I apologize if this has been covered elsewhere,but with the Prometheous' ability to divide at warp with each section having a bespoke warp nacelle,wouldn't that by default mean each section would require it's own warp core?
Prometheus and warp cores?
- Thread starter Silversmok3
- Start date
Yes, it does have 3 warp cores. The bottom section has the main warp core, the middle section has these two smaller looking warp cores, and the primary hull has a horizontal warp core. You can see them here:
The bottom half of the engineering hull gets the bottom two nacelles, the top half of the engineering hull gets the top two nacelles, and the primary hull has two little extendable nacelles.
It also has six nacelles. The two smaller ones for the saucer section are normally tucked away and used only if that section has to go to warp on its own after separation in Multivector Assault mode separation, such as if the two engineering hulls have been destroyed in battle.
Ejecting warpcores is for pussies; real Captain's go down with their ship. 
Not when the crisis could be averted, saving the ships crew.
Id imagine in that case youd just bail out of the saucer section and jettison it before it blows.Is it me, or does it look like it wouldn't be easy to eject the saucer's horizontal warp core, even by Starfleet Engineering standards for warp core ejection?
Ditto the other two.
"Do it! Do it! Do it!!"
Correction, the prometheus has only 5 nacelles b/c only 1 comes out of the saucer section on the top from deck 2
Nope - another comes out of the bottom. It just isn't easy to spot in the episode itself, all the more so because it emerges into a bit of a cavity.
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/scans/stmagazine/prometheus-alpha.jpg (cut and paste)
You can also see that it would actually be pretty easy to eject the horizontal core. There are multiple "hatch" features astern of it, after all. It's just that ejection of the Alpha and Beta section cores would be downright impossible when the ship is at attached flight mode - but these smaller powerplants may well be shut down at that mode anyway.
Timo Saloniemi
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/scans/stmagazine/prometheus-alpha.jpg (cut and paste)
You can also see that it would actually be pretty easy to eject the horizontal core. There are multiple "hatch" features astern of it, after all. It's just that ejection of the Alpha and Beta section cores would be downright impossible when the ship is at attached flight mode - but these smaller powerplants may well be shut down at that mode anyway.
Timo Saloniemi
There's something like that in the writer's bible, I think. From what I remember, the backup warp core wasn't plugged in all the time, it would have to be towed out of it's storage space and moved into the vacant spot in Engineering. Not sure why they didn't do this in Day Of Honour though - presumably the spare Warp Core had been looted for parts yonks ago by then by the voracious engineering department!
...Or never installed, because once again we enjoy the classic "heroes set out ahead of schedule in an untried or ill-repaired vessel" premise. It's perhaps not as blatant as with some of the TOS and TNG movies, ENT and DS9, but this is supposed to be the maiden mission for NCC-74656. And you don't bring the entire wardrobe with you for the honeymoon.
(Dunno, sometimes you might. But Janeway was expecting a three-hour tour. She wasn't counting on even having enough time to float a spare core out of its moorings; if something went wrong within the Badlands, core swaps would not be an option, and if something happened outside, help would arrive within hours.)
Sure, the ship might be rigged for carrying a second core and an aeroshuttle and whatnot. But that's no proof any of the stuff would actually have been aboard.
Timo Saloniemi
(Dunno, sometimes you might. But Janeway was expecting a three-hour tour. She wasn't counting on even having enough time to float a spare core out of its moorings; if something went wrong within the Badlands, core swaps would not be an option, and if something happened outside, help would arrive within hours.)
Sure, the ship might be rigged for carrying a second core and an aeroshuttle and whatnot. But that's no proof any of the stuff would actually have been aboard.
Timo Saloniemi
Or, it's possible that the one lost in Day of Honour WAS the spare, having replaced the original off-screen following an ejection.
We might also want to take into account that the ship visited quite a few friendly and civilized ports in the later seasons. Any gear that had originally been missing might have been purchased from a local vendor or artisan - or then uniquely UFP technologies might have been used as currency for purchasing vital repairs and resupplies.
On a related note, spaces within the ship were often reallocated, there e.g. being airponics bays and Borg habitats in place of cargo holds. Janeway might have found a better use for the shaft holding the spare warp core, especially if that core had been expended already, and would thus never have considered purchasing a replacement spare.
Timo Saloniemi
On a related note, spaces within the ship were often reallocated, there e.g. being airponics bays and Borg habitats in place of cargo holds. Janeway might have found a better use for the shaft holding the spare warp core, especially if that core had been expended already, and would thus never have considered purchasing a replacement spare.
Timo Saloniemi
You mean like turning it into a water-slide?
Well I guess the only way to know for sure if VOY was equipped with a second core would be to check a screen cap of the MSD. Though I'm sure it'll show it.
It's just another example of the writers nor caring about the little details. Though I am willing to stretch to think they had canibialised it for the primary core.
It's just another example of the writers nor caring about the little details. Though I am willing to stretch to think they had canibialised it for the primary core.
I think it's more along the lines of Voyager has one warp core, and the pretty cutaway diagram at the back of the bridge is meant to look pretty but has no actual bearing on anything at all.
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