EVE Fiction

none, at least none of the capsuleer-pilotable ships are (remember - T1 hulls are just re-purposed warships from the past). There are likely other ships that we just don't pay attention to that can.

Dunno what the ships have (not gone into that much from the chronicles/books IIRC) ... probably some sort of thrust vectoring.

In the lore it says that Tritanium (the mineral used the most in every ship) reacts rather...explosively...with atmosphere. Therefore, making it impossible for our ships to enter a planet in one piece.

Of course, that bit of information contradicts the existence of crews, who would need an atmosphere to survive inside the ship. The counter argument to this has typically been that crew compartments and life support systems aren't made out of Tritanium. Alright, that sounds pretty good.

But then Walking in Stations came out and once again brought the topic up again. We have a balcony right in the hanger, so it's safe to assume that the hanger is pressurized unless there is some invisible forcefield containing the atmosphere on the station. So we really don't know how a ship would operate in atmosphere because the lore writers can't decide whether or not they spontaneously combust when they come in contact with a planet's air.

Assuming they can indeed enter atmosphere safely, then you have the problem of aerodynamics. Most ships are anything but aerodynamic and those that are would handle like bricks. Considering there are no real wings on any of our ships, there will be no way to generate lift, requiring our ships to use thrust and thrust alone to handle overcoming drag and gravity. Anything larger than a cruiser would be a challenge to keep aloft.

TL;DR Ships in EVE probably can operate in atmosphere, except that it would be wildly impractical and extremely dangerous to do so, even with smaller craft such as frigates.

While I do acknowledge that the Rifter certainly could have landing skids - it is certainly one of the more aerodynamic ships in EVE -Theodicy (and just about anything else written by TonyG) tends to play fast and loose with a lot of lore, so I'm hesitant to give much credit towards that; another of his novels had a dreadnought somehow manage sustained atmospheric flight.

In reality, the greatest problem for any of our vessels entering the atmosphere is not lack of control surfaces or sheer mass, but that they were not structurally designed to function with the kind of external stresses that movement in an atmosphere entails. Even the thickest stellar clouds we fly through aren't likely to present anything near the forces - mechanical shock, differential drag shearing, frictional heating, etc - that flying in an atmosphere would.

For the atmospheric pressure part, sheilds? Duhh! and for the aerodynamics part, small ships like frigates have "manuverability thrusters" to turn withoput air (no air, rudders and wing flaps are useless). These could be repurposed to beep a hovering position in a planets atmosphere, kind of like a harrier jet. And for bigger ships, they could use this technology in a similar fashion, not to land, but to maintain a stratospherical orbit, so to speak, and manage planetary interaction and what not via computers and shuttlecraft/dropships.

All ships capsulers fly are built in space and are designed with this in mind. Shuttles could possibly serve as puddle jumpers, ferrying people from planet to sky. More generally though people would use the space elevators associated with planetary customs offices.

As for handwavium magitech like grav-lifts, I'm afraid I have no idea. Maybe? Someone better versed in EVE lore would need to weigh in on that one.

Interesting thread. I guess the common consensus is that atmospheric pressure is greater than the forces a ship would encounter accelerating and decelerating from warp speed which is certainly faster then the speed of light. Can't say I agree with that notion.

Some of the most modern aircraft today completely rely upon constant computer adjustments to their control surfaces to stay aloft because they are otherwise flying bricks that no human could react fast enough to control. (Stealth Fighter)

If I had to venture a guess I'd suspect that some combination of brute force thrust vectoring, combined with shields to nullify aerodynamic challenges, working with computerized controls would make some ships air worthy, shuttles, frigates, blockade runners in particular seem reasonable candidates.

After all the now retired US space shuttle basically fell back to Earth just using gravity and minimal aerodynamics, a brick with just enough wing and tail to keep it roughly pointed at a target on the ground you lined up for while still in space.

Damit you lazy gallente, work faster ! I can't wait to see this lore material

I'm imagining a race out there in space somewhere trying to reproduce the ships & stations of Eve a la "Galaxy Quest"... If they're reading this: "Good luck guys!"

MDD

Shouldn't you really send hazmat teams to the crash site, what with the Rifter's fission reactor and all. Plus the other construction materials in general that are possibly highly toxic when burning. Not to mention probably very volatile ammunition and...

But basicly you're saying that no, our ships cannot enter atmosphere? Then, among these lore files of yours, are there any ground spaceports or is everything done with space elevators?

I don't really get how it's much of a question TBH. I mean Zinc oxidizes pretty quickly when exposed to air. In fact oxidation is ironically how it actually how it prevents further oxidation. The layer of Zinc Oxide formed when pure Zinc is exposed to Oxygen prevents further oxidation by physically preventing more Oxygen from coming into contact with the remaining Zinc.

This process occurs in most metals aside from the noble metals and Iron because Iron is the most dickish of all elements.