Space Battleship Yamato (spaceship)

Yamato

The Space Battleship Yamato.
First appearance Space Battleship Yamato
Affiliation Earth Defense Force (Earth Federation)
Launched 2199
Decommissioned 2203, Recommissioned in 2220
General characteristics
Class Yamato class battleship
Registry None
Maximum speed 50 Space Knots
Fighters Cosmo Tigers, Cosmo Zero, Cosmo Pulsar, Cosmo Pulsar Bomber
Auxiliary craft Hospital and Medical shuttles
Armaments
  • 6 Barrel Wave Motion Gun
  • Shock cannons
  • Pulse lasers
  • Missile silos
Defenses
  • Reflective shield
  • Bubble shield
  • Missle barrier shields
Propulsion Wave Motion Engine
Mass 62,000t
Length 285.8m
Width 34.6m
Height 77.0m

Space Battleship Yamato is the title spaceship from the anime series Space Battleship Yamato and was designed by Leiji Matsumoto. According to the fictional continuity of the anime series, the spacecraft was built inside the remains of the Japanese battleship Yamato. In the American dub of the series, Star Blazers, the spaceship has the same origin but when is launched into space is renamed the Argo (after the mythical ship Argo of Jason and the Argonauts). In Spanish and Latin American countries its name was also changed to Intrépido ("Intrepid").

Contents

Construction

According to the fictional continuity of the Space Battleship Yamato anime series the wreck of the World War II battleship Yamato, sunk in the sea near Okinawa, was used to hide a military spacecraft created by the Earth Defence Force in the late 22nd century. At this time Earth was under attack from an alien race, the Gamilons, who were raining down radioactive asteroids that evaporated Earth's oceans and rendered its surface uninhabitable. The new space warship was built "inside" the wreckage of the ancient battleship, which was partially buried in what was now a dry seabed, thus concealing it from the view of the orbiting Gamilon vessels.

The new Yamato spaceship was originally conceived as a "Noah's Ark", designed to transport the best examples of Earth life to seed a new world away from danger. The arrival of a messenger from the planet Iscandar changed this: the message contained plans for a space drive called the Wave Motion Engine, which would give a spacecraft immense power and enable it to travel faster than light. The message also urged humanity to travel to Iscandar (148,000 light years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud) and obtain a device which would cleanse Earth of its deadly radiation.

Features

Main systems

The Yamato has three bridges; Bridge 1 contains the helm, radar, communications and command positions (including those for engineering and ship's defences), and is the scene of much of the action and interaction in the series. In the second season it gains a time radar system capable of viewing a region of space as it appeared hours previously. Bridge 2 is Navigation, and where warp plans and courses are plotted. Bridge 3 hangs below the ship, it serves as a backup to Bridge 1. In the 2009 Anime, Yamato Rebirth it is painted blue and has been converted into a radar post that plays a critical role. However, it still gets blown off.

At the top of the command tower is the Captain's personal quarters, a chair on a vertical track giving him the option of moving to his command post in Bridge 1 quickly. Either side of the main bridge are radar units, and below is Bridge 2, the main navigation centre of the ship. Directly below the command tower, on the underside of the ship, is Bridge 3; it is featured significantly only once, when the Yamato was upside-down in the methane sea on Pluto. There are also observation domes either side of the command tower, and larger windowed sections either side of the main hull.

Elsewhere aboard the ship are a conference room (with a large floor-mounted screen) and a hologram chamber (the "entertainment room") for projecting images of Earth to combat homesickness (and which was nearly identical in purpose and function to the holodeck that would be used in the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series more than a decade later--but was first introduced in the 1974 Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "The Practical Joker"). There is also a cryogenics chamber in which much of the crew apparently sleeps during the series (most notably female crew members, as Yuki (Nova) is the only woman seen aboard after episode 10 of the first season). An engineering and development section contains an automated multi-purpose construction unit capable of building any required device. More mundane locations include the surgery, galley, stateroom and gym. Travel within the ship is achieved by means of lifts, moving walkways and, for emergencies, chutes.

In the 2009 anime, the walkways are removed and replaced with steel floors. The conference room now projects holograms, and it is unclear whether the entertainment room, construction unit or cryogenics chamber is still onboard.

Propulsion

The Wave Motion Engine ([1] hadō enjin?)
the ship's main engine, based on alien technology; it is capable of converting the vacuum of space into tachyon energy. As well as functioning like a normal rocket engine, and providing essentially infinite power to the ship, it enables the Yamato to "ride" the wave of tachyons and travel faster than light; in its first test it travels from Earth's Moon to Mars in one minute. However, this feature must be activated with perfect timing (by a human navigator), at a point when space at the origin and destination are in the correct phase, otherwise the ship could become lost in the fourth dimension. In Yamato Rebirth the engine can warp even faster than before.
Auxiliary engine (補助エンジン hojo enjin?)
twin jets below the main engine port, used for quick bursts of speed. When the Yamato first launches, the Wave Motion Engine is not yet ready and the auxiliary engine is used instead.
Wings (主翼 shuyoku?)
to provide lift in atmospheric environments, two large wings unfold from the sides of the hull, fully functional with ailerons.
Rocket Anchors (ロケットアンカー?)
either side of the bow are rocket-powered anchors at the ends of strong chains, which the Yamato can use to anchor itself to asteroids and, if necessary, provide a gravity-assisted slingshot. They can also be used to deflect enemy ships from collision.

