TOS Connie Class Water Storage Location(s)

[mickemoose]

Question: Where is the most likely (or, as Spock would say, most "logical") location for water storage aboard the TOS Constitution class ship? Saucer or engineering hull, or both?

TMOST places water storage on the main deck of the saucer. If you accept the feature of saucer separation in an emergency, then water storage would be a necessity for crew survival on the saucer. This means a wastewater conversion facility would also be required in the saucer, as well. When you gotta go, you gotta go!

On the flipside of the coin, I've seen many fan-designed TOS deck plans favoring water storage in the engineering hull, usually in the upper deck of the hull. Even the Okudas (from Star Trek Encyclopedia) placed water storage in the uppermost deck of the engineering hull.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Constitution_class_decks

TMOST indicates a wastewater conversion facility in the engineering hull which is appropriate since it would fall under the discipline of environmental engineering. Also, TMOST also lists minimal crew quarters in that hull. Of course, this means toilets! Don't forget Scotty's office, laddy!

Overall, though, it appears the location of water storage is dependent upon saucer separation. Since this feature never occurred in TOS, the issue of water storage will probably remain floating around out there with no definitive answer.

Thanks for the input!

 

[T'Girl]

For the TOS Enterprise, I think the saucer and engineering would largely have entirely separate facilities.

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[Wingsley]

I see many facilities on a Federation starship (23rd or 24th century designs) being decentralized. All that piping and wiring that's everywhere may be interconnected, or it could be part of a local network, and each section's network can be joined to other sections. So, in the end, life support, gravity, water/recycling, and other facilities would be sectional so that if one section is damaged, another section is still functioning.

 

[T'Girl]

Interconnected, so if the recycling in the saucer was damaged (or down for maintenance) the poop from the bridge could make it's way down to the "bowels" of the engineering section. But in the normal course of things it woulds travel to the much closer recycling facility somewhere in the saucer.

 

[Timo]

I rather doubt water tanks would exist on 24th century starships. Drinking water comes from replicators, showers are sonic, and "Caretaker" sort of suggests that bathtubs are filled thanks to replication magic, too. Why bother with stocking up on anything besides deuterium (or whatever combined fusion/annihilation fuel you choose)? It's not as if you could prolong your life with water supplies if deuterium ran out.

But TOS? We learned nothing about the water supplies of ShatnerKirk's ship onscreen, but PineKirk's vessel has those massive tubes for what didn't look like water closets or galley faucets... Possibly the saucer has no need for that water, but the engineering section crucially depends on it, meaning all the tanks could be down there.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[T'Girl]

I rather doubt water tanks would exist on 24th century starships.

Not sure about that, when Picard walks into the loo to splash his face, I think that water came from the plumbing and not the replicator, the characteristic sound effect and light show were missing. Water is a common and frequently used item, why break it down and rebuilt it constantly through the replicator?

Strip it of all materials and reuse it.

 

[Timo]

Why do it the difficult way? Purification would be more complete, the possibilities of reuse more versatile, if reuse was through replication. Today, it's bathwater. Tomorrow, it's sandwiches or breathing air or spare sprockets, all of which are also commonly and frequently used.

Back in TOS, this supposedly would not be possible, as Janeway claims replicators were not available. In TNG, replicators are used with total abandon for the most frivolous things; putting them to practical everyday use sounds like a plan.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[T'Girl]

. Tomorrow, it's sandwiches or breathing air or ...

They speak of the life support system like it's a separate entity, while they possibly could replicate air, in the normal course of things I don't think they do.

 

[Timo]

But shunting power from life support makes a difference for warp drive. So, replicators rather than filters after all?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ronald Held]

With redundancy a common TOS theme, there would be multiple storage units linked together vis multiple paths

 

[137th Gebirg]

The apocryphal works by Franz Joseph has them logically in the diagonal open spaces on the upper part of the primary hull where the height of the outer hull would be too short for corridors to be placed - specifically D-deck (or deck 4) where it surrounds the B/C deck module, H-deck (deck 8) under the saucer, and O-deck (deck 15) at the top of the secondary hull. Good a place as any, IMO.

There's also the swimming pool...

 

[Timo]

Is that how they get gasoline explosions in space? Phaser/disruptor hits splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen just right so that there's a wall of flame being driven by the expanding gases? Wrong color, but perhaps the insulation they use adds the missing ingredients?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Go-Captain]

But shunting power from life support makes a difference for warp drive. So, replicators rather than filters after all?

Timo Saloniemi

I like to think most of the life support power is used for keeping the artificial gravity power topped off, and for running active cooling systems to keep the inside of the ship from cooking the crew while at anything but idle power.

I think the deck gravity is stated to have enough residual energy to last a couple days in that TNG episode where the evolution virus takes hold. In the TNG episode where the ship is getting sterilized, and Picard stays behind to grab his saddle so it doesn't get vaporized, the ship gets hot enough to make him drenched in sweat, and he says it will only get worse, yet the warp core was barely turning over. If the ship had its labs, and sensors, and anything else really chugging energy the crew would probably be flash fried in their own juices from the residual waste heat.

 

[Sans]

At least on the D, there are cetacean tanks within the saucer section. But I can see that most of the water would have been replicated and then dematerialized. For the TOS, I don't have an answer.