Shuttlecraft Construction

[Graham Kennedy]

If so I'd have thought Janeway would have said so.

[Mikey]

I'm reaching for anything.

If so I'd have thought Janeway would have said so.

Well, there's a lot fo things I'd have THOUGHT Janeway should have done...

[katefan]

If DS9 has 5000 torps wouldn't that be in keeping with it's internal cubic footage in comparison to a Galaxy class'? True, the Galaxy class is some 5,000,000 tons in comparison to DS9's 45,000,000, but DS9 seems much larger due to it's vast empty spaces. And it seems to be to more of a dedicated gun platform in purpose while the Galaxy class is a multi-purpose vessel so regulations may be different for a fixed facility like it.

Also, bear in mind that Starfleet had gone more to a war footing so policies regarding how many torpedoes a ship/station might be required to carry may have changed by the time DS9 was outfitted with it's launchers. Voyager disappeared before the Klingons attacked DS9 so the regulations could have been enacted after she left. Or Janeway figured she had plenty of time to adhere to the new torp regs when she got back.

[kostmayer]

DS9 was at the mouth of the wormhole, and was guaranteed to be in the firing line if the Dominion decided to attack. (Granted, they didn't ultimately attack the Alpha quadrant through the wormhole, but from Cardassia). It makes sense they'd arm it too the teeth, even if they had to sacrifice some functionality in a different area.

It was also converted from an ore refinery - if all the equipment for that was stripped out it would have had a lot of spare space.

[Graham Kennedy]

One of my hopes is that the Federation boosted the magazine capacity of its ships at least tenfold in the run up to the Dominion war. It wouldn't be at all hard to do; hell the Galaxy has enough cargo bay space to pack thousands of spare casings if nothing else.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

One of my hopes is that the Federation boosted the magazine capacity of its ships at least tenfold in the run up to the Dominion war. It wouldn't be at all hard to do; hell the Galaxy has enough cargo bay space to pack thousands of spare casings if nothing else.

You'd think they would have had to in order to engage in the kind of sustained fighting they did (within each battle and counting the number of battles), else we would have had ships running out of ammo in mid-battle.

[Graham Kennedy]

A generation or two down the line, I would expect that a each launcher on a ship would have a big high speed replicator behind it fed by a great big tank of replicator-gunk. Load the replicator up with a thousand different weapon designs, and then you replicate and shoot whatever fits the tactical situation best, from cannonballs up to transphasic torpedoes or whatever the super-weapons of the future are. Reloading would be as simple as beaming up a big load of matter from a nearby asteroid or planet and topping up your replicator tanks. Refitting the fleet's weapons consists of having each ship download the latest replicator patterns for whatever Starfleet has come up with.

[Mikey]

The ability to instantly load with ammo perfectly suited to the situation... funny, I didn't notice the santa hat on your av.

In all seriousness, excepting for the question of the replicator's ability to fashion "warp sustainers" for torps, I don't see what other obstacles there are for this idea in Treknology.

[Graham Kennedy]

In theory, anything that can be transported should be able to be replicated. We're told that some things are not replicatable because replicators work on a lower resolution than transporters do, but surely that's a limit that could be overcome in time. Give it a century or three and I can see a quantum-level replicator system being standard.

Of course once you have that you can just as easily replicate an army of Humans at the touch of a button as well. Which would be seriously cool but also rather worrying.

[Mikey]

Now you're moving from technological constraints to philosophical ones, and the mere fact of time doesn't alleviate those. Considering the observed taboo on cloning in TNG, I'd say that 'Trek will never see the Clone Wars anytime soon.

[Graham Kennedy]

The Federation may not, but do you think the Romulans, Klingons, Breen, Zenkethi, Gorn, Tholians, Ferenigi, Cardassians and others will refuse also? And faced with enemies that do it, the Federation will either follow suit or fall.

[Mikey]

The UFP seems to stand on principle an awful lot, even when doing so flies in the face of all practicality.

[Mark]

Now you're moving from technological constraints to philosophical ones, and the mere fact of time doesn't alleviate those. Considering the observed taboo on cloning in TNG, I'd say that 'Trek will never see the Clone Wars anytime soon.

That is in the 23rd and 24th centuries. Who knows what it will be in the 25th or even the 35th century. In our own lifetimes and recent history we've seen numerous taboos overcome and become the norm today (mixed racial marraiges for example). I don't think it would be unreasonable to see it happen sooner than one might think

[Graham Kennedy]

Is there any inherent lack of morality in replicating an army of soldiers from a replicator pattern? One presumes that if you select a willing and eager volunteer for the pattern all the replicated soldiers will be equally willing and eager. And if any change their minds, you just let them resign and go about their business. What's the ethical issue here?

[Sionnach Glic]

As far as I see it, it's no different than the issues with modern day cloning. Even if you clone a group of people specificaly for war, then as long as those clones are willing to fight I see no problem with it.