Telodzrum,

Sci-fi has issue with scale a lot of the time. Star Trek is no exception. Population numbers and scale of ships is often really bad.

teft,
@teft@startrek.website avatar

Look at Deep Space 9 and literally anytime a starship is near it. The scale goes way out of whack.

bionicjoey,

In the DS9 title credits you can see engineers repairing the outside of one of the pylons on a spacewalk and the scale feels really wrong

Stamets,
@Stamets@startrek.website avatar

Oh agreed but I think there’s one major thing which is what really fucks up how your perceive it. There’s nothing to compare it to.

When we see the ship it’s typically just by itself flying through space where there’s no comparison. Or it happens across a ship but same problem as the Enterprise so no reliable comparison. Orbiting a planet, surveying an asteroid, being yanked into a Pulsar, sitting in front of a Borg cube… All of these huge events have literally nothing reliable that humans are familiar with to compare it to. The closest you can say are the windows but the windows are such strange sizes for what we’re used to that it doesn’t help much.

Honestly the biggest ‘events’ that I can think of in Trek media that demonstrate the size of the ship are usually ones where the ship ends up on a planet. Generations crash land, Into Darkness crashland, Voyagers Blue Alert sequences, Discoverys crash land, etc. The only other one I can think of is from Picard Season 3. The Borg cube in Jupiters eye. That thing is fucking massive and the cube took up an enormous amount of space in it. That really shook the hell out of me in seeing how big that vessel was.

samus12345,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

It’s hard for people living on a planet to comprehend how huge space is.

Rivalarrival,

Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.

samus12345,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar
charonn0,
@charonn0@startrek.website avatar

47 after inflation.

Stampela,

Ever played Eve Online? The “Noob ship” you get free when yours goes boom is bigger than a fighter jet, the battleships (fairly big) are about 500 meters and the capital monstrosity stuff gets to a plainly overkill 17 kilometers. And in all of this? It’s hard to figure out the small ships actually need a crew and aren’t just the pilot inside

thegiddystitcher,
@thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee avatar

Zooming in and realising that little nubbin on your Rifter is actually the whole cockpit is quite the shock!

SpaceNoodle, (edited )

Have you seen container ships? They’re perspective-bendingly massive. 400m is a quarter of a mile.

Hotdogman,

That’s like, half of a half mile.

Szymon,

It’s as if it’s two times half of a half of a half of a mile

nexguy,
@nexguy@lemmy.world avatar

Finally I get it!

ChillPenguin, (edited )

How much is that in bananas?

WarmSoda,

At least three, maybe twenty microwaves

joelfromaus,
@joelfromaus@aussie.zone avatar

Hey, no need to be silly! I do wonder what it is in thousandths of an inch though. The true freedom unit!

soggy_kitty,

I came to Lemmy to avoid this Reddit style comment

Palerider,
@Palerider@feddit.uk avatar

Humans gonna be Human.

kaitco,

This.

BleatingZombie,

That’s funny. I came to Lemmy to avoid this style of comment where somebody has nothing to add except negativity. I get you don’t like it, but for the “culture” of Lemmy, please just use the freaking downvote button in cases like this

Rivalarrival,

Going to Lemmy to avoid this type of comment is like going to Arby’s to avoid diarrhea.

RojoSanIchiban,

I came to Lemmy to avoid libelous commentary about Arby’s!

jaybone,

I come to Lemmy because of Arby’s diarrhea.

Album,
@Album@lemmy.ca avatar

Yeah but youre also saying that the bridge of the enterprise was about the size of a container, which i am not sure is accurate.

SpaceNoodle,

Have you seen a container?

Gordon,

52ft or something long. Go look for a RV or camper. Simply because they are sold by the foot.

A 40ft camper is pretty huge and can easily fit 6-10 people comfortably.

People turn containers into apartment type buildings for a family of 2-3.

caesar_salad83,

that’s the origin of picard’s famous saying “I live my life a 1.304E-14 parsec at a time”

SpaceNoodle,

Parsecs are units of distance, Han.

PlasmaDistortion,

Thanks because this image still didn’t help. Most people don’t see container ships very often.

shalafi,

We get oil exploration rigs docking in our little port downtown. Mind bending is right.

Sat in the park and watched one roll in one day. Went from:

There it is!

