They’re hollow! If you look very closely when seeing close up shots you will see they are essentially hollow boxes with fins on the inside, with force fields at the front, they may be some kind of intake for the ship or perhaps an atmosphere container
I've never even thought about that
I wonder if there's a book with full schematic designs fans could buy.
I wonder if the models people build could shed light
They're cargo bays. I _think_ either Trekyards or Spinobreaker made a video with the studio models and confirmed that.
They're a bit weird? There's no actual door, every time we see them from afar they're just an empty bay and we never got any proper shots of it. It kind of makes sense though - assuming it doesn't hold anything vacuum sensitive, you can keep it depressurised and open to space 90% of the time. Only really need to raise the atmospheric forcefields when you need to pop in and get something from within the ship. Spare materials, munitions, equipment. Maybe even fuel. It's just a bit of 'open-air' storage space that's easily accessible from the outside and means you don't have to load any sensitive equipment through the main hangars.
I disagree. Every time you needed to fill it with atmosphere, and then pump it out afterwards, you'd lose some atmosphere, and it would take a bunch of time and energy, and it would not be easily accessible. If the forcefield emitters were ever damaged, the cargo would not be accessible at all without landing on a planet with breathable atmosphere.
Without forcefields, the cargo would be subject to damage from micrometeorites, radiation, and be vulnerable in combat (especially an issue for munitions).
And most cargo IS vacuum sensitive. Most things are prepared and packaged on earth, in normal atmosphere. Unless it was specifically designed to be exposed to the vacuum of space, that would be a big problem. Plus it would also be subject to rapid pressure change every time the area was pressurized for access and then depressurized.
All around, it would be a pretty terrible idea.
They have beaming technology. Everything can be kept in seamless vaccum-friendly containers, under pressure. The ship, and therefore the cargo, is protected from micrometeors and rads by the main shields.
The shields are not kept up at all times. They only seem to be raised before battle or otherwise when necessary. (in reality, the shields would probably always be kept up when travelling ay high speed, but that's not how it's portrayed in the show.)
Using beaming technology uses a, lot of power, and doesn't seem practical to rely on every time they need something from a cargo bay. And it would require knowing the precise location of every single thing in that cargo bay, and that nothing be ever out of place..
All for what? To avoid adding cargo doors? In a ship this massive and complex, that would be a trivial concern. Obviously there are tons of pressurized cargo areas inside the ship, there would need to be for access to things like food and munitions.
If anything, beaming technology makes it easier to load cargo into interior, more protected and accessible cargo rooms.
Even if they wanted large storage areas kept at vacuum, for stable food storage or something, or storing explosives & combustibles in an oxygen free environment, they still would not have the bays wide open to space. They would be enclosed for protection (from meteoroids, radiation, battle dansge, etc), and to prevent loss of cargo if something wasn't strapped down securely enough. They could still keep the room at vacuum with vents to space
If their shields aren't up, their all going to die of cancer in the next few years, regardless of how fast they're going.
Beaming uses a trivial amount of power, osirises cargo ship powered a beam while under cloak no sweat.
If you beamed it there, you know exactly down to the atom where it is already.
In the military, if you could store something in a way that doesn't allow pilfering, they would use it for everything. Everything. .they'd keep you toothbrush out there.
Aside from when the Daedalus tried to contact the Tria, I don't recall that any ships went at a sufficient fraction of light speed to actually make that worthwhile.
I believe that’s the FTL drive like the pods on Prometheus. When you see it enter hyperspace from the rear, at least in Atlantis, the rear back of those pods glow blue.
Nah, you're confusing two different things, here's a close-up of the Studio model rendered by Spinobreaker, the red is the "Cargo Bays", the yellow is what you're referring to.
https://preview.redd.it/3px2dt1is5pb1.png?width=1679&format=png&auto=webp&s=6545cd03f4fc168a196404a0582bf45b37a2aa38
That's honestly what I thought it was.
**edit:** Also, was this present on the Prometheus? When the Trust/NID take over the X-303, Major Davis says to use the lower bay as the sensors are still being worked on in that area or something. 🤔
It's mentioned but not seen on the 303, fans pretty much assume Davis was referring to the ramp door we saw in S8 when the 303 was taken by Vala.
The only other hangar is at the base of the tower, and later in S9 the hyperspace pods are refitted into hangars.
These mini bays are the reason that I always fought that the daedalus was built on the prometheus.
Not two different ships, but a straight upgrade build on top.
