This depicts the lifeboat system that has been retrofitted into the Excelsior class starships in the 24th century. Starfleet didn't require lifeboats until then, because before that, the possibility of rescue by another starship was extremely remote. One of the reasons the Constitution was retired was because it was extremely difficult to fit lifeboats into its spaceframe. The Miranda, Constellation and Oberth classes had relatively large, easy to access shuttlebays, so they were stocked with the type of lifeboat seen on the Saratoga at Wolf 359. The Excelsior, however, does not have this luxury, but a solution had to be found since the spaceframes were still extremely useful. The outer hull of a starship has far too many integrated systems like SIF generators and deflector shield emitters to be punching new holes in it for lifeboats. So the accepted solution was to install lifeboats under panels that were retrofitted with explosive bolts and an ejection system (similar to the later Defiant class). Then the lifeboats would be free to launch.
posted
Well for a start the Excelsiors did have escape pods in the 23rd Century, at least the E-B did. It shows them on the MSD, presumably under blow off sections of the outer hull. Good graphic though.
posted
I don't buy that older ships wouldn't have some sort of escape vehicle, though. Alive > dead, and the first time a ship without any blows up just a few days before rescue arrives, or inside a star system with an even marginally inhabitable planet, or in a combat situation where everyone else is too busy trying not to be blown up themselves to retrieve survivors right away, whoever made that decision is going to be exceedingly unpopular.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I'd keep that hull panel attached to the lifeboats for atmospheric re-entry. Plus it makes the ejection process far less complicated and less likely to cluster-fuck in an emergency.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Good point, those hull plates SHOULD be pretty tough and make good protection for the explosion of a nearby ship, or atmospheric entry. there's really no reason not to keep the hull plate attached.
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Registered: Nov 2002
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posted
Protection from re-entry? I don't think ANY Trek vessel has really used a heat shield before. I'd figure that even escape pods would have basic forcefields and SIF capabilities to protect from jostling and bumping on the way down. Given that most Trek designs are as aerodynamic as a stick of celery, I'm guessing that the escape pods are intrinsically designed to surive little things like atmospheres.
posted
I would venture that instead of having a blow-away hatch, it would have a swing-open hatch like we've seen on Voyager or the Defiant. That way, the pods could be recovered and safely stored away in case the danger passes and the ship survives or whatever.
Plus, we have seen escape pods on the refit Enterprise plus mention of their existence on the NX-01. I would assume all would be deployed and recovered in very similar ways.
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Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Lifeboats do exist since the NX Project... Automated Survival and Retrieval Vehicles's came into existance within the 2350's... at least that's what I'm thinking after reading the ST: TNG Tech Manual.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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posted
Im thinking a ASRV is a lifeboat retrival ship that picks up lifeboats.
-------------------- "Who cares if we bomb a few hospitals, it just means we got them a second time" Warrant Officer Robert Clift, CVN-71 OEF
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I thoght the ASRV's just followed Oberths and Steamrunners- about a week behind- awaiting the inevitable.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Um, ASRVs *are* lifeboats, no? The terminology just changed. What may be confusing everyone is that the ASRVs in the TNGTM were first installed on the last Renaissance class starship. Thus, the pods on the Galaxy class are not a brand-new design. Subsequent ships (Voyager and Defiant among them) have been seen using a completely different ASRV than that seen in the TNGTM, and are noted as such in the DS9TM IIRC. The Sovereign class uses yet another escape pod design, which (like many things Eaves) makes little sense, being supposedly upside down...
posted
That or perhaps the ASRV's are able to be reintegrated back in the ship after it is deployed. Unlike say the USS Saratoga's lifeboat/escape pod which is launched from the shuttlebay.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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