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Description
The Jumper, Deep Space Exploration vessels were created in the reaches of the asteroid belts at the far edges of our Solar-system shortly after the first mining colonies were established -shortly compared to the time-span from the first, manned space-flights to other planets and onward- they were designed to colonize the deepest reaches of space, to sow the seeds of humanity on other worlds and to escape our solar home-world. Built to last and to extend their operational lifetime as long as possible, they were more, free-floating buildings gliding through space than anything else, utilizing state of the art technology to reclaim resources within its the confines of its own hull, it was crewed not by humans in the traditional sense but rather, genetically enhanced, cloned individuals, engineered to live and to serve in a zero-G environment. The ships were powered by nuclear fusion generators, were able to make use of ambient, stellar-radiation and their main means of propulsion were Electro-magnetic impellers devised to push the ship along when sufficient mass was abundant in their surroundings to make their main means of propulsion, unpractical.
Their means for interstellar travel, was a massive array of matter-collider emitters at the front of the ship, designed to condense and collapse any mass in front of the ship into a brief-lived singularity, further singularities would then be created to generate the acceleration desired. The ship basically created matter-implosions in front of itself and took into account, minor damage, caused each time it "jumped" forward. Constantly undergoing repairs in deep space, accumulating and assimilating debris, these vessels are made to last and to utilize anything in their path to either propel themselves forward or to integrate more parts into their hulls. Thrust was not constant, but inertia kept the ships drifting through space at ever increasing speeds.

To make planet-fall, parts of the ship would literally have to break off and shoot off and make entry on to a planet. Unsuitable for life in gravity, the crew of the ship would launch unmanned vessels, complete with automated bio-engineering laboratories that would create a new version of human life on these, soon to be terraformed, planets.

I've spent some time designing space-ships for my stories (originally they were supposed to take place in space after all) and its been hard walking a line between realism and pure sci-fi fantasies.

I must confess that as much as I like science fiction and love space-ship designs, I get pissed off all the time about how space-travel is portrayed in movies and series.
Firstly artificial gravity pisses me off when it doesn't have an obvious source, isn't addressed at all or when it's because of some BS graviton-generator in a little box somewhere aboard the ship or gravimetric plating or something like that.
Second even with artificial gravity, there's no need to have a top and a bottom to your ship unless it's designed to be capable of atmospheric flight.
Thirdly Space-ships in most works of fiction just look too damned pristine; even with shields, I don't think a truly massive, space-fearing vessel can remain prim and polished for very long...
Fourth Ever so often you'll see a ship blasting off into space, burning through tons of fuel every second yet somehow not only keeping its speed constant, but never running out of fuel.

These are just my personal opinions and takes on stuff of course, if people want to educate me on the subject, by all means, go ahead. I'm not an astrophysicist.

This design was quite obviously, originally, inspired by the Sulaco from Alien, but this was actually far, far down the line when it had an actual top and bottom and held true to the established conventions of mainstream sci-fi; I hope I've strayed quite far from that at this point.

Description
The Jumper, Deep Space Exploration vessels were created in the reaches of the asteroid belts at the far edges of our Solar-system shortly after the first mining colonies were established -shortly compared to the time-span from the first, manned space-flights to other planets and onward- they were designed to colonize the deepest reaches of space, to sow the seeds of humanity on other worlds and to escape our solar home-world. Built to last and to extend their operational lifetime as long as possible, they were more, free-floating buildings gliding through space than anything else, utilizing state of the art technology to reclaim resources within its the confines of its own hull, it was crewed not by humans in the traditional sense but rather, genetically enhanced, cloned individuals, engineered to live and to serve in a zero-G environment. The ships were powered by nuclear fusion generators, were able to make use of ambient, stellar-radiation and their main means of propulsion were Electro-magnetic impellers devised to push the ship along when sufficient mass was abundant in their surroundings to make their main means of propulsion, unpractical.
Their means for interstellar travel, was a massive array of matter-collider emitters at the front of the ship, designed to condense and collapse any mass in front of the ship into a brief-lived singularity, further singularities would then be created to generate the acceleration desired. The ship basically created matter-implosions in front of itself and took into account, minor damage, caused each time it "jumped" forward. Constantly undergoing repairs in deep space, accumulating and assimilating debris, these vessels are made to last and to utilize anything in their path to either propel themselves forward or to integrate more parts into their hulls. Thrust was not constant, but inertia kept the ships drifting through space at ever increasing speeds.

To make planet-fall, parts of the ship would literally have to break off and shoot off and make entry on to a planet. Unsuitable for life in gravity, the crew of the ship would launch unmanned vessels, complete with automated bio-engineering laboratories that would create a new version of human life on these, soon to be terraformed, planets.

I've spent some time designing space-ships for my stories (originally they were supposed to take place in space after all) and its been hard walking a line between realism and pure sci-fi fantasies.

I must confess that as much as I like science fiction and love space-ship designs, I get pissed off all the time about how space-travel is portrayed in movies and series.
Firstly artificial gravity pisses me off when it doesn't have an obvious source, isn't addressed at all or when it's because of some BS graviton-generator in a little box somewhere aboard the ship or gravimetric plating or something like that.
Second even with artificial gravity, there's no need to have a top and a bottom to your ship unless it's designed to be capable of atmospheric flight.
Thirdly Space-ships in most works of fiction just look too damned pristine; even with shields, I don't think a truly massive, space-fearing vessel can remain prim and polished for very long...
Fourth Ever so often you'll see a ship blasting off into space, burning through tons of fuel every second yet somehow not only keeping its speed constant, but never running out of fuel.

These are just my personal opinions and takes on stuff of course, if people want to educate me on the subject, by all means, go ahead. I'm not an astrophysicist.

This design was quite obviously, originally, inspired by the Sulaco from Alien, but this was actually far, far down the line when it had an actual top and bottom and held true to the established conventions of mainstream sci-fi; I hope I've strayed quite far from that at this point.