Star Trek XI Ship Scaling

[Aerilon]

Something that hasn't been addressed properly yet following the new movie. The size of the Federation ships. The USS Kelvin (a Survey Ship), which we can assume is smaller than the USS Enterprise, had a crew of over 800 - this we heard when Pike told Kirk his Father saved over 800 lives. In addition to this, she held a significant number of shuttles for her size, we saw these as the Kelvin was on a ramming course the the Nevada.

This also goes for the new Enterprise too. The shuttle bay was huge (compared to the typical Constitution Class), and in addition to that, did anyone see the size of engineering?

Having studied pictures of the new ship, it would indicate that the XI Enterprise is more or less the same size as the TMP Enterprise / Enterprise-A. For an example, take a look at the windows and torpedo launchers. They're practically the same size (thus referencing us to a ship of the same size). However, all material (related to the movie) indicates that this new Enterprise is actually larger (in length) than a Galaxy Class Starship.

I just can't see it personally... I'd like to know your thoughts.

[Bs|Archaon]

Well if the Kelvin had 800 crew the Enterprise would almost certainly have more, which when you consider the Galaxy class' normal capacity of 1500 it makes sense for the Enterprise to be that big. I imagine the Galaxy class has a larger displacement and crew capacity due to the sheer width of the ships, but the Enterprise could well be longer.

[AlDaja]

This is where J.J.'s production crew didn’t do their homework. The original Enterprise only had a crew compliment of 430 according to all the specs I have on it and the Enterprise is suppose to be a larger ship then the Kelvin, but then again, this is an alternate time line as the new Enterprise would suggest.

[Monster_user]

They probably skimmed through on the research, going for general facts.

Such as "What do we know about Spock's childhood?", or "What kind of [extreme] sports exist in Star Trek?".

Or in this case "About how many crew do Federation Starships usually have?". In the 24th century, that answer would probably be around 700-800.

Although, a crew compliment of 250-500 would seem more practical for the 23rd century.

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As for the Engineering section, I believe it is supposed to be located on the Saucer, for early Trek ships. Not sure what the "Secondary Hull" was used for. Deflector control, Astrometrics, and Shuttles? Maybe it was crew quarters,...

In this case, it appears that a large portion of the Secondary Hull seems to be used for shuttlecraft.

I doubt the new Enterprise is larger than an Excelsior class vessel.

[MrFancypants]

Wouldn't it make sense that an older ship has less automatization and requires more crew?

[Jetfreak]

Bernd from EAS already has an article on that. If we omit the Shuttlebay and Water Pipe styled engineering section, a 300m length for the JJprise is the best way to go.

Ex Astris Scientia - The New Enterprise Design

[Monster_user]

Originally Posted by MrFancypants

Wouldn't it make sense that an older ship has less automatization and requires more crew?

Yeah, for a ship of the same size. The U.S.S. Voyager is of similar size, and operates with a crew of 150-200. It may be slightly smaller than the Constitution.

[Aerilon]

Originally Posted by Bs|Archaon

Well if the Kelvin had 800 crew the Enterprise would almost certainly have more, which when you consider the Galaxy class' normal capacity of 1500 it makes sense for the Enterprise to be that big.

I don't understand why it would make sense for the new Enterprise to have a crew of 2500.

Originally Posted by AlDaja

This is where J.J.'s production crew didn’t do their homework. The original Enterprise only had a crew compliment of 430 according to all the specs I have on it and the Enterprise is suppose to be a larger ship then the Kelvin, but then again, this is an alternate time line as the new Enterprise would suggest.

Wouldn't surprise me one bit.

Originally Posted by Monster_user

As for the Engineering section, I believe it is supposed to be located on the Saucer, for early Trek ships. Not sure what the "Secondary Hull" was used for. Deflector control, Astrometrics, and Shuttles? Maybe it was crew quarters,...

In this case, it appears that a large portion of the Secondary Hull seems to be used for shuttlecraft.

This would explain a fair amount, though it still doesn't explain how some ships (the Kelvin) have 800 people on for the ride. Especially if most of the crew quaters are in the saucer, and the 'hull' is for shuttles and the like, that leaves us with even less room for the crew.

Originally Posted by MrFancypants

Wouldn't it make sense that an older ship has less automatization and requires more crew?

It would make sense yeah, but I'm not sure how wise it is to word sense with this new movie, especially when we are comparing it to typical Trek.

Originally Posted by Jetfreak

Bernd from EAS already has an article on that. If we omit the Shuttlebay and Water Pipe styled engineering section, a 300m length for the JJprise is the best way to go.

Ex Astris Scientia - The New Enterprise Design

Yeah, I've read the Ex Astris Scientia Pages. Just wanted to see what you guys thought about it.

Originally Posted by Monster_user

Yeah, for a ship of the same size. The U.S.S. Voyager is of similar size, and operates with a crew of 150-200. It may be slightly smaller than the Constitution.

The TMP Constitution is 305m in size, the Intrepid is 344m in size. We must remember though, that the Constitution is more compact, has larger nacelles, and has a lot of space within it. The Intrepid uses up a lot of her space, and does so well.

[Monster_user]

Originally Posted by AlDaja

This is where J.J.'s production crew didn’t do their homework. The original Enterprise only had a crew compliment of 430 according to all the specs I have on it and the Enterprise is suppose to be a larger ship then the Kelvin, but then again, this is an alternate time line as the new Enterprise would suggest.

Is it documented that the Enterprise is bigger than the Kelvin? Or perhaps I just wasn't paying attention to scale. The Kelvin's entire Secondary Hull seemed to be used as a shuttle bay.

The Enterprise doesn't have to be the largest ship in the fleet. In the movies, it was the second largest, the U.S.S. Excelsior was the largest ship shown in the movies.

Originally Posted by Aerilon

This would explain a fair amount, though it still doesn't explain how some ships (the Kelvin) have 800 people on for the ride. Especially if most of the crew quaters are in the saucer, and the 'hull' is for shuttles and the like, that leaves us with even less room for the crew.

I would suspect that the Kelvin is as big as an Ambassador class starship. (Enterprise-C). Not being able to find any mention of a crew compliment, I doubt the new Enterprise has much more than the original crew compliment of a Constitution class.


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Spoiler:

Actually, I just remembered the sequence where they ejected the "warp core". They had multiple ejections from several locations on the top of the Secondary hull.

Which means that the Engine room is on the Secondary Hull. Which puts us back to square one.

[Afterburner]

There is a pretty simple explanation. It's just a movie.