Memory Alpha Gets Interesting Revamp for TOS Remastered

[Mike DiCenso]

While watching the remastered version of "The Lights of Zetar", I noticed that the FX crew put in a rather startling and amazing new version of the famed Memory Alpha facility.

In this screencap, we can see an enourmous facility on a planetoid that is large enough in size and mass to pull itself into a near-perfect sphere. If this were simply a Ceres-sized dwarf planet of approximately 947 km, then Memory Alpha would span up to some 450 km in diameter! Each of the large central structure domes would span about 71 km!

This would quite handily dwarf Starbase 74, and would prove to be a rival in size to the ICS Death Stars.
-Mike

[Roondar]

While I can see the appeal of bigger and bigger structures, I've always wondered about the reasons people think these mega-structures are so impressive for cultures that have many planets as resources.

To be blunt, the engineering requirements for a spaceship a kilometer long and a spacestation ten times that size (or more) are not really all that different. Especially since these people have technologies that can manipulate the stresses on the structures themselves (gravity control, structural integrity fields, etc), both internal and external.

In fact, building a structurally sound object in space is easier* than on earth IIRC.

*) With the caveat that constuction might be harder due to the environment, naturally.

The real reason that we don't have such huge structures on Earth is not that we can't engineer a 74KM+ dome to be stable but that we a) have no need for such a thing and b) the cost to build would just be too high.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Dang. That thing is huge.
Obviously, this planetoid is a rocky one, so it will require more mass to get a spherical shape than, say, an icy moon. Ceres seems to be a good starting point. But aren't there smaller, yet spherical planetoids we know of?

[Mike DiCenso]

20000 Varuna is a Kuipier object somewhat smaller than Ceres in diameter (874 km +-), but it has yet to be determined if it is spherical enough to be considered a dwarf planet. We could probably kick the size of the planetoid down to about 600-800 km, but any smaller and the object will likely not be massive enough for it's gravity to pull itself into such a signifcantly spherical shape as the Memory Alpha planetoid.

As an engineering feat, this is very impressive considering that this is the TOS-era, which should in theory have far fewer planetary members that the later TNG-era. If the TOS remastered can be considered canon, it would go a long way towards my idea that the Federation could build larger starships, if they so chose.
-Mike

[l33telboi]

I suppose you could determine the size of the planet by the gravity as well, were there any action taking place on the surface?

[Jedi Master Spock]

Much depends on angular momentum and how molten the body was when it formed.

This one is only 500 km across. Mimas, the famous "death star" moon, is only 400 km and passes quite well for perfectly spherical at the right angles.

It's possible for a body to be smaller and yet be spherical - just increasingly unlikely.

[Mike DiCenso]

Even if we go with the smaller Mimas number, that means that Memory Alpha is up to 200 kilometers wide, and the large domes some 35 km in diameter. It's still quite huge.
-Mike