Defiant Hull Resilience?

McC · Post by **McC** » 2004-05-09 03:04pm

Okay...I don't really want to post in here because I'm quite convinced of Mike's overwhelming conclusions on the main site and have little interest in actually debating Trek vs Wars (much more interested in exploring the function of the technologies irrespective of pitting them against one another). I haven't really had a reason to post here, and I'm half-tempted to put this in the PST forum rather than here, but I don't know what the implications of it are (if any at all), so I'm putting it here just the same.

In the DS9 episode "Starship Down," the Defiant must travel in the atmosphere of a gas giant. The episode, IMO, is basically an excuse to use submarine tactics in space, but that's irrelevant to what I'm bringing up: there are two figures mentioned in the episode relating to the altitude of the Defiant and the atmospheric pressure (presumably) exerted on the Defiant's hull. At one point, it's mentioned that the Defiant's hull is at five million "GSC." A bit later, it's at nine million "GSC." At this point, it's mentioned that in six minutes, the ship's hull will be crushed by the pressure.

My first question: what the hell is GSC? I can't find it mentioned anywhere on any kind of pressure units site. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, or maybe I'm just a moron. What gives?

Second: What are the implications of the resilience of the Defiant's hull given the above figures with relation to that of Imperial hull resilience? Mike discusses the structural stresses felt by Imperial ships merely undergoing acceleration (1.8 TPa for the Executor, as I read it). How do the two figures compare?

Finally, and perhaps this should actually be my first question: is GSC even a real unit? Or is it a made-up Treknounit? "Galactic Standard Compression" or something?

Thanks for reading.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2004-05-09 03:07pm

Since this is much more suited to PST, off it goes there.

McC · Post by **McC** » 2004-05-09 03:10pm

Ok. Like I said, I was tempted to put it in PST, but wasn't really sure, so I went with the vs. forum. Thanks for moving it

Burak Gazan · Post by **Burak Gazan** » 2004-05-09 04:30pm

Just a complete WAG here, G = ? S = square C = centimetre ?

So, something something per sq. cm? However, it may be just "invented" terminology by the writing department that sounded cool

Robert Walper · Post by **Robert Walper** » 2004-05-09 04:32pm

Burak Gazan wrote:Just a complete WAG here, G = ? S = square C = centimetre ?

So, something something per sq. cm? However, it may be just "invented" terminology by the writing department that sounded cool

G = 1 gigaton of atmospheric pressure.

McC · Post by **McC** » 2004-05-09 04:35pm

The only references I can find to it are on Trek stating that it stands for "gross structural compression."

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » 2004-05-09 04:40pm

Burak Gazan wrote:Just a complete WAG here, G = ? S = square C = centimetre ?

So, something something per sq. cm? However, it may be just "invented" terminology by the writing department that sounded cool

Well if you're gonna go with that theory G would most likely be Grams. But its most likely some made up ST unit, like isoton.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2004-05-09 08:50pm

GSC = imaginary unit designed to prevent the writers from being pinned down by hard figures, and also to save them the effort of thinking too hard about it.

Oh! You want the in-context answer?

...well tough shit. Make something up yourself... god knows it'll probably be more plausible than the writers could come up with.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2004-05-09 09:09pm

Uraniun235 wrote:GSC = imaginary unit designed to prevent the writers from being pinned down by hard figures, and also to save them the effort of thinking too hard about it.

Oh! You want the in-context answer?

...well tough shit. Make something up yourself... god knows it'll probably be more plausible than the writers could come up with.

For contrast, the NX-01 was able to go deep enough into a Gas Giants atmosphere that it was going through liquid....

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2004-05-09 10:39pm

*twitch*