Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really ?

[Timo]

Re: Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really

I'd bet all ships have to be equipped with escape pods with distress beacons to be allowed to leave port.

I sort of doubt that: an escape pod sounds like a deathtrap. Much better to require the ships to have an escaping warp core, that is, an ejector for the kaboom parts. That way, the part in which the survivors will huddle is a bona fide survival shell, a spacecraft rated to keep people alive for extended periods of time; anything smaller than this spacecraft would presumably be hard pressed to be equally survivable.

Of course, antimatter warp core ejectors have a poor track record, so presumably that technology is too demanding to be made practical, let alone civilian-proof. But interstellar spacecraft might also be powered by something a bit safer that can be ejected.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ithekro]

Re: Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really

Consider that way back in Archer's time, there were family run freighters with warp drives operating for decades. Each only able to make, at best, warp 2. Some of the early ones were hand signed by Cochrane. So you have a famly or two running around in each of these slow freighters that are moving between colonies and later member worlds at less than eight times the speed of light. They seem to be rather safe.

It would be reasonable to consider that technology increases so that such freighters, by the 24th century, could make maybe up to warp factor 5 (or perhap new scale warp 3 or 4) with a reliable proven engine.

This assumes antimatter is involved, though it might be that fusion drives are in place for such vessels. but that goes back to the idea of impulse power driven warp drives.

 

[Timo]

Re: Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really

They seem to be rather safe.

Or then the loss rate just isn't discussed much in the show.

As for newer propulsion being more reliable, that doesn't always happen. Automobiles are less reliable than horses on several key parameters, and modern ones are far more difficult to field-repair than older types. Early performance-boosting inventions such as the carburetor already added considerably to the breakdown risk, and materials technology in general tends to lag behind performance improvements, creating more or less permanent problems.

(OTOH, automobile "propulsive" performance has more or less stagnated, oh, fifty years ago: improvements now indeed boost reliability and economy, although only as far as the market forces call for. Ditto with more serious transportation technologies, such as diesel-powered cargo ships. It's difficult to imagine what would happen to reliability today if hypersonic aviation suddenly became all the fad, and speed was everything in making a profit...)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Re: Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really

I would think that to fly in Federation space you'd need to get an inspection every year or so, just like you need to get your inspection sticker updated every year to drive in the US. And that inspection would probably require functioning safety equipment including escape pods. And the licensing exam would include all the knowledge necessary for mid-flight engine maintenance.

 

[Timo]

Re: Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really

Again, though, we have to wonder whether Harry Mudd or Cyrano Jones or Carter Winston or Jaglom Shrek would know how to repair their own engines...

And today's private boating doesn't call for licenses of that sort. In many places, you can pass an exam to do professional sailing, and that includes navigation techniques and equipment maintenance alike, but you don't really need that exam for legally sailing around in your own yacht - around the globe if you want.

Similarly, in order to become a proper trucker, you need to learn how to give first aid to your rig on the roadside, but nobody legally requires you to be a proper trucker for your around-the-continent RV circuit. A driver's license suffices just fine, and that has no connection whatsoever with engine maintenance. Not at the level you need to drive a multi-ton RV, at any rate.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[drt]

Re: Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really

3) Barring own ships, how does the average joe travel in space, if he travels at all ? (Assuming that starfleet vessels are as (in)accessible as a navy vessel is today). So, are there regular public transportation services between, say Earth and Vulcan ? Or do you have to contact a trader you know to book passage ? Suppose I have a simple (non-starfleet) job on earth, with no special connections, and I'd like to have a holiday on Bajor, could I arrange that or would it be quite difficult?

So, how many people really do 'trek' between the stars ?

Leaving the private ownership discussions aside for a minute.

I think your thought about ocean-liners is probably closest to how the average joe travels among the stars. Due to the travel times invovled, my assumption has always been that there are regularly scheduled spaceliners traveling between the main ports-of-call in the core of the Federation. Intrasystem travel probably occurs on shuttles that probably look like BSG's Colonial One.

My guess is in the 23rd century there was some expense to interstellar travel, which we'll have to assume is no longer the case in the 24th. However, in my experience, most people tend to be homebodies, and only a minority actually like to travel. So perhaps there isn't a horrible demand to provide free passage to large numbers of individuals. Plus, one also has to remember that exploring your own planet is quickest and easiest, and could conceivably satisfy a lot of people's wanderlust.

Places that are more off the beaten path are likely still accessible via space-liner, but I can imagine that the scheduling is perhaps not as frequent as core worlds. But if you wanted to go somewhere really remote, I'd bet you'd have to book passage with a trader of some kind (as you'd have to do with a bush pilot today).

 

[T'Girl]

Re: Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really

... you'd need to get an inspection every year or so, just like you need to get your inspection sticker updated every year to drive in the US.

I have an emissions test every other year at license tag time, other than that I've never had an official inspection of any vehicle.

Different states, different laws.

My guess is in the 23rd century there was some expense to interstellar travel, which we'll have to assume is no longer the case in the 24th.

Quark had to pay for passage between Earth and DS9, for himself, Rom and Nog.

 

[Ithekro]

Re: Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really

Also different ages. In California, you do not need to do emissions tests on cars older that 1975.

 

[Timo]

Re: Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really

Quark had to pay for passage between Earth and DS9, for himself, Rom and Nog.

And they probably charge premium for the Ferengi. Oh, of course it's camouflaged as all sorts of legitimate expenses, space taken up by the lobes, security arrangements for the cash the Ferengi always are expected to carry, what-have-you...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[T'Girl]

Re: Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really

There's also the time Quark wanted to travel to Risa, instead of traveling there on a luxury liner for free, he bummed a ride in a runabout and had to put up with a tiny living space.

Star liners just ain't free.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Re: Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really

Again, though, we have to wonder whether Harry Mudd or Cyrano Jones or Carter Winston or Jaglom Shrek would know how to repair their own engines...

And today's private boating doesn't call for licenses of that sort. In many places, you can pass an exam to do professional sailing, and that includes navigation techniques and equipment maintenance alike, but you don't really need that exam for legally sailing around in your own yacht - around the globe if you want.

Similarly, in order to become a proper trucker, you need to learn how to give first aid to your rig on the roadside, but nobody legally requires you to be a proper trucker for your around-the-continent RV circuit. A driver's license suffices just fine, and that has no connection whatsoever with engine maintenance. Not at the level you need to drive a multi-ton RV, at any rate.

Timo Saloniemi

Yeah, but you're not likely going to be boating at 70 miles per hour five feet away from another boat. And were you to crash a boat, it would not have the potential to kill thousands of people in a giant explosion (For most sized boats).

Spaceships are more comparable to airplanes in the risk factor of letting an untrained person behind the controls.

 

[at Quark's]

Re: Just how common is interstellar travel in the 24th century, really

Yeah, but you're not likely going to be boating at 70 miles per hour five feet away from another boat. And were you to crash a boat, it would not have the potential to kill thousands of people in a giant explosion (For most sized boats).

Spaceships are more comparable to airplanes in the risk factor of letting an untrained person behind the controls.

But if you are flying above a vast unpopulated tundra, there wouldn't be much risk involved for anyone except the occupants of the plane itself. I think interstellar travel would be much more akin to that than to, say, flying over LA.

If that is so, then it would only be really risky at the beginning and ending points of such a journey, when docking and leaving a spaceport.