On the size of ships

[Teaos]

You havent seen the cruise ship made of depleted uranium?

[Captain Seafort]

You think ships are growing heavier without getting bigger? Seriously?

It depends how you define "bigger". Look at carriers, for example - the Big E at her maximums is longer and broader than a Nimitz, but she's also 10k lighter.

[GrahamKennedy]

Bigger in volume. Either longer, or wider, or deeper, or of a hull shape that uses a greater fraction of the "box just big enough to hold the ship" volume. In general, you can look at any particular type of ship and find that they grow over time - certainly most military ships have grown if you compare like with like. And often in cases where they don't it's because there was some arbitrary factor preventing it, like ships having to be able to fit through the Panama canal.

[McAvoy]

Ahhh. But compare the Forrestal class and the Nimitz class. Basically similar dimensions but one is 50% heavier. But today's ships are directly limited by budget.

[GrahamKennedy]

Ahhh. But compare the Forrestal class and the Nimitz class. Basically similar dimensions but one is 50% heavier. But today's ships are directly limited by budget.

Similar dimensions, yes, but remember that even a modest increase in dimensions gives a pretty big volume increase - if the two are identical shapes then the NImitz would only need to be 15% larger in dimensions to be 50% larger in volume.

I'll bet you that if you added up the total volume of the two ships you would find that the NImitz is indeed just about 50% larger than the Forrestal.

[Coalition]

For ship sizes, a larger vessel is more advanced, because you need better structural technology to support the ship. I.e. two ships, all else being identical, one twice as long, wide, and tall will mass 8* as much. However structural strength is only based on cross section, so its structural members are only 4* stronger. As a result, it can only sustain half the acceleration/stress, assuming identical technology.

This also applies to construction, where you have to manufacture larger warp cores, better fuel storage, etc. You also have larger ships potentially taking longer to construct than smaller ships, so the ability to build such a ship is another indication of construction technology, plus overall resources available to a stellar government.

There are advantages to using larger ships, such as having more variety in machine shops equipment and what it can build. A smaller ship might have to carry dedicated pipes for various curves. A larger ship with a larger machine shop can carry a dedicated pipe bending machine, and only have to carry straight pipes, as they can be bent to desired angles as needed.

I worked on ships for three years. and the thing that annoys me about the NX class is it is to neat.

When you build a ship, water or space, you use EVERY bit of space on it.

Bunks under stairs, closets in the odd joining juncture of two walls. Pipes and wires running across ever ceiling and every wall.

It should look like a submarine. Not a cruise ship.

Their Cargo holds are light and airy... they should be packed to the roof with stock and only the thinnest person on the ship is able to slip in to retrieve stuff.

Kinda like the photos linked here?

But if they had done your suggestion, it would have been for more fanservice.

"Lt Hoshi, your presence is requested in cargo bay 3."

(She arrives there, annoyed because she knows what they want her to do.)

"We need you to climb up to crate 12, and retrieve three boxes from inside."

She climbs up there, and all we see is her wiggling her butt back and forth as she tried to fit in and reach the boxes. After getting the third one, she climbs out, hands the boxes over, and leaves, her hair a mess, and visibly annoyed that they keep calling her.

The assistant walks over and asks, "what was in those boxes?"

"Five minutes of relaxation."

"Huh, I don't- oh!"

[Mikey]

But if they had done your suggestion, it would have been for more fanservice.

Still would've been an improvement over 85% of the writing on that show.