for moving them around on the hanger deck. One reason they wouldn't likely be used for landings though would be that landing in zero-g would make wheels a very risky proposition, no grip for one thing, and it would be a bit harder to use the magnetic field on a wheel. With a skid however you could integrate the coil generating the magnetic field into the structure, and keep it in a single alignment as well.
actually the X-15's undercarriage was the other way around. My understanding is that there was concern that tires wouldn't have been able to take the impact forces during the aircraft's high speed landings, and probably also because they were really only needed for landing, the plane didn't need to taxi or takeoff on it's landing gear. In the show we do see the deckhands pushing Vipers around as if they were on wheels, so presumably, either they have embedded castors or the magnetic locks can be switched to some sort of "maglev" mode.
Technically, due to the freefall environment that the Viper works in, it is probably more related to a helicopter than a plane since it can hover and can move freely in all three dimensions. As stated in the first episode, the normal procedure for a landing is to approach to a hover, hover taxi to the landing spot, then perform a set down. Identical in all functional respects to a helicopter. The combat landings seem to be analogous to a helicopter performing a "run-on" landing. In addition, the skids provide a large surface area for the magnets to grab on to a surface.
One thing I really like about Battlestar Galactica generally is that there is a lot of things that make a lot of sense. The utilitarian design, the seperate landing/launching systems (which would be a real advantage in fleet actions compaired to having to share a single runway for launching and landing craft), the fact that there are 2 landing bays (which if you have a fleet that is as reliant on fighters as in BSG makes absolute sense with a context to battle damage) and facilities like a machine shop to allow the battlestar to be relatively self sufficient. As for the Pegasus having launch tubes for Raptors where Galactica does not, I would expect that to be down to the Raptor having come into service some time after the Galactica had been laid down. It makes sense with the Galactica being old enough to be retiring as a legendary ship from a past conflict when the series commences but I could be wrong (it has been a long time since I watched Blood and Chrome). Still, the method of FTL used is a mystery as is the whole artificial gravity/not turn your fighter pilots into goo when doing high g maneuvers thing.
It's also interesting to note that the Pegasus apparently has external landing pads on the outside of its flight pods for shuttles and raptors. You can see it being using in both Razor and The Plan
Man, I miss the BSG sooo much! BTW it is super easy to understand the Galactica if you take it as an aircraft carrier in space, except for her heavy weapons. The Vipers are the Super Hornets and the Raptors are pretty much a combination of all the other aircraft of the carrier's airwing, from the Hawkeye (with the Raptors running sensor pickets ahead of the fleet), the Growler (electronic warfare against the Cylons), the Greyhound (fulfilling transport tasks), down to the Seahawk helicopter (search and rescue of shot Viper pilots). You can even take things way back and look at the A3D Skywarrior as an inspiration, because IIRC the Raptirs also ran nuclear strike missions against the Cylons with nuclear weapons too heavy for the Vipers. Then we have the launch pads, which are basically EMALS and the landing ramp is like the landing deck of a present day carrier. The difference is that the Galactica is way bigger so it does not need an angled deck to save space. The "ball" reference is taken literally from present day carrier operations. The LSOs or "the white jackets" are pilots off flight duty, who guide the pilots to land on the ship. When they say "Call the ball!" to the pilot in the air, it means "Do you see the OLS array (the optical landing system) and what sygnal do you see?" Of course they know better what the signal is, as they set it, but the reason they ask is because the landing takes place in a very compressed amount of time, tens of seconds, at a very high speed, so there is next to no room for mistakes. Every second the pilot spends on looking for the ball is a second less to spend on actively correcting his approach.
I think doing a video about a mundane aspect of a series is a great idea....there are many concepts that are significant to a show that we put little attention to, that are intersting to explore. Please do more; a compare and contrast to landing/launching BSG, star trek shuttlecraft, star wars fighters, babylon 5, space above and beyond.
Can we just take a moment to acknowledge the mad skills of the Captain of the Colonial One ship who, on multiple occasions, actually lands that monster inside the Galactica MANUALLY!?!?!?!?!?!
I know right?? Upon rewatching the miniseries I was like "wait whaaaaaaa-" when that thing was just smoothly sliding into the landing pod RIGHT after Boomer was yelling about how hard it was to land on it with her Raptor.
Do we ever see him again after the miniseries?
@@Urzaknight He was too busy commanding the Prometheus, flying SG-1 around.
@@frederalbacon good thing to be doing
@@Urzaknight Nah, but he left a lasting impression. That moment in the mini series when they're finding other ships and he changes callsign from Colonial Heavy 798 to Colonial One and has a little smile is an awesome moment.
"Chief Tyrol why can't we use the starboard launch tube?"
"It's a gift shop"
Mitch G--- which has the reply line...:"FRAK ME"...
so much yup.....
And eventually a refugee shanty town.
Best damn deadpan line in the series. Damn, I'm glad Galactica finished the way she did. Serving as a tourist attraction, complete w/food court & the Colonial version of a Starbucks (HAH!...🤣) on all accessable decks just seems beneath her dignity.
Hey man, never underestimate the morale-boosting effect of a well-stocked gift shop.
As a former Navy Vet, I've served on a couple of Nimitz class carriers, and BSG did an excellent job at matching the landing feel.
I am pretty sure the movie Top Gun added some military references that many viewers possess now the jargon BSG used would be easily understood.
Yeah Top Gun ftw.
I'm so sorry to hear that you're no longer a veteran, how did you loose it?
@@rsrt6910 He probably "loosed" it at the same English grammar class that taught kids the wrong definition between "loose" (an object not secured down) and "lose" (having something miss-placed or taken from you).
Or is this going to turn into an English contest instead of talking nerdy sci-fi facts and such?
@@weirdguy564 There's a difference between pedants and nerdy sci-fi fans? ...Says the pedantic sf-fan ;)
"Call the Ball" is another modern day Naval Carrier term that refers to the Source light (also known as the Meatball because of its orange color) on the Optical Landing Systems (OLS) installed on most modern day aircraft carriers. The "Meatball" depicts the landing aircraft's relative position to the glideslope. The term "Call the Ball" is given to the pilot by the LSO, and the pilots reply "I have the Ball" lets the LSO know that the pilot sees the Meatball and is able to use it to properly guide the aircraft in.
