Spherical Designs
Spheres, IMO, are the best design for a space ship.
In space there is no air resistance for wings to have any effect.
If you look at any large space body, it is a sphere.
In space there is no up or down, orientation is any which way your are facing.
Ship designs are often depicted showing some type of propulsion outlet.
Those outlets, rockets, nacelles, whatever, limits the ships direction heading.
A ship using this type of design has to 'come about' to change heading.
"Coming About" often implies a maneuver over distance or a maneuver using lateral/ventral thrusters.
It is possible that thrust is not the only method of propulsion.
Without the need for thrust alignment a sphere can change direction without 'coming about'
A sphere does not require a maneuver for alignment.
If you roll a ball on the floor in one direction you can stop the ball and roll it in any direction without turning it to a new orientation.
If you roll a toy car on the floor and stop it, you must turn the car to point to the new direction.
Without a need for thrusters, the entire surface of a sphere can be dedicated to weapons or sensors.
Any force shield you may use requires only a single calibration because there are no angles to compensate for.
Science has confirmed that gravitational waves exist. As a sphere, gravitational influences are relatively even upon the ship where longer ships will have differing influences along its hull depending on its orientation to the gravity source.
Artificial gravity will also be easier to produce and maintain with a spherical ship.
Install a high gravity particle in the dead center (like a chunk of neutron star) and the sphere resembles the gravity of a planet or moon. In a long ship, something must be done to assure even gravity throughout the ship.
Without the need for artificial gravity generators the sphere with a core particle would never lose its gravity in a battle. That is because the gravity would not be artificially generated.
A sphere (with shields) would also be easier to make planet fall and land. No drag resistance also means less heat build up. With no need for propulsion nozzles it could fly thru air or water in any direction with no need for banking or aerodynamic maneuvering.
Quora said:
If you intend to go into space battles, with energy weapons and protective shields, then spherical is your best choice, as it has the smallest surface area for a given volume. And it has exactly the same profile in all directions. For a battle in 3D that’s a very important property.
Spherical ships are not required to be smooth. While a very advanced civilization may require no protruding devices some lesser civilizations may still need to gather using primitive methods like antennas, solar energy panels and sensor receivers. A truly advanced civilization would likely make the surface of their spacecraft able to perform the various functions. Additionally, a truly advanced civilization will have astounding thermal efficiency so there will likely be no outward need for heat radiation (no cooling fins or grids).
An advanced alien fleet may resemble...
Featureless spheres of differing sizes. No outward impression of orientation or source of propulsion.
With an advanced enough technology your encounter with them could be in the form of a giant Dyson Sphere ball with no features at all.
From an artistic or science fiction fandom perspective spheres don't look amazing or powerful.
They don't play with emotions the way the ominous looking battle cruisers do.
They are not thought of as a 'sleek design'.
Imagine you are in your battle cruiser or star destroyer and you come upon an unknown alien ship that looks like a big pinball. What you don't know is that this alien technology has impenetrable shields and can manipulate their shape. You fire at them. They don't fire back and your assault has null effect.
The aliens move towards you at greater and greater speed while arranging their shields into a very sharp point. They penetrate your shields and your hull and pass right thru your ship and out the other side. It leaves a hole in your ship just larger than their ship. BUT...While they were in your ship they launch spheres inside your ship similar to Battleship Shredder Drones.
While you are busy trying to get a reorientation on the alien ship it changes its shield positioning and just moves to a new heading and hits another section of your ship releasing even more of its deadly orbs.
As you are dying from exposure, you see the alien ship slide past as it reabsorbs its orbs and disappears.
