If you look at the engineering hull of the Obreth you might notice something that other starships with engineering hulls have but the Obreth does not!
JDW
JDW
Obreth class Starship Armament?
- Thread starter James Wright
- Start date
Yeah, it's called a deflector. Or, alternatively, a way to get into the actuall secondary hull. I wouldn't think it would be necessary though. For all we know, the thing is a detachable sensor pod used to study planets from a distance.
Wrong! I can't believe that no one hadn't noticed that there aren't any windows on the engineering hull of the Obreth class starships.
JDW
JDW
^ True. Although, if it were an unmanned section, it wouldn't need any, would it? 
I had the exact thought myself! As for the deflector dish, it's in the aft section of the engineering hull.
JDW
JDW
^ True. Although, if it were an unmanned section, it wouldn't need any, would it?
Way I typically look at the "pod" is that it is basically one big rack of plug-and-play modules inside and science labs. A easily reconfigurable module that can be swapped out for whatever mission/experiment they're on at the moment. As for manned versus unmanned, I figure it can be both. If they need a staff/crew down there for a research project (say studying specimens recently beamed up, etc) they can spend days or weeks down there isolated from the rest of ship; then if everything goes to shit, they blow the pod clear and protect the rest of the ship. For nominal operations (mapping, charting, etc) the pod is run on automatic.
...Except that some 24th century models apparently have the warp core down there in the pod. Which may not have been the case in the original design, but the later redesigners apparently decided the pod was as good a place as any for a new, more powerful but also bulkier powerplant. This shouldn't hinder the use of the pod as an emergency-jettisonable section in any way, but it would complicate the idea of modular swapping of the pod for each new mission. Then again, such modular swaps might have been an original design feature but out of fashion in the 24th century.
I don't see the lack of windows as a damning fault for a crewed space. After all, most of the spaces in the primary hulls of 23rd century starships are windowless, and even the rims of the saucers have far fewer windows than would be structurally possible. Clearly, providing a direct view to space is not a pressing requirement in starship design.
Also, if we accept the scale of the Oberth at about 120 meters, two full-height decks in the saucer, then there are no windows in the saucer, either. Those shining dots on the saucer rim are some sort of sensors, then, or at most oddly placed teeny weeny portholes close to the ceilings or floors.
Timo Saloniemi
I don't see the lack of windows as a damning fault for a crewed space. After all, most of the spaces in the primary hulls of 23rd century starships are windowless, and even the rims of the saucers have far fewer windows than would be structurally possible. Clearly, providing a direct view to space is not a pressing requirement in starship design.
Also, if we accept the scale of the Oberth at about 120 meters, two full-height decks in the saucer, then there are no windows in the saucer, either. Those shining dots on the saucer rim are some sort of sensors, then, or at most oddly placed teeny weeny portholes close to the ceilings or floors.
Timo Saloniemi
Small portholes would be better than nothing at all - if there's a serious reason for the inclusion of windows on Starships, which I'm assuming is assumed in Star Trek.
Something about psychology? Anyway.
I think something as small as a car window would work, or a home's sky light.
Sensors would be fine, too.
Great point about the modularity not being as important in the 24th century - by then perhaps the modular components would be smaller swap-out units one could replace with anti-grav units, not entire chunks of a secondary hull, or the secondary hull itself.
Something about psychology? Anyway.
I think something as small as a car window would work, or a home's sky light.
Sensors would be fine, too.
Great point about the modularity not being as important in the 24th century - by then perhaps the modular components would be smaller swap-out units one could replace with anti-grav units, not entire chunks of a secondary hull, or the secondary hull itself.
