NX-class Starship's shuttlebay

[Wingsley]

I suppose a good example of a contemporary science vessel would be Cousteau's Calypso. No doubt the Coast Guard has different kinds of ships, like the kinds of ice cutters and research vessels that visit the Arctic extremes.

Picard repeatedly mentioned science vessels (or the occasion to dispatch them) in episodes like TNG's "Relics", further underscoring a difference between Federation starships-of-the-line and dedicated science ships. To expand on this: yes, a starship like the Enterprise could be used as a science vessel, and ships like her probably do serve in that capacity from time to time. But it would be a waste to dedicate a ship like the Enterprise to that task, full-time. A dedicated science vessel would be like a survey team's or science team's expedition. Some missions may allow for the construction of a space station. Other missions may be handled with a team being deposited on a planet surface to set up camp in an alien wilderness. But some efforts, especially those requiring mobility in deep space, may require a vessel tailored to the needs of the expedition. (Surveying nebulae or dark matter may be an example.)

In the context of ENT, Archer's NX-01 was Earth's first attempt to build a working Warp 5 starship-of-the-line. But in order to do that, Earth had to launch a primitive vessel and send it into deep space to discover what a starship-of-the-line needed in order to be effective. While there were many things to criticize about ENT, the inadequacies of the NX-class were deliberately written into the stories to underscore that Earth's Starfleet was the new-kid-on-the-block, and still had to figure out what they were doing in space.

 

[Timo]

...No doubt UE Starfleet didn't intend the pathfinder ship to be quite that crude an affair, though. The phase cannon did exist and were slated for installation eventually; the ship was bristling with gunports for those, indicating significant growth potential. The crew of eighty could well have reflected growth potential as well.

To a degree, there would be a bigger need to store consumables aboard than in Kirk's ship. But the interiors of Archer's ship were still very spacious, suggesting the ability to carry more crew if needed. So the big point is that 80 crew was big enough to handle the missions of S1-2 and S3. There would have been more crew there if the mission required more, and less if the ship could make do with fewer people.

So eighty was UESF's definition of ideal for the Klaang delivery mission. This mission may have included more engineers than (UESF thought would be the) standard, due to the "maiden voyage" aspect - and this may have helped Tucker and Reed a lot in installing the phase guns all by themselves. OTOH, eighty was perfect for the Xindi hunt, too. And this mission apparently included more shipboard infantry than standard. Given such flexibility, would a full exploration mission really have called for more personnel?

I'd say yes. If Kirk's ship can be flown by 200 people, as in Pike's time, yet he embarks 430, then I'd really expect Archer to have 160 aboard for dedicated long range exploration. Not engineers or infantry or scientists, but all of them at the same time.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Wingsley]

Timo,

I'm scratching my head on that one. I don't disagree with you, but I wonder...

Were NX-class vessels really ready for intensive, long-term "deep space exploration"? I thought the whole point of ENT was that the whole Warp 5 starship concept was a big experiment, the Vulcans were standing back (figuratively) chuckling among themselves about how the humans weren't prepared, and Archer and Tucker were so deep into the NX project that they had more than a little trouble with their objectivity about whether the new starship and its Warp 5 engines would "have the right stuff" in "the real world".

I understood the whole point of ENT being that Archer and Tucker were stubborn about it, they were going to force it to work even when it obviously didn't work. Then there's T'Pol, always looking over their shoulders, voicing an ironic mixture of her doubts and agreements.

People tend to trash "There Are The Voyages..." and the whole finale was obviously half-baked. But, for all its flaws, the finale's decommissioning of the NX-01 Enterprise was the perfect ending of the story. The ship did (sort of) work in deep space, it obviously got alot of jobs done, and it showed both the potential of Earth's Warp 5 engines and of the Earth saucer-based design. And it obviously survived the conflict with the Romulans, to boot.

With the founding of the Federation, though, and their obvious attempts to combine technologies to build a new generation of Federation starships, it was probably the end of the line for the NX class. Why hang onto a Warp 5 starship with so-so transporters and no shields ("These Are the Voyages..." never settled the question about whether shields were ever used against the Romulans, so even if they were eventually incorporated into the NX-class, they probably weren't very effective.) when you can get the humans, Vulcans, Tellarites, Andorians and who knows who else together, combine your technologies and maybe come up with a sum that's greater than its parts?

Back to the shuttlebay...

Can anyone think of a way that a working NX-Delta variant could have been somehow hangared inside an NX-class starship for flight launching in deep space? Is the access to the shuttlebays or the cargo bays arranged to make it possible somehow, or would the ship have to be lashed to the outer hull?

