Federation Cube Ship

[Lorna]

why doesn't it just spin at 50,000 rpm and ram the enemy ships?

Even a Borg cube cannot survive a ramming, a cube ship was destroyed when it rammed a ship of species 8472.

 

[Avon]

yes but this would be a federation hypercube with a super-thick bullshitonium hull and mega-inertial dampeners.

 

[USS Triumphant]

yes but this would be a federation hypercube with a super-thick bullshitonium hull and mega-inertial dampeners.

I just found myself looking for the Like button. Damn you, Facebook!

 

[Lorna]

yes but this would be a federation hypercube with a super-thick bullshitonium hull and mega-inertial dampeners.

Well if that is how you want to design your cube then go ahead.

 

[BolianAuthor]

You don't want a cube ship... you want a Q ship... it's the only thing that can do everything you're demanding of it.

 

[sojourner]

Let's use a bit of common sense shall we.

 

[USS Triumphant]

you want a Q ship...

An interesting choice of words.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Just commandeer the Dyson Sphere.

Hey, that rhymes!

 

[FordSVT]

There's no value to giving a spaceship a cubic shape. It's a bad idea for at least two major reasons.

One is pressure. A spaceship needs to be a pressure vessel, able to contain an atmosphere. The best design for a pressure vessel is one with no sharp edges or corners. The same physical principles that make a sharp object effective at cutting or piercing things -- concentrating force along a single line or point -- make edges and corners the most vulnerable points for a pressure vessel to rupture. This is why pressurized vessels like scuba tanks or fire extinguishers are cylinders with rounded ends rather than boxes.

All true, however I would think that Borg material science is well beyond the point where they need to worry about the atmospheric pressure differential inside their ship caused by right angles.

The other is efficient use of space. If the Borg really gave a damn about efficiency, they'd use spheres, not cubes. A sphere is the most efficient shape in that it uses the smallest surface area to contain a given volume, and thus would need the least material to constitute its hull. Also, as the most compact shape, it would require a shorter length of corridors, conduits, wiring, piping, etc. to get between any two points within it, so the movement of crew, power, fuel, water, etc. would be more efficient. Also, in Trek terms, as the most compact shape, a sphere would require the least shielding energy and the smallest warp bubble for a given volume.

This is true too. And they do have spherical ships as well. But isn't there some evidence that the Borg cubes are able to connect with one another or even form larger cubes? I know this is something I've read in the more recent novels, but I was pretty sure there was something on Voyager to back up that assertion too. Now obviously you can connect a sphere to other shapes as well, but not flush. I'm just throwing stuff out to see if it sticks here.

The only reason the creators of the Borg gave them cubic ships was symbolic -- all rigid straight lines and angles in contrast to the flowing curves of the Enterprise, suggesting something inorganic, mechanical, monolithic. It evokes the forbidding feel of an industrial plant or a towering office building. In terms of producing a certain psychological response in the observer, it's an effective design. But in terms of actual starship engineering, it's simply ludicrous.

From an in-universe point of view, maybe at some point in their history the Borg also made the conscious decision to make their ships look that way to be intimidating to those they were about to conquer.

I'd also point out that, in terms of "actual" starship engineering (whatever you mean by that), most of the designs we've seen in Trek are ludicrous. The original Enterprise with its basic cylindrical and saucer shape are probably closest.

Also, I assume what you mean by "actual starship design" is the kind of thing NASA and Lockheed banter around. I'm sure you realize that they have a different set of cost and material conditions to deal with, as well as an entirely different set of physical and scientific limitations they have to conform to. Federation and Borg engineers are not designing tiny pressurized aluminum cans a puncture away from catastrophic failure at any moment.

 

[The Inquisitor]

Just commandeer the Dyson Sphere.

Hey, that rhymes!

 

[seekertwo]

The cube edges will be rounded and not to a point.

Kinda like a sphere....

No, nothing like a sphere.

Like this.

If you round those corners a little more, you'd have a sphere....

yes but this would be a federation hypercube with a super-thick bullshitonium hull and mega-inertial dampeners.

Like the last season of VOY....

 

[Jimmy_C]

I agree with FordSVT. Just because some engineering constraints make a sphere more logical doesn't mean it's the most important constraint. Squares are easier to construct. You can combine several square modules to create a bigger square. You can't do that with smaller spheres. You always have dead space. Since Borg ships are supposed to be characterized by distributed & redundant systems, having a sphere-shape for the entire pressure vessel is not in their character. However, having several smaller spheres inside the cube could make more sense.