Damn, looks pretty big.

My. God.

peopleproblems,

wait, exploration rigs?

Those things that look like platforms rather than boats?

they can dock?

shalafi,

Nah, you’re talking about drilling platforms that are pretty much set in place. These are giant ships that explore and lay pipe.

Not sure which one this is, but it’s what I’m talking about.

peopleproblems,

You know I’m something of a giant ship that can lay pipe myself.

but that’s a great picture to show this scaled in

hitmyspot,

Or 40% of a kilometre.

SpaceNoodle,

Nobody knows what kilometres are.

hitmyspot,

Really, it’s quite easy. Just picture a container ship. Now double it and add an eighth of a mile. Simples.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Sorry, they use miles in Star Trek. Ha ha, America wins. Stupid Europe and your stupid metric system and stupid rail network and stupid universal healthcare.

lolcatnip,

Going by the caption, it’s the container ship they had a hard time visualizing. Seems weird because I’ve seen container ships IRL but never a starship.

agent_flounder,
@agent_flounder@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve never seen either. I’ll have to convert this to “cruise ship”

agent_flounder,
@agent_flounder@lemmy.world avatar

Ok… the one I am familiar with is Disney Wonder at 294m long

dirtbiker509,

Disney Cruise line is the best! That was the first thing I thought of to compare this to.

ZombiFrancis,

I used to work at a port and would see those ships out at sea. They look like they are just offshore.

Then you see the fishing boats go out and all but disappear against the massive backdrop. You realize they’re many many miles out.

Drunemeton,
@Drunemeton@lemmy.world avatar

It seems bigger on TV…

hitmyspot,

TV adds 20 pounds.

ummthatguy,
@ummthatguy@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah I’m not seeing how there’s several dozen people moving, working, and living in that.

https://media.tenor.com/PMFWt3LGqiAAAAAC/itty-bitty-living-s-pace-alladin.gif

SpaceNoodle, (edited )

A container ship’s crew is 20-30 people, and that whole thing is mostly containers. I bet they’d fit.

ummthatguy,
@ummthatguy@lemmy.world avatar
Stamets,
@Stamets@startrek.website avatar

You’d be stacking people on one another for sure. However the tight quarters then gives creedence to stuff like Cerritos and Voyager not having thick enough walls/doors to dampen sound. Then Enterprise-D is a whole different beast and it makes no sense for the opposite reason. It’s too damn big with not enough crew. You’d have people working in their own section never meeting another soul during their whole day.

But that brings me to something else (because I have severely unmedicated ADHD and I apologize). Picard Season 3 got rapped for having the Titans bridge be really dark all the time. The lighting of the whole ship was way darker. Surprisingly I actually liked that. It felt like they were on a submarine or some small contained vessel, just then against the harshness of what was outside. That submarine quality really should be used in more shows. I know TOS had random people walking around the corridors (like the famous example of a dude who was turning an invisible valve on a wall) but I like those tight spaces.

Oh and to prove the ADHD? The Crossfield class is 900m long. Roughly. I mean she’s 2/3rds nacelle but still.

FaceDeer,
@FaceDeer@kbin.social avatar

This video has a rendering of the Enterprise D's crew standing in a group on top of the saucer section, to give an intuitive understanding of how ridiculously huge the ship is in comparison.

negativenull,

That was a fascinating video!

ummthatguy,
@ummthatguy@lemmy.world avatar

Speaking of submarines, SNW s1e4 Memento Mori does a great job with the “flying blind” trope. They even use the “depth charge” trick.

Stamets,
@Stamets@startrek.website avatar

You even get to hear sonar pings. It was amazing as a submarine movie fan.

ummthatguy,
@ummthatguy@lemmy.world avatar
grue,

Here’s some more perspective. The aircraft carrier pictured apparently carries almost 2000 people.

https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1623471/liaoning-aircraft-carrier.jpg?w=736

VindictiveJudge,

Yep, the Enterprise has about the volume of an aircraft carrier, but only a fraction of the crew. By modern standards it is downright roomy.

iyaerP,

And it also isn’t carrying 100 fighter planes.

SpaceNoodle,

Voyager was carrying infinite shuttles, so it’s not that out there

JWBananas,
@JWBananas@startrek.website avatar
iyaerP, (edited )

That’s not even a big carrier either. American supercarriers between the flight crews, the ship crews, the marine contingent and everything else can fit up to SIX THOUSAND people.

