Giant Space Drill (rant, spoilerish)

[Vance]

So, the plot of the new Trek movie is that Spock has to go back in time to stop Nero from destroying Vulcan by screwing it to death with a giant space drill. Seriously, not making this up, the VFX shots are up and part of the trailer now. Seriously, this is supposed to be the big scary plan that makes it worth rebooting the franchise within the 'canon' and all that crap? A giant space drill? And Nero's the next Khan with this plan? Come on! This sounds like a plan you come up with when you're piss-drunk and hanging with your buds after a binge!

Nero: You know what I'm gonna do when I break out of Rura-Pente?
Prisoner: No, man, what?
Nero: I'm going to break out of Rura-Pente.. then you know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to ---- Vulcan! That's IT! I'll screw Vulcan with a Giant Space Drill! That'll show 'em! It's symbolic!
Prisoner: Dude, why not just photon torpedo the crap out of the planet? Seriously.
Nero: Giant Space Drill!

Now, we all know that Nero fails and likely dies, probably in a fist fight with NuKirk where Nero falls to his slightly-ironic but utterly predictable death on the drill, but, wouldn't it be more fun if he lives, gets thrown back in prison, and we see him with a hangover?

Nero: Who the hell thought of a giant drill, anyway? That was STUPID! Whose plan was that!

The he can give an embarassed look to the camera and we roll credits.

Seriously, guys, giant space drill?!

 

[controlfreak]

Perhaps Nero wanted to be a dentist when he was a boy, but was constantly discouraged. This is his Ultimate Revenge.

 

[M'Sharak]

Giant Space Drill (rant, spoilerish)

Once you've put "Giant Space Drill" in the thread title, I'm not sure that there are any new details to be spoiled in the body of the post. It's my understanding, however, that there's a little more to it than just the GSD.

Spoiler: There's...

...something to be put in the hole after it's drilled which is the real bad news. The GSD itself is not much more than a scaled-up (and way scarier-looking) version of the sort of rig which has been used for deep-seafloor drilling for decades, now.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

If Nero wants to implode Vulcan with a black hole why doesn't he just drop the singularity onto the planet from his space squid? It's not like Vulcan's lithosphere could stop the black hole from rapidly sinking to the core under its own weight.

TGT

 

[Vance]

Yeah... "Giant Space Drill"... cause, ya know, a black hole just isn't LETHAL without one. :P

"What we need is a big scary tunnel!" - How Willy Wonka Should Have Ended

 

[Samurai8472]

*Drill begins to insert into the planet*

Austin Powers- Does that make you horny baby?

Ms Kensington- Not now Austin

 

[GodThingFormerly]

And Nero's the next Khan with this plan?

Nero sounds more like the next Shinzon, at least when it comes to badly misdirected anger and a taste for super-weapons that make the cartoon designs of Rube Goldberg look like exemplars of engineering simplicity and elegance.

TGT

 

[Basil]

Yeah, space squids, space drills, space docks, space cadets -- for somebody who keeps harping about the silliness of Star Trek, J.J. Abrams sure seems to embrace the hokiest of elements. Yet he decides to build a giant spaceship . . . on earth.

 

[Cky]

God people overthink these things to much.

"Why use a space drill, when you can use..."

It's called storyline -.-.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

God people overthink these things to much.

"Why use a space drill, when you can use..."

It's called storyline -.-.

So why did Abrams make such a big deal out of engaging a planetary scientist as the film's science advisor if he wasn't going to bother with generating even a minimum level of technical verisimilitude?

TGT

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Did he mention if the planetary scientist is credible? I think that's the important bit.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

Did he mention if the planetary scientist is credible? I think that's the important bit.

Carolyn Porco is apparently fairly well regarded in the planetary sciences community, and she has published extensively according to the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System. The problem - aside from Abrams probably ignoring whatever advice she may have given hence Nero's GSD - is that she is far too much of a specialist to provide meaningful assistance in scientific and engineering fields beyond her own which have relevance to Trek (speculative astronautics, computer science, high-energy astrophysics, societal evolution, etc.).

TGT

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

The space drill does give me a bit of pause, but I'm willing to wait and see how it is done on screen. Hopefully, it's somewhat similar to the Shadow Planet Killer in Babylon 5, where nukes bore into a planets core.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I have one word...EWOKS...if ewoks can help bring down the Empire, Nero can have a space drill...if you're going to a movie expecting physics to line up then..well...you will come out a sour puss....

For the same reason an air tank can kill a shark, or a little torpedo shot down a intake valve can destroy a space station as nearly as large as a moon...they're movies...

And no one is going to care about the physics of a movie except for those who have nothing better do..just have fun..

Rob

 

[Devon]

I don't have a problem with the space drill.. but just wondering, wouldn't it burn up in the atmosphere? Or is that why it "angles off" as we see in the trailer?

 

[GodThingFormerly]

I don't have a problem with the space drill.. but just wondering, wouldn't it burn up in the atmosphere?

It would depend upon how fast the drill bit is moving when it hits the outer layers of Vulcan's atmosphere. Presumably Nero would have parked his space squid in a stationary orbit over the intended penetration site, although he would need to deploy a tethered counterweight of the same mass as the drill mechanism in the opposite direction to stop the spacecraft from changing orbit and thus move out of position relative to the planet's surface.

TGT

 

[Kirk1980]

I don't have a problem with the space drill.. but just wondering, wouldn't it burn up in the atmosphere?

It would depend upon how fast the drill bit is moving when it hits the outer layers of Vulcan's atmosphere. Presumably Nero would have parked his space squid in a stationary orbit over the intended penetration site, although he would need to deploy a tethered counterweight of the same mass as the drill mechanism in the opposite direction to stop the spacecraft from changing orbit and thus move out of position relative to the planet's surface.

TGT

THWAP!

Think like an overhyped Hollywood producer, you fool!

He'll just put his engines in REVERSE!

 

[GodThingFormerly]

THWAP!

Ouch!

Think like an overhyped Hollywood producer, you fool!

Yes, mistress.

He'll just put his engines in REVERSE!

Which would cause the space squid to lose altitude. On the other hand, the ship is probably equipped with some type of antigrav thingy so Nero can just put it into "hover mode" over the target site. My objection concerning the need for a drill to implant a black hole still stands, however.

TGT

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

My objection concerning the need for a drill to implant a black hole still stands, however.

TGT

Yes, it's totally silly. Were I Nero, I'd go for something simpler like rendering the planet uninhabitable. Then again, I have read How To Destroy the Earth and Evil Overlords List, so I'm a bit more reasonable when it comes to villanry and evil plans.

Of course, when it comes down to it, black holes are cooler than orbital bombardments.

 

[Vigilance]

So... you guys are debating the reality of a space drill, in a movie with thousands of humanoid species, and ships that travel faster than light, and computers that can translate any language into perfect english in seconds.

Huh.

Giant Space Drill comes pretty low on the list of science shenanigans in trek by my count.