Big Ship = Big Crew?

[DavidGutierrez]

Why is the crew of a Galaxy-class starship so large? Or a Sovereign? The DS9 Technical Manual puts the crew of both an Excelsior and a Nebula at 750 each.

Why so large? Wouldn't technological advances mean that greater automation requires fewer personnel? On-screen evidence throughout TNG, DS9, and VOY indicates that you can just tell the computer what to do and it will do it. Dax even makes a comment in "Trials and Tribble-ations" that Starfleet used to pack them in on the old ships. She's referring to the Constitution-class Enterprise which carries a crew of 430.

Why so large?

 

[Cyke101]

Why is the crew of a Galaxy-class starship so large? Or a Sovereign? The DS9 Technical Manual puts the crew of both an Excelsior and a Nebula at 750 each.

Why so large? Wouldn't technological advances mean that greater automation requires fewer personnel? On-screen evidence throughout TNG, DS9, and VOY indicates that you can just tell the computer what to do and it will do it. Dax even makes a comment in "Trials and Tribble-ations" that Starfleet used to pack them in on the old ships. She's referring to the Constitution-class Enterprise which carries a crew of 430.

Why so large?

I'm not sure if TNG ever made the distinction between crew and passengers whenever they cited their 1,000 figure. And I ask because there always seemed to be a decent number of civilians, from families to Guinan's staff. Plus, I wonder about the distinction between passengers going from planet to planet, and residents who call the ship home.

Plus not all of the crew worked on ship operations. Many of them were scientists conducting experiments or other duties on board the ship.

Lastly, the ship needs enough personnel to cover whatever ship-related duties are needed over the course of 3 or 4 shift days.

 

[Unicron]

The original intent for TNG was also to have the Enterprise operating in largely unexplored space, which is why there were civilians and families onboard. In that context, having enough Starfleet crew to run operations and any emergency activity makes sense.

 

[Wingsley]

It's also my understanding from a few TNG episodes sprinkled here and there that there are often "guests" aboard ship. These could be Starfleet specialists or scientists of colonists that are on-board until they reach a designated destination, a space station or colony somewhere on the frontier.

As an example, Dr. Stubbs in "Evolution" was conducting research on specific stars. It is obvious that, after his research was completed, he was dropped off at some subsequent destination.

So, it is possible that the 1,000 figure for the Enterprise-D is constantly in flux, and a good portion of that number were not given long-term assignments to the ship. And lest we forget, no small number of that total figure were likely kids.

 

[Ithekro]

USS Voyager, on the other hand, was around the same size at Kirk's Enterprise, yet had a crew of around 150.

USS Defiant, a ship supposedly around the size of a Constitution's saucer section, has a crew of maybe 50, though it is not designed for long voyages.

 

[Magellan]

Actually the question could be, why is the crew so small? They could pack a lot more people on a Galaxy than just a 1,000. I guess they just want to be a lot more comfy in the 24th century. Big crews could mean lots of specialists. Although on screen it seems like everyone is an expert on everything, the science department should be huge with specialists in almost every known field of study(Archaeology, xenolinguistics, physics, geology, biology, computer science, etc)

I'm always surprised by how little they show that but I suppose thats just the constraints of TV budget. I suppose we should just imagine before LaForge and Data explain all the technical stuff they consulted with their underling experts.

 

[SWHouston]

I've often wondered why there wasn't more Synthetic Personnel on board. Maybe they could make one/some who wouldn't fall on their a$$ out cold every time there was a stray electronic short, or, commandeer the Enterprise on some stray signal, or, maybe even build a ship where something else besides the Gravity Plaiting and Life Support actually stayed online reliably.

 

[Timo]

I'm sure it's a matter of crew capacity rather than crew requirement, too. The more, the merrier - the crew is the payload of the ship, the tool with which the ship performs her mission of exploration. It is only incidentally that a small fraction of the crew also is needed to keep the ship running.

That there are just a thousand people aboard the E-D doesn't mean that every Galaxy class ship would be so thinly crewed/passengered. The needs of the mission at hand might dictate the crew size - and even though the E-D performs varied missions during the course of the show, the overarching, overwhelming requirement might be to leave enough space for diplomatic stuff: receptions, transportation of delegates, giving guided tours to the diplomats to impress them with UFP technological excellence, etc.

That the design of the ship does not dictate her crew size is especially evident from the Oberth class. We hear of crews as small as seven ("Interface"), or as large as eighty ("The Naked Now"). For all we know, the smallest crew needed to operate the ship is flat zero - surely she can fly all on her own to destinations (rules and regulations possibly notwithstanding). She just can't achieve much there, can't maintain herself for any great lengths of time, and can't cope with surprises.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[C.E. Evans]

Actually the question could be, why is the crew so small? They could pack a lot more people on a Galaxy than just a 1,000. I guess they just want to be a lot more comfy in the 24th century.

IMO, most starships are multipurpose vessels, even ones on exploration missions like the Enterprise. Often far from the nearest starbase or Federation world, they may have to serve as emergency rescue vessels or personnel transports at times. Starfleet may have a philosophy of having lots of extra space on their ships for evacuees or passengers when necessary (better to have the space and not always need it rather than need the space sometimes and not have it).

It's also possible that Federation starships are built with future expansion in mind. Decades from now, the standard crew of a Galaxy-class ship could balloon to 2,000 or even more depending on its mission.

 

[Prologic9]

In an emergency situation the Enterprise could probably safely hold... 35,000 people or so.

So, the crew situation is probably on the conservative side.

The Galaxy class is a big ship.

 

[DavidGutierrez]

USS Voyager, on the other hand, was around the same size at Kirk's Enterprise, yet had a crew of around 150.

