Did Khan Design The Vengeance or Just The Weapons?

[Nebusj]

If we can do it, so can Khan (or Scotty, for that matter). If we nerds can do that from our living rooms after work, certainly a genetic superman doing the same thing with little sleep is an improvement.

We just have to come up with a couple paragraphs of plausible-sounding tech talk. Khan has to deliver a manufacturable product.

The specifications for the Saturn V's main, F-1, engine, took (I am told by a reliable source) less than two pages to write. The actual engine required millions of pages of writing and nearly as many working hours of construction, not to mention enormous piles of cash and eight years of building.

 

[Cyke101]

If we can do it, so can Khan (or Scotty, for that matter). If we nerds can do that from our living rooms after work, certainly a genetic superman doing the same thing with little sleep is an improvement.

We just have to come up with a couple paragraphs of plausible-sounding tech talk. Khan has to deliver a manufacturable product.

The specifications for the Saturn V's main, F-1, engine, took (I am told by a reliable source) less than two pages to write. The actual engine required millions of pages of writing and nearly as many working hours of construction, not to mention enormous piles of cash and eight years of building.

But we're also not saying that he built the Vengeance, or a Saturn V rocket, singlehandedly, either. If he was leading some sort of project, he could come up with concepts and manage project integration, which doesn't necessarily mean needing expertise in said-area (indeed, many external project managers don't have specific degrees related to the area that they're managing, because that's not what they're hired to do. They're hired to implement and organize the vision into a product itself).

Khan himself and by himself doesn't have to deliver a manufacturable; he'd most likely lead a team to develop and create it, with Khan himself telling them what he wants, the timetable to work with, and reporting to Marcus on any developments. It's most likely going to require managing different teams with different specialties with the shared goal of one ship (consider how Picard leads a ship but isn't a weapons or engines expert or doctor).

 

[Richard Baker]

You do not need complete engineering knowledge to contribute. In my example the idea of adding multiple warheads to an ICBM did not neccessarily require the full knowledge of how to built the rocket or a nuclear bomb. Just having the new concept of a MIRV can be a game changer.

Those spherical phaser drones were something we have not seen in the Prime universe before. Unlike the multiple vector assault mode they can be in greater numbers and delivery weapons fire without the complexity of a starship. Might be Khan, might not be, but it is a novel approach he could have innovated ...

 

[Ithekro]

Basically what Khan is used for by Marcus is to reassess what Starfleet has and put it to better destructive use against the Klingon problem.

I can imagine Marcus having his tactical experts and engineers put out a list of Starfleet assets and technologies along with a strategic overview of the problem with fighting Klingons as of 2258. Khan then starts asking why all this won't just wipe the Klingons off the Galactic map. To which the experts start telling him what issues they have, what the Klingons have the causes them to be superior in one way or another. To which Khan starts pointing to thing and say, well why can't you just use this thing with that thing to take out their advantage. Or ask why is this probe not being packed with explosives and used as a torpedo?

Basically Khan is thinking in a military (savage) way, while most of Starfleet would be looking at things in scientific or engineering terms. He just repurposes their ideas to fit come up with a 20th century solution to a 23rd century problem.

 

[Timo]

Yes, because *WE* are debating fictional things that have no (or limited) basis in reality.

...But boards similar to this one discuss real-world technology (say, warplanes) with similar dilettante fervor. And while this doesn't result in warplanes being built as such, it's certainly a step that might be involved in getting warplanes built. After all,

We just have to come up with a couple paragraphs of plausible-sounding tech talk. Khan has to deliver a manufacturable product.

Not really. Khan can come up with a couple of paragraphs of what he thinks would be a cool idea, and Marcus' minions can then turn that into reality. If Khan is enough of an engineer, then a high percentage of his ideas actually are doable - but it takes a perverted mind like Khans to come up with the original ideas.

Yes, Marcus might dream up those things all by himself. But he's a busy man - he needs a think tank, and he has simply found the best possible chairman for that tank in Khan.

Timo Saloniemi