I was just a bout to write all of that out too lol.
Correct and the OLS on a carrier uses a series of lenses to make it so you can only see the meatball if you are lined up correctly
2020Max1 a most excellent explanation
It’s the SGSI/WOLS. I had the NEC.
It's visible at 0:36
A quick note at 2:33, the museum scene: It is literally in honor of the 1978 BSG. It has 'Cylon War era' Raider, a 'Colonial Viper' (aka the MK. I Viper) a Landram (which was used prominently in the old show), a miniature of the old model Cylon Basestar, an actual Cylon Centurion costume from 78 portrayed in a display, and I'm pretty sure a shuttle from the 78 show as well.
You can see an operating landram descending from one of the mining ships at one point in the series
@@ancaplanaoriginal5303 You can also see an old '78-style shuttle being used by the colonial representative at the Armistice Station, in the mini-series.
its because in cannon, those ships were used in the first cylon war, you see the old basestars and raiders used in both razor, and deadlock, a brilliant bsg game
If you listen close, during the ceremony when the Vipers do their fly-by, the music playing in the background is from the 78 series.
Man at first I was pissed of all the re imaging but I love how they acknowledged all the old school stuff. And now I love the new designs more ja. Even bought the models
I think the use of Raptors for taxiing people was done because shuttles lack FTL-Capability and in the event of a Cylon-Attack, they would be unable to do an emergency jump. Landing all the shuttles would take way too long, so the use of Raptors was basically the only way to create a safe exchange of people and most likely also (at least some) goods between the ships of the fleet.
I imagine it's also because those shuttles are quite high-capacity (they appear to have multiple decks, at least) and launching and retrieving them just for short flights of a few people would be complete overkill (not to mention a waste of limited fuel).
And also, the internal sets/external CGI models were already built.
A '70s-style shuttle wasn't shown until President Roslyn landed on Kobol (and then only as a grounded CGI model behind her.)
Edit: I stand corrected. A few comments below this; someone points out that a '70s shuttle is also on display in the Galactica Museum.)
@@jedigecko06 Dude the 70s shuttle is the focal point of the opening shot of the mini series!
the big shuttles probably had FTL as well, we see a TOS style version making the trip out to Armistice station in the miniseries opening, and that trip would certainly have required an FTL jump to make in a reasonable time given how distant that station was. and we have the newer style show seeming to operate independently as part of the fleet in several cases. (sometimes appearing in fleet shots flying in formation with much larger vessels)
i suspect that the in universe reason to use Raptor's primarily was probably because not all the ships had hangers big enough to handle such craft, or docking systems able to dock them externally, but most ships did have hangers (or cargo loading bays) that could easily fit a raptor. though i suspect that those types of shuttles probably did see use helping to ferry civilians around the fleet between the bigger ships.
I don't think the limited supply of Vipers was ever really a critical issue, the Galactica always had far more fighters available than they had qualified pilots to fly them. Risking structural damage to the fighter in a rough combat landing, in order to guarantee safe return of the pilot was probably a trade-off they had zero qualms over.
That is way we have ejector seats in modern fighters, it's considered better to need to replace a craft then a trained pilot.
Roald Dahl's WWII RAF memoirs said this. A hurricane can be built in a week. A pilot takes months.
except that they didn't have the ability to build new fighters if they did trash one, outside of the period that they had Pegasus for that (though why they put a fighter-factory on a warship is beyond me).
I feel like it was less that the Pegasus had a literal Viper factory production line on board, and more that they had the capability to fabricate replacement parts for their fighters while on deployment. Being able to build replacement parts adhoc gives them the ability to build entire new Vipers.
As for the Galactica, they had either 40 or 80 Mk. II Vipers and only ~20 something qualified pilots following the Fall of the Colonies. The Vipers were a whole lot more expendable than the pilots, even if they were never able to replace them.
Smathalgoth I think it was stated in an early episode as 39 vipers including Lee's mk 7
Makes sense that the Flight Control Officer is a high ranking position, after all one of a Battlestar's biggest assets is being able to launch and recover its fighters in an efficient manner.
I served in the Navy back in the 80's, and I complement the creators of the re-imagined series at how authentically military they made the series, along with the story and everything else. and I also agree with you about the pilots having to slam the skids down on the flight deck when performing combat landings.
Mag tubes are also good for getting rid of New Caprica Cylon Sympathizers...
Thank you was just watching that !!!!!!!!!!!!!~!~!
And that one hanger deck girl that discovered four more fleshy toasters among the Galactica population...
1) galactica announces combat jump preparations and sounds the recall
2) checkers red, call the ball
3)????
4) skids down, maglock secure.
Yeah, it makes sense. We even see the vipers touch down several times and bounce before sticking during combat landing footage.
ALSOthank you for yer service.
checker's red: Welcome to Pinball Wizard the home game..... :)
Personally if its really hectic and my fighter has magnetic landing leags, if nessisary I'd land on the ceiling. Yes i'd be uspidown (if the landing deck has gravity) but i'd be out of the way and secure for the ships to make its escape jump.
@@firstname9954 the problem with yer ping-pong reference, the only thing slowing it down is air resistance and on the bounce also gravity... One if not both are missing here.
@@firstname9954the only thing to impact here are photons of light, not really known for slowing down meteors much less vipers, and the metal of the battle star itself. 0G just takes away acceleration into the deck, assuming its off or it "must" be accounted for as impacts at enough speed make things go crack, we're both heavily in agreement here at least. the moment that viper hits the deck all that electrical magnetic heat exchange all day long but with the ping pong ball along with a lot of your otherwise rather accurate heat exchange jargon, Air is the substance you keep pointing at without naming it directly, this simply isn't a factor at all here, things in a vacuum facing a star don't freeze, they burn air radiates heat faster than infrared re-emission, the latter being a very poor method of removing heat or bothering with resisting... explicitly this is not orbital re-entry into an atmosphere in any sense or shape of the matter this is throwing a pebble at a very empty tin can if the ping pong ball has the same mass as the pebble the they still get there at the same time under the same amount of force. but there's literally nothing between the Viper and the flight deck to even hint at slowing it down if not pull it in faster this includes your electromagnet attraction, except maybe another obstructing viper and/or your ships own thrusters which "could" classify as literally the only plasma or gas in this situation, and its too busy being yoinked apart by that (gasp) vacuum to be accountable for nothing more than vector thrust. also literally the only thing slowing you down from former speed, magnetic attraction, and/or gravity now.... but not because its flowing into a medium of its kin, more gas... quite the opposite actually.
