Suggestions and bullshitting thread, venting, etc. [NSFW]

Military spacecraft would already be hard enough to maintain without automated repair systems. Also, in space, next to nothing is hard to come by, except for things that require high amounts of power to produce, like antimatter, tho you could probably just park a station right inside the sun’s photosphere for that. On the topic of resources worth fighting lightyears around for tho, I’d just make up some sorta mgguffin, leik, black “oil” Bose-Einstein condensate reservoirs within the icy crust of unusually extremely-cold planets.  
%(Bose-Einstein condensate shouldn’t occur naturally in the universe, and since it can be used to, leik, preserve antimatter, it’s practically “black-body” gold)%
 
When I think “efficient” mech that still flies around wildly, I think;  

 
combined with the concept of ‘‘intentional instability’’ ;  

The latest generation of fighter aircraft often employ design elements which reduce stability to increase maneuverability. Greater stability leads to lesser control surface authority, therefore a less stable design will have a faster response to control inputs. This is highly sought after in fighter aircraft design.

A less stable aircraft requires smaller control deflections to initiate maneuvering; consequently drag and control surface imposed stresses will be reduced and aircraft responsiveness will be enhanced. Since these characteristics will typically make control by the pilot difficult or impossible, an artificial stability will typically be imposed using computers, servos, and sensors as parts of a fly by wire control system.

Propellers (as well as screws, fans and rotors) are used to move through a fluid. Propellers have been used as toys since ancient times, however it was Leonardo da Vinci who devised what was one of the earliest propeller driven vehicles, the “aerial-screw”. In 1661, Toogood & Hays adopted the screw for use as a ship propeller. Since then, the propeller has been tested on many terrestrial vehicles, including the Schienenzeppelin train and numerous cars. In modern times, propellers are most prevalent on watercraft and aircraft, as well as some amphibious vehicles such as hovercraft and ground-effect vehicles. Intuitively, propellers cannot work in space as there is no working fluid, however some sources have suggested that since space is never empty, a propeller could be made to work in space.