Will The Covenant design and ship technology be similar to what we seen in Alien

[motherfather]

It depends how the "10 years" is measured and from which perspective, although I doubt Ridley has put as much thought into that as with Interstellar movie.

It is also possible that space travel technology on earth advanced rapidly since the prometheus left earth. Meaning ships could effectively catch up with or overtake the distance the prometheus travelled in far less time and leave earth much later allowing for more time to pass along with tech advancements.

Or that the flying croissant ship Shaw escaped on, contained advanced messaging or navigational systems that allowed her to beam back to earth alien technology schematics for tech harvesting. While she probably doesnt trust Weylan as far as she can throw him/it right now, theres nothing stopping weyland corp intercepting such messages.

With covenant literally meaning alliance or agreement, I can imagine that weyland and yutani have separate segments on the ship, and then a common area where they collaborate. While the ISS aims to know no borders or politics, I can imagine if the covenant is in its early stages of a corporate merger, there will be a lot of office politics and one -upmanship bubbling beneath the amicable surface. Secret labs and tech and who knows what.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that although I think its more probable we'll see quite a hi-tech ship, I'm secretly hoping for a more mundane/relatable environment. I think one of the main reasons Alien ages quite well, is because greasy workshops and mining sites have not changed beyond recognition over the decades. Any environment which requires heavy machinery, oil, chains and pipes and a whole lot of elbow grease essentially ages well if you squint your eyes things never look too different or out of place.

Anyway, in the event of a hi-tech ship, I would really like to see mundane day to day events to give it an every day feel and draw us into the world of the movie even though its sci fi. I want to be sucked into the world, then devastated and thrilled by the unfolding of the story.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Au contraire, the industrial look of the Nostromo was very important since it allowed the bio-mechanical beast to blend-in with the ship. The Alien would have stuck out like a sore thumb on the Prometheus.

It was important to that particular film, not all films to come

It was very important in the sequels as well. In Aliens the hive was located inside that big industrial-looking atmosphere processing plant for a reason. Even the resin-like hive material had bits of pipes and corrugated tubes embedded in it. All this camouflage enabled the aliens to launch a successful ambush on the marines.

Same story with Alien 3 which was set within a decommissioned smelter complex.

Besides the beast's agiltity, speed n aggressivness more than makes up for how the environment looks...it won't have much problems taking care of business...

It's not some invincible bullet-proof creature. The beast instinctively uses the environment to it's advantage since it operates using stealth.

Besides, Weyland Yutani aren't going to send some freighter, with random n00bs after the previous ship in Prometheus went missing which had crew with 'experts' but at least guards with big guns, so sending some Nostromo with hardly any weapons or expertise in any relevant field that could be of help.

We don't yet know to whom the Covenant belongs. It could be privately owned or it could belong to another company. The synopses seems to imply that the colony ship discovered "Paradise" by chance.

[SpreadEagleBeagle]

No, it would be totally pointless to do that, people know the old looks was because it was an old movie n it shoudl be left alone for that period of time it was made, there's no point trying to fool the audience why we should have an old look just for the sake of stroking a few peoples nostalgia...

Not really. If it indeed is going to be a prequel to the original Alien quadrology, it kind of needs to blend, at least a little bit. It doesn't have to be in your face rather than subtle. It's not about trying to fool the audience rather than making the universe of Alien(s) feel more real and immersive.

Personally I think that they went a little bit too far with the technology in PROM, making it quite hard for themselves to mesh it all together in a fluent way. But I'm sure they can do it.

[PsyKore]

It's only a little thing, but what I thought didn't mesh very well in Prometheus, apart from the general aesthetic, was how effortlessly the ship swooped in and landed, as well as take off, like it was nothing at all. I remember Ridley saying many moons ago about Alien that he wanted space travel to appear almost surgical in nature - something that was very difficult to do and needed precision (paraphrasing). And you can see that on the faces of the Nostromo crew as they're going through the motions of landing. But it seems in Prometheus that attention to making it more plausible-looking when maneuvering a huge spacecraft went out the window.

[windebieste]

...all that while Captain Janek just stands there at his command dais, surfing all the way down to land without any safety harnesses, belts or restraints of any kind; and no regard for any consequence of a rough landing on a World that Humans have never before set foot on. 

It's a very different treatment of a planetary landing sequence compared to what we see in 'ALIEN', which is by far much more in keeping with the tone of how arduous and peril laden such an exercise can be.

-Windebieste.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

It's only a little thing, but what I thought didn't mesh very well in Prometheus, apart from the general aesthetic, was how effortlessly the ship swooped in and landed, as well as take off, like it was nothing at all. I remember Ridley saying many moons ago about Alien that he wanted space travel to appear almost surgical in nature - something that was very difficult to do and needed precision (paraphrasing). And you can see that on the faces of the Nostromo crew as they're going through the motions of landing. But it seems in Prometheus that attention to making it more plausible-looking when maneuvering a huge spacecraft went out the window.

