I actually prefer it being 139m
We don't need "Bigger StarShips", we need a more compact StarShip that can double as a "Emergency" escape vessel.
Think about it, imagine if you're on the Enterprise-J, and you need to escape with your crew mates.
Everybody teleports to their Mass Produced ProtoStar Class mini StarShip Life Boat.
Along the pylons and hull, imagine how many ProtoStar Classes you can store on the ship?
The ProtoStar Class gives you a true "Life Boat" that isn't so compromised like a EscapePod.
No reason you can't have 2 versions of the Protostar (I and II) in that case once its mass produced.
The 139m one serving as a lifeboat, and the larger one for actual deep space exploration.
Though to be fair, I'd prefer Trek ships external sizes to just correspond with their internals and crew sizes.
In that case, a 379 meter long Protostar can easily work... I don't mind the Protostar being larger than what its claimed... it would just be nice for Trek to get sized correct for a change.
Isn't the ProtoStar a Experimental ProtoType at the moment?
I'm sure they would reduce the amount of Unnecessary machinery/engines or increase the StarDrive section a bit to allow for more useful space once they get a "Mass Production" version going.
That's my thought too... but, if ST: Disco is any indication, this technology will never see the light of day... or it will and could remain in service for a very long time (until around the 26th century when the UFP starts integrating temporal technology throughout the fleet - but again, Disco kinda backed us into a corner with dilithium and M/AM (which I still maintain should have been abandoned by the Federation by around the mid/late 25th century... or early 26th century.
Relative to the USS ProtoStar, the USS Voyager is gigantic in comparison.
I know... VOY has nearly 4x more decks than the Protostar.
But I was referring more to the idea that if we scale the crew and interiors correctly (similar to what was done with the Protostar), do the VOY official size/measurements correspond with the relative height of your average human(oid) and other interiors, or does it scale larger?
Imagine all the neat tricks you can do, not just going fast via traditional Warp Drive.
Oh I can imagine it... problem is the in-universe Trek writers apparently can't or won't (though Prodigy writers do seem to do this better than other show).
Combat is largely Power Plant limited, imagine how many more beams you can fire simultaneously if you activated the ProtoStar drive and had all that power available for every segment of your Phaser Array.
On a Galaxy class, instead of all the Array Segments combining energy into one solid powerful beam, imagine if EVERY SINGLE Phaser Array Segment had power equal to the normal combined Phaser Array power thanks to all that extra energy from the ProtoStar drive.
The Galaxy class isn't limited to firing a single phaser beam from a single strip at any given time - technically, each segment should be able to fire its own beam independently of other segments at the same time - that's probably why SF switched to strips - because they provide a better coverage and its a singular system along the same line, and even if a segment fails during combat, it can be bypassed and others can take over without compromising the entire strip.
Its just the VFX department usually portrays SF ships as firing from a single segment from a certain strip at any given time because ship battles tend to be fought one on one (and SF tends to avoid use of deadly force) ... but there have been very few instances in TNG (perhaps 2 or 3) where several phaser beams were fired from the same strip at the same time.
VOY was also seen doing the same (firing multiple phaser beams at the same time from the same strip).
I don't know if those phaser beams however were each limited in terms of power while being fired together, or if you can fire multiple maxed out phaser beams from each segment (this was never mentioned).
I would imagine though that there's only a limited amount of energy a single segment can actually output without burning it out
Sure, we've seen that they were able to increase power to the phasers... but I still suspect there is an upper limit to what each segment can output without burning out.
As such, I think that a starship with even a single warp core can easily fire mulitple maxed out phaser beams from multiple segments at the same time - and in terms of energy, replicators and Warp drive would be ships systems that draw more power - which is probably why majority of replicators are likely switched off during combat or limited to be mainly available for repairs.
The Protostar firing multiple maxed out sustained beams at the same time to clear a path while it was escaping Tars Lamora was a good showing of what 'properly used deadly force' on a SF ship can do.
We need more live action Trek showing multiple maxed out beams being fired at the same time from a same strip to overload enemy shields for example (but again, I suspect this maneuver would be reserved if there's no other choice as use of deadly force is limited to extreme circumstances).
Or what about quickly recharging shields by alternating which shield layer is off and going for "Quick Recharge".
Unfortunately, you can't do that without necessarily compromising your ability to prevent unauthorized beam ins during combat - reducing shield layers could make them weaker against certain transporters - and we've seen that shields by themselves don't necessarily stop transporters... the transporter beam either needs to be strong enough, or you need to know the oponnents shield frequencies [or a clever enough adaptive system that can get close enough to negate the shields]... though this COULD be easily mitigated by installing transporter inhibitors that prevent any such unauthorized breaches during combat (but would otherwise allow the protected ship to beam stuff OUT or in AT WILL - aka, proper authorization).
But you don't see these techniques being used at all.
I already mentioned before that during combat, SF would have to switch on transport inhibitors to prevent unauthorized beam ins and forcefields already works in each section of the ship as is... but this is (again) never used to automatically contain intruders.
If you had multiple layers of shields rotating On/Off and quickly recharging off-line shields super fast like with the USS Equinox.
Yes, but 45 seconds is a long time to recharge the shields.
VOY used a deflector pulse to reinforce the shields instantly... so, I think that might be a better approach... or in case one doesn't work, use the other.
Or what about replacing Ablative Hull Armor that was Generated in mid combat.
The ProtoStar drive could be used for very creative things IMO.
It certainly can, but forget about seeing that in live action, because according to 'fans', the thing would be nearly 'invincible'... and SF ships almost already are... but in that case, they'd need to write better stories in terms of combat that would still deal damage to those systems and help protect the crew better.
Yup, seems closer to NX-01 size crew or maybe even smaller.
The NX-01 had a crew compliment of 83 (either because of lack of automation and reduced overall space onboard, or they simply packed more people onboard for exploration and training purposes - sharing quarters, etc.).
The Protostar I think should/could be closer in crew compliment to the Defiant and Nova class instead.
Given that its an experimental ship and all (a prototype like the Defiant), maybe somewhere in between.
If we go by the fact the Protostar has bunk beds for cadets, you can fit a lot of them into a single space... but not much privacy there from what we saw... I think each bunk bed should have an option for privacy like the Defiant and 1701 on SNW used for lower ranks - basically, they were made in the style of PODS that some hotels today use - and this would have been perfect and would have allowed privacy/relaxation in case cadets want some quiet time for themselves.
Stick most cadets into a cargo bay sized room on one deck, and you can fit a HUGE amount of pods into that kind of area.
And you can still leave a lot of space for senior officers quarters in the saucer section - I imagine ensigns would be assigned shared quarters though with larger personal space and liutenants and above would have single quarters with slightly larger personal space to themselves.
In general, I think SF also wants to focus on quality, so I don't think they would pack a humongous number of cadets onto the Protostar even if they could (though this could be alleviated with multiple instances of Janeway training holos).
Heck, if you really want to save on space, just stick the cadets into stasis beds. VOY did it by putting the entire crew into stasis while going through that nebula in the DQ, and they had virtually the entire crew in a single cargobay... and those stasis units have individual life support.
Still, PODS would be nicer... they'd occupy a bit more space, but it would give the cadets some privacy and all.