There’s no need for anyone on the Cerritos to sleep in the fucking hallways. That’s like “we live on a literal submarine” level of privacy. It’s beyond idiotic. The Cali class are MASSIVE. There’s no need for anyone to be living in the hallways like that.

samus12345,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

Yup, I always assumed it was for comedic effect.

CarlsIII, (edited )

Picard Season 3 got rapped for having the Titans bridge be really dark all the time.

Have these people not seen The Motion Picture? The bridge was so dark in that movie, it doesn’t even seem like they’re on the Enterprise. At least the Titan is a different ship, AND you still get to see the Enterprise with its bright lighting in the same show.

Neato,
@Neato@kbin.social avatar

If we check this image, use the 947' total size, we can estimate the rest of the dimensions. That would put the deck heigh at about 8'. The saucer widest deck lengths at around 450'. Definitely cramped but doable. There's only about 100-150 crew on this version as well. It's essentially a weirdly shaped cruise ship and nearly the size of our world's largest.

SlopppyEngineer,

youtu.be/3QF-8n1-3qI

This one goes in detail. They’re are a few floors that are just sleeping quarters.

skullgiver, (edited )
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

deleted_by_author

  • Loading...
  • winterayars,

    Oxygen is an issue, but heat generation is also an issue.

    JWBananas,
    @JWBananas@startrek.website avatar

    Actually the thing they often get wrong in depictions of life support failure is that the ship would get too hot. The vacuum of space insulates the ship.

    jaybone,

    But people mainly occupy the saucer portion right? Like they don’t live in the engines.

    Looking at OPs pic, that saucer is very small compared to the container ship.

    teft, (edited )
    @teft@startrek.website avatar
    skullgiver, (edited )
    @skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

    deleted_by_author

  • Loading...
  • teft,
    @teft@startrek.website avatar

    I don’t know what the hell they’re doing with all that space

    After watching discovery I assume it’s all turbolift shafts.

    iyaerP,

    AS much as I enjoy some aspects of Lower Decks, that was one of the most phenomenally stupid decisions that they could possibly have made.

    The crew sizes for Federation starships are TINY compared to the actual size of the ships. SNW giving every crew member their own studio apartment is something that reflects the ludicrous amount of empty space that a Federation starship has availalbe to it.

    If you ever look at the deck plans, there’s just a crazy amount of space that’s unused.

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    Maybe if they narrowed that hallway a little, they could all have their own quarters.

    SkunkWorkz,

    In Strange New Worlds everyone above Ensign apparently has their own studio apartment.

    grue,

    Speaking of which, something funny I noticed about Discovery recently is that Burnham and Tilly continue to be roommates even after

    spoilerBurnham gets her commander rank reinstated

    . What’s up with that?

    EinfachUnersetzlich,

    Who wouldn’t want to room with Tilly though?

    SpaceNoodle,

    Me, but for all the wrong reasons

    jaybone,

    In TNG and Voyager they all did.

    Rud_1UP,

    I thought in NG 1000 people lived on it?

    Munrock,
    @Munrock@lemmygrad.ml avatar

    Iiving in one of the most densely populated cities on Earth, it sounds quite spacious to me. Perspective is wild.

    ladel,

    I think for me this highlights how massive these boats are than anything. 400 m? What the hell? That’s almost half a kilometre. I’ve never actually seen one unless from very distant, so I can’t envisage how big it is. I know how big a bus is, but “80 buses” isn’t a very useful comparison either.

    brianorca,

    Then how about this one: a large container ship carries 24,000 TEU which is about 12,000 40 foot containers.

    xantoxis,

    Honestly thought it was way bigger than this.

    Wilzax, (edited )

    Per kilogram-meter of cargo transported, container ships actually have some of the lowest emissions of any form of transportation!*

    Other than electric vehicles that were charged by zero-emission sources of electricity

    Iceblade02,

    I’d wager that just accounting for emissions in the production of said electric vehicle will make it entirely unable to compete with container ships. Boats are crazy efficient.

