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1701 built on earth's surface?
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by FawnDoo: [QB] [QUOTE]Originally posted by Shik: [qb] That is, without a doubt, stupendously retarded. [/qb][/QUOTE]Yes, and I recall the same "arguments" being put to me [URL=http://flare.solareclipse.net/ultimatebb.php/topic/6/2610.html#000000]the last time such an idea came before our august company for consideration[/URL]. :p Well, at least we're consistent! ;) Though, like last time, I'd just like to stress that this is just fun. None of this is meant to rile anyone up, ok? However unlike last time it's not a matter of speculation, it's a matter of canon - which by the way is a word I hate as it embodies everything that's wrong about the sheer weight of self-importance Star Trek's backstory lumbers along with - so it's not for me to refute, is it? The teaser trailer shows a starship under construction on a planet surface. The executive producer of the film has gone on record in an interview stating that it was built on land. It would stand to reason that if the ship was built on land as shown in the teaser trailer and was next (in terms of the show's chronology) seen in space in "The Cage" then there should have come an intermediate point where the ship stopped being on land and came to be in space - in other words, where it took off, flew through the air and achieved orbit. I'm just having fun imagining the methods as to how this was achieved. :) Like I said, this is the runup to the Transformers movie all over again! ;-) Though I suppose "stupendously retarded" is better than someone going on a discussion forum and claiming that Michael Bay raped their childhood because Optimus Prime had flame decos on his truck mode! :) Believe me though when I say I'm just as surprised as anyone at the direction taken in the teaser trailer. Up to now I always assumed the whole "San Francisco" thing on the Enterprise's plaque meant an orbital construction facility located over the city, not somewhere on the planet surface itself...but that's half the fun of being into a show like this, isn't it? :) [QUOTE]Originally posted by Lee: [qb] Yes, it'd be easier to just build the thing in orbit after all, and generate a force field containing an atmosphere around it. Boom, instant combination of zero-G ease of construction with a shirt-sleeves environment. [/qb][/QUOTE]I would agree that the method you propose is also a good way to go about it - the transporter would remove the huge energy cost of getting components up into orbit and the atmosphere would allow construction teams to work on the ship without bulky spacesuits, but I don't know if they would rely purely on a forcefield to keep them alive. Any time we've seen them used on the show has been in a backup capacity, not as the primary means of keeping the air on the inside, so I'm not sure Starfleet would be ok with trusting a lot of lives to a forcefield. Again though, another method the Federation might use to construct ships. One more idea (my little Columbo moment there) - what if the ship in the teaser trailer is being built on the moon, or another planetary body with micro-gravity conditions? By the time of TNG we know the moon is populated (Riker's lines to Zefram Cochrane in "First Contact" prove as much) so chances are people were on there during TOS. Might it have been given a breathable atmosphere but retained the light gravity, perhaps making it an ideal ship construction environment? There was a mention of a crewman living on the moon once - think it was on DS9..."Valiant", that was it. I'm sure one of the ill-fated cadets in that episode came from Luna. I'll try to dig the ep out at one point and see what was mentioned. [b]EDIT (update):[/b] Ah well, that was nice while it lasted. Memory Alpha has an excellent [URL=http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Luna]article on the moon[/URL] and it would seem that even by DS9's time you still need a suit to go out onto the surface: "In the 24th century, the moon possesses a lake, called Lake Armstrong, visible from Earth. Since Dorian Collins said one still needs suits to travel on the moon's surface, it is unlikely that this means the moon possesses an atmosphere. Rather, it appears the lake must exist within an enclosed dome. (Star Trek: First Contact; DS9: "Valiant")" Well, maybe shipyards could also be in enclosed domes? Ones that open up to allow the ship to launch? I can see Starfleet trusting a pressurised dome with a forcefield system as a backup. Any thoughts? [/QB][/QUOTE]
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