It's probably a reflection of the times the films were made in. In the 70's, flying a 747 required a crew of 4 and landings were "almost surgical in nature" requiring a great deal of concentration from both pilots.

Fast forward to the present day when fully automated landings are now common place. Autopilot landings are even mandatory at many airports in certain weather conditions now.

Modern aircraft are also now mostly controlled using fly-by-wire systems. So instead of the old flight yoke which was hydraulically connected to the rudder, ailerons and elevators, a small joystick is now used which feeds information into the flight computer. So it's really the computer flying the aircraft with "suggestions" from the pilot. It makes flying really effortless and prevents the pilot from accidentally exceeding the flight envelope.

...all that while Captain Janek just stands there at his command dais, surfing all the way down to land without any safety harnesses, belts or restraints of any kind; and no regard for any consequence of a rough landing on a World that Humans have never before set foot on. 

He even orders Vickers to strap-in and berates Holloway for getting up.

[Immortan Jonesy]

I like the Prometheus ship, the style and all that, so I would be happy with any of both aesthetics

[whiterabbit]

It's only a little thing, but what I thought didn't mesh very well in Prometheus, apart from the general aesthetic, was how effortlessly the ship swooped in and landed, as well as take off, like it was nothing at all. I remember Ridley saying many moons ago about Alien that he wanted space travel to appear almost surgical in nature - something that was very difficult to do and needed precision (paraphrasing). And you can see that on the faces of the Nostromo crew as they're going through the motions of landing. But it seems in Prometheus that attention to making it more plausible-looking when maneuvering a huge spacecraft went out the window.

It's probably a reflection of the times the films were made in. In the 70's, flying a 747 required a crew of 4 and landings were "almost surgical in nature" requiring a great deal of concentration from both pilots.

Fast forward to the present day when fully automated landings are now common place. Autopilot landings are even mandatory at many airports in certain weather conditions now.

Modern aircraft are also now mostly controlled using fly-by-wire systems. So instead of the old flight yoke which was hydraulically connected to the rudder, ailerons and elevators, a small joystick is now used which feeds information into the flight computer. So it's really the computer flying the aircraft with "suggestions" from the pilot. It makes flying really effortless and prevents the pilot from accidentally exceeding the flight envelope.

...all that while Captain Janek just stands there at his command dais, surfing all the way down to land without any safety harnesses, belts or restraints of any kind; and no regard for any consequence of a rough landing on a World that Humans have never before set foot on. 

He even orders Vickers to strap-in and berates Holloway for getting up.

So he was just there to look like he was flying the ship... but then later Ravel calls Janek a shit pilot. Wow that is sort of how air travel is done today. You guys are scary for pointing that out. It's not the movie being dumb but highlighting a profound issue in current aeronautics. Smart plane; stupid pilots.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

So he was just there to look like he was flying the ship... but then later Ravel calls Janek a shit pilot. Wow that is sort of how air travel is done today. You guys are scary for pointing that out. It's not the movie being dumb but highlighting a profound issue in current aeronautics. Smart plane; stupid pilots.

I'd imagine the Prometheus autopilot probably lacked a Kamikaze mode or they could have jumped out as well. 

[426Buddy]

I hope the ship is a mix between Alien and Prometheus design. I don't want it to be as low tech as the Nostromo, don't get me wrong, I love the world in Alien, but its just too low-tech for a sci-fi movie made in this generation.

I think finding a look somewhere between the two would be perfect.

[Randomizer]

Feeling too improved is something that plagues most (if not all) prequels.

[Corporal Hicks]

I completely understood the rationale behind it. Just think it didn't do the movie too many favours in terms of stylistic continuity.

[CainsSon]

I completely understood the rationale behind it. Just think it didn't do the movie too many favours in terms of stylistic continuity.

Agreed. I think they need to sorta fix this by reinforcing the CLASS WARFARE theme in the ALIEN series. In the ALIEN films, you get the feeling that the COMPANY has high tech stuff at their disposal and they sorta USE the poor who are relegated to bad working conditions and the like.
GATEWAY STATION def seemed HIGH TECH.
A Colony ship, to me should seem run down because "its not meant to come back" or something to that effect.

Someone mentioned the SPACE TRAVEL being "like surgical procedure" in how difficult it is.

I love that about the Alien films, especially ALIEN but I would argue that what changes this in acceptable ways in PROMETHEUS is that they are supposed to be landing on a Moon 'capable of sustaining life' as we know it. So the conditions on LV223 are very similar to that of Earth, for the most part which would make a landing there very similar to a landing on Earth.