Editing Spaceship (section)

=== Things your definitely want on your spaceship ===
* '''Computers''': Technically you could operate a spaceship with a sextant and a slide rule and a set of valves and switches, as a matter of fact some unfortunate sods in the Apollo program were forced to do it when most power failed. Even so things are a hell of a lot easier with a computer monitoring systems. It also helps streamline the myriad other functions.
* '''Sensors''': You'd want some means of knowing your surrounding. Cameras with telescopes, RADAR, LIDAR and other such mechanism are all pretty useful. While viewports are a low-tech solution for crews to see what's outside, they need to be kept small to avoid becoming a risky hazard waiting to burst.
* '''Cargo Capacity''': There's not much point in traveling the stars if you're not bringing anything with you, whether it be food, equipment, base prefabs, exotic resources, etc.
* '''Communications''': Your probably won't be the only ship out there so you'll want to communicate with others, as well as planets and stations. Less advanced spaceships will probably use traditional radio waves, which are fine for nearby planets but may need hours for anything farther due to lightspeed lag and if you're outside a solar system it's utterly useless. More advanced communications will require either quantum entanglement, fancy particles or whatever FTL principle is used, if any.
* '''Radiation shielding''': Seeing how spacecraft neither have a planetary atmosphere nor a magnetic field to block solar radiation from saturating your vessel (in real life, it's bad enough to the point that satellites and spacecraft carry 3-6 backup computer banks or hardened circuits to keep their code from being scrambled by stray cosmic rays), you'll need either a generous amount of radiation resistant material (such as lead or water) or some alternative method (like an artificial magnetic field) to prevent you from getting terminal cancer or having critical electronics degrade.