USS Defiant, a ship supposedly around the size of a Constitution's saucer section, has a crew of maybe 50, though it is not designed for long voyages.

Exactly!

I'll buy all of the stuff about the Galaxy-class' original mission profile, but what about all of the other ships with large crews in the 24th century? It just seems to me that, especially if you can just tell the computer to do things, then a crew need only accommodate those necessary to maintain the ship. And, the 24th century starships were supposedly so well-built and so well-maintained that they barely needed anyone else to do anything! Geordi was always doing routine maintenance adjustments by himself or, when he was really strained, with the computer's help.

 

[Ithekro]

USS Voyager is around the size of an American Super Carrier, yet has a crew of only 150. The old starship USS Enterprise is roughly the same size, a hundred years earlier, had a crew of 430.

 

[Timo]

It just seems to me that, especially if you can just tell the computer to do things, then a crew need only accommodate those necessary to maintain the ship.

Quite the opposite, I'd say - the computer alone can maintain the ship if need be, but the crew is there to do useful work, unrelated to maintenance, and advanced technology allows the ships to carry more of that useful crew.

The old starship USS Enterprise is roughly the same size a hundred years earlier, had a crew of 430.

Yet the very same ship a decade earlier was flying around with just 200 crew. So at least 230 of Kirk's crew were actually mission workers, rather than people needed to keep the ship going.

Pike had 200 crew, Janeway in a ship of the same size was said to need 100 to keep going. Perhaps this is where we see technology advancing - Pike's 200 were all needed for running the ship, and a century of development has halved that figure. Both skippers could still take 230 extra crew do conduct the actual work for which the starship is merely the means, not the end.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Albertese]

USS Voyager is around the size of an American Super Carrier, yet has a crew of only 150. The old starship USS Enterprise is roughly the same size, a hundred years earlier, had a crew of 430.

I'm not sure this is a very valid comparison, though. Enterprise under Pike had a bit over 200 crew. And on it's five-year-mission under Kirk, it had a bunch of specialists on board who seemed to spend most their days painting pictures in their quarters and only having a job when their specific expertise was required. So, I would argue that 430 is really over-manning the Enterprise.

On the other hand, the Voyager crew was formed of the remainders of the original Starfleet guys who survived the transport to the Delta Quadrant and the surviving Maquis crew. Were we ever informed of what the "normal" compliment wold be for an Intrepid-class starship?

Also, while similar in length, Voyager is a lot narrower than the 1701 and more compact... I would guess that the actual internal volume would be less than a Connie, but I don't know by how much. That would be an interesting thing to see the math on.

--Alex


EDIT: Whoops! Looks like I took too long to type and Timo ninja'd me.

 

[Timo]

Were we ever informed of what the "normal" compliment wold be for an Intrepid-class starship?

I'm not sure the concept of "normal complement for a class of ship" is valid to begin with - these things are quite possibly so flexibly configurable that all numbers between zero and the maximum number that can be squeezed in are correct.

However, we did hear in the pilot that the Voyager had a complement of 141. Too bad that "Relativity" did not include a repeat of that number; we don't know if it's what was deemed proper for the specific mission of this specific ship, or what is ideal for all Intrepids in default conditions, or something else altogether.

(Also, we don't know if that 141 included the yet-to-arrive Kim, or indeed Paris and Stadi themselves. Was it a running count of people aboard, or a number of vacancies as stated in the operator's manual?)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Timo]

This classic site gives total volume only, and the two ships no doubt have different percentages of internal volume dedicated to machinery, in addition to having engine nacelles of different size, but still...

http://www.st-v-sw.net/STSWvolumetrics.html

Anyway, at the generally assumed (but canonically still a bit vague) lengths, the Intrepid is almost thrice as big as the Constitution, thanks to the latter's saucer really being wafer-thin and the secondary hull rather narrow.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Cyke101]

In an emergency situation the Enterprise could probably safely hold... 35,000 people or so.

So, the crew situation is probably on the conservative side.

The Galaxy class is a big ship.

In the event that my planet needs to be evacuated, then I call dibs on the Ready Room!

 

[Richard Baker]

I was in contact with Ed Whitefire for a while- he was one of the people who was designing the internal structure of the Enterprise-D (BTW he has some amazing blueprints which show a different version of the interior the studio decided not to build).
Regardless of the internal configuration the Galaxy class has an incredible amount of interior space- a crew of 1000 is way too small for the ship It would be the equivalent of two persons per a football field of space. You could wander the hallways for days and never meet another person.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Remember that ye olde TNG Technical manual had the E-D evacuation capacity at 15,000 people. Over the years, a lot of people have come to believe that this is not LITERALLY how many people you can fit into the ship, but how many people can be safely KEPT ALIVE on the ship for a certain amount of time. A starship may have tons of extra space, but it would be designed to keep only so many people breathing, fed, watered and waste extracted for whatever the mission profile is. An aircraft carrier would have the same volume of space as a Connie, but there's no limit on breathable oxygen for the carrier crew, nor on food given how frequently Navy ships are resupplied.

In any case, we've seen on basically every Trek series that the ship can be safely operated by a single person if needed. It's not the technology that's the limitation here, it's the ship's ability to sustain itself for extended periods of time or case something goes wrong. No Trek starship would be able to function indefinitely were it not for the meat-bots scurrying around keeping everything going.

Mark

 

[JES]

I've done the math, because I was curious to see how many Galaxy class starships it would take to safely evacuate our entire approximate population of 9 Billion.

The figures are staggering: using the safe 15,000 population per ship number gives us 600,000.

If we were to stuff 35,000 people into each Galaxy class, we'd be able to get by with 251,000.