The Intrepid class is a great fit for scientific research on the fringe of Federation space. In that context it's only logical that she'd have redundant systems where one set could be dedicated to keeping the ship running and on course while the other takes care of a the mission itself. Think in terms of how the bridge and the CiC aboard a modern warship are both control centers which control ship-wide systems, but take care of completely different aspects.
Intrepid's are not a science vessel. Janeway scoffs about how inferior science vessels are in Equinox when talking about the Nova class.
Seems not since Voyager is supposed to be tiny. Voyager was a tenth the Size of a Kazon City Ship and could face off against ten of them with ease while at peak resources.
The Nova is this era's equivalent to the old Oberth class. Lots of sensor equipment, but barely any teeth. Considering how underpowered a true science vessel is, it's a miracle that Equinox even made it out of Kazon and Vidiian space in one piece. The Intrepid is more like half a step below the Miranda. Pretty versatile, but it has to make so many trade-offs that it's just an Explorer, instead of a mixed class like the Galaxy. Something you can actually send into an area that was previously only seen on deep-space sensors and still have a good chance that it will survive for more than five minutes.
As a survivor of a million "OMG Abramsprise 725metersTHATStooBiG!!!!!1!!11oneone" threads, I can tell you - it matters to Trekkies
Could be parts issue or maintenance issue. They just might not have the parts to keep both cores working.
Just like the Enterprise Dee's third torpedo tube is exposed when there is a saucer separation, when Voyager's saucer separates it exposes an additional impulse engine. Better still would be a deployable third warp nacelle. While Voyager did manage a single ejection, TNG suggests that the ability to eject a warp core in an emergency isn't a given. The secondary computer core is dedicated to Andorian midget porn.
And that's why the secondary core in the saucer section is smaller than the primary core in the engineering hull.
The dramatic need (ie. in the scripts) for a 'saucer seper' was negated by Voyager's ability to jettison the warp core and then re-integrate it, as we've seen in a few episodes. If, indeed, the primary reason for seperating the saucer is in case of a warp core breach. As opposed to, you know, maybe Neelix deciding to take it for a quick joy ride one night while the crew are all suspiciously asleep after he served them some of his new soup in the mess hall, or something. It could happen. I mean, if you can jettison the core, and the ship doesn't have families on it anymore, then there isn't really a need to a saucer seper is there? Unless it was for purely tactical reasons, like we saw with the Prometheus in "Message In A Bottle". Of course, that doesn't mean Voyager can't seperate. But I'd argue jettisoning the core is easier. Except on those occasions when the jettison fails and the core stays clamped in the engine room. If that happens then they're pretty much screwed.
It would not be all that hard to think of other reasons to want to put some distance between the saucer and the lower hull. If you absolutely had to land on a planet, and the lower was damaged to the point that it was no longer aerodynamic. TWOK showed that the dilithium chamber can emit enough radiation to kill someone in minutes, a major breach could make a separation (for days or weeks) a real good idea. I wrote a story once where the Enterprise Dee was having it's antimatter bottles refilled, and the ship separated for that. The saucer moved some distance away Or, if the ejection system was simply "offline."
Voy "can" land on a planet... so it doesn't need something else "kewl" to distinguish it from the rest of the Fleet like 1701D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niWu7JsSAyc Then again... it has Janeway, so its Kewl" factor has already exceeded most ships of the line. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niWu7JsSAyc[/yt]
My recollection is that the designer (was it Rick Sternbach?) initially started out from the premise that Voyager was going to be a smaller ship, maybe an intermediate between the Defiant and something like a Constitution. I do remember seeing plans somewhere showing the nacelles actually below the ship, more like one of DS9's runabouts. Maybe the design was more intergrated at this stage, and that's why it's hard to see the lines for things like saucer seper? They were never considered seriously, and then the ship ended up being upscaled to the design we now know and love. It's one of the main reasons for visiting the Voyager section. That and the free beer.
A fact not in dispute. But try this, the ship gets both of her nacelles blown off and for survival they need to land some where. Once they touch down, the remaining ship is going to nose right over. Hard to use that as a base of operations. Yeah? So, bring them down separate. The lower lands on it's gear, and the saucer lands on it's belly.
Voyager doesn't need to separate. As stated, it can land. It also has all those nifty escape pods. Those things must be a bear to reinstall or reload after jettisoning, sort of like a PEZ dispenser.