 

[starburst]

Only way would probably be outside, the cargo bays seem to be on the sides of the saucer (you can see hatches for them on the hull)

 

[Timo]

The doors to those are still a bit small for NX-Alpha to come in "horizontally". "Vertically", though, the craft could be inserted into those bays which supposedly go through the entire saucer. Each could perhaps hold two NX-Alpha type craft, then.

Also, there seem to be two large aft-facing doors on the aft rim of the saucer, between the booms. Mere sockets for fuel transfer hoses or fuel lighters? Alternate access to the shuttle hangars? Those could perhaps accommodate largish auxiliary craft, too.

Were NX-class vessels really ready for intensive, long-term "deep space exploration"?

I don't think they were ever intended as mere propusion testbeds, no. Warp five propulsion wasn't the experiment Vulcans were worried about. Earth engaging in deep space exploration was. And that's what NX-01 was supposed to achieve, and what Archer accused Soval of stalling.

Earth already knew how to build big starships, as exemplified by the Intrepid. Combining warp five propulsion with that was new technologically, but clearly the Enterprise was built to do much more. The up to thirteen gunports and six to nine torpedo tubes are one indication; the big holds and shuttlebays are another.

Archer's first years of adventure no doubt taught Earth how to build even better ships, so I agree that the retirement of NX-01 after ten years of service was a logical step. It might well be that improved designs were fielded in significant numbers in the 2150s already, and that NX-01 and NX-02 were the only ones ever built to the original design.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Wingsley]

^
By vertically, do you mean straight up and down, or at an angle?

 

[Timo]

We've never seen the shafts up close, but they have been described as being vertical affairs, with openings to cargo holds on the sides. The total height would be roughly the same as the total length of the shuttlebay...

...No, wait. I counted the decks wrong. The shaft is one deck short of accommodating NX-Alpha even in the best case.

Cut-and-paste link:

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/akiraprise/nx01-starboard.gif

So the only real chance would be the two aft doors marked "observation gallery" in the view on this cut-and-paste link:

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/scans/stmagazine/nx-sfa.jpg

(With wings/pylons folded, of course.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[AstroSmurf]

According to an interview with Doug Drexler over at Ex Astris Scientia, all the doors on the back of the saucer are actually an EV staging area. The inspection pods are also housed in this area.

Unfortunately, the vertical cargo shafts in the saucer are not tall or wide enough to house the NX-Alpha. Maybe if you detached the nacelles and ejected the cockpit/nosecone (which you could bring into one of the empty aft launch bays) you could do it.

As for her small crew, despite the vessel's large size, I think the first three seasons could be explained away with the "not ready or not needed idea". Of course we have no idea of the crew compliment in the fourth season since it was never mentioned on screen. But by my calculations, she could hold up to 160 people. Accounting for extra passengers, I would say her crew would be or should be at 140. But the NX is still technically a prototype so I tend to think she was forced into a more active service than she was initially designed for. Then with retrofitting before going into the Expanse and an overhaul at the end of that mission, she could have brought up to full explorer status. (The only reason why Archer was allowed to stay out in deep space after delivering Klaang back home was more of a political move than anything else.)

If you would like to get a look at the cargo shafts or the launch bays, just pop on over to my website!

And I could talk about the NX-01 for days. After two years tinkering with her, I would hope so. But if you have any more questions, just ask. Hopefully I will remember to check back here.

 

[The_Sprinklez]

I have often wondered whether or not NX-Alpha or NX-Beta would fit in an NX-Class Starship. I believe that with modifications to both the NX-Class vessel and NX-Prototype, it would be possible.

 

[Richard Baker]

How about instead of trying to cram a testing prototype designed for equipment evaluation into the NX class you build a small warp shuttle in components and store it until needed? Keep the warp nacelles and core units and swap a modular crew compartment which could be configured for cargo, instruments, personnel or general purpose.

I considered Explorer craft to do just that- see what is interesting out there, and when you find it send a more specialized science vessel to give it an in depth study. If you discover a unique stellar phenomenon, you would fill the followup vessel with astronomers and astrophysicists, if you find ancient ruins of a technologically advanced culture, send archaeologists and engineers. Even the Galaxy class ship did not have sufficient resources to do a complete study, Picard was always ending his log entry talking about Star Fleet sending a science vessel to study things in depth later. The Enterprise D had over a thousand people on board, a lot of them scientists and they still sent out a specialty science vessel to take a better look at things later.

I do think having some sort of warp capable vehicle onboard is a good idea, there have been a number of shows where that sort of thing would have been very handy. Just like Voyagers spare warp core, just keep it in storage until you really need it. The NX shuttle facilities are just too darn small to do more than service their shuttlepods and similar smaller vehicles