Will there ever be any novels set between 2161 and 2254?

[Christopher]

I don't think we've seen any indication that the Federation has the technology to perform planetary engineering on such a scale. It's also an illogical extravagance given that they can just use spaceships to mine ice from the system's cometary cloud. And why keep the ice in orbit? Why not just send some comets to disintegrate in the atmosphere and add more water to the planet's own supply?

Besides, given that one of the components of the 40 Eridani system is a white dwarf, i.e. the remnant of a star that swelled to red giant size, it's likely that the inner system has been stripped pretty much bare of water and other volatiles, which may be why Vulcan is so arid. Any such icy world would have to have been brought from pretty far away, at least the Oort Cloud. It would be a monumental effort.

And of course it's an unnecessary postulate. Occam's Razor says that what we saw was an illusion within the mind meld. That's by far the simplest explanation.

 

[Ronald Held]

I believe the universe that Nero and Spock entered was separate from the Prime one. I may be convinced that due to their interventions, things tended to approach what was in the Pirme Universe.

 

[seigezunt]

as was argued to me before, we can't take that at face value. We have to go with what we see and hear on screen.

Humongous metal letters spelling S T A R T R E K float in space, not far from the scene of the USS Kelvin's demise.

 

[Procutus]

And of course it's an unnecessary postulate. Occam's Razor says that what we saw was an illusion within the mind meld. That's by far the simplest explanation.

I'll go along with that postulation Christopher, though to be honest, the movie really does not make that clear that it's simply a visual metaphor to show what was going on at the same time in two different places. I think its a bit of a stretch, but using Occam's Razor, I'll agree it's the best answer at present.

 

[Rush Limborg]

Well...Nero could have set a viewscreen for Spock to see....

I dunno. It may have just been a visualization of his pain, remeniscent of Spock sensing the deaths of the Intrepid crew in "The Immunity Syndrome"....

 

[Christopher]

I'll go along with that postulation Christopher, though to be honest, the movie really does not make that clear that it's simply a visual metaphor to show what was going on at the same time in two different places.

Well, one could argue that virtually any image in a film is a visual metaphor or symbol for something, but that's getting a bit too analytical.

 

[T'Girl]

While it may defy logic for an ice planet and a desert planet to be within eyesight of each other,

The world that Nero places Spock on may not have been a "Ice Planet" it could have been another desert world like Vulcan, but one with a polar ice cap. Even Mars has a ice cap.

they dragged a small ice moon into the system

Not too small of a moon, it possesses a breathable atmosphere, Earth equivalent gravity.

 

[Christopher]

The world that Nero places Spock on may not have been a "Ice Planet" it could have been another desert world like Vulcan, but one with a polar ice cap. Even Mars has a ice cap.

We saw it from space, and all of it that we could see was glaciated. Definitely more than just an icecap.

Not too small of a moon, it possesses a breathable atmosphere, Earth equivalent gravity.

Trek has shown us plenty of moons, asteroids, and even comets that seem to have Earth-equivalent gravity. Chalk it up to the limitations of having to film it all on Earth.

Of course, the smaller the body in question, the more impossible it becomes that it could retain any quantity of ice for any length of time in an orbit that close to Vulcan.

 

[pookha]

Well...Nero could have set a viewscreen for Spock to see....

I dunno. It may have just been a visualization of his pain, remeniscent of Spock sensing the deaths of the Intrepid crew in "The Immunity Syndrome"....

see i keep on thinking nero set up some type of project device to make sure spock saw the descruction of vulcan.

 

[Rush Limborg]

^Actually, if you think about it, that idea goes well with Nero's intention that Spock would watch the destruction of Vulcan helplessly, "So that I would know his pain".