Q: How to land on the Battlestar Galactica?
A: You spacedock ;)
I always considered the haphazard combat landings to be the result of two things, actually. First, it's a matter of recovering all the fighters as quickly as possible and not leaving anyone behind. Second, it has to do with the fact the Galactica's flight pods retract prior to a jump. Vipers landing would be moving perpendicular to the retracting deck, making it riskier to try and be land normally since over-correcting accidentally would likely end with a Viper being bounced around a bit because it hits the wall because it's moving independantly of Galactica. Either of those ends up with a Viper being lost or effecitvely disabled (even if only for the time it takes to confirm it's still spaceworthy), something the Fleet can ill afford for most the series.
All that is a great point, but you are missing the biggest thing for the show, it looks cool. Lol
Randall Brink yeah the rule of cool wins the day here. Though one thing I don't get is why the Vipers have Skids exclusively, surely it would make sense to have wheels that they can use for ease of maneuvering when in the maintenance bays rather than being dragged along on skids
i agree, skids make no sense on Vipers. Wheels are under-used in scifi.
Will wap496 that's a good point was just a thought I had about little oddities in the design is all
and how about an inverted magnetic field in the deck or like pulling/shoving "rails" ?!
Interacting with the magnetic skids/clamps it would make them Vipers hovering and easy to move around, wouldnt it?!
On the Pegasus flight pods, what if there are two sets of 'below-deck' hangers for each flight pod, one each oriented to the ventral and dorsal. On the Pegasus model shown, the Viper tubes appear to be in both orientations (but not the Raptor one). Then you just need to re-orient the crew when they move from the 'upside down' hangers into the rest of the ship. No need for the complex lift system, least until you need to move craft from one hanger to the other.
And on the Raptors being used as taxis instead of the bigger shuttles, the Raptors are probably more cost (limited fuel in the fleet) effective for small loads of passengers and cargo. And for big loads, I always thought the larger ships could just dock with one another for transfers.
The Mercury class Battlestar's launch tubes are all oriented the same way. If you look closely, you will notice that the triangular shapes in between the flight pods are filled in, as it is within that space that you have the operations area of each flight pod (you'll notice that during a Viper launch, the pilot gives a visual thumbs up to the person operating this space.) Regarding the lifts, I think that perhaps the Ventral lifts simply are lowered down, giving the Vipers a platform that is then raised into the hangar, or they just relocate to the Dorsal section for reentry.
The two hanger decks could use one set of artificial gravity generators between them so that gravity 'pulls' from the same point, but from both 'top' and 'bottom' from the pilots perspective. The only question I have is, the line of Viper tubes aren't over/under each other, but side by side. Are the magnetic rails angled so that the ships exit from the same line from either the upper or lower decks? Would LOVE to see blue prints for this.
@@kirkbyers6882 Firstly, these tubes do not utilize a magnetic rail for the Viper itself, but rather a catapult (much like a RL carrier), which latches onto the front skid of the Viper. Then a counterweight runs along rails in the opposite direction flinging the Viper out. Secondly, as I said before, the Triangular shapes pointing down are not tubes, as that area contains the operations office for each tube, wherein the tubes are operated by Flight Deck NCOs.
The smaller, ventral deck on the Pegasus is probably used for shuttles and/or raptors, where rapid turn around isn't as essential
One thing they could have done is that the elevator on the bottom could rotate 180 degree when the raptor is magnetically lock so when the it bring the craft up into the hanger it not upside down
For the Pegasus lower landing pods, I always assumed the artificial gravity was reversed on the flight deck (no need to flip the lifts) with 0G corridors leading to the ship proper to avoid any sudden gravity reversal.
It's artificial...upside down is right-side up in those landing bays. EVERYTHING is upside down. Storage, maintenance, everything. Even the launch tubes are inverted.
Agreed. My assumption was that “down” was some kind of device, so arranging that device as a flat plane in the middle of the two flight decks would create two different areas oriented 180 degrees from one another, so the real challenge is when moving from the inverted area to the rest of the ship (which makes me greatly appreciate the canonical solution to artificial gravity in The Expanse).
i love that my yearly rewatch of Galactica timed up with a bunch of youtubers posting a bunch of bsg stuff. Feels good man.
Also, I liked the layout of the flight pods in the reboot. They just made more sense, especially considering the possibility of a botched landing or a fouled deck...just add throttle and keep going.
The original Galactica wasn't designed to allow that as only the rear portion was for landing with the middle portion being the service hangar, and the forward section occupied by 4 forward angled launch tubes....all on the same level.
Flipping the fighters would be as easy as using a different kind of door. Instead of an elevator type door, just use one on a hinge. The "floor" you're sitting on swings in and ends up on the back side of the landing pod "floor".
For the ventral hangars... Instead of a 'Lift' per-se, you have the taxi deck 'flip' to be reoriented to the relative artificial gravity of the rest of the ship. The deck would lock into place with pistons or some such, and when a Viper or a Raptor lands on it, the deck would rotate to flip the ship 'upright' into a chamber large enough to accommodate the ship. An outer door seals the chamber now below the fighter, and the whole thing is brought up on tracks like a heavy duty elevator, and pops up on the deck between [if you had more space between those two hangars]
Now that would be fucking cool, I like the way you think
1) Point at deck
2) Pray to the Lords of Kobol
"OH LORDS OH LORDS OH LOR-" *wham*
4:58
what mini-series (Caprica ) man i loved Caprica what a great show!
I wish you could find that one in Blu-ray. That's the only one in my collection still in DVD
Hey brother, just wanted to say you are a total dork and I love your videos. Thanks for what you do.
All total dorks in unison: So Say We All
Related to BSG again I'd like to see more information on the Point Defense and artillery pieces of both Galactica and Pegasus. The show seems to bounce back and forth between semi- and fully automatic models during engagements, and the main guns are so rarely used. Also the missile tubes.
in most battles, Galacticas main guns fire flak projectiles to help with the antifighter and anti missile defence of the ship.