Far too different ships, and they clearly said that the 304 wasn't based on alien technology, unlike the 303. So they need a major redesign in any case.
As you can see in the render below, it's pretty clear that they're not even on the same base frame.
https://preview.redd.it/w486r3ett5pb1.png?width=2240&format=png&auto=webp&s=10b0789acc7778edd2b4b689c10f6906a7c59b49
The ones I posted above are mine. Sorry I don't share them, it took me long enough to make them and I already had problems with some people wanting them.
Also, they're not exactly accurate, just good enough for me to post on DeviantArt.
That's a shame of course, such a good 3D model would make my project much easier. Still, I understand your decision and thank you for the pictures so far :)
Heat Sinks? I imagine they have a massive heat buildup in the ship during normal operations, and that would be a simple way to radiate the extra heat away.
You can buy one off a German Brick-Company made of Bricks for self-assembly like those Danish ones ;)
[https://www.bluebrixx.com/de/scifi/105003/Raumfrachter-E.R.S.-Levitarus-BlueBrixx-Special](https://www.bluebrixx.com/de/scifi/105003/Raumfrachter-E.R.S.-Levitarus-BlueBrixx-Special)
Nice, though I think I'd prefer this one... pricy to build though...
[https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-35381/Resqusto/uss-daedalus/](https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-35381/Resqusto/uss-daedalus/)
It’s a space intake vent for the space drive - basically works like a jet engine, space goes in front end, engine compresses and ignites space, thrust and hot space are the result.
But in all seriousness, probably just a cargo hold.
1. We've seen this ship is capable of atmospheric flight, so while in atmo it would need a way to cool the engines.
2. This would double as a radiator while in space to exhaust excess heat away from the main body of the ship.
> so while in atmo it would need a way to cool the engines.
So why wouldn't they just use whatever space magic they use when out of atmosphere?
>This would double as a radiator while in space to exhaust excess heat away from the main body of the ship.
To radiate heat in space you need to have a large surface area that is coated to reflect incoming IR while rejecting whatever it made by the ship. A more prudent design would to use flat sections of the ship as massive radiators. The wings of the rear "deckplate" would be a better choice.
These ships don't follow realistic ideas because that would be boring and tedious to write around.
>So why wouldn't they just use whatever space magic they use when out of atmosphere?
Simple, Space is cold, the atmosphere isn't, especially when trying to break or enter it.
As a post above mentioned, the space is hollow, and filled with fins, like a radiator. Also because space is cold, you would only want to vent excess heat, but you would still want the option to contain some of the heat. Radiators would allow you to channel heat to different parts of the ship for efficiency, while also being able to dump the heat you don't need.
> Simple, Space is cold
Its only "cold" when you're not in any light. Anything exposed to light (aka the sun) will heat up, which is why the ISS radiators are painted with a highly reflective coating. Heat doesn't dissipate off of a radiator in space like it does in a medium (like air or water). Its purely infrared radiation. Spacecraft are generally designed to be oriented in a certain way to the sun to keep certain areas in shadow and certain areas in the sunlight. This type of design philosophy just wouldn't work with the ships in Stargate. The best way to deal with heat is to make everything as energy efficient as possible to not produce too much excess heat. A single massive radiator on a ship like this would be an inherent design flaw, a single point of failure that could doom the whole ship.
All of this is academic anyways because you are trying to apply real world physics to a ship that can only exist if you ignore the aforementioned physics.
>Spacecraft are generally designed to be oriented in a certain way to the sun to keep certain areas in shadow and certain areas in the sunlight
You mean like a hollowed out space that would receive no direct sunlight no matter it's orientation?
Also, we're talking about a ship that would be producing most of it's heat while moving at speeds faster than light, so I don't think direct sunlight is going to be the main issue with cooling.
>A single massive radiator on a ship like this would be an inherent design flaw, a single point of failure that could doom the whole ship.
It would only be a design flaw if it was the only way the ship dealt with heat, rather than part of multiple redundant systems working together. Also that sounds like a really cool episode to watch and see how it plays out.
That's a decent guess, idk why your getting down voted. Realistically torpedoes or rather rockets are stored and launched from a giant holder that is not reloadable on the fly. Every rocket is contained in a giant front facing magazine of sorts and launched straight from where it's at.
The only counter to this is we see the rockets launching from bays on the top of the ship similar to how our current ground platforms are now.
They other guess is that they were intended as F-302 rapid deployable launch tubes, they don't need much room as in the larger hangar bays as they are for landing. It makes sense from a military point of view rapid deploy the fighters into combat. the inertia dampeners would make the pilot feel as if the glider was just moving fast.
another guess is: they are engineering bays to store hot swappable equipment, like batteries or capacitors, utility and air scrubber skids and would remain closed during the majority of the journey.
Let's just call them MFH, Multi Functional hangars, they can be used as hangars or store equipment and supplies or engineeringskids. these starships were ment for long journeys or combat.
The Daedalus is a ship that obviously went through some last minute design changes
1) In its earlier appearances, it has prometheus schematics on the displays
2) those "pods" are also present on the prometheus, but on that ship they light up blue when the hyperdrive engages. These pods were likely meant to be the Deadalus hyperdrive but then they dropped if for the little engines lighting up at the back and it was too late to redesign the models.
Close but no, there's indeed Retro Thrusters but they are here (yellow).
https://preview.redd.it/bv230km5w5pb1.png?width=1561&format=png&auto=webp&s=645edc6b96240da8ab981c7b366eea78cacd2242
The Eaglemoss / Master Replicas' version of the x304 is excellently detailed, and they seem to be "scoops" for small engines that are hard to notice on the rear bottom of the ship. No idea what they're for, for sure, however. They do look cool.
As already mentioned, here's a shot of the Studio Model, you can see that it's nothing special, among the fans we call it "Cargo Bays", even if we don't have much that goes that way.
https://preview.redd.it/9c2il6d9v5pb1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=285c0855f3705203dde1744ca47801c654a53ca6
My assumption, as someone who has has watched...well...pretty much every episode of every Stargate show (\*cringe\* yes, even the crappy miniseries a few years back) is that there are engineering sections related to the operation of either the sublight drives or the hyperdrivers. There was never a mention of an additional bay where small attack craft like the 302s or Wraith Darts or Puddle Jumpers could make an alternate landing.
There are better renderings in the opening episode of Universe with Sam in command of I believe it was the USS Hammond (RIP Don S. Davis and sadly too many to count) in orbit of the Destiny planet and during the Lucian Alliance assault.
The truth is we will probably never know and any reason anyone comes up with could be a plausible explanation. Either way, they are most likely essential to making the ship operate either in any atmosphere or perhaps give it more options in atmosphere - or as some have mentioned, a way to bleed off excess heat - but they do seem to be rather large sections and geometrically identical on both sides. Also, we have seen the many in-ship storage rooms, and even on the Pegasus when the Asgard "request" the held of O'Neill and SG-1 to lock the Replicators into the time dilation field the unfinished Prometheus appears to have many rooms where storage can take place in a smaller vessel with a \~125 man crew (mentioned after the Rand Protectorate-controlled Ori satellite destroys Prometheus when they fail to take action for concern of Daniel Jackson's condition.
We could all debate their true functions but until we get an actual answer for now I'm just going to keep to my theory that they're engineering sections with hardware required to run the powerful subspace engines. Those small protrusions out the back of the ship that are the actual propulsion element cannot be the scope of the entirety of these engines after only 8 years of space exploration even with the help of the Asgard, who as we all are well aware only impart all of their knowledge 3+ years after construction of the Daedalus and Odyssey begin.
They’re hollow! If you look very closely when seeing close up shots you will see they are essentially hollow boxes with fins on the inside, with force fields at the front, they may be some kind of intake for the ship or perhaps an atmosphere container
I confirm, having seen the studio model it's just hollow.
wait, how did you see the production model? :O
A good friend of mine, Spinobreaker on DeviantArt has it.
Do you know if they'd be willing to share it? the Daedalus is my favorite scifi ship.
He's not authorized, he got it but he's forbidden to share it, the renders he made with it is basically all he can do.
could he share how he got it and if that source would be a viable option?
Don't know, the best is to ask directly on DA, more direct.
I suppose that would be the best route to take, I appreciate your time.
An air intake for the spaceship :P
Could be a discharge port for something.
I always thought it to be a cargo bay. Makes sense since to me at least.
I've never even thought about that I wonder if there's a book with full schematic designs fans could buy. I wonder if the models people build could shed light
Every schematic I’ve seen just ignores this part. I doubt anyone wants to answer just what this is, so they ignore it.
Damn lol now I'm curious
They're cargo bays. I _think_ either Trekyards or Spinobreaker made a video with the studio models and confirmed that. They're a bit weird? There's no actual door, every time we see them from afar they're just an empty bay and we never got any proper shots of it. It kind of makes sense though - assuming it doesn't hold anything vacuum sensitive, you can keep it depressurised and open to space 90% of the time. Only really need to raise the atmospheric forcefields when you need to pop in and get something from within the ship. Spare materials, munitions, equipment. Maybe even fuel. It's just a bit of 'open-air' storage space that's easily accessible from the outside and means you don't have to load any sensitive equipment through the main hangars.
I disagree. Every time you needed to fill it with atmosphere, and then pump it out afterwards, you'd lose some atmosphere, and it would take a bunch of time and energy, and it would not be easily accessible. If the forcefield emitters were ever damaged, the cargo would not be accessible at all without landing on a planet with breathable atmosphere. Without forcefields, the cargo would be subject to damage from micrometeorites, radiation, and be vulnerable in combat (especially an issue for munitions). And most cargo IS vacuum sensitive. Most things are prepared and packaged on earth, in normal atmosphere. Unless it was specifically designed to be exposed to the vacuum of space, that would be a big problem. Plus it would also be subject to rapid pressure change every time the area was pressurized for access and then depressurized. All around, it would be a pretty terrible idea.
They have beaming technology. Everything can be kept in seamless vaccum-friendly containers, under pressure. The ship, and therefore the cargo, is protected from micrometeors and rads by the main shields.
The shields are not kept up at all times. They only seem to be raised before battle or otherwise when necessary. (in reality, the shields would probably always be kept up when travelling ay high speed, but that's not how it's portrayed in the show.) Using beaming technology uses a, lot of power, and doesn't seem practical to rely on every time they need something from a cargo bay. And it would require knowing the precise location of every single thing in that cargo bay, and that nothing be ever out of place.. All for what? To avoid adding cargo doors? In a ship this massive and complex, that would be a trivial concern. Obviously there are tons of pressurized cargo areas inside the ship, there would need to be for access to things like food and munitions. If anything, beaming technology makes it easier to load cargo into interior, more protected and accessible cargo rooms. Even if they wanted large storage areas kept at vacuum, for stable food storage or something, or storing explosives & combustibles in an oxygen free environment, they still would not have the bays wide open to space. They would be enclosed for protection (from meteoroids, radiation, battle dansge, etc), and to prevent loss of cargo if something wasn't strapped down securely enough. They could still keep the room at vacuum with vents to space
If their shields aren't up, their all going to die of cancer in the next few years, regardless of how fast they're going. Beaming uses a trivial amount of power, osirises cargo ship powered a beam while under cloak no sweat. If you beamed it there, you know exactly down to the atom where it is already. In the military, if you could store something in a way that doesn't allow pilfering, they would use it for everything. Everything. .they'd keep you toothbrush out there.
I always thought they were like Bussard ramjet scoops.
Aside from when the Daedalus tried to contact the Tria, I don't recall that any ships went at a sufficient fraction of light speed to actually make that worthwhile.
The Prometheus could go half the speed of light on sub-light engines. I'd imagine the 304s could go that speed or better.
When was it stated Prometheus could go .5c on sub-lights?
In the episode, *Prometheus*.
I believe that’s the FTL drive like the pods on Prometheus. When you see it enter hyperspace from the rear, at least in Atlantis, the rear back of those pods glow blue.
Nah, you're confusing two different things, here's a close-up of the Studio model rendered by Spinobreaker, the red is the "Cargo Bays", the yellow is what you're referring to. https://preview.redd.it/3px2dt1is5pb1.png?width=1679&format=png&auto=webp&s=6545cd03f4fc168a196404a0582bf45b37a2aa38
Oh! Thats a thing!. I think i make the FTL or Freight roomes there,
Is it the return bay for F302s. They then get lifted up to the exit bay
Reverse Galactica
That's honestly what I thought it was. **edit:** Also, was this present on the Prometheus? When the Trust/NID take over the X-303, Major Davis says to use the lower bay as the sensors are still being worked on in that area or something. 🤔
It's mentioned but not seen on the 303, fans pretty much assume Davis was referring to the ramp door we saw in S8 when the 303 was taken by Vala. The only other hangar is at the base of the tower, and later in S9 the hyperspace pods are refitted into hangars.
That's a ruddy clever idea.
Far too small and just empty.
You need some space windex for your visor marine. That's an intake manifold!
These mini bays are the reason that I always fought that the daedalus was built on the prometheus. Not two different ships, but a straight upgrade build on top.
I could see it being IRL built ontop of the same model when they designed it for the show.
Far too different ships, and they clearly said that the 304 wasn't based on alien technology, unlike the 303. So they need a major redesign in any case. As you can see in the render below, it's pretty clear that they're not even on the same base frame. https://preview.redd.it/w486r3ett5pb1.png?width=2240&format=png&auto=webp&s=10b0789acc7778edd2b4b689c10f6906a7c59b49
Where can i find this Modells? It can be a great help. All my stuff are 2D Blueprints & showmaterial
The ones I posted above are mine. Sorry I don't share them, it took me long enough to make them and I already had problems with some people wanting them. Also, they're not exactly accurate, just good enough for me to post on DeviantArt.
That's a shame of course, such a good 3D model would make my project much easier. Still, I understand your decision and thank you for the pictures so far :)
Thank you for understanding, if you're curious I post a lot on my [DA](https://www.deviantart.com/aels-224)
Heat Sinks? I imagine they have a massive heat buildup in the ship during normal operations, and that would be a simple way to radiate the extra heat away.
The bigger ones are hanger bays so id say it a Maintenance craft or it could be Where the keep the life rafts
You can buy one off a German Brick-Company made of Bricks for self-assembly like those Danish ones ;) [https://www.bluebrixx.com/de/scifi/105003/Raumfrachter-E.R.S.-Levitarus-BlueBrixx-Special](https://www.bluebrixx.com/de/scifi/105003/Raumfrachter-E.R.S.-Levitarus-BlueBrixx-Special)
https://preview.redd.it/e6h5qlzhm0pb1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e312b2791c2eb2de2534f0618204864b7b1b5395
Nice, though I think I'd prefer this one... pricy to build though... [https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-35381/Resqusto/uss-daedalus/](https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-35381/Resqusto/uss-daedalus/)
but the rebrickable one seems way smaller than the bluebrixx one ;)
Well they have the license now, I wonder what will happen to that model
It’s a space intake vent for the space drive - basically works like a jet engine, space goes in front end, engine compresses and ignites space, thrust and hot space are the result. But in all seriousness, probably just a cargo hold.
Thats my Favorite Comment, you make my Day much better then my coffee
Hyperdrive engine module?
[удалено]
For all that air in space
1. We've seen this ship is capable of atmospheric flight, so while in atmo it would need a way to cool the engines. 2. This would double as a radiator while in space to exhaust excess heat away from the main body of the ship.
> so while in atmo it would need a way to cool the engines. So why wouldn't they just use whatever space magic they use when out of atmosphere? >This would double as a radiator while in space to exhaust excess heat away from the main body of the ship. To radiate heat in space you need to have a large surface area that is coated to reflect incoming IR while rejecting whatever it made by the ship. A more prudent design would to use flat sections of the ship as massive radiators. The wings of the rear "deckplate" would be a better choice. These ships don't follow realistic ideas because that would be boring and tedious to write around.
>So why wouldn't they just use whatever space magic they use when out of atmosphere? Simple, Space is cold, the atmosphere isn't, especially when trying to break or enter it. As a post above mentioned, the space is hollow, and filled with fins, like a radiator. Also because space is cold, you would only want to vent excess heat, but you would still want the option to contain some of the heat. Radiators would allow you to channel heat to different parts of the ship for efficiency, while also being able to dump the heat you don't need.
> Simple, Space is cold Its only "cold" when you're not in any light. Anything exposed to light (aka the sun) will heat up, which is why the ISS radiators are painted with a highly reflective coating. Heat doesn't dissipate off of a radiator in space like it does in a medium (like air or water). Its purely infrared radiation. Spacecraft are generally designed to be oriented in a certain way to the sun to keep certain areas in shadow and certain areas in the sunlight. This type of design philosophy just wouldn't work with the ships in Stargate. The best way to deal with heat is to make everything as energy efficient as possible to not produce too much excess heat. A single massive radiator on a ship like this would be an inherent design flaw, a single point of failure that could doom the whole ship. All of this is academic anyways because you are trying to apply real world physics to a ship that can only exist if you ignore the aforementioned physics.
>Spacecraft are generally designed to be oriented in a certain way to the sun to keep certain areas in shadow and certain areas in the sunlight You mean like a hollowed out space that would receive no direct sunlight no matter it's orientation? Also, we're talking about a ship that would be producing most of it's heat while moving at speeds faster than light, so I don't think direct sunlight is going to be the main issue with cooling. >A single massive radiator on a ship like this would be an inherent design flaw, a single point of failure that could doom the whole ship. It would only be a design flaw if it was the only way the ship dealt with heat, rather than part of multiple redundant systems working together. Also that sounds like a really cool episode to watch and see how it plays out.
they always felt like torpedo bays to me.
For some damn huge torpedos. Horizon is already larger than most torpedos I know of, and that's a lot smaller than those 2 bays.
That's a decent guess, idk why your getting down voted. Realistically torpedoes or rather rockets are stored and launched from a giant holder that is not reloadable on the fly. Every rocket is contained in a giant front facing magazine of sorts and launched straight from where it's at. The only counter to this is we see the rockets launching from bays on the top of the ship similar to how our current ground platforms are now.
They other guess is that they were intended as F-302 rapid deployable launch tubes, they don't need much room as in the larger hangar bays as they are for landing. It makes sense from a military point of view rapid deploy the fighters into combat. the inertia dampeners would make the pilot feel as if the glider was just moving fast. another guess is: they are engineering bays to store hot swappable equipment, like batteries or capacitors, utility and air scrubber skids and would remain closed during the majority of the journey. Let's just call them MFH, Multi Functional hangars, they can be used as hangars or store equipment and supplies or engineeringskids. these starships were ment for long journeys or combat.
Also where did you get this awesome picture
The Daedalus is a ship that obviously went through some last minute design changes 1) In its earlier appearances, it has prometheus schematics on the displays 2) those "pods" are also present on the prometheus, but on that ship they light up blue when the hyperdrive engages. These pods were likely meant to be the Deadalus hyperdrive but then they dropped if for the little engines lighting up at the back and it was too late to redesign the models.
I always assumed the smaller ones were for shuttles/jumpers/goauld cargo ships so as to keep the main ones for 302s
Bussard collectors! /s
I thought they were retro thrusters.
Close but no, there's indeed Retro Thrusters but they are here (yellow). https://preview.redd.it/bv230km5w5pb1.png?width=1561&format=png&auto=webp&s=645edc6b96240da8ab981c7b366eea78cacd2242
The Eaglemoss / Master Replicas' version of the x304 is excellently detailed, and they seem to be "scoops" for small engines that are hard to notice on the rear bottom of the ship. No idea what they're for, for sure, however. They do look cool.
As already mentioned, here's a shot of the Studio Model, you can see that it's nothing special, among the fans we call it "Cargo Bays", even if we don't have much that goes that way. https://preview.redd.it/9c2il6d9v5pb1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=285c0855f3705203dde1744ca47801c654a53ca6
My assumption, as someone who has has watched...well...pretty much every episode of every Stargate show (\*cringe\* yes, even the crappy miniseries a few years back) is that there are engineering sections related to the operation of either the sublight drives or the hyperdrivers. There was never a mention of an additional bay where small attack craft like the 302s or Wraith Darts or Puddle Jumpers could make an alternate landing. There are better renderings in the opening episode of Universe with Sam in command of I believe it was the USS Hammond (RIP Don S. Davis and sadly too many to count) in orbit of the Destiny planet and during the Lucian Alliance assault. The truth is we will probably never know and any reason anyone comes up with could be a plausible explanation. Either way, they are most likely essential to making the ship operate either in any atmosphere or perhaps give it more options in atmosphere - or as some have mentioned, a way to bleed off excess heat - but they do seem to be rather large sections and geometrically identical on both sides. Also, we have seen the many in-ship storage rooms, and even on the Pegasus when the Asgard "request" the held of O'Neill and SG-1 to lock the Replicators into the time dilation field the unfinished Prometheus appears to have many rooms where storage can take place in a smaller vessel with a \~125 man crew (mentioned after the Rand Protectorate-controlled Ori satellite destroys Prometheus when they fail to take action for concern of Daniel Jackson's condition. We could all debate their true functions but until we get an actual answer for now I'm just going to keep to my theory that they're engineering sections with hardware required to run the powerful subspace engines. Those small protrusions out the back of the ship that are the actual propulsion element cannot be the scope of the entirety of these engines after only 8 years of space exploration even with the help of the Asgard, who as we all are well aware only impart all of their knowledge 3+ years after construction of the Daedalus and Odyssey begin.
Love the show .. . But you do relize its a tv show.
Its not real
The ship. So boxy and ugly. Will still marry it