Analysis of USS Odyssey

[Kamakazie Sith]

On the other hand, the problem with exploding power sources is not limited to SF warp cores. A space station was presumed destroyed by a phaser blast, fired by Riker. It was later shown that the shot actually deflected off of a transporter beam that was removing Riker from the station, but the fact that a single phaser hit is more than enough to catastrophically destroy a ship or a station represents an incredible disregard for safety in SF facilities.

VGR Projections; IIRC has the Doc fire a phaser at the warp core and the computer begins a countdown, in other words the phaser had to burn through the material to breach the core and it was not instant it took time.

[Master of Ossus]

On the other hand, the problem with exploding power sources is not limited to SF warp cores. A space station was presumed destroyed by a phaser blast, fired by Riker. It was later shown that the shot actually deflected off of a transporter beam that was removing Riker from the station, but the fact that a single phaser hit is more than enough to catastrophically destroy a ship or a station represents an incredible disregard for safety in SF facilities.

VGR Projections; IIRC has the Doc fire a phaser at the warp core and the computer begins a countdown, in other words the phaser had to burn through the material to breach the core and it was not instant it took time.

That was a different ship, but the point still stands. In TNG, the blast was nearly instantaneous, with only a few seconds between the phaser shot and the complete destabilization and explosion of the entire station. The VOY problem appears to have addressed the flaw with stop-gap measures, but it could not correct it. This is likely due to a technological limitation on safety in reactors designed the way that ST's are.

[Master of Ossus]

Ok, I may be going out on a limb, but....

It doesn't matter what the relative velocity is period, what matters is the amount of damage the Odyssey took for that particular relative speed. Clearly, the Odyssey took a lot; enough to drill a fairly large hole in the secondary hull.

The velocity matters for calculating how much damage was done. We know that the JH bug could not have had an enormous, planetary-scale mass, so the only other way to increase the damage would be to increase the relative velocity. You are correct in that the damage is more significant than the velocity, but the damage done is dependent on the velocity of the ship. Odyssey took more damage from the bug than it could sustain, but the bug did not due amounts of damage to the ship that would have been sufficient to completely destroy a ship of comparable class in SW the way that it destroyed the Odyssey. Thus, with the velocity and an approximation of the mass, we can calculate an upper limit on how much collision-resistance that SF vessels can withstand.

[Ingersoll]

On the other hand, the problem with exploding power sources is not limited to SF warp cores. A space station was presumed destroyed by a phaser blast, fired by Riker.

That was a beam from the prototype of the Krieger Wave Generator experiment, not a normal space station power source.

[Isolder74]

On the other hand, the problem with exploding power sources is not limited to SF warp cores. A space station was presumed destroyed by a phaser blast, fired by Riker.

That was a beam from the prototype of the Krieger Wave Generator experiment, not a normal space station power source.

The premise that Riker could have used his hand Phaser was in question not what actually killed the station

[Master of Ossus]

On the other hand, the problem with exploding power sources is not limited to SF warp cores. A space station was presumed destroyed by a phaser blast, fired by Riker.

That was a beam from the prototype of the Krieger Wave Generator experiment, not a normal space station power source.

Hmmm.... Maybe you're right. I always just assumed that it was connected with the station itself, though.