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How many torpedoes does a ship carry, for example the galaxy class? Also, when they run out of torpedoes do they have to return to a starbase to replenish them, or do they have the ability to manufacture more, with the replicators or something? Because Voyager had no contact with a Federation starbase for many years but they were never out of torpedoes.
Also, what's the difference between the photon torpedoes the galaxy class has and the quantum torpedoes on the sovereign class?
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OnToMars
Now on to the making of films!
Member # 621
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Ah...the naivete of youth...
-------------------- If God didn't want us to fly, he wouldn't have given us Bernoulli's Principle.
Registered: Jun 2001
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Voyager started out with 38 torpedoes, and over the course of seven years I don't think they actually expended them all. However, Rick Sternbach has said on several occasions that building new ones isn't THAT tough if you put your mind to it. I mean, they built the friggin' DELTA FLYER in less than a week!
In short, there really isn't anything the intrepid crew of the USS Voyager couldn't build in a commercial break's time, two at the most. Given enough duct tape and popsical sticks, they probably could have cobblered together a Doomsday Machine.
The difference between Quantum and Photon torpedoe is something still being debated over. There is explaination of Quantum torpdoe's workings in the DS9 Tech Manual, but no one really buys it. We still aren't sure if the two can be fired from the same type of launchers, but the magical 8-ball says "Yes".
-------------------- "God's in his heaven. All's right with the world."
Registered: Apr 2001
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Photon torpedoes would be pretty easy to manufacture, I imagine. Certainly, it'd be a heck of a lot easier to manufacture them than shuttlecrafts or the Delta Flyer.
In all of the close-ups we've seen of the photon torpedoes over the course of the TNG era, all they seem to be a simple rounded-rectangular-insert-fancy-geometric-name-here casing with an onboard circuitry, sensors, and a sustainer engine. The only thing that I think would be difficult in the manufacturing process would be the engine, reactant pockets, and the reactant loaders. Those, to be on safety's side, might need to be hand-made (so to speak).
Where to get the materials is another question. Some of the raw ore could have been mined on a planet they visited during a food replenishment mission (not seen on-screen, of course) or the crew could have traded for the materials. Heck, the crew might have traded with another species with similar weaponry technology and torpedo designs and then modified those to work on Voyager.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
Registered: Mar 1999
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