Dyson Sphere

[Finn]

^Or they could have been attached to the sphere like the fabled Captain's Yacht.

[Timo]

So there were "buildings" on the outside.

...Which is a logical place for them, sort of, because the outside would have natural gravity pulling things "down". The Jenolan clinging on to the outside like that is physically correct, then, too. As is the original crash.

Building on the inside would be trickier, because there would be no gravity other than that of the central star. The pull towards the shell would have to be artificially created, and then artificially damped at a distance so that pull from one side would not cancel out pull from the other. A trivial trick for even a Federation-level civilization, but the scale is vast. And it's pretty good engineering if the system still works even after just a few centuries of abandonment. Especially if it got its energy from the star, and the star now fluctuated.

Now here is a fun picture. Essentially, each pixel on the background is a continent if not a planet... It would take a bit more effort than Starfleet can muster to map even a fraction of this before things like "Starfleet" and "mapping" become outdated altogether.

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albu.../relics443.jpg

Timo Saloniemi

[Trekker4747]

Any "natural gravity" experienced on the outside surface of the sphere wouldn't be much more than the gravity you and I feel from the sun. How hard to you feel the sun trying to pull you towards it?

Any "gravity" on the outside surface of the DS would need to be artificially generated as well.

[Timo]

Outside the shell, the mass of the shell itself would manifest as a pull towards the center, too. If this thing really is made of "carbon neutronium", one might need artificial means to reduce the pull to one gee levels...

Timo Saloniemi

[MikeS]

The scales depicted here always bothered me. There is a curve to the sphere at the Jenolan's location that you just wouldn't see on something this size (radius of 1 A.U.)

[Forbin]

MikeS wrote:

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The scales depicted here always bothered me. There is a curve to the sphere at the Jenolan's location that you just wouldn't see on something this size (radius of 1 A.U.)

Artistic license for the sake of the audience's poor wee brains.

[Ghrakh]

MikeS wrote:

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The scales depicted here always bothered me. There is a curve to the sphere at the Jenolan's location that you just wouldn't see on something this size (radius of 1 A.U.)

Well, maybe it was on a hill...lol

The effects were quite good, and the episode really was about Scotty, but my inner nerd can't help but pick it apart...The thinness of the outer shell meant the sphere had a structure more tenuous than a soap bubble, but without the inner air pressure to hold the shape (being mostly vacuum inside). Also, the inside of the entry port looked to be at ground level; I would expect every time it was opened a huge rush of atmosphere would escape. There didn't appear to be a force field. One would expect walls to extend in above the atmosphere.

[T'Girl]

Ghrakh wrote:

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Well, maybe it was on a hill...lol.

Corresponding to a water filled lake or small ocean on the inner side. It depends on how thick the shell is, a mountain range on the inner side might look like a deep valley, or a crevasse on the outer side of the shell.

[Silvercrest]

Circus Peanut wrote:

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Enough to the point there were very noticeable continents, lakes, oceans, rivers and such on the inside if it.

MikeS wrote:

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The scales depicted here always bothered me. There is a curve to the sphere at the Jenolan's location that you just wouldn't see on something this size (radius of 1 A.U.)

Not to mention being able to see rivers and lakes at that distance. They'd have to be hundreds of thousands of miles across, at least.

I can at least visualize a continent or ocean which happens to be a million miles across, but I have a feeling when you get to that scale the rules of geography (not to mention geology) are totally different.

[Mojochi]

My only problem with the Dyson Sphere is the door. Apparently, Scotty & Geordi are smart enough to figure out how to trigger it without being dragged in by tractor beam, but aren't smart enough to realize that this is something they could have done more than once, & by doing so, could have salvaged the Jenolan, instead of risking their lives in a hairbrained stunt.

Scotty survived 3/4 of a century lost in deep space, cycling in a transporter, & Geordi was able to make a neutrino Geiger counter with a tricorder and his visor, while blind.

Two of Starfleet's greatest engineering minds reduced to using a starship as a doorstop. Now that's effing irony

[Captain McBain]

Possibly the Douwd or Q vanished them away...

[Timo]

Apparently, Scotty & Geordi are smart enough to figure out how to trigger it without being dragged in by tractor beam, but aren't smart enough to realize that this is something they could have done more than once

...It would have been nice to show them attempting it a second time - and finding out that the door had grown wiser and now ignored such childish pranks. Or even shooed the pranksters away with an educational burst of weapons fire.

Timo Saloniemi

[T'Girl]

Given the brevity of the door remaining open, the Enterprise would have to of been charging at the door prior to Scotty and Geordi opening it. If they had timed it wrong, the Enterprise could conceivably have collided with the closed (or never opened) door.

Better the way they ended up doing things.

Besides would the Jenolan have been worth the time and energy of being towed to where ever for repairs? It was a century old and badly damaged.

.

[Trekker4747]

I find it hard to believe that the Jenolan, only maybe a few decks thick so about 30-40 feet tall, was big enough to block the 1500-foot wide Ent-D saucer from passing through a massive door that had to be as wide as a planet.

[T'Girl]

It was the Jenolan's shields doing the actual blocking open wasn't it?