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Xiongnu 匈奴 Class Desert Carrier

Ray of Meep

Ray of Meep

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The Xiongnu Class Desert Carrier is a human-made mobile command and control station unique to the desert planet of Wu Zetian. Named after the nomadic people who ruled Earth-based Xinjiang during the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu was conceived by the infant Federation of Celestial Territories / Shen Zhou as a cornerstone military asset to patrol the unruly deserts of Wu Zetian. Inheriting leftover military assets and strategic philosophy from the Combine-Era, the first Xiongnus became active in the 2280's, twenty years after the founding of the FCT and the greater HFR.

The Xiongnu measures over 400 meters in length. It is powered by two powerful fusion engines which drive four sets of tracks, each made of industrial, self-healing materials that reduce the logistical burden of maintenance, allowing the desert carrier to operate for longer periods in the rough, sandy and rocky terrains of the planet. The primary offensive power of the Xiongnu comes in the form of the fleet of drones and aircraft it carries onboard, which are used for reconnaissance and ground support, the native inhabitants and terrorist groups having little capability to contend with the Shen Zhou government in the air. Xiongnu are always escorted by smaller desert rovers, which it aids in the repair and maintenance of, through its large bay areas on its ventral side. The Xiongnu also carries powerful communication equipment that maintains contact with the mission control stations on the Northern and Southern poles, along with communication arrays in orbit.

As a show of Shen Zhou pride and militarism, Xiongnus are painted in a mix of white, red, and yellows.

Reference images

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400 meters is pretty big, and I think driving around in a desert is going to be much harder as your vehicle gets larger. The suspension and such is also going to have to be crazy for handling sand dunes.

How deep do you want to go into the design of this thing?

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I think 23rd century technology should be able to handle it, given that we've mastered fusion tech, therefore material sciences. The suspension is going to be highly advanced and complex, but this is two centuries into the future we're talking about.
 
Just, why? What's the point of this thing existing?

Also, I don't for a moment buy us having mastered materials science to an extent where that thing could be going anything faster than 1 km/h. The issues go beyond just suspension technology.
Just by some back-of-the-envelope math, a Xiongnu is 20% longer than a Gerard R. Ford-class aircraft carrier, and thus has 1.73x the volume (assuming they have the same proportions and similar structure, which I will). If that is true, then one of these things would mass in at around 175 thousand tonnes.

The bottom of a Xiongnu-class desert carrier wound then have an area of ≈ 40 000 square metres, assuming it is a perfect rectangle. Assuming Wu Zetian has Earth gravity, and that the four tracks below these things make up for half that area, that'd work out to 86 kPa of ground pressure. Sure, most sand does have a higher load bearing capacity than that, but there will be more force on the ground any time the tracks change inclination and most deserts are not perfectly level. You better not want to traverse any dunes if you don't want to ram your way through one.

Also, on that note, how in the world are these things cooling their fusion reactors? Unlike aquatic carriers, you don't have arbitrary amounts of coolant for your heat exchanger in a desert.
 
I don't doubt that it could be built, my question is more 'what would this look like if we really did it?'. There are already massive industrial machines out there, its just that they are usually either 'in the water' or one of those giant earth-movers / land trains.

OOh, cooling is an interesting question. Of course you've got an atmosphere right there so you could pump large volumes of air through a heat exchanger. Or perhaps you're cooling a large thermal mass at night then using that during the day? Perhaps the top deck would be a reflective sun-shield with cooling elements below it?

Maybe the air-blower for cooling does double-duty with the exhaust going out hovercraft-style pads for feet? Or even adjustable out the back for thrust?

400m also seems like it wouldn't be practical for the terrain. One solution would be to make the treads adjustable on extendable legs that can better handle dunes. Or another solution might be to articulate the whole vehicle and have the upper runway on some kind of arm so it remains stabilized and steady.

Similarly, it also might be easier if it was smaller. There are plenty of smaller aircraft carriers in the 200m range. The craft can be even smaller if its only launching helicopters and drones as well.
 
Unironically, legs might actually be a decent solution here:

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Ground pressure is an issue if you've got small feet. In this situation you'd want to use a few reasonably big feet. Something large enough that they don't sink into the sand but also small enough that they can move over the terrain. You'd already need some massive suspension system setup to handle the variance in height over 400 meters so it might be mechanically easier to just use that suspension system to move the vehicle, rather than rigging up wheels/treads on the bottom of the suspension system.

Large scale walking drives for megamachines are a niche thing, but they are still 'a thing'

 
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