Weaponry / defences

The Wave Motion Gun (波動砲 hadō hō?)
The "trump card" of the Yamato, the Wave Motion Gun functions by connecting the Wave Motion Engine to the enormous firing gate at the ship's bow, enabling the tachyon energy power of the engine to be fired in a stream directly forwards. As of the 2009 movie, it has six reactors, and it can fire six shots instead of one large one. However, when combined to fire a single shot, it may rip the hull apart. Enormously powerful, it can vapourise a fleet of enemy ships with one shot; however, it takes a brief but critical period to charge before firing. It used to require all non-essential power systems be deactivated, but now it only leaves the ship unable to warp a short time after firing. The recoil absorption mechanism can be manually deactivated with a lever; this is used to save the ship on one occasion.
Shock Cannons (ショックカノン?)
The three 45.9cm and two 15.5cm three-barrelled gun turrets of the original Yamato have been converted into powerful energy guns. Each turret fires three energy beams which spiral around each other to form a single, more powerful beam, capable of severely damaging or destroying enemy warships. The cannons are operated by seated human controllers, aiming orders transmitted from Bridge One. In addition to firing energy blasts, the guns can be loaded with other ammunition, most notably cartridges containing the devices used in the Rotating Asteroid Defence (see below). In the movie Be Forever, Yamato they are used to fire missiles containing Wave Motion energy, which even with a hundredth the power of the Wave Motion Gun cause tremendous destruction.
Pulse Lasers (パルスレーザー?)
Based on the 25 mm and 13 mm anti-aircraft machine guns of the original Yamato, the Pulse Lasers are a set of two- and four-barrelled gun turrets lining the sides of the spaceship, firing energy pulses which can destroy fighters and detonate missiles. The turret clusters generally aim at the same targets; it is not stated in the series whether each contains a gunner, or whether they are controlled from a central source.
Torpedo Tubes (艦首ミサイル Kanshu Misairu?)
Six forward-firing & six aft-firing torpedo tubes, principally for use underwater. In the 2009 anime, it can fire barrier defense missiles.
Side Missiles (両舷側ミサイル Ryōgensoku Misairu?)
A set of anti-missile missiles launched from missile ports in the hull of the Yamato; rather than hitting directly, they explode at a safe distance and form an energy web that detonates incoming missiles. (barrier defense missiles)
Stack Missiles (煙突ミサイル Entotsu Misairu?)
Rocket missiles fired vertically from what was once the smoke stack of the original Yamato.
The Black Tigers (ブラックタイガー?)/Cosmo Tigers (コスモタイガー?)
Cosmo Pulsars and Cosmo Pulsar Bombers. A fleet of fighter planes, contained within a hangar in the ship's rear underside. The Black Tiger fighters of the first season are superseded by the Cosmo Tigers of the second season, though both seasons feature the Cosmo Zero fighter piloted by Susumu Kodai (Derek Wildstar in Star Blazers), which is usually launched from one of the catapults on the top deck near the stern. The hangar also contains other, non-combat planes for reconnaissance and transport. In the 2009 anime, all the Black Tigers and Cosmo Tigers are replaced with Cosmo Pulsars, which are more advanced. Another new fighter is the Cosmo Pulsar Bomber, which has two Wave Motion Torpedoes attached to it. Large robotic arms move the jets out of their hangar spaces.
Rotating Asteroid Defence (アステロイド防衛 Asteroid Bōei?)
Used in the first and second seasons, this involves using the Shock Cannons to fire showers of small metal probes into asteroid fields; these devices are magnetically controlled and can bring the asteroids close to the ship, forming a hard shell resistant to enemy fire. This can then be turned into a fast-rotating orbiting ring, its angle controlled from the bridge, which can be used to block individual shots. As a final act, the asteroids can be expelled at high speed in all directions to destroy any ships that venture too close.
Reflective shield (空間磁力メッキ Kūkan Jiryoku Mekki?)
A defence conceived by chief scientist Sanada (Sandor in Star Blazers) when he realised that the Wave Motion Gun is merely an extremely powerful laser, this involves quickly covering the Yamato entirely with reflective material; this was only used once, when Gamilon leader Desler (Desslok) used his self-titled Desler Gun against the Earth ship, and successfully reflected the blast back against its source.
Bubble shield (防塵カバー Bōjin Cover?)
Although the Yamato lacks defensive shields like those used in Star Trek, on one occasion (while trapped in the Octopus Cluster) it generated a shield over its decks which protected it from the fury of a space storm, and even maintained a breathable atmosphere.

2009 Anime

Further reading

External links

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