    Wilzax,

    Good point, I wasn’t considering production.

    nicene,

    But don’t worry. The cargo ship sprang into being from nothingness and there were utterly no environmental impacts related to drilling, refining, and transportation of the fuel used to power the ship. So clearly EVs are so much worse for the environment /s

    Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow,

    What kind of emissions are we producing to build the ships?

    vaultdweller013,

    Most of its steel and other metals, so assuming that theyre using electrically pwered smelters most of the emmissions would be in transport and mining equiptment. So probably somewhat comparable, depends on how much rail was used or if it was transportes exclusively via semi.

    Iceblade02,

    Most steel is (unfortunately) made in Chinese blast furnaces using coal coke and powered with electricity from coal power plants.

    vaultdweller013,

    Im aware, I was giving a best possible circumstances type situation. Still the steel for both is probably sourced from the same factory.

    lud,

    And all steel is made using coal regardless of where it’s produced, except in experimental processes like HYBRIT.

    theguardian.com/…/green-steel-swedish-company-shi…

    Iceblade02,

    Some producers use electric arc furnaces, a few of which use only scrap metal as input, which means they need far less coal and emit far less CO2 than a conventional BOF/BFF setup.

    DudeDudenson,

    How long are the cargo ships gonna be in service compared to that smartphone of an electric car?

    SeaJ,

    Container ships are fucking massive. The Enterprise only held like 1000 people which is only a small portion of a basketball arena.

    Kolanaki,
    @Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

    Well damn, how tiny was Voyager? It only had like 1-200 people IIRC.

    VindictiveJudge,

    Voyager is just a hair longer than the classic Enterprise, but it’s also chonkier so it has more volume. About 150 people on an Intrepid-class, 200 on a Constitution-class.

    BowtiesAreCool,

    The original ship was also packed. Many many packed bunks and crowded halls. Even as noted in DS9 time travel to TOS episode

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    The ship itself felt huge to me, but even Kirk’s quarters were pretty modest.

    https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/af78d740-725d-4036-9a50-4e8d80f990b1.png

    livedeified,
    @livedeified@lemmy.world avatar

    the Enterprise “D” (632.5m long) held 1000 people IIRC. crazy!

    aeronmelon,

    Even crazier, the Galaxy-class has the capacity to evacuate an additional 10,000+ humanoids.

    When you watch videos like this, you realize that 1,000 is not that much against the actual size of the ship. The entire crew can comfortably gather in the main shuttlebay at the same time.

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwx5uB0pyhQ

    MenacingPerson,

    Uhm what are you guys talking about?? I don’t quite understand…

    Nurgle,

    More context, Empire State Building is 380m without the spire, 443m with spire and antenna.

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    I remember many years ago seeing a size comparison between an aircraft carrier and the TOS Enterprise. The aircraft carrier was bigger. I didn’t even know how to process that because of how big the Enterprise seemed to me.

    Ryumast3r,

    305m is 1000 feet. The USS ENTERPRISE was 342m or 1,123 feet.

    A modern day FORD class carrier is 1092 ft or 333m.

    For personnel comparison, ENTERPRISE held ~5000 people and a FORD class has between 4-5000 people.

    The fact that NCC-1701 only had like 1000 people is…a big difference.

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    I can understand that on a mathematical level, but on a more emotional one, it’s hard to process. Just like I know that the speed of light is 186,000 mps, but I can’t really fathom how fast that actually is.

    TWeaK,

    It helps that containers are a standard size.

    BlueKittyMeow,

    I really hate/love that is is what actually put the size of those container ships in perspective for me. I’ve seen the massive liquid natural gas tankers and those things are terrifying big but like… I still didn’t get the scale of these. Thanks sci-fi (look you guys that box set of TOS pays off irl!!!) 🤪

    (Fr tho, anyone else have that set with the plastic curved cases with one of the uniform colors for each season? Prtty curves, infuriating snag-the-case,drop-the-DVD-on-the-floor-and-swear-and-snag-the-insert-pamphlet-closing-it-up-every-singlegoddang-time. But prtty curves)

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • random
  • uselessserver093
  • Food
  • aaaaaaacccccccce
  • [email protected]
  • test
  • CafeMeta
  • testmag
  • MUD
  • RhythmGameZone
  • RSS
  • dabs
  • Socialism
  • KbinCafe
  • TheResearchGuardian
  • Ask_kbincafe
  • oklahoma
  • feritale
  • SuperSentai
  • KamenRider
  • All magazines