Nostromo (spaceship)

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USCSS The Nostromo is a fictional starship, featured in the 1979 film Alien. The name is taken from the eponymous hero of the 1904 novel by Joseph Conrad.

[edit] Description

Commercial Towing Vessel Nostromo, an M-Class starfreighter property of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, is a tug, a towing vessel, hauling an enormous (some 1.5 miles in length) ore refinery and 20 million tons of raw ore, weighing many times the mass of the Nostromo. The ship itself is still substantial, over 60,000 metric tons and almost 245 metres (800 feet) long, including three decks, four holds, stores, engines, and lots of pipes and ducts; its escape ship is called Narcissus. The ship is fitted with a self-destruct system.

(Many moviegoers have often mistaken the four-towered refinery as being the Nostromo itself and the Nostromo, when it detached itself from the refinery, as the shuttle Narcissus.)

The crew is seven. In the order credited, they include Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Engineering Technician Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt), Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm), and Chief Engineer Parker (Yaphet Kotto). There is also a tiger-striped orange tabby cat named Jones (often called "Jonesy" by the crew). The ship is equiped with a MU-TH-UR 182 2.1 terabyte AI Mainframe (called "Mother" by the crew).

At the beginning of the first film, the ship is on a course returning to Earth from Thetis, using a form of FTL drive that requires the crew to spend most of the journey in "hypersleep" in order to conserve the ship's limited resources (food/water/air).

[edit] Design

The design of the Nostromo is credited to illustrators Ron Cobb and Chris Foss. Ultimately Chris Foss' highly organic visions of the spacecraft were discarded in favor of Cobb's NASA-like utilitarian renderings. Ridley Scott made his own design contributions as well, adding most of the cathedralesque "refinery" portion, which dominates the craft on screen. Much of the ship's architecture, particularly its interiors and the collosal spires of its refinery structure, are inspired by the cavernous yet simultaneously claustrophobic sensibilities of haunted houses and castles from Gothic Horror films such as Nosferatu.

Right (middle image): Cobb's blueprint elevations of a late Nostromo(then named "Leviathan"), notation reads:

Basic Lockheed CM 88B Bison transporter frame modified and fitted with a Yutani T7A NLS Stellar Drive. The original Saturn J3000 engines have been replaced by 2 Rolls Royce NGG Cyclone Thrust Tunnels with bi-polar vectoring for mid line life function. Each power plant developing 7,250,000 tons thrust (14,500,000,000 pounds) giving a high impulse total of 14,460,000 tons. <ref>The Book of Alien, Titan Books 1979</ref>

It is interesting to note that some of this information has filtered into the official canon, as appears below. The canon itself no doubt issues from the Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual.

[edit] Specifications

USCSS Nostromo (Lockheed Martin CM-88B "Juggernaut-class" Starfreighter)

• Registration Number:</b> 180924609
• Complement:</b> 7 (3 officers + 4 crew members)
• Displacement: 50,000 t (Standard); 45,000 t (Light); 63,000 t (Full Load)
• Dimensions: Length: 1,095 ft (334 m); Beam 705 ft (215 m); Draft 320 ft (98 m)
• Velocity: 0.42 LYSD (Unladen) / 0.12 LYSD (Towing heavy cargo)
• Acceleration:
  • 27.9 s Rest - Onset Critical Momentum
  • 8.9 s Onset Critical Momentum - Hyperdrive Engage
  • 6.5 s 1c - 24c
  • 8.5 s 24c - 68c
  • 15.5 s 58c - 153 c
• Endurance: 14 Months (Standard) / 24 Months (Maximum)
• Primary Power System: One (1) Laratel 2.8 terawatt WF-15 fusion reactor
• Faster Than Light Propulsion: Four (4) Yutani T7A NLS stellar drive towers
• Sublight Propulsion:
  • Two (2) Rolls Royce N66 Cyclone thrust tunnels w/ Bi-Polar vectoring; 7,290,000 short tons force (64.9 giganewtons) thrust each
  • Two (2) Weylan L46 chemical maneuvering engines; 850,000 short tons force (7.6 GN) thrust each
  • One (1) Yutani J38 auxiliary thruster module /w Two (2) Lockmart TL-30 thruster groups
• Primary Logic System: MU-TH-R 182 2.1 terabyte AI Mainframe w/ 2.0 terabyte MU-TH-R 146 Backup Mainframe
• Operating System: OAM (Overmonitoring Address Matrix) Release 2.2 with 2120 Patch
• Sensors:
  • Two (2) 2-Meter aperture telescopes capable of optical, spectrographic and infrared resolution
  • Gas Chromatograph
  • Centimetric Navigation and Landing Radar
  • Synthetic Aperture Ground-Mapping Radar
  • Hyperspace Mass Counter
• Weapon Systems: (None)
• Embarked Craft: (1) Starcub-Class Shuttlecraft (circa 2122) <ref>Alien</ref> at the time of the Nostromo's destruction. The ship class was latter fitted to carry (2) Starcub-Class Shuttlecraft by 2179 <ref>Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual, HarperPrism 1996</ref>

[edit] Gallery

Detail view of refinery cargo barge underside.	Detail shot of tug separation from cargo barge.	Shot of tug moving from cargo barge after separation.	Shot of Nostromo in orbit.
Shot of the MU-TH-UR computer annex. Scott wanted the the set to be tightly enclosed and isolated from the rest of the ship -- like being in the womb.	Top: when Ridley Scott signed on to direct Alien, he asked artist Ron Cobb to retink his designs for the ship. One of the results was this "fanciful NASA" upside-down pyramid ship. Bottom: an early version of the Nostromo's ramp and air lock access.	Early Ron Cobb designs for the ship's bridge.

[edit] See also

• Haunted House
• Event Horizon (film)
• Derelict (Alien)

[edit] References

Alien, Predator and Alien vs. Predator

pt:Nostromo (Alien)