Why the ISV Venture Star is a Brilliant Design

Spacedock delves into an exceptional ship design from James Cameron's #Avatar, the ISV Venture Star.

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Battlezone II Music by Carey Chico

Spacedock does not hold ownership of the copyrighted materiel (Footage, Stills etc) taken from the various works of fiction covered in this series, and uses them within the boundaries of Fair Use for the purpose of Analysis, Discussion and Review. Produced by Daniel Orrett. Owner/Executive Producer at Spacedock.

[Spacedock]

Give it up for Hooj on his first Spacedock thought piece!
I thought this one turned out really great. - Dan

[danadraper]

Never realized how much actual engineering design went into this ship.

[chadsenate]

RDA on the first movie:
"Well, these ships are among the most advanced tech mankind has built. As such, it doesnt come off cheap either. Lets have it stationed on the pandora just one at any given time and have it arrive and depart at regulated intervals."

RDA on the second movie:
"In fealty to the God-Emperor, our undying Lord, and by the grace of the golden throne..."

[loganb]

These looked so sick in the 2nd movie. The landing sequence was terrifying.

[Martin-]

Watching that ISV fleet decelerate towards Pandora was amazing! That was basically humanity saying, "we're back, and we ain't playing nice this time."

[Vespuchian]

I recall reading somewhere the Venture Star was originally designed _much_ longer, maybe three times longer, for a more realistic distance between the engines and crew but was shortened so the thing would fit on screen.
Great design, my favourite part of the whole movie.

[iambenij]

I saw Avatar 2 today. At one point I thought: "Damn, SpaceDock will love those radiators"

[DanteKG.]

I remember when Avatar came out and we watched it, my father commented how production thought about the design and pointed to the dual rotor choppers which seemed to be made for a jungle enviroment. So it's not just the spaceship that is realistic :D

[marvelouschester]

Considering how much the story focused on the human-na’vi conflict, it’s insane how well thought out this world and its tech is

[mikewaterfield]

This has the hands of James Cameron all over it. He's not perfect but in every film he makes everything has a lived in feel and a sense of reality, even in sci fi.

[stormycatmink]

So many artists fail to grasp this. Everyone loves to call out the 'rule of cool', without taking into account that designs built on the rule of constraints and science end up being far cooler and more endearing over time. The human brain just likes things that make sense. Regardless of how pretty a nonsensical design is, it'll never get the same level of attachment from people as one where form follows function.

[sarahscott]

Unobtanium was a common term used in materials engineering for quite some time. The American version was Wishgrantium.
Basically they are short hand for a material that had to have properties beyond current technology.

[wrenchtheroo]

Its impressive that most of the vehicle we find in avatar are plausible and actually are grounded in reality. I recently watched avatar 2 and during the opening sequence i noticed that the dozers are quite accurate to what we currently have and are well animated

[generalflix]

I really hope we get to see the ISV Venture Star again, or even better, multiple of its class or even newer developments. And hopefully they adhere to engineering constraints as well as the original.

[ashleyhamman]

Another thing that's great about the design is that it was clearly intended to never see any sort of atmosphere. I'm not talking about the wings, but rather that every bit and piece is exposed and not behind fancy but heavy fairings or cowlings. This is especially evident with those fuel tanks. Spheres are the most efficient storage method for using minmal materials for maximum volume, which is mostly unlike "NASA-punk", where tanks are cylindrical with hemispherical caps due to having to be sent up in the package of a rocket body.

[i_am_the_wallace]

Seeing even more of this ship in action in Avatar 2 was great

[killerdoritoWA]

I like what James Cameron did with the Venture Star. Like Terminator and Alien series, he creates a world that makes the nearly impossible possible, without playing the audience for a fool.

[mcd]

I've always loved humanities design approach in Avatar. One of the most relestic takes on future Human space travel and tech. Care more about the tech than the blue monkey storyline.

[nickparks]

I always just thought of this ship as throwaway nasa-punk type stuff. I did notice the awesome radiators but that was about it. Cool to see it was actually a really well thought out realistic design :)

[knghtbrd]

The Venture Star is IMO the best thing about that movie. Don't misunderstand—I liked Avatar, but the ship really is great, and I have got to be honest with myself that so much else in the movie was done elsewhere, sometimes much better. Not necessarily so with that ship.

Would love to see you guys take a look at Space: Above and Beyond. Yeah, it's another fighters-move-like-jets show, but so much else about the show was really well—it kind of had a Wing Commander vibe to me at the time with the fairly decent portrayal of different ship classes that I can forgive the notion of dogfights with fighters that fly like jets in space. I'd love a closer look at this mostly forgotten property.