During the Pegasus last battle you hear Lee say “Set main battery to auto fire cycle B” as they abandon ship. So the Pegasus has the capability to have her guns be fired with the very minimum crew present. And the Pegasus has so many point defense guns, no way you could have a crew to man them. They are likely modeled after the Phalanx and Goalkeeper point defense guns in use today. Crews are only needed to reload them at some point and maintenance. The Galactica’s main battery turrets have people actually in them, you can see them in the windows during close ups. And during the resurrection ship fight, Adama says “Have batteries Alfa through Echo switch to salvo fire.” So Galactica guns are manually controlled and fired. They are likely slaved to a central fire control battery, you see that in the Nebula battle, but that’s it.
The battlestar's main battery was also its flak battery, so most of the time the guns were used to fire flak to protect it from raiders and fissile missiles. The exception was the 'Bow Battery' on the Pegasus/Mercury class, which was 4 fixed dual forward firing guns even heavier than the main battery, and used solely for firing at enemy base ships.
This is why there is the common misconception Pegasus could have outfought those four base stars in the episode she was destroyed, given how she easily dispatched the first one. That was purely by surprise, hence Pegasus could use her 8 bow battery guns and her 60 main battery guns entirely against the base ship - after that she needed to use the 60 main battery guns for flak as she was under VERY heavy raider and fissile missile attack, so she only had those 8 bow guns for offence.
In the other large scale engagement between battlestars and base stars (the resurrection ship battle), the base stars fighters were drawn away, while the battlestars fighters were concentrated on the resurrection ship - meaning both battlestars could ease off their flak and devote more of their main battery to what they call 'salvo fire' - ie firing at the base ship itself.
Galactica is credited with 48 main battery guns (anti-ship OR flak), and 1028 point defence guns.
Pegasus is credited with 8 bow battery guns (anti-ship), 60 main battery guns (anti-ship OR flak), and 'numerous' point defence guns (almost certainly more than the Galactica, probably over 1500).
All the guns (bow battery, main battery, point defence) on both Galactica and Pegasus, are mounted in pairs. Galactica's main battery turrets are individually manned, her point defence turrets are manned remotely. All Pegasus's guns are remotely manned.
Remember, the Enemy’s gate is down.
Oh wait, thats the confusing shenanigans of landing on the Pegasus.
I've taken measurements of the 3D model of the Pegasus. She has TWO hangar decks for viper maintenance. In all likelihood they are oriented with the landing bay that they service. As such, the connection between decks is somewhere between the two and not between the hangar and landing pods. It also means that the launch tubes are all angled down very slightly from their respective deck, given that all of the tubes meet on a single line on the exterior of the ship.
All I know is that a lot of Navy and Air Force vets will be happy to know that they are using flight commands in this show and it also can be a prelude to the future when we reach that level of tech. But we would still use military style commands in order to make sure that the human forces can get home.
How about a video on the Eagle Lander of Space:1999?
And the Hawk warship variant!
The Mark 9 Hawks? :)
@@frankpinmtl That might be them. They only appeared in a few episodes; not much is known about them. I remember an issue of Starlog Magazine having a pull-out section of the Eagle Transporter schematics in one of their issues. Wish I still had that one; it was a great reference.
I think that's what Victor Bergman called them in the episode when they 'attacked' moon base Alpha.
At 0:24
ruclips.net/video/NpgLcHXiEUU/видео.html
This is my kinda video. Love a bit of deep lore when it comes to things that go unnoticed in sci-fi like radio chatter and docking procedures. I'm gonna look for more on your channel now!
In modern carriers the "ball" is a reference object near the back of the ship with lights or flags that tells the pilot if they are coming in high or low and whether they are coming in too fast or too slow. It isn't the landing strip on the deck itself. I suspect Galactica has a similar mechanism on the back of the landing pods.
I love stuff like this. Please do more of it. Especially related to combat and how the weapons and combat systems work on a Battle Star. BSG is my favorite sci fi series. It’s based enough in reality to really draw you in. I love BSG enough that i bought a EagleMoss BSG Galactica diecast. It’s a shame that we can not get a First Cylon war mini series.
Hotdog getting ready to launch as Galactica is falling through the atmosphere of new caprica and going "this will be different" is my favorite 10 seconds of the show
Your thiughts on the Pegasus flights decks is exactly what I was thinking. Well done.
@Spacedock A tactic used by some ships I have seen is where there is no mechanism that flips the ship just a entry to a elevator that is the right way up with lights designating to the upside down pilots to use RCS thrusters to rotate their ship to the correct orientation, then drifts in the elevator area to be lifted up into the hangar. The runway is kept upside down to allow more space so other craft can land.
In Battlestar Galactica the ships have runways not only for landing but there is a tactic used that I believe that Pegasus can make use of. That being carrying a large taskforce of Vipers, Raptors, and/or bombers maglocked on the runways while all the launch tubes are filled. Once the ship jumps in the tubes launch all the vipers in there while the maglocked ships take off slowly from the runways. This tactic will allow a Battlestar to carry 2 to almost 5 times their normal payload of vipers.
Thank You!! Just binged my 10-year-rewatch & the ep w/ Kat on Stims: "YOU HAVE THE BALL!" was driving me crazy: *What BALL?!!* 😂 Wanted to mention that i noticed the vipers ALWAYS came in, in the Exact same pattern EVERY TIME they had to jump away: 2, then 1 off to the side. Probably saved a ton on production costs, which: WHEW! Thx again! ✌💗
I am literally the only battle star galactica fan in my entire school. And I’m proud of it! Go Starbuck!!!
I've been subscribed to this channel for a week and now I want to watch Battlestar Galactica.
Goddamn!!! Saw the entire show twice, and never saw that @ 04:11... Sir, YOU are the MAN!
Not sure if someone else has said it as well, but there are actually three Raptor launch tubes on each flightpod according to the 3D model of the Pegasus, with each one at the beginning of a group of launch tubes, making a grand total of 6 Raptor launch tubes. And seeing as the Raptor is much wider than a Viper, I think these Raptor launch tubes can also launch Vipers safely from them as well.
