If you are going to and from points within a solar system, probably but not necessarily. Every transfer made between gravitational influences increases the chance that you will enter at an angle to the equatorial plane, especially if the two influences are not coplanar traveling between solar systems would likely have you entering at a significant angle. Furthermore, approaching a ship at a low velocity means slowing down as you approach them, so even if you do approach coplanar, it would be engines first and not nose first (unless star trek vessels have an ability to reverse their propulsors? I don't know if that's ever been shown aside from by approaching things nose first). The expanse showed this aspect of space interaction well with the flip and burn maneuvers
Starfleet ships basically maneuver like they're weightless massless?, which, mathematically, they probably are. Inertial Dampeners are mostly mentioned in reference to stopping Worf from smashing into all the science stations every time the ship accelerates, but if inertia isn't affecting the ship, they can basically do whatever they want. Even a tiny amount of thrust would be enough to put them in reverse from Full Impulse. Add to this that the ships aren't held together by their superstructures, but by their Structural Integrity Fields, and really, a Starfleet vessel could be constructed in basically any shape. They just look like they have a front and an up because humans like it that way
FYI, there is only one solar system in the universe.
Source:
There are many planetary systems like ours in the universe, with planets orbiting a host star. Our planetary system is called “the solar system” because we use the word “solar” to describe things related to our star, after the Latin word for Sun, "solis." — NASA
Another question for you- Would it be close to the system's ecliptic plane so that you have a per-system standard or would it be close to the galactic plane for an intergalactic standard? Maybe some civilizations would choose one and some the other.
Any ship traveling towards another ship would have its nose pointed towards it.
If both ships travel towards each other, their noses would be aligned, but their roll would likely be different.
That's a bit different from what's being shown in the comic where ships seem to have any orientation, no matter the context.
As for a galactic up/down, the galactic disc would be the obvious reference. That still leaves a 50/50 chance that two civilizations would choose the same direction as up.
Realistically (i.e., not in Star Trek), a ship traveling toward something will have its engine cone pointed towards it as it decelerates for rendezvous.
I disagree. You can have low angle intercepts where the nose can be pointed well less than nose-on or almost the same direction even. Inertia in space would have the nose pointed away from the other ship in some direction to decelerate. I think your comment completely disregards vectors of thrust and velocity along with the relative motion of the target. Nose-to-nose would be an incredibly unlikely arrangement to intercept or rendezvous. Maybe you're thinking more orbital mechanics where nose/nose would be right for say docking, but even then it disregards the maneuvering to catch up/decelerate/orbital altitude maneuvering needed prior to that meetup.
There is direction in space. Space is not a formless void there is order and structure to the universe.
The solar system is shaped like a disk. Most planets orbit and revolve to the same axis as the solar system.
When a star trek ship is seen in orbit, like the opening to TOS it is usually shown orbiting with the up of the ship facing the north of the planet, making a left turn with the planet off the port side.
Having a consistent orientation, like up=north would make sense for navigating a solar system. Federation ships in orbit are always shown rotating to face the direction of travel while in orbit. That's not at all needed to remain in orbit, but having consistent orientation seems important to the federation.
North is determined by the rotation of the planet. The sun sets in the west, and if you are facing west, north is to your right. This is true for any planet/moon and doesn’t have anything to do with magnets.
Is it actually? I always assumed orbits were all over the place and our 2d renders are similar to why paper maps are all fucky - just the easiest way to deal with 3d in 2d space.
The universe is not super precise, so it is a generalization, but within the solar system, planets orbit and revolve approximately in a plane.
The orbit of every planet in the solar system is within 8 degrees of the sun's equator. With the exception of Uranus, every planet's axial tilt is within 30 degrees of its orbital inclination.
The formation of solar systems results in most things settling into a mostly flat disk shape most of the time.
I'd like to think that it is an unspoken rule among all spacefaring people, regardless of their planetary origin or biological design, to automatically reorient their ships to match the "up" direction of any other ship they are approaching.
It makes sense since (effectively) all spacefaring peoples started on a planet with gravity and well defined "up" directions. You wouldn't interact with anyone in gravity while upside down, so as a courtesy you'd always want to be facing "up" for both your sake's.
Technically, this only needs to be the practice of Starfleet (or even just human) navigators in order to account for 99% of what we see in Star Trek. Maybe it's our guys who are doing all the careful orienting, and the alien of the week just comes in from whatever angle they want.
Or maybe, since Starfleet is seeing it all through the view screen rather than directly, it’s just a little image manipulation for the comfort of the viewer
Can't tell if this comic just doesn't get it or put zero thought into it. And there is several examples throughout the various series where two ships don't align to each other.
There are several reasons why the ships would always face each other, from common courtesy to defensive posturing.
When two ships face each other its like an nonverbal way of saying "we see you" or "you have our attention". Orientation also plays apart in this. Of course there is no real reason to orient so both ships face "up" thanks to artificial gravity, but it's also something that could be seen as polite and etiquette as getting on the same level as the other meeting them half way.
For defensive purposes, it also makes sense to nose towards a potential threat or adversary as within star trek the shields are strongest at the front (thanks to deflectors and navigational shielding) as well as the best/most accurate sensors to get a good reading. Additionally the forward arc of the ship will likely have the most overlapping weapon arcs, especially for ships like klingon bird of preys with fixed disruptor cannons facing forwards. This posture also tends to keep primary engineering, where the reactor/warp core is situated, obscured and defended, so if