^I'm unsure of when, timeline wise, this occurred, but weren't the "Y" class cargo freighters already in service? Didn't they have engines that exceeded warp 2? Maybe this was just an oversight by the writing staff.
Why was Starfleet so slow to build starships?
- Thread starter jimoinj
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Y-class ships maxed out at Warp 1.8, IIRC.
Thanks, wasn't exactly sure on that.
I can understand why it took a long time to get ships after Cochranes test but I don't understand why it took so long for the N02 etc to launch after Enterprise. Another mistake by the writters. Maybe its because Trip is the only Engineer in Star Fleet that is shown to know what he's doing.
Probably because they were trying to incorporate things that were done on the NX-01 during its' mission plus trying to incorporate new equipment that was untested in the field.
I doubt NCC-1701 had the same exact internal configuration and equipment at launch as NX/NCC-1700.
I don't see why it's a mistake by the writers to have NX-02 launch a few years after NX-01. There was no mandate I can recall that all of the NX-class ships had to be built and launched simultaneously. If anything, lessons learned from the pathfinder NX-01 would be incorporated into the later ships to make them even better, IMO.
Personally, I always believed a few years elapsed between the launch of the USS Constitution and the launch of the original USS Enterprise...
Personally, I always believed a few years elapsed between the launch of the USS Constitution and the launch of the original USS Enterprise...
^ In fact, did not Captain Hernandez in "Home" say as much, that many of the advancements in technology onboard NX-02 were, at least in part, a result of field-testing by NX-01?
^^^
Yeah, Archer and Hernandez were discussing a number of system improvements and tactical upgrades that had been incorporated into the NX-02.
Yeah, Archer and Hernandez were discussing a number of system improvements and tactical upgrades that had been incorporated into the NX-02.
After first contact in 2063, I would imagine that we would have had to rebuild society and industry, and Government. We would need to rebuild the infrastructure, and create a unified world government. Agriculture, and manufacturing, and Schools and Universities had to rise from the ashes of the world war, which killed 600 million people(10% or so of our current world pop. cheap at twice the amount for even a limited nuclear war!). Educatiing people with emphasis on Higher math and science would take awhile.
You have to have Scientists to develop technology and engineers to design and build stuff. And housing, clothing, feeding, and taking care of the population's medical and other needs would be a huge endeavor, too. Getting rid of currency, and getting people to work to better themselves and the rest of humanity would have to be ironed out as well.
Even though the Vulcans witheld Technology, We were busy rebuilding the world so they couldn't have held us up too much.
Once the manufacturing and other heavy industries come on line, You build a couple prototypes and improve the tech, and the designs and then you build more making improvements as you go ... until you have whole fleets of ships to go exploring the galaxy. (I Guess)
You have to have Scientists to develop technology and engineers to design and build stuff. And housing, clothing, feeding, and taking care of the population's medical and other needs would be a huge endeavor, too. Getting rid of currency, and getting people to work to better themselves and the rest of humanity would have to be ironed out as well.
Even though the Vulcans witheld Technology, We were busy rebuilding the world so they couldn't have held us up too much.
Once the manufacturing and other heavy industries come on line, You build a couple prototypes and improve the tech, and the designs and then you build more making improvements as you go ... until you have whole fleets of ships to go exploring the galaxy. (I Guess)
I would have liked to have seen NX-03 thru NX-06 (at least) to have been shown being built, and say NX-02 was now the standard design (with all upgrades incorperated) to be the template.
Going by real-world examples, the design might have remained in considerable flux for the first dozen ships. When the first steam-powered battleships appeared in the mid-19th century, the Royal Navy built those in ones or twos, trying to find a design that would both stay afloat and fight. "Series production" only became possible five decades and more than a dozen designs later...
Then again, NX-02 didn't seem to differ from NX-01 much, externally. I guess that's to be expected if her construction was started before experiences from NX-01 were gathered; NX-03 and NX-04 might have looked more radically different if their design hadn't been set in stone (or duranium) before the NX-01 adventures redefined the design parameters.
It's too bad that the NX-02 model never came to feature that one visible upgrade Archer mentioned - the dorsal torpedo banks. The ventral ones were clearly visible on both models as dark circular openings, so something like that should have been added to the NX-02 topside, too. Or then her bottom should have been reworked so that the torpedo tubes there would have become just as invisible as the top ones.