If you can gget them into magnetic clamps of much biger size. If not, the launching tube can't be used for Vipers, only for Raptors
Outstanding presentation.
Loved BSG.
Cool detail regarding the Raptor shaped launch tubes on the Pegasus.
Hi Spacedock Team :)
Great Video as always! But theres something I'd like to add concerning the Pegasus flight pods. I don't think the ventral inverted flight decks feature a rotating elevator system but a standard elevator and above the ventral flight deck an also inverted 2nd hangar deck.
My theory is that from top to bottom relative to pegasus standard gravity the internal decks of the flight pods are:
- flight deck - hangar deck - launch tube deck (ZERO G, access from both sides) - inverted hangar deck - inverted flight deck -
This theory came to my mind while looking at the flight pods broad side. the triangular shaped cross section of the viper tubes can be seen. but unlike galacticas launch tubes they are not oriented the same way (pointy upwards) but instead they are alternatingly inverted. so i think pegasus has a top and a lower (inverted G) hangar deck and the vipers are being loaded into the launch tubes via elevator into a zero G launch tube level from top and bottom. i believe any other way it would be nonsense to build the launch tubes inverted on a single standard G hangar deck. anyone would agree on that i guess. as for the inverted area Crews, they would simply pass through a zero g passage way in the launch tube level and just turn upside down before climbing "up" into their hangar deck.
What do you think? Let me know and thx for the great videos!! :)
Exactly.
For anybody who has the game Space Engineers, there's a Battlestar on the Steam Workshop that perfectly explains how all of this works as you can physically traverse the ship. It really lets you get an idea of how the whole ship is laid out.
That was solid. I would imagine the artificial gravity for the lower area would be nonexistent, and activated when the craft flips over for the proper orientation once inside. Gravity seems to be functional on Raptors so they must be lower powered and controlled enough to manage that.
Hello there. Thank you for the information on the Galactica and Pegasus. I am a original fan of BSG, from the seventy,s up to the 2000s. , 23/Jan/2021. My wife and I are still watching both sets of the Galactica DVDs along with the Caprica dvds. Stay safe. “ So say we all”. : Sara and John in the UK.
My take on the "combat landings" is that it was about more than just getting as many fighters on the deck as quickly as possible.
In peacetime, it's easy to teakettle to the deck of a ship that is maintaining constant speed and bearing, but in combat the Galactica herself would be maneuvering, sometimes violently.
Trying to RCS yourself gently onto a pad would risk you touching down hard during one of those maneuvers. Better to come down quickly and get magnetized to the deck ASAP.
6:15 - I don't know if it answers that question but if you look at 4:10 you'll notice that some of the Viper's launch tube are inverted.
From what I remember seeing, the Pegasus' landing bays are mirrored dorsal and ventral so the lower deck is always upside down relative to the ship itself. This includes the working deck and hanger/launch tube spaces.
Gr8 video, as always.
It gets the *SARKHAN SEAL OF APPROVAL*
??????????????
Call the Ball is a current CV instructions to landing aircrafts abroad modern Aircraft Carriers. The Fresnel Lens that provides a visual reference to pilots concerning their altitude / glide slope relative to the ever pitching flight deck of an Aircraft Carrier. When a naval aviator captures visual reference to the Fresnel Lens the callback is, "I have 'the ball'."
Our galaxies are not that far apart seems to guess.
Thank you for at least addressing the gravity assumptions of a double stacked reverse flight deck, that one always has bothered me though I'm in the camp with you that it was an awesome idea.
Calling the ball refers to the Optical Landing System (OLS). The OLS is not the sequential landing lights. The actual ball is centered on the stern of each flight deck, just below the landing deck itself center mass. You see a red series of lights which looks like an "X" going three lights in the vertical and 4 lights off each side in the horizontal. The vertical is your glide slope adjust, and the horizontal is for centering both small and larger craft on the deck. LArger craft like Colonial One would need to center on-line with the lights since there wasn't any auto-landing systems. I hope this helps!
I have been wondering about this for SO LONG. THANK YOU.
Just to jump in on the whole Raptors are always used as shuttles. I think it's a simple matter of fridge brilliance. Raptors have FTL. We don't know if the shuttles do. You wouldn't want officers or VIPs caught in a non-FTL capable craft if the fleet got jumped by the Cylons during a ship to ship transfer. QED...use Raptors. In reality...they build a whole Raptor set and it wouldn't make sense to build another set just for the ten second scenes of flying ship to ship. Great video as always. Can't wait for more!
During WW2, some Essex class carriers had a catapult on the hangar deck so you could launch a plane from the hangar deck.
To rotate craft on the ventral bay the elevator might rotate first and then be pulled up into the hanger bay, just a thought. Love the vid, always enjoy SD vids.
@Spacedock If you read the Battle Star Galactica Series Bible, Checkers Red/Green actually refers to which elevator to land on. It is actually in fact, not the condition of the deck, even though it only seems to change based on deck condition."Checkers Red" is often used when there are non-combat situations, and "Checkers Green" Is only really ever used in combat scenarios or when there is no/limited contact with the ship. Not sure why this is but I would assume they lower into different compartments of the hanger that do different things or have different equipment available.
Awesome tutorial. Now I won't be a puddle for the Chief of the Deck to wash away with a hose.
Frakin eh.
Thank you Daniel, that was a great video and it answered a lot of questions for me.
"The Ball" is not used just to center the flight trajectory away from the walls if it's used the same way wet navies do. The lights are arranged and filtered so that they can only be seen at predetermined angles. The purpose is to show that the approaching craft is on the correct approach vector (or glide path, when speaking of atmospheric operations) for a safe touchdown on the deck. If you are coming in too steeply or too shallowly, you see a different pattern of lights that indicate what you're doing wrong. The deck observer is also watching your approach and will wave you off if you're not on the correct vector.
I think the bad combat landings on Galactica make perfect sense. Because the landings are executed by people who my be extraordinary competent but are also in fear for there lives. Even the best pilots I know(I know some pretty good ones) just have bad landings some times. That's without fear for your life with a timer attached. "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing" -Everone in aviation at least once
How to land on the Battlestar Galactica ?
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Happily.
