Your favourite TrekLit ships?

[Christopher]

Clawhammer wrote:

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How large would this ship be?

Not very. Just enough for a dozen-ish people in close quarters, their research equipment, powerful engines (by civilian standards), sensors, and other essentials. At a guess, maybe 3-4 times the size of a runabout.

[Clawhammer]

Christopher wrote:

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Not very. Just enough for a dozen-ish people in close quarters, their research equipment, powerful engines (by civilian standards), sensors, and other essentials. At a guess, maybe 3-4 times the size of a runabout.

If I had the time this would make a nice project, would it be able to land?

[Rush Limborg]

Clawhammer wrote:

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If I had the time this would make a nice project, would it be able to land?

That small? Probably--but it'd need landing gear that pops out, or something....

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

Geoff Thorne wrote:

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It's all about TITAN.

Clearly, Geoff is my brother from another mother.

[captcalhoun]

Rush Limborg wrote:

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Near the end of Federation, there's a scene with an all-new, super-futuristic Enterprise. I would've loved to have seen what that one looks like.

I often imagine it to be the Enterprise-J seen briefly in "Enterprise"--and which appeared in one of the "Ships of the Line" callenders.

That is one...sexy...ship!


Still...my all-time fav would have to be Aventine. A real beauty, that one--Ezri should be proud!

no way, that Enterprise was from way too far in the future to be the J. it'd be more like the Enterprise V or something.

[Christopher]

Clawhammer wrote:

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If I had the time this would make a nice project, would it be able to land?

I don't know. I depicted it as remaining in orbit. It probably could land if it needed to, but generally wouldn't.

Relevant passages from The Buried Age:

While Langford worked to recruit the personnel, Picard saw about hiring a suitable ship. With university backing, he arranged with Centauri III’s leading civilian spacecraft firm to provide a custom vessel, high-powered for maximum warp speed (considerably less than Starfleet’s fastest, but excellent for a civilian ship). Since the crew would be only a dozen or so, life-support needs were reduced, increasing the power available for velocity. The ship would also be sleek and narrow, like the rocketships of old, presenting a minimal cross section to oncoming space debris and radiation and reducing the power requirements for navigational deflection. For a Starfleet vessel, designed with the possibility of combat in mind, such a design was impractical since enemies could approach from any direction. But this craft was built purely for moving forward as fast as possible.

The ship has a "compact bridge -- little more than a cockpit, really." The bridge has a door that can be locked from the inside. There is a "compact science lab" and a "compact lounge" (I sense a theme). I refer to a transporter stage but not a transporter room; given that the transporter gets a good deal of use as an archaeological tool, the transporter stage might be part of the lab facilities. The ceilings aren't especially high, adequate for humans but too low for the taller Caldonian member of the crew.

How big was Cousteau's Calypso? That might be a good analogy. Hmm, Wikipedia puts it at 42 meters long, 3 decks, with a crew capacity of 27. I don't think Cleo's Needle needs to be that large, since the crew is half that.

Hmm, thinking it over, I'd guess the Needle might have two decks -- assuming something roughly cylindrical with room for chambers on either side of a narrow central corridor, two decks seems right for giving it a height comparable to its width. Since it's pretty narrow, a length around 40-45 meters might be about right -- that's a little over twice the length of a runabout, but a runabout's only got one deck (plus the warp core on top).

[Steve Mollmann]

When reading The Buried Age, I always picture this flying through space!

Which is dumb, but what can you do?

[JB2005]

I always had an image of the NX-Alpha...

[Clawhammer]

Thank you for the additional information Christopher!
It would be quite a challenge to fit that kind of design into the 2360's.

[JB2005]

^ It was a big decade

[Christopher]

Clawhammer wrote:

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Thank you for the additional information Christopher!
It would be quite a challenge to fit that kind of design into the 2360's.

We're actually talking 2358 here.

If you did try to do a design for Cleopatra's Needle, I'd certainly be interested to see it. It'd be nice to see what the state of the art for civilian Federation ship design might be like in the mid-24th century. It would probably have some design similarities to Starfleet vessels, given a common culture and technology, but with a fair number of differences too, since it wouldn't be designed for combat. An interesting challenge, to come up with something that looks Federationish without being Starfleetish.

[C.E. Evans]

Another shout out for Aventine here.

[CaptainDonovin]

Love the Titan & Aventine, but have always wondered about the U.S.S. Verdun from The Forgotten War. Was said to have a crew of 900 & be from the 2160's. At first I pictured a Daedalus-class ship but I just read the book again a few months back & pictured a different ship.

Have to also give a shout out to the Excalibur from New Frontier. I've always had a soft spot for the Ambassador-class.

[TerriO]

I've always been partial to the U.S.S. Manning, myself. But we never got a chance to get her on camera. Just historical reference.

[DEWLine]

Starts fiddling in CorelDraw...