Deck Plans VI: The Undiscovered Bowling Alley

Discussion in 'Fan Art' started by Captain Robert April, May 30, 2008.

  1. Cary L. Brown

    Cary L. Brown Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, in that case, I assume that they've worked out a "low energy consumption" flight plan. The speed they're moving is the best that they can maintain without (most likely) ending up dead in space.

    It's fair to say that real physics would apply here... suppose that we're talking about the "hybrid" system I'm a proponent of, where impulse is basically a thrust-based system, combined with a mass-reducing/local-c-increasing subspace field. While the "thrust" component of that would only be required to operate occasionally (for minor course corrections... after all, they'd be moving in what is essentially a straight line, adjusting for gravitational effect, wouldn't they?), they'd still need to keep the static subspace field operational at all times, or else they'd drop down to the "true sublight equivalent" of whatever velocity they were moving at within their "impulse subspace bubble." Thus, even without the need for thrust, the need to "burn fuel." In this case, hydrogen in the fusion reactors, presumably.
     
  2. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Assuming that's true (which makes sense) it would also rather suggest that they would have very little fuel left after they returned to the planet. Otherwise Spock would surely have increased the lead time the ship had on the asteroid. Which he doesn't:
    That doesn't even address the problem of where they're going to fix the warp engines.
    How far away is the nearest repair base? :)
     
  3. Captain Robert April

    Captain Robert April Vice Admiral Admiral

    In "The Paradise Syndrome", the ship hadn't just gotten shit kicked out of it by a mile-long Ice Cream Cone From Hell. They'd burned out a major power transfer conduit (specifically the one leading to the warp engines), but the impulse engines themselves were just fine, and thus were operating as efficiently as ever. In "The Doomsday Machine", they'd burned up a lot of fuel battling the aformentioned ICCFH, and been pounded repeatedly in the process, so things weren't working at top efficiency.

    As for the nearest repair base, there's also the ol' subspace radio, which can be used to request a repair ship come out and meet them en route, so they can patch things up well enough that they can get back to base in less than the projected fifteen years.
     
  4. Cary L. Brown

    Cary L. Brown Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well... pretend "Star Trek is real."

    The Enterprise arrives at the planet. Kirk is rescued. The asteroid is deflected. The Enterprise enters orbit, and makes a call to the nearest starbase.

    That starbase has at least one "tender" ship on call at all times. The tender takes roughly a week to prepare a payload of the required hardware to repair the Enterprise, then sets sail. Let's assume that it takes the better part of a month for the tender to arrive.

    During this period, the Enterprise continues to study the local system, the transplanted "indigenous" population, and of course the "Preserver" technology on the planet. A month is barely enough time to scratch the surface on this sort of an activity, but the Enterprise is outfitted to do a reasonable job on this task.

    (Presumably, Marlena McGiver's replacement would be doing something at this point... there's a reason that the ship has a historian, after all!)

    The tender arrives and the Enterprise sees her major systems repaired. Once the repairs are done, the tender returns to base. During this time, a dedicated survey vessel may have arrived, but in any case, it's most likely that the Enterprise would stay in orbit until a survey vessel was on location, then would receive orders to set sail for their next mission destination.

    That's how I envision things.

    What is a "tender?" Well, it's a ship dedicated to repairing other ships. It would be something somewhat akin to the F.J." transport tug" in some ways... it would carry a massive cargo bay capable of carrying major ship components which might require replacement. It might even be able to carry entire nacelles, though I doubt you'd see that happen very often, as that sort of thing really requires a drydock as far as I'm concerned. It WOULD have the ability to fully support the serviced vessel... ie, the vessel being serviced could shut down any or all of its major systems entirely, and could "slave" to the tender (anything from power to life support to command and control systems). It would carry a large contingent of "work-bee" type craft, and many, many "construction spacesuits" as well. At least half... probably more... of its complement would be repair crews.

    ANYWAY... that's what I envision happening. But since that would be dull to watch, that happens between episodes. :)
     
  5. BK613

    BK613 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^^
    I agree with this assessment.

    In fact I was working on such a tender in Feb before I got distracted by other things...
     
  6. therealfoxbat

    therealfoxbat Commander Red Shirt

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  7. Captain Robert April

    Captain Robert April Vice Admiral Admiral

    They can be found on that site with all the blueprints. See the stickied post regarding "Every Star Trek Blueprint Set Ever Produced" or whatever it's called.
     
  8. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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  9. Captain Robert April

    Captain Robert April Vice Admiral Admiral

  10. Captain Robert April

    Captain Robert April Vice Admiral Admiral

    Debating whether to keep those little backup M/AM reactors in the nacelles...
     
  11. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Are you still keeping matter and antimatter in the secondary hull? If so, wouldn't backup M/AM reactors be better placed there?
     
  12. Captain Robert April

    Captain Robert April Vice Admiral Admiral

    Well, there's the matter of those tech references that aren't easily explained away, and those who cling to those references like a liferaft. The bulk of the matter and antimatter, as well as the reactor machinery, is in the secondary hull, in and around Engineering, but some sort of backups in the nacelles makes a certain amount of sense, along with taking those references into account (no dilithium, just simple reactors and plasma injectors, enabling a top speed of maybe warp two).
     
  13. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    A couple of thoughts:

    1)
    There's several occasions in the show when the "main engines" go down and as a result, the ship is forced to rely on impulse or emergency power. With that in mind, do you interpret the "main engines" to be the M/AM reactors in the secondary hull?

    2)
    What role does dilithium have in your setup? Is it being used to regulate the M/AM reaction or to convert the raw energy into a form usable by the rest of the ship? My initial thoughts on viewing your ship cutaways leant towards a "TNG" style setup, but if you're dispensing with the dilithium in those backup reactors this cannot be the case. Or is dilthium a sort of "preferable but not essential" element of your M/AM reactors?
     
  14. Captain Robert April

    Captain Robert April Vice Admiral Admiral

    Pretty much, but that's mainly a case-by-case matter.

    I'm borrowing a page from the old Spaceflight Chronology and going with the idea that in order to get a ship to go faster than warp four, you need some dilithium crystals; the magnetic constrictor coils can only do so much. However, a dilithium crystal dohickey needs pretty constant monitoring and immediate access, so putting a couple of them up in the nacelles really isn't an option, because if something goes wrong, it takes too long to get to it. Besides, warp two or three should be enough to get out of most messes one might find oneself in.

    As for the rest of the ship, hell, just about everything else can be run off of the fusion reactors. It's only the warp drive that requires the super high energy levels you get from a M/AM reactor and running the energy stream through a dilithium crystal.
     
  15. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That sounds interesting - I'll have to dig it out and read it properly!
     
  16. Captain Robert April

    Captain Robert April Vice Admiral Admiral

    I've still got a soft spot in my heart for the tale of the USS Tritium.
     
  17. Cary L. Brown

    Cary L. Brown Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, I think it was an interesting-looking design, but my favorite element of that was the idea that it was "the most disastrous design ever fielded by Starfleet."

    The idea that Star Trek's future wasn't absolutely PERFECT was a hard idea for some folks to swallow, after all. ;)
     
  18. Captain Robert April

    Captain Robert April Vice Admiral Admiral

    ^ Personally, I loved it. A much needed dose of reality.
     
  19. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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  20. Captain Robert April

    Captain Robert April Vice Admiral Admiral

    The Edsel of starship design....gotta love it....