Fictional Starships compared by size

On September 27 2013 18:28 Irratonalys wrote:
at least post the original link from which this deviantart guy seems to have stolen most of his stuff

http://www.merzo.net/

On September 27 2013 19:26 Gulf wrote:
starcraft ships seem to have odd dimensions, over 2 km across for a mothership, yet its only about as wide as 15 marines in a line

On September 27 2013 18:34 DaCruise wrote:
I dont see the Death Star or the mothership from Independence Day. Those are prolly the biggest out there.

On September 27 2013 20:23 Liquid`Drone wrote:


the independence day one is at the bottom left. and it does look like the biggest one - 24000 meters.

On September 27 2013 20:13 Zyl wrote:
Wow! Protoss needs bigger toys!^^

Still looking the coolest: Executor class super Star Destroyer!

The Warhammer ships look funny, you can see they are table top minis. Those skull ornaments were probably pretty small IRL, but then some guy decided "mine is thousands of kilometers long!!" and suddenly the skull is as big as the Imperial-I class Star Destroyer^^

The EVE ships look interesting, somewhat organic. I wonder what their story is.

On September 27 2013 20:38 Destructicon wrote:


I'm not sure if it was retconned later on or if you read wrong but I know for a fact a executor class super star destroyer was 8 KM long, the average star destroyer being only 1.6 KM in length. So it was still substantially larger and had tons more firepower then most other capital ships but it wasn't the biggest.

The biggest SSD (Super Star Destroyer), that I know of was the Eclipse class. I think only one was ever made, it was 17k KM long and with several substantial upgrades over the old SSD kinds, it had shield generators build deep into the hull and better protected, it had 4 gravity well generators build into it, so it could act as a interdictor cruiser and suck ships out of hyperspace. It also had a Death Star esque laser, that ran the length of the ship and fired from the tip at the end, it wasn't the big planet buster laser, but one of the side lasers that feed power into the big one, still it had enough power to cause cataclysmic damage to a planet and/or destroy a any ship know of till then.

Anyway awesome drawing, the size of most of the things in SC2 really makes us humans look insignificantly small and fragile by comparison.

Edit: Nvm, I saw both the Executor and the Eclipse in the top link, 19 KM holy mother of mercy.

On September 27 2013 21:00 FFW_Rude wrote:
Biggest one is

SHIP NAME/TYPE: Dyson Sphere
DIAMETER: 200,000,000km
BUILDER/COMMENTS: "The Dyson Sphere was constructed over a million years ago by an unknown race, and abandoned several thousand years ago, presumably due to instability in the central star. The carbon-neutronium shell is approximately 2500 metres thick, and is presumed to contain circulation equipment for the Class-M environmental systems as well as artificial gravity and power generators, but this is an as-yet untested hypothesis, since only limited access has been gained and sensors are unable to penetrate the material. The upper atmosphere polarises to provide an artificial day/night cycle of 15.4 hours of light and 10.2 hours of darkness." From here.

SOURCE: Star Trek is where this particular iteration is derived from, however I will quote from Anders Sandberg's great site: "the The Dyson sphere (or Dyson shell) was originally proposed in 1959 by the astronomer Freeman Dyson as a way for an advanced civilization to utilise all of the energy radiated by their sun. It is an artificial sphere the size of an planetary orbit. The sphere would consist of a shell of solar collectors or habitats around the star, so that all (or at least a significant amount) energy will hit a receiving surface where it can be used. This would create a huge living space and gather enormous amounts of energy." see here for more information.


Never heard of it though

And for death stars




SHIP NAME/TYPE: Death Star II/ Mobile Command Base
DIAMETER: 160km (official size, see http://www.theforce.net/swtc/ds/ for an alternate size theory and discussion.)
BUILDER/COMMENTS: The Empire under Darth Sidious (human). Incorporated into the base is a laser-type weapon capable of destroying an entire Earth sized planet.
SOURCE: Star Wars, Episode VI (Film)


SHIP NAME/TYPE: Death Star/ Mobile Command Base
DIAMETER: 120km (official size, see http://www.theforce.net/swtc/ds/ for an alternate size theory and discussion.)
BUILDER/COMMENTS: The Empire under Darth Sidious (human). Incorporated into the base is a laser-type weapon capable of destroying an entire Earth sized planet.
SOURCE: Star Wars, Episode IV (Film)

From http://www.merzo.net/

On September 27 2013 19:26 Gulf wrote:
starcraft ships seem to have odd dimensions, over 2 km across for a mothership, yet its only about as wide as 15 marines in a line

On September 27 2013 21:20 Tobberoth wrote:

There is definitely something wrong with the SC2 comparison, the top part and the lower part don't match. I mean, look at the size of a phoenix and compare it to a marine. It's about half as big.

