When I read the title of the thread, the first picture that came to my mind was the Cocoon world in Final Fantasy 13.
Final Fantasy Wikia wrote:Cocoon is a Dyson shell, a hypothetical world which consists of a hollow shell surrounding a "sun" (in this case, the fal'Cie Phoenix) at its core, with the surface of the world being on the inside of the shell.
However this is probably not "hard scifi" enough for you...
Future is a common dream. Past is a shared lie.
There is the only the 3 Presents : the Present of Today, the Present of Tomorrow and the Present of Yesterday.
The new version looks a little like the 80's era torch ships.
or hell, not far off Red Dwarf!
If we ignore the engine section - how much heat are we assuming to be generated in the living areas?
Becuase if you have ponds, fountains ect all over the ship, you could utilise the water pipes as a heat dump / transfer mechanisim to stop the outside layers of hab freezing.
"Aid, trade, green technology and peace." - Hans Rosling.
"Welcome to SDN, where we can't see the forest because walking into trees repeatedly feels good, bro." - Mr Coffee