Oh, well. Perhaps the dorsal tubes are under that rectangular "hood bulge" that runs along the centerline of the saucer, below the bridge structures, and terminates a bit aft of the bow deflector? In the NX-01 model, there are blue and red sensor heads peeking from under the hood; we could pretend that in NX-02 those were replaced by torpedo tubes.
Or then the tubes were firing through the reworked bow deflector dish somehow (it does have two "openings" that weren't there in the NX-01 dish). But why that should count as "dorsal" remains unexplained.
Timo Saloniemi
Then again, NX-02 didn't seem to differ from NX-01 much, externally. I guess that's to be expected if her construction was started before experiences from NX-01 were gathered; NX-03 and NX-04 might have looked more radically different if their design hadn't been set in stone (or duranium) before the NX-01 adventures redefined the design parameters.
It's too bad that the NX-02 model never came to feature that one visible upgrade Archer mentioned - the dorsal torpedo banks. The ventral ones were clearly visible on both models as dark circular openings, so something like that should have been added to the NX-02 topside, too. Or then her bottom should have been reworked so that the torpedo tubes there would have become just as invisible as the top ones.
Oh, well. Perhaps the dorsal tubes are under that rectangular "hood bulge" that runs along the centerline of the saucer, below the bridge structures, and terminates a bit aft of the bow deflector? In the NX-01 model, there are blue and red sensor heads peeking from under the hood; we could pretend that in NX-02 those were replaced by torpedo tubes.
Or then the tubes were firing through the reworked bow deflector dish somehow (it does have two "openings" that weren't there in the NX-01 dish). But why that should count as "dorsal" remains unexplained.
Timo Saloniemi
The problem with this is that it blatantly counters established continuity, numerous episodes during TOS, TNG and VOY told of multiple exploration ships and colonies (some lost colonies) in the time period immediately following Cochrane's first flight.
Enterprise could have easily been set twenty or thirty years after the first fight and still taken into account the previously established Star Trek "facts" and still had resentment for Vulcans refusal the share technology. This would have also explained how Humans were ready to fight the Romulans a century after the first flight. And why Romulans one day perceived Humans as a threat
Having the ENT series take place only a few decade after the end of WWIII, you could have them talk about the problems on Earth, a little social commentary. Explain how space/star travel and exploration will help the folks back home. Trade, resources, technology and colonies. Have Admiral Forrest bitch out Archer once and a while as to why he hasn't found X yet. And speaking of the Romulans, we could hear something about the mysterious race (briefly) a couple of times, no one ever seen one, they're spreading out there somewhere, a ship has gone missing. A slow, slow build up to the eventual war, the un-named boogie man of star exploration.
To some members of the audience this would just be a boogie man, but it would be a nice easter egg for the hard core fans.
Dispite their external appearence, NASA's space shuttles are all different on the inside, advancements in technology and material science saw to that.
Each successive shuttle was definitely lighter in weight than it's predecessor.
The shuttle similarity is partially dictated by the fact that changing the aerodynamic shape for the better in mid-run would have been very difficult - not only for reasons of tooling and the like, but because understanding and calculating the aerodynamics in the first place was so difficult back then.
One wonders if the external shape of Trek starships is governed by similar physical-computational difficulties. If these were mere "real" spacecraft, then adding an extra nacelle or changing the saucer into a triangle or a spade shape should be a fairly trivial modification. But if one has to consider "warp dynamics", then adding a tiny bulge for the new dorsal torpedoes might be a huge problem that requires adding stabilizing vanes on the engine booms, cutting a dent in the lower saucer, and flying in a slight nose-down attitude from there on.
Timo Saloniemi
One wonders if the external shape of Trek starships is governed by similar physical-computational difficulties. If these were mere "real" spacecraft, then adding an extra nacelle or changing the saucer into a triangle or a spade shape should be a fairly trivial modification. But if one has to consider "warp dynamics", then adding a tiny bulge for the new dorsal torpedoes might be a huge problem that requires adding stabilizing vanes on the engine booms, cutting a dent in the lower saucer, and flying in a slight nose-down attitude from there on.
Timo Saloniemi
