Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Plenty of Porsches have been 4 cylinders.

The # of Cylinders doesn't really matter.

It's the amount of liters you displace relative to the amount of HP / Torque you can extract from the work done by the engine.

Koenigsegg TFG "Tiny Friendly Giant"

It has a I-3 configuration "Inline 3-cylinder".

It displaces 2.0 liters and has BIG Cylinders.

The engines "Dry Weight" is 154 lbs (70 kg)

Yet w/o Turbo, naturally aspirated; it makes 300 hp.

w/ Turbos, it goes up to 600 hp.

It's Small, Light Weight, and uses some of the most advanced metallurgy & design principles.

It's basically the most advanced Cylinder based ICE around.

It is truly a next generation ICE design in every sense of the word.

 

[Magistos]

I think you have all made the successful case for why nacelles might be in 2 or 4 set configurations and be small/medium/large relative to the ship, the warp core, and its intended usage.

 

[fireproof78]

I think you have all made the successful case for why nacelles might be in 2 or 4 set configurations and be small/medium/large relative to the ship, the warp core, and its intended usage.

Did they?

Can someone break it down for the now engineers among us?

 

[Magistos]

Do you want fast and mobile (Porsche/Ferrari/Escort), fast and not so mobile (Mustang/Challenger/Cruiser), power (tow capacity, etc.), high cruise, low cruise, energy sipping scout, etc.

Even now, I'm SERIOUSLY simplifying. So many configurations and power needs/abilities. When I was growing up, I knew a mustang would beat my 944 off the line, but the 944 had the higher top end. I'd never get into a stop-light to stop-light challenge with a pony car. Try to chase me on the highway however....

Eh, I'll let an engineer talk.

 

[fireproof78]

Do you want fast and mobile (Porsche/Ferrari/Escort), fast and not so mobile (Mustang/Challenger/Cruiser), power (tow capacity, etc.), high cruise, low cruise, energy sipping scout, etc.

Even now, I'm SERIOUSLY simplifying. So many configurations and power needs/abilities. When I was growing up, I knew a mustang would beat my 944 off the line, but the 944 had the higher top end. I'd never get into a stop-light to stop-light challenge with a pony car. Try to chase me on the highway however....

Eh, I'll let an engineer talk.

I didn't even understand half of that.

What the hell?

 

[Tuskin38]

Is that a fighterjet in the shuttlebay??

F-104 Starfighter yes, it's an easter egg. Same jet from TOS Tomorrow is Yesterday.

 

[Mage]

I think that's supposed to be John Christopher's jet.

F-104 Starfighter yes, it's an easter egg. Same jet from TOS Tomorrow is Yesterday.

Derp.... ofcourse. Should have known. Now we know where it went since it isn't on the 2024 SOTL calender.

 

[drt]

That MSD just reminds me that the length of warp Nacelles is completely inconsequential to their performance and there is no justifiable reason to have a 200 metre long nacelle compared to a 50 metre one as they all seem to have a differing number of warp coils. The overall design feasibility of warp engines is brought into question when tiny Nacelles like the Intrepids were supposed to be the best in Starfleet at the time and then a couple of years later the Soveriegn shows up with absolutely colossal Nacelles for no identifiable benefit. Nacelle design confuses the hell out of me!

Well, there was a reason the Galaxy and Intrepid had small nacelles, the idea from 1987-1995 was engines got more miniaturized as the technology improved, but then the Sovereign showed up and crapped all over that idea because the powers-that-be thought long ones look better on the big screen, so now we starship fans have to make up all kinds of things to explain a real life aesthetic choice.

 

[cooleddie74]

And Klingon battle cruiser warp nacelles are even smaller, which brings up in some fan circles the debate over whether Federation or Klingon warp technology is superior since the Empire can achieve the same warp velocities as Starfleet ships and sometimes even faster.

 

[fireproof78]

And Klingon battle cruiser warp nacelles are even smaller, which brings up in some fan circles the debate over whether Federation or Klingon warp technology is superior since the Empire can achieve the same warp velocities as Starfleet ships and sometimes even faster.

Klingons don't use secondary back ups

 

[cooleddie74]

Which is ironic for a species with so many redundant body organs.

 

[drt]

And Klingon battle cruiser warp nacelles are even smaller, which brings up in some fan circles the debate over whether Federation or Klingon warp technology is superior since the Empire can achieve the same warp velocities as Starfleet ships and sometimes even faster.

I was thinking another Klingons when I made by earlier response. We should probably not mention that their most commonly encountered ship doesn’t even have nacelles, and is just as fast.

 

[HotRod]

the powers-that-be thought long ones look better

They were right.

 

[Macintosh]

I was thinking another Klingons when I made by earlier response. We should probably not mention that their most commonly encountered ship doesn’t even have nacelles, and is just as fast.

Warp wings FTW!

 

[Macintosh]

They were right.

The USS Discovery wishes to test that theory.

 

[HotRod]

The USS Discovery wishes to test that theory.

It's a bit much, I'll give you that.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Could chalk up the Crossfield-class' extra-long nacelles as a result of the Spore Drive Project. Without the spore drive, the nacelles might have been a lot shorter for all we know.

 

[Ithekro]

Perhaps some designs use more smaller warp coils and other designs use less but larger warp coils.

Discovery has thin nacelles verses the Enterprise. Likewise the Sovereign has thinner nacelles next to a Galaxy. Defiant has a few large warp coils for its combat frame, but a Nova has longer nacelles.

 

[cooleddie74]

The nacelles of the pre-2151 Intrepid-type Earth starships were considerably bigger and bulkier than those of the newer, bigger and more advanced NX-class of starships. But those vessels were still smaller, slower, less heavily armed and generally less effective in combat situations or traveling at warp than Enterprise or any of the other ships in her class.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I was thinking another Klingons when I made by earlier response. We should probably not mention that their most commonly encountered ship doesn’t even have nacelles, and is just as fast.

Klingon Warp Wings FTW, they give you so many design options in terms of Warp Field Emitter placement that can't be done with normal Parallel Warp Nacelles.

And there are 8x Different Type of Warp Field Emitters that I've catalogued so far within Trek.

So there is ALOT of diversity in terms of how you generate that Warp Field along with the PRO(s)/CON(s) to each method of doing the same thing.