For the science fiction fans: Here is a fascinating chart (sans Death Star of the “Star Wars” series) that compares the size of various spaceships found in popular science fiction culture. Imagine the amount of resources (and technology that doesn’t yet exist) needed to construct even the smallest of these spacecraft. More discussion about this poster can be found at BuzzFeed. You can click on the chart to view a larger size.
UPDATE 1 (22 Oct. 10): Why no Death Star? Apparently, it’s too big. Via Star Trek Minutiae:
But what about the Death Star? That’s too obvious to miss! First, the Death Star is so friggin’ huge that it doesn’t fit on even the largest chart I’ve made. And that’s even for the low-ball estimate of the size, which brings me to my second point: No one can agree just how big the Death Stars actually were, so there’s no point in doing their sizes.
Furthermore, the starship size comparison charts were recently updated. You can click on any chart to view a larger size. Via Star Trek Minutiae:
UPDATE 2 (22 March 11): Which astronautical engineering project consumes the most energy? Via io9:
The Enterprise-D, from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Power source: matter-antimatter reactor.
Energy output: 6.8 x 10^16 joules, based on the amount of energy it would take for the Enterprise to do significant damage to a Borg cube, according to this guy.The Narn’s Q’Guan Heavy Cruiser, fromBabylon 5.
Power source: nuclear fusion.
Energy output: 7.08 x 10^22 joules, according to this site.Omega Class Destroyer, from Babylon 5.
Power source: four General Fusion 650 high-energy fusion reactors, using gelled deuterium as fuel.
Energy output: 1.83 x 10^23 joules, according to the Cycrow site again.Colonial Battlestar, from Battlestar Galactica.
Power source: Tyllium reactor.
Energy output: 4.6 x 10^24 joules, according to the Battlestar technical site.Babylon 5 Station, from Babylon 5.
Power source: eight fusion reactors.
Energy output: 2.5 x 10^24 joules, according to several sites.Zero Point Module, from Stargate.
Power source: Vacuum energy, from a pocket of subspace.
Energy output: 10^28 joules, according to this guy’s back-of-the-envelope calculations.The Death Star, from the original Star Wars.
Power source: Some kind of “hypermatter” fusion reactor.
Energy output: It would need to generate 2.4 x 10^32 joules of energy to destroy a planet such as Alderaan. Upper estimates of its power run to around 10^38 joules, or as much energy as our sun generates in 8,000 years, according to this site.Ringworld, from Larry Niven’s Ringworld novels.
Power source: Solar energy, collected by “shadow squares.”
Energy output: To keep the whole shebang spinning at 770 miles per second, you’d need 1.6 x 10^39 joules, or our sun’s output over 130,000 years, according to this site and a few others. We have a winner!
please add the Death Star for a better overall comparison
deathstar is bigger than the whole picture type in google death star size. there is one with a executor, and the ship looks like a ant.
and while hes at it what about all the robotech stuff as well
Agreed. Add the Death Star.
Also, please add the Andromeda Ascendant, other Commonwealth warships like Wrath of Achilles, a Pyrian Torch ship, The Battlestar Galactica and Cylon Base ships(both old and new series).
Oh yeah – the alien destructor ships from Independance Day.
Sizes are all wrong, this is crap example, good idea, but wrong in scales, part of the problem is most likely the references that all like to have their own idea of what things are…
is this a protected image? i’m planning on using this on a game in game maker. is that legal? if the maker reads this, can i use these ships? they would be perfect!
and i’m not really that into star wars, so no idea if this is correct or not, just think they look very nice
nice job.
kind regards,
arthur
To whom it may concern
My name is paul. I really liked your abstract images, they look really cool. I would like to get a permission to grab abstract science fiction planes and post them on my website. I am not going to sell them at all, that is not what I am planning to do. What I am planning to do is just post my images on my website and turn then into animation and they will fly back and forth, that’s all. Please send me a response so I don’t get in trouble. My email address is paulczarnecki@sbcglobal.net
Best Regards
Paul
You probably should edit your post and change your e-mail address so it doesn’t look like an e-mail address. That’s a big red target for spambots.
hay
This is great, but the death-star would be nice. Also, could you box them into their specific categories (star trek, star wars, Babylon 5, etc.) and label significant ships (for example: starship ISS enterprise).
Here’s the granddaddy of such sites.
http://www.merzo.net/index.html
They are all amazing starships.
Another one:
ACTUALLY, as cited on the Wookieepedia page, the Death Star in Episode 4 was 160 kilometers in diameter, the second one was 900 kilometers in diameter. The THIRD Death Star is what nobody seems to know size or information about…
Check your sources thoroughly and update frequently when you write something and push it out on the internet–facts have a way of “surfacing” on the internet if you know where to look…R.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Death_Star#Description.
The 100 Best Movie Spaceships: From Cape Canaveral to galaxies far, far away, these are the vessels to travel around the Multiverse.
I would like to see BUCK ROGERS Ships here as well.
where is the roger young from starship troopers? thats the one i wanted to see lol also Fleet Battle Satation Tikindaroga from starship troopers two of the coolest looking ships in scifi history
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What, no Red Dwarf?
I know the Xenosaga series weren’t movies, but it’d be cool if you could add the Cathedral Ship, the Woglinde I & II, the Durandal, and the Dämmerung. Or any other massive ships I forgot from Xenosaga. (http://xenosaga.wikia.com/wiki/D%C3%A4mmerung)
Charts are great. Two ships that would be nice to see added:
Space Battleship Yamato http://starblazers.wikia.com/wiki/Yamato
and
‘The Liberator’ from Blake’s 7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake's_7
The Yamato is there, right above the Super Star Destroyer…(it’s very tiny)
The lack of stargate ships in here is sad, a hive is very large.
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This is awesome, but I’m disappointed there weren’t any Battletech Jumpships/Dropships/Warships.
What about the Event Horizon?!
How bout Nostromo from Aliens
wheres the Tardis?
Inside or outside?
Is andromeda the only Vessel of that series fetured in the size charts I am a little dissaponted I want to see the star fighters,The Balance of Judgement, and the Eureika Maru.
A Dyson Sphere would really mess up the scale of this with a radius of 1 AU (approx 150 million km). It’s a sphere with a star in the centre and the inner edge is the habitable distance away therefore the entire inner surface can capture all the solar energy from the star.
As I look at these I really wish the Ark and a Relic from the Guyver Series franchise would be added. I would like to see how big the Ark is compaired to V’Ger and the Executor Class star destroyer.
Also why arent there any Doctor Who ships?! :-p That show is the pinical of Science Fiction
Hey, what about warhammer 40k ships, could you put up some of those, there are sure some decent sized ones, stargate ships would be interesting to
How about the ring world HALO Installation 04 and the arc that created the halo rings
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The biggest issue I have is with the B5 Whitestar size. There is a ton of on screen evidence that shows it to be much smaller than pictured here. Just two of them are the size of the windows on the bridge which have been shown from both the inside and outside of the ship, which if that ship was truly 476 meters long, those windows would be almost 20 feet high! Also, a Whitestar crashed broadside into the front of an Omega class cruiser (where the fighters are launched from) and it was about the same length as the Omega was wide. That puts it a lot closer to 200 meters rather than 476….
I couldn’t find the spaceship from Ulysess31, I think it was a big ring with a cyclops eye in the centre.
Also, is it worth putting in the ‘city’ ship from Dark City?