When you showed the launch tube on the Pegasus for raptors, if you looked at the other launch tubes for the vipers, you would see that every second tube is inverted. This implies the lower launch bay on that pod is inverse gravity to the upper, with the two bays meeting in the middle of the grav field, so recovered vipers can be launched in the same orientation they were recovered in regardless of which bay took them in. I think that's your answer to the Pegasus launch question.
Your voice is like butter. You can talk about what ever you want off the cuff.
@spacedock, those shuttle you don't see in the show are from Galactica's 1980 (I assume you already know). I believe that's why they don't see there.
Thanks for the video, was interesting and give me some ideas. :-)
They were seen when they land on the original earth series 4 episode 12. They are large and probably wasteful to use for simple crew transfers, also of they don't have jump drives they risk being left behind if between ships in a surprise attack. So the mission profile for them doesn't come up often.
We see that the Mercury class has some of its lanch tubes also upside down relative to the rest of the ship so maybe they have a lower hanger bay for anything landing on the lower deck. Thats what I always thought anyway.
apparently they land 'upside down' relative to the ship, according to a battlestar wiki I just checked out
Day Vid yeah, but it doesn't explain exactly how/if they're righted 'up' relative to the ship's gravity once they do. We don't even know if the entire underslung flight pod just has...reversed gravity or something.
So maybe it's launch tubes are on their own deck below both the hangers? So it goes upper landing deck, upper hanger, launch tubes, lower hanger, lower landing deck and both hangers just lower fighters into the tubes when its time to scramble.
Either whoever wrote the wiki I looked at didn't have that info or someone came up with a cool idea for an effects shot in the show, which now needs fleshed out with some proper geeky specs
i think there is a zero G launch tube deck. and the vipers are being loaded via elevator from both hangar decks above and below the launch deck. that would make perfect sense to me
Daniel, I've also noticed when the flight chief says, "Trejector is green..." I cannot remember where, but it seemed to happen just before a landing or after launch, or during an in-flight situation.
We do it on a carrier every day during flight ops. In the Navy You land and catch one of four wire and are taxied off to a side slot and are dropped to the hanger when needed or after flight ops are completed. Old carriers have four elevators, the new class have three elevators. Look up carrier flight operations, The Flight Deck is one or the worlds ten dangerous jobs.
@Spacedock. I don’t think the Pegasus rotated the vipers/raptors that land on the ‘under flight deck’ as when you showed the raptor launch tubes ( 4:13 ) it had viper tubes that looked to be upside down so the Pegasus may have 4 hander decks in total just 2 by 2 at the floor with grave generators and a way for the crew to orientate themselves to whatever is up at that time.
@Spacedock Thank you for this video. I'm writing a BSG '04 fanfiction and I wasn't entirely sure how this worked.
As a lover of reading fanfictions, you have caught my interest like the #3 wire on a landing deck.
What would be the name of this mentioned fic, and where is it posted?
@@BikerDash I actually lost interest a while back and stopped writing it. Never posted it either. It kind of sucked TBH, so just as well. Sorry to disappoint.
I could see the ship recovery system being akin to the plates (treads) on a tracked vehicle's track system. The plates each hold 1 viper, you guide the viper onto the plate attached by standard magnetic attachment, and the ships from below are righted as the belt goes over the end pulley so to speak. This allows multiple vipers to be recovered in short order. Even assuming only 2 plates on each flight deck you could recover 4 fighters at once. And all 4 fighters could be loaded onto or unloaded from the plates simultaneously meaning 8 vipers moving at once (4 loading and 4 unloading).
Great video and pretty informative.
How about covering space craft from Classic Traveller? There is a good variety of amazing spacecraft for this venerable table-top RPG.
Something to talk briefly about next: the Gates in Cowboy Bebop. Just rewatched your ship video, and their version of fast space travel is nifty with some history scattered throughout the episodes. A little more scifi talk of the series could be fun.
idea for an episode: the USS Enterprise VS the USS Dreadnought in "Star Trek: Into Dearkness". Mid warp combat has always been a weird grey area in star trek. it seems they cant use phasers during it but they can use torpedoes, but it changes every now and then. I always thought that the Dreadnought, in the time period it was in, must have a unique combat warp drive which can first cancel out the warp field of the target, envelop and trap it, which then allows them to open fire at close range in a surprise attack, before dropping the ship out of warp at a point of their choosing. its a really quick scene but i was always interested.
an alternative option for the Mercury's Ventral landing bays, its mentioned how ships like Colonial one can fit in the pods of the Jupiter class, but doing so poses risks/limitations for combat situations. Having two large pods that could fit ships of a size similar to Colonial one, as well as clear strips for fighters/smaller transports could make sense. This would also allow the Mercury to serve as a command ship and carrier for vipers/raptors, but perhaps two-four small gunships/corvette sized craft.
I love the tech in BSG, it's still solid sci-fi but so much more grounded and believable compared to things like Star Wars or Halo ect.
Only thing that stands out is how the FTL functions, it's very different compared to almost every sci-fi, i'm thinking space folding maybe?
The BSG FTL jumps remind me of a BattleTech JumpShip jumping. Recharging is different, as is jumping in a gravity well. BattleTech is a slow (days or weeks) recharge and gravity messes with the jump. BSG can charge fast and from anywhere, to anywhere. They are both similar to having a max jump distance and jumping in a 'flash'.
Basically. It's an instantaneous jump between two areas. The other term they use is the "red line", which is the maximum distance you can safely jump to. The computer makes calculations based on speed and trajectory. Beyond the red line and you risk disaster like teleporting into an asteroid or planet. You have to keep in mind that light travels at 300,000km/s, so when you look up at the Sun, or the nearest star, you are seeing them in the past (8 minutes for the Sun and 4 years for Alpha Centauri).
in the pc game Fractured Space (free to play), you command capital ships and perform similar space tech to get to distant locations. some vessel have the capacity to perform quick and short jumps to ambush foes or avoid enemy fire.
To clarify, "The Red Line" is the maximum distance from Kobol you can jump accurately. I think it's a function of computational power and the thoroughness of the astrogation charting of the area around Kobol. It's a bit like driving fast down a road you know intimately at night versus one you've never seen in daylight.
