So if we're going with the "no replicators, lots of storage" explanation, this ship makes sense in that regard; not a cruiser, but the Starfleet equivalent of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier, storing the bulk of its material freeze dried or whatever long-duration method they use.[/quote}Yeah, that's pretty much what I was getting at... for April's time in command, Pike's time in command, and the first few months of Kirk's command.
The Enterprise, under that configuration, was a pretty standard "heavy cruiser," intended to stay reasonably close to home for the majority of it's deployment time, not going on multi-year patrols beyond known space without hope of resupply. It wasn't an EXPLORER until the "430-crew refit" took place. It could go on probes (like the barrier mission) but not extended duration tours without resupply or support.
OTOH, I personally do not believe--and have never believed--that you can feasibly explore a planet by beaming the Captain, a scientist, a doctor and five redshirts onto a random garden spot in one corner of it. Imagine, for example, trying to explore EARTH by landing seven Apollo astronauts in a forest in China. You'll get a narrow cross section of Flora and Fauna and you'll meet a sample of a variety of a third of the sentient life forms on the planet. Full exploration would require beaming down something like five hundred officers to two dozen points around the planet along with automated probes, equipment for drilling core samples, equipment for recovering and processing artifacts, mobile labs, triage units, tents, temporary and semi-temporary structures, bunkers, etc. Even if you only take a month to do it (and the shuttles will be getting an awful lot of work in such a mission) any decent exploration of the planet will require detailed examinations of at least thirty different sites on all seven continents, some of which will have some very extreme environments, and that's not even counting DEEP SEA exploration which will require alot more specialized equipment and a few more specialists.
Agreed... which is why I think that the Kelvin makes perfect sense as a "science vessel" with a "crew of 800."
The mistake your comments above lead towards, if followed through to their natural conclusion, is that you're assuming a "one stop exploration" approach. I find that silly. You'd have multiple visits, multiple times, from multiple ships. First, a starmapping expedition would map out the system and identify a likely planet worthy of investigation. Then, you'd send a ship like Enterprise to do a "first glance" investigation. Then, you'd send a ship like Grissom to perform extensive scans of the planet from orbit. Then, you'd send an expeditionary science transport like Kelvin to deliver real surface-exploration assets. And once all that was done... if it were really interesting... you'd set up a colony, and let the colonists research the planet in depth.
Enterprise was just performing one simple, preliminary step in a much larger and more complex sequence of events. Of COURSE the Enterprise wouldn't be able to "know all that was knowable" about any given planet. But with a full science team of some 200 personnel, they'd be far better equipped to make that first-glance MEAN something.
Of course, the tech designers of STXI could gloss over this like the producers of every other Trek production, but they've done wonderful so far; in the next film, it would bring tears to my eyes to see Enterprise enter orbit of a new planet and suddenly drop two dozen shuttles to every corner of this world packed with an ARMY of scientists to scout this world for its secrets. To do that--and I know you'll disagree--you need a big ship with ALOT of spare equipment on board, not to mention a factory or two if you suddenly have a need for something you haven't brought with you. Replicator technology might some day allow all of this to fit in a ship the size of a TMP refit, but until it does, THIS gigantic Enterprise is the exploration cruiser of my fondest dreams.
In other words... "the Entire Federation in a Can."
Exploring a planet isn't a "few day" mission, no matter HOW many scientists you deploy by swarm-of-shuttlecraft. It will take years... decades... even centuries. How much of Earth, even today, remains unknown?
How long do you want to leave Enterprise and her "army of scientists" in orbit around that planet? Six years or so might do the trick...
Nah... that's not how it works in real life, and I don't want to see it work that way in fiction, either.
