Can the Enterprise D float?

[ancient]

Even a submarine with a hull strong enough to survive deep sea and a nuclear reactor on board floats. I'm sure whatever they build things out of in 300 years will be 10 times stronger and 10 times lighter, so I think it's unlikely it'll sink.

The only time we've seen a ship in H20 was the BOP in STIV, which obviously sprang a leak, yet sank pretty slowly anyway, and never did go all the way down. I think a BOP is at least as dense as a Federation ship (probably more dense).

 

[Timo]

When saucers dip in the soup, I'm sure they will float.

When entire starships dip, I'm far less certain. The total masses quoted for starships on screen suggest very high average density indeed - and if we agree that the habitat sections are less dense than water, then we must suspect that most of the mass is in the engines, probably in the warp coils.

The Voyager supposedly masses 700,000 metric tons uncompensated, for a total estimated volume of 625,000 m^3. That's about 1.1 times the density of water overall. Kirk's ship supposedly massed about the same ("nearly a million gross tons") for a volume of 211,000 m^3, and a density of about three times that of water. Then again, Kirk's vessel had nacelles more than 1.5 times as big as Janeway's, and the overall design dictated lots of hull metal in relation to the encompassed volume.

The DS9 Tech Manual suggests density figures around 1.1-1.7 for various Starfleet types, while fan works generally go for much lighter ships.

Perhaps the Klingon BoP has relatively small warp coils, as it's not supposed to be much of a performer. A density near that of water might then be expected, and floating might be possible. Although we'd have to remember that the thing had truly massive cargo holds in relation to her size (intended for planetary assault?), and those were full of water at the time...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Cary L. Brown]

When saucers dip in the soup, I'm sure they will float.

When entire starships dip, I'm far less certain. The total masses quoted for starships on screen suggest very high average density indeed - and if we agree that the habitat sections are less dense than water, then we must suspect that most of the mass is in the engines, probably in the warp coils.

I suspect that's really the main reason that you separate the ship for "lifeboat" behavior. The separated saucer isn't "really" intended to be a separate starship. But it IS designed to be survival in any reasonable planetside environment (even a pelagic planet), whereas the entire ship would sink...

It's really the best rationale I can envision unless you have significant FTL capability in the saucer, effectively making it a totally independent, fully functional starship.

 

[Tigger]

Who cares if it floats? What I want to know is, will it blend?