By extension, the less accurate the jump the riskier it is, but the cliche of "jumping into a sun" only applies if you're trying to jump close to a sun, because space is pretty damn empty. An inaccurate jump isn't, in of itself, riskier. But mostly you try and jump close to important things rather than into empty space.
jump drives are the second most common FTL system (the most common being star Trek-esque Warp/Hyperdrive systems), they were a lot more common in books than they are in shows, so you just don't see it much.
Interesting. The double landing pod gravity thing makes me think of the design problems that the Rocinante from The Expanse has. In the books she is said to be able to land on her belly, so 90 degree out of her thrust gravity plane. I get the feeling the series will just have her land arse end down most likely to keep the set design simple, but that would mean a pylon landing or sticky out feet and that cannot be as stable as a belly landing. Would love to hear what you think, especially as the series moves forward.
While it could technically land on it's belly, the vessel's frame is not made for it, and on top of that, the interior of the vessel is top down. If the body had any gravity you would be walking on the walls, which is not a good idea
In the TV series I would agree and I have struggled to wrap my head around how the Roci would land on her belly and still be accommodating for her crew. In the books it does say that she lands on its belly/keel, and in fact is capable of landing on planets. I won't spoil more than that for anyone who hasn't read all the books. It might just be that the books will be the books and the TV series will be the TV series -- still interesting to think about;-)
it looks like on the launch tubes with them being inverted next to normal that there are in fact 2 landing decks one for the upper bay and one for the lower, each deck has the gravity opposite, so that each has a deck in relation to each's orientation, this makes sense as only personnel and stores need to be moved through the gravity zones, making the "flip" part a lot simpler. it also allows to compact the launch tubes better as you see.
Pretty simple really.
My guess is the Pegasus's rotating landing platform would look like the mechanism inside a self-inking stamp which has rails moving down in a thunderbolt pattern. I also like to think that the moment the Viper passes through that inversion point rookie pilots tend to lose their lunch giving the veterans another reason to mock them lol
If you look at the model of the Pegasus that show the Raptor launch tube, you will see right side up Viper launch tubes and upside down launch tubes. My guess would be that the Vipers are launched in the orientation that they land and that the launch tubes are angled from each hanger bay. Each hanger bay, one for each landing bay is probably directly below each landing bay.
Re: double hanger decks...one would need to flip the Vipers, they could stay “inverted” (presumably the ships’ artificial gravity works in whatever direction it’s needed; if not electronically selected, then it would be installed and “hard wired”).
The pilots and maintenance peeps could either climb an Escher-like stairs/ladders or into a spherical elevator, walking inside to match the rotating gravity field.
I would really like to hear about "realistic" spaceship design. Your explanation about your personal ship designs are nice, but they are more "form over function" when they need to fit your storyline (I am referencing another of your videos, sorry). But having a lecture from you or perhaps a mini-series of Spacedock episodes describing various necessities of spaceship design from a pragmatic perspective would be really nice to watch.
Perhaps Ark ships that describe life support and long-range propulsion solutions or considerations for space-station designs. I really like your dry and information packed videos. keep up the great work!
That was kind of awesomly done.
I'd assumed the hanger areas for the Pegasus were on the same level as the dorsal landing bays. It's just that the dorsal bay was interrupted by the hanger area. I'll admit to not having looked at it closely.
On the Pegasus for the double deck I think the lateral lights are used to check the right approach orientation.. As in exemple pilote have to check if the two green lights are always on their right!
Hey, you guys at Spacedock play Space Engineers?
I'd love to see Spacedock review Space Engineers builds. I do a lot of building and worldbuilding for my own SE faction, Hades Driveyards. Spacedock presenting a build of mine would be the best thing I could hope for. It's not going to happen I think, but it would be awesome.
Yay another SE player!
The realism of fighter operations is so much better in BSG than other sci fi series. Launch and recovery happen in two distinct areas and recovery is perpendicular to travel of the carrier. That's really important, although slightly less so in space.
On the Pegasus, notice that half of the Viper launch tubes are "upside down" relative to the other half. So, the Vipers landing on one of the underside landing bays would basically have an "upside-down" hangar/launch bay. There are 2 of these bays between the flight decks on the Pegasus, with opposite artificial gravity. So basically, the guys on the underside bays feel like they're "right-side up" and they are lowering the Vipers "down" into the launch bays. "Down" in this case is in the direction of the middle of the pods.
on the Pegasus, they could maybe just roll the pad into correct orientation without lifting/lowering much. As I think of it, having the flight deck inverted could really speed up operations since the elevators are kinda slow...
Also the Ball wouldn't be the stripe, it would be something sorta like this...
--O--
Or this if you were too high
__O__
Like an artificial horizon with you as the "ball"
6:39 The 3d model of the Pegasus where you showed the raptor launch tube clearly shows every other viper tube as 'upside down'. Maybe their artificial gravity systems were precise enough that there was no need to flip vipers. They could be serviced and stuffed into the tubes in the upside down (with respect to the rest of the ship) orientation.
Daniel - love the videos! How about a sit fest video. Battlestars are huge even vs a galaxy class ship. Would love to see a slug fest between these two.
for the Pegasus i cant believe i didnt think of this earlier but i think she has, much like the double runway, double staging areas in each pod due to the way the pods orient themselves. When you see the launch tubes on the Pegasus they are inverted in a repeating pattern, IE one "Upright" and one "Upside down" relative to the ships normal "Up", meaning they might have separate loading sections for the vipers, which are then lowered down and pushed into the tubes which meet at the center. this means the artificial gravity generators might be in between each section of the ship, and allows for faster recovery, refueling, and rearming of vipers since you have 2 dedicated sections devoted to it without having to reorient the ships. it would be more sensible than just having the vipers be re orientated as they make it in to the tubes since then the area where the tubes would be located would be "Thrust G" relative to the vipers ensuring no weird 2 G force feelings on the pilots end resulting in a sudden spike in Positive/Negative G forces.