On September 27 2013 21:20 Tobberoth wrote:

There is definitely something wrong with the SC2 comparison, the top part and the lower part don't match. I mean, look at the size of a phoenix and compare it to a marine. It's about half as big.

On September 28 2013 00:50 Kipsate wrote:
Science Vessel is larger then I imagined, probably because I also imagined it to be piloted by one guy for some reason.

On September 28 2013 00:50 Kipsate wrote:
Science Vessel is larger then I imagined, probably because I also imagined it to be piloted by one guy for some reason.

On September 27 2013 21:13 Caihead wrote:
Well Eldar Craftworlds are technically Starships and those are planetoid-sized and are supposed to house at least millions, but they never explicitly state a size because nerds would nitpick everything apart.

On September 28 2013 02:12 intrigue wrote:
i wonder how big heighliners from Dune are in this context

On September 28 2013 02:08 gedatsu wrote:
Needs the final robot from TTGL. The one that throws around galaxies.

On September 28 2013 04:01 HereBeDragons wrote:
Hmm, are you sure these are to-scale models? Take for example, this picture below:

+ Show Spoiler +

The Homeworld Bentusi in the middle is 450m approx., but it's bigger than the 2464m Protoss Mothership?!?!

On September 28 2013 03:18 Nachtwind wrote:


Am i a mad nerd when i say i don´t like that anime mechas participate in this? :>

On September 28 2013 04:45 Rassy wrote:
Oh only now see the dyson sphere.
Wonder if this is actually viable, wouldnt it get incredibly hot inside as all radiation stays inside?
And how to prevent it from exploding due to the build up of heat?
I read about the concept before but when you think about it, it seems kinda impossible no matter how advanced technology is.

On September 28 2013 05:28 Gamegene wrote:
it's not about the size of your spaceship it's the size of your laser that really matters.

macross wins!

On September 27 2013 21:01 MoltkeWarding wrote:
The obvious conclusion to draw is this: Darth Vader's Star Destroyer which made its debut in the Empire Strikes Back was designed for its visual effect, and aura of domineering size. Its was not designed with nerdometric concerns in mind.

On September 28 2013 06:57 Yorbon wrote:
An scv is larger then a hydralisk? TT

On September 28 2013 07:51 Destructicon wrote:
Well, to be fair SW can get away with going nearly full fantasy with some of its stuff given that the action is set in a different galaxy that evolved in its own way.

The history of SW is also phenomenally long, with something ridiculous along the lines of hyper-drive being first developed 100k years before the battle of Yavin, the force being discovered 35k years before the battle of Yavin. And all along there have been millions of wars that have raged forcing the acceleration of technology or the destruction of some.

The only other comparably long timeline is the Warhammer universe which had its history span 40k years, only 40% of the length of SW and for vast periods of time solar systems where in isolation from each other due to chaos storms, so technological sharing and development was substantially slowed.

Yeah I can imagine technology developing at a rather frightening rate and able to reach nearly absurd levels of sophistication in 100k years.

On September 28 2013 05:39 h41fgod wrote:

It is essentially the size of a solar system. Heat buildup would not be a problem, especially not since it is hypothetically designed to use all the energy for something.

On September 28 2013 16:41 Simberto wrote:


Yeah, that is kind of the whole point of the dyson sphere, to completely harvest the energy a star emits.

Also, afaik the general idea of a dyson sphere is usually NOT to have a solid sphere, but a huge amount of smaller orbiting segments which in total absorb all of the energy of the star. Which is a lot more viable, since it is pretty easy to get something to circle a star, while you would need an absurdly strong material to actually build a sphere the size of a solar system because you could only cancel out gravity with centrifugal force on a ring, not a sphere.

On September 27 2013 19:20 -Kaiser- wrote:
Dune ships? I think the guild heighliner is 20 000 metres long.

On September 27 2013 18:34 DaCruise wrote:
I dont see the Death Star or the mothership from Independence Day. Those are prolly the biggest out there.

