Wow professor dr. Akula, ease a bit with the technobabble. We're don't all have a high degree in physics here! But from now on if I have a question about radiation or wavelengths, I know where to look! :lookaround:
I'll keep that in mind :P
akula2ssn;3540663I'll keep that in mind :P
No understood competely... I don't have a bunch of degrees but I've been reading on this for years...
So with the imformation provided is there a general...simple way to determin how many rads were hiting both ships?
It's entirely possible that Voyager slipped through a very small gap in the Gravitational fields other wise she'd be destroyed too....
Maybe he was right it was piloting...The shields were down.... I need to find another episode where Voyager had shields up
Well the ship's external sensors should be able to tell us exactly how much radiation the exterior is being exposed to, at least the forms of radiation that the sensor's are designed and calibrated to detect. Internal sensors should tell you how much radiation the interior is being exposed to, again only those the sensors are capable of detecting.
I think there are several questions that need to be asked about the other ships. Where did the failure(s) take place that led to the destruction of the ships? Was it external or internal? What component(s) failed? What are the associated components? What forms of radiation are those components sensitive to?
Even if we did a spectral analysis of the different radiation forms, the strongest signal(s) may not actually be the cause of the destruction of the other ships.
Climate scientists run into similar problems trying to understand climate change because of uncertainties in the paleoclimate record and other issues. Determining the exact effect of carbon dioxide, methane, precession, changes in Earth's orbit and rotation, changes in ocean circulation, plate tectonics, and so on has so far been unsuccessful.
sO We don't know...."with out further data"
Pretty much. It's one of the reasons why mishap investigations can take over a year before they get published, and even then the conclusions can still be up for debate.
Excellent...thanks then I guess it reamains on resolved.
I will say this. It's very likely that all Federation starships have very high radiation shielding in terms of what they can take without their shields. I would be very surprised if they did not. The reason is because of the very high biological diversity in the Federation and because of the fact that Federation starships have increasingly diverse crews.
Average lethal doses of radiation are very species specific. Not all species have the same radiation tolerances as others. Human for example are relatively sensitive to radiation because we have very thin dermal layers. If we lay in the sun, we get burnt and if we do it enough times, risk of skin cancer becomes an issue. Also because of our thin dermal layers we have greater potential for getting an internal dose of radiation. Lizards on the other hand are less sensitive to solar radiation. Since they are cold blooded they need to remain in the sun to maintain homeostasis. Also since they have very dense and thick outer dermal layers, their live tissues are very well insulated from solar radiation.
Aquatic organisms are probably very susceptible to radiation since they live in the water all the time so they don't get exposed to much radiation. Therefore they don't need to evolve any major protection from solar radiation.
Since Federation starships can have a large variety of species on board, especially in the Titan novels, the ships need to be able to provide sufficient protection for the species that is most susceptible to radiation, or it must be listed that certain species should not serve on said ship.
akula2ssn;3545874Since Federation starships can have a large variety of species on board, especially in the Titan novels, the ships need to be able to provide sufficient protection for the species that is most susceptible to radiation, or it must be listed that certain species should not serve on said ship.
With the Titan in mind wouldn't it also be safe to assume that since they do have such a diverse crew aboard that they intentionally strengthen the hull to withstand different radiation types in order to protect all of the personnel, not just a certain group of species, and that they are probably fairly good at keeping most harmful radiations out of the ship?
I certainly think that is quite possible, and the first book in the series did seem to suggest that Titan may have been specially fitted for such a crew. It's just that I think that in terms of logistics, it's easier to just make such a feature standard on all starships since under emergency situations you'd want a ship to be able to support whatever kind of crew are available rather than to request that a specially fitted starship be dispatched to an area. It's a real pain in the butt if you have a person with a particular area of expertise needed on a ship, but he/she is of a species that the ship isn't rated for. It can potentially cause a more complicated personnel situation.
There are certainly situations that just can't be avoided like if said alien just isn't humanoid and can't interface with standard humanoid controls. Things like that just have to be dealt with some other way.