Edit: little bit of an after thought but considering the Pegasus is supposed to have a larger wing of Vipers compared to Galactica it would almost become necessary to field it this way so as to lauch as many vipers as possible in a short amount of time since if it was like Galactica all those rotations would eat up more time to get them into the launch tubes
Others have pointed out that there are up/down viper launch tubes (from the still you show the Pegasus with the raptor launch tubes). I'd suggest that there are two landing decks, two maintenance decks, and a shared launch deck that is zero-g with the craft being held in place by magnetic systems (and any crews using magnetic boots). This makes the most sense as you can orient your gravity plating as necessary and don't have to reorient your craft through a complicated lift system (simple is always better in a combat ship). As for why the set of "inverted" launch tubes are blocked off is because you would not launch vipers from both decks simultaneously - it would screw with your pilots immediate post-launch flight coordination and orientation. You'd want a wing to launch in the same "position" and to be able to orient to their wingmates. More importantly, you wouldn't want the relatively "inverted" launch tubes open to space if you weren't planning on an immediate launch, just in case you're doing maintenance on a lift and might have that tube exposed to the interior of your maintenance deck. There's probably a little transit vehicle that goes between these decks that flips the crews around, or even a moving walkway where there's a zero gravity area on the deck that allows you to simply clamp onto the walkway with mag boots and ride it to the other maintenance deck through the launch deck.
The double-stacked flight decks on the Mercury class are one of the coolest details in BSG imo.
In response to your bit about the ventral pod needing to 'flip' the craft to match the internal gravity of a single unified launch/resupply deck. In your close-up of the Pegasus launch tubes, it looks like there are inverted-orientation launch tubes for vipers interspaced with those for the 'upright' tubes. To me this implies that there are actually 3 decks sandwiched between the dorsal and ventral landing surfaces in the flight pods. Each pod has two repair decks, that are oriented with internal gravity to the two flight deck surfaces. In between those decks is the 'launch' deck. Presumably those repair decks have launch slots that move ready vipers into the unified launch deck so you can launch from both the dorsal and ventral repair decks. So vipers are coming out upside down and rightside up all at the same time! Crazy :)
I've never understood the Sci-fi fascination with skids over wheels. It seems like it would be so much harder to move fighters and whatnot around the deck because you'd need some kind of external lifting device to do it. Seems like a waste of space to me. Magnetic skids could also be used in conjunction with wheels.
While I don't remember it ever being shown, I believe there are wheels in the skids themselves for moving them around on the hanger deck. One reason they wouldn't likely be used for landings though would be that landing in zero-g would make wheels a very risky proposition, no grip for one thing, and it would be a bit harder to use the magnetic field on a wheel. With a skid however you could integrate the coil generating the magnetic field into the structure, and keep it in a single alignment as well.
The X-15 had a front titanium skid an two rear wheels.
I don't know if the skid was more about landing impact or braking.
actually the X-15's undercarriage was the other way around. My understanding is that there was concern that tires wouldn't have been able to take the impact forces during the aircraft's high speed landings, and probably also because they were really only needed for landing, the plane didn't need to taxi or takeoff on it's landing gear.
In the show we do see the deckhands pushing Vipers around as if they were on wheels, so presumably, either they have embedded castors or the magnetic locks can be switched to some sort of "maglev" mode.
the old series skids were wheels, they looked like roler scates
Technically, due to the freefall environment that the Viper works in, it is probably more related to a helicopter than a plane since it can hover and can move freely in all three dimensions. As stated in the first episode, the normal procedure for a landing is to approach to a hover, hover taxi to the landing spot, then perform a set down. Identical in all functional respects to a helicopter.
The combat landings seem to be analogous to a helicopter performing a "run-on" landing.
In addition, the skids provide a large surface area for the magnets to grab on to a surface.
One thing I really like about Battlestar Galactica generally is that there is a lot of things that make a lot of sense. The utilitarian design, the seperate landing/launching systems (which would be a real advantage in fleet actions compaired to having to share a single runway for launching and landing craft), the fact that there are 2 landing bays (which if you have a fleet that is as reliant on fighters as in BSG makes absolute sense with a context to battle damage) and facilities like a machine shop to allow the battlestar to be relatively self sufficient.
As for the Pegasus having launch tubes for Raptors where Galactica does not, I would expect that to be down to the Raptor having come into service some time after the Galactica had been laid down. It makes sense with the Galactica being old enough to be retiring as a legendary ship from a past conflict when the series commences but I could be wrong (it has been a long time since I watched Blood and Chrome).
Still, the method of FTL used is a mystery as is the whole artificial gravity/not turn your fighter pilots into goo when doing high g maneuvers thing.
It's also interesting to note that the Pegasus apparently has external landing pads on the outside of its flight pods for shuttles and raptors. You can see it being using in both Razor and The Plan
Another great presentation! 😊 Thank you!
Man, I miss the BSG sooo much! BTW it is super easy to understand the Galactica if you take it as an aircraft carrier in space, except for her heavy weapons. The Vipers are the Super Hornets and the Raptors are pretty much a combination of all the other aircraft of the carrier's airwing, from the Hawkeye (with the Raptors running sensor pickets ahead of the fleet), the Growler (electronic warfare against the Cylons), the Greyhound (fulfilling transport tasks), down to the Seahawk helicopter (search and rescue of shot Viper pilots). You can even take things way back and look at the A3D Skywarrior as an inspiration, because IIRC the Raptirs also ran nuclear strike missions against the Cylons with nuclear weapons too heavy for the Vipers. Then we have the launch pads, which are basically EMALS and the landing ramp is like the landing deck of a present day carrier. The difference is that the Galactica is way bigger so it does not need an angled deck to save space. The "ball" reference is taken literally from present day carrier operations. The LSOs or "the white jackets" are pilots off flight duty, who guide the pilots to land on the ship. When they say "Call the ball!" to the pilot in the air, it means "Do you see the OLS array (the optical landing system) and what sygnal do you see?" Of course they know better what the signal is, as they set it, but the reason they ask is because the landing takes place in a very compressed amount of time, tens of seconds, at a very high speed, so there is next to no room for mistakes. Every second the pilot spends on looking for the ball is a second less to spend on actively correcting his approach.
Excellent analysis!
I think doing a video about a mundane aspect of a series is a great idea....there are many concepts that are significant to a show that we put little attention to, that are intersting to explore. Please do more; a compare and contrast to landing/launching BSG, star trek shuttlecraft, star wars fighters, babylon 5, space above and beyond.