Voyager landing question

[jgdst]

We've seen Voyager land on a planet a couple of times - there's a bit of rumbling, maybe a shower of sparks, and then the two (seemingly short and stubby) landing struts extend and the ship lands safely.

What I've wondered about is how does the ship actually stay standing. The landing legs are on the engineering hull, and the saucer seems to be entirely unsupported. Given that there's a lot more ship in the forward sections, I'm not convinced that the ship's mass is distributed in such a way that would prevent it falling nose first into the ground once it landed.

I know for a fact it's one problem that isn't fixed by the almighty Borg nanoprobes Does anyone have any ideas about how or why the ship manages to keep this equilibrium?

 

[MMCL]

The ship may stretch further forward but the centre of gravity is likely to be further back...

 

[DRMidnite]

hm... force field emitters?

 

[jgdst]

I was thinking forcefields, but then you'd just get people bouncing off it when they walked near the ship

As for centre of gravity or centre of mass, I think that would have to be more towards where the shuttle bay is in both cases. Towards that end of the ship, the hangar deck is mostly open space, and there's at most a couple of decks below that. Even with the nacelles and the warp core assembly I still don't think there's enough mass to serve as a sufficient anchor for all the forward sections...

Then again... there are a lot of shuttles apparently hiding back there, so maybe the rear of the ship has got a major TARDIS thing going on

 

[voyagerfan]

The rear of the ship is where the heavier materials stuff is and the front is mainly living quarters. The weight is mainly in the back

 

[JNG]

The warp coils in the nacelles are by far the most massive part of the ship, and probably easily serve to counterbalance the primary hull (at least with the subspace fields inactive); however, it is also true that the legs are just supports and force fields handle a majority of the work needed to keep the ship upright in a landed position.

 

[jgdst]

The rear of the ship is where the heavier materials stuff is and the front is mainly living quarters. The weight is mainly in the back

But aren't the cargo bays (one of them at least in Scorpion), shown to be in the saucer section? I would've imagined that's where most of the heavy duty stuff lives.

I suppose the deflector array adds a decent amount of weight, and just as a guess, the computer core(s) live in the rear section too?

The warp coils in the nacelles are by far the most massive part of the ship, and probably easily serve to counterbalance the primary hull (at least with the subspace fields inactive); however, it is also true that the legs are just supports and force fields handle a majority of the work needed to keep the ship upright in a landed position.

I'm not questioning the validity of this, I'm just seeing what people can come up with... but when the ship is in Grey Mode (as in Demon), would there still be enough power for these forcefields. Or if this isn't possible, is it probably just something as simple as shifting more weight aftwards?

EDIT - just found this cutaway of Voyager on Memory Alpha which helps clear up some things. Does anyone know of a better image? Either bigger, or more detailed?

 

[voyagerfan]

That diagram is my screen saver LOL!

Looks to me although there is some amount of weight on the saucer, the bulk of the weight is towards the rear, and you have the escape pods in the saucer as well!

 

[jgdst]

I've found two larger images: http://www.star-trek-voyager.net/ship4/voycutaway_ante.htm shows a 3D cutaway image.

http://www.strekschematics.utvinternet.com/cutaways/orginalcut/orgmsd.html is pretty big (seriously. It's huge if you're loading it up on a slow connection ), but gives a pretty up-close and personal look at the ship.


I think I've been convinced that engineering hull carries enough to weigh the ship down. I pictured the saucer a lot larger in my mind and had the distance between the tip and the main deflector dish a lot longer than it is.

Thanks for your thoughts If you have any others though, keep em coming

 

[voyagerfan]

Then what is K on the top link you gave?

Thanks for the amazing drawings, love them

 

[jgdst]

According to the site:

K is the auxiliary navigational deflector, often called auxiliary deflector, is located at the front edge of deck 6, so that the deflector can face forward and support the main deflector in protecting the ship from impacting space debris. The gravity polarity generation also feeds the ship's tractor beam emitters

I have a whole new question now Is the navigational deflector always seperate from the main deflector on other ships? I'm not sure how it differs from the main deflector, or why you'd really need two separate dishes.

 

[voyagerfan]

\lol i linked you to a new question, LOL

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

When the ship is on the ground, a maximum of 10 people are allowed in the frontmost saucer section....

but in all seriousness, isn't the question we should be asking: was Voyager built on the ground or in space??

 

[jgdst]

^Okay, now I have TWO questions.

Wait a minute... Would the Delaney sisters count as one person?

...Three questions

 

[sbk1234]

It probably operates a lot like a SEG Way.

 

[nx1701g]

Perhaps it is possible that the thrusters are active to keep the saucer upright. There is a novel (Pathways I believe) where Voyager lands on water using something similar.

 

[Lucy of Nine]

Jongredic, I am so surprised you aasked this question... surely you of ALL people know the answer!

The Borg baby weighed a tonne with all its implants, and it apparently lived in the back of the ship just to weigh Voyager down for planet landings.

Duh!

 

[jgdst]

^ LOL. I did originally think it had something to do with the baby or the Almighty Borg Nanoprobes of Wonderment, but then I realised the ship had already landed at least twice before either Seven or the baby appeared, so there had to be a darker force at work - Namely Janeway's equal opportunities for redshirts scheme.

The only other theory I had was that they had Carey tethered to the back of the ship with his pockets full of rocks... I think Baxter, Vorik and Ayala did shifts back there too just to fill in time.

 

[Lucy of Nine]

You are spot on!

Seriously, are you SURE you're not Brannon Braga undercover???

 

[jgdst]

How dare you!