On September 28 2013 16:41 Simberto wrote:


Yeah, that is kind of the whole point of the dyson sphere, to completely harvest the energy a star emits.

Also, afaik the general idea of a dyson sphere is usually NOT to have a solid sphere, but a huge amount of smaller orbiting segments which in total absorb all of the energy of the star. Which is a lot more viable, since it is pretty easy to get something to circle a star, while you would need an absurdly strong material to actually build a sphere the size of a solar system because you could only cancel out gravity with centrifugal force on a ring, not a sphere.

On September 28 2013 17:01 dravernor wrote:
Wow, this blew my mind.
Where are these stats coming from? I always used to think Battlecruisers were massive.

On September 28 2013 20:33 Gulf wrote:


The issue of having many objects orbiting around all the different great circles of a star is that its a lot harder to get things to orbit some parts of a star than others. There's a reason why all the planets in our solar system orbit on almost the same plane, and if assume that plane to be the approximate "equator of the sun" for purpose of being able to visualise, then when you try to have an object orbit from pole to pole you would find its unlikely it would maintain that orbit. And this is completely ignoring likelihood of collisions with all the crossing orbit paths.

On September 28 2013 17:21 h41fgod wrote:

Producing enough steel to build a Death Star (the small one), would take Earths entire production with projected increases for the next 178 years or so. The technology we would have when a dyson sphere is the least bit feasible will be insane. Though rings and or plates are a likely start for a dyson sphere.

On September 29 2013 02:23 Rassy wrote:



No civilisation will ever build a dyson sphere,Have you calculated how much material would be needed to build one at the seize of earth,s orbit? the one from starwars is supposed to be 2500km thick. It is not viable at al for so manny reasons like someone else said earlier.
And if we would have the technology to build a dyson sphere,we would be so advanced that there would be no need for a sun annymore, and with that no reason for a sphere. Realy think that no such thing will ever exist in this universe.
unfortunatly i might add though

On September 29 2013 03:33 Yurie wrote:


There is one reason a a Dyson Sphere might be built. Hiding a star from somebody. This assumes cross galactic wars and being on the losing side.

On September 29 2013 02:23 Rassy wrote:
No civilisation will ever build a dyson sphere,Have you calculated how much material would be needed to build one at the seize of earth,s orbit? the one from starwars is supposed to be 2500km thick. It is not viable at al for so manny reasons like someone else said earlier.

On September 29 2013 04:18 Black Gun wrote:
another issue i see with the dyson sphere are objects from outside colliding with it. there are asteroids entering the inner solar system all the time, many of them being absolutely massive. how would the outer side of the dyson sphere be protected against these impacts?

On September 29 2013 04:48 MountainDewJunkie wrote:
Where's deep space nine? Okay, it's not quite a ship, per se, but I'm sure it can technically move if necessary and it is fiction, so throw me a bone here

On September 29 2013 04:20 And G wrote:

Pretty sure there's no Dyson sphere in Star Wars...

White House petition

In late 2012, a petition was submitted to the White House website urging that the United States government build a real Death Star as an economic stimulus and a means to ensure people got back to work again, and wanted its completion by 2016 at the earliest.

The petition gained more than 25,000 signatures, ensuring that an official response be supplied. In early 2013, the proposal was rejected (in a tongue-and-cheek manner), citing that the overall cost of the Death Star's construction would amount to a cost exceeding $852 quadrillion, and would take 833,000 years before it could even be ready for construction due to the rate of steel production.

Another reason for the rejection was also because the Government "did not support blowing up planets

On September 29 2013 05:12 Xxio wrote:
The Yggdrasil from Hyperion is the biggest I've read/seen/heard of, iirc.

On September 29 2013 05:03 Simberto wrote:


It can move a bit, they moved it towards the wormhole in the first episode. But i doubt you can call that a spaceship.

On September 29 2013 07:03 Aiello wrote:
No death start?

On September 29 2013 05:30 h41fgod wrote:

Had to look up the size of a tree ship... But it is smaller than a standard Star Destroyer from Star Wars at a kilometer in length or so.

On September 28 2013 19:59 Nacl(Draq) wrote:


If I remember correctly the independence day mothership was roughly 1/3rd the size of the moon. The deathstar is the size of a moon so I think they win.

On October 01 2013 09:33 MotorDouglas wrote:
does anyone know the size of the ishimura fro dead space and how it would compare to other ships?