Overweight spaceship

Overweight Spaceship
Overweight Spaceship image
View static image
Pattern type	Miscellaneous
Number of cells	15
Bounding box	8 × 5
Discovered by	John Conway
Year of discovery	1970
Pattern files Plaintext owss.cells RLE owss.rle

An overweight spaceship (or OWSS for short) is a would-be spaceship similar to the lightweight spaceship, middleweight spaceship and heavyweight spaceship, but longer. On its own an overweight spaceship is unstable because the three cells at its top do not die off like the corresponding sparks at the top of the smaller spaceships. Nonetheless, it can be escorted by true spaceships to form a flotilla.

For OWSS with top spark over 4, minimal escort size difference is 4 - as shown below (no screenshot or RLE for now, for technical reasons)

☺ - dead, ☻ - alive

☺☺☻☻☻☻☺☺☺ ☺☺☻☺☺☺☻☺☺ ☺☺☻☺☺☺☺☺☺ ☺☺☺☻☺☺☻☺☺ ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ ☺☻☺☺☺☺☺☺☻ ☻☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ ☻☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☻ ☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☺ ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ ☺☺☻☻☻☻☺☺☺ ☺☺☻☺☺☺☻☺☺ ☺☺☻☺☺☺☺☺☺ ☺☺☺☻☺☺☻☺☺

External links

• Overweight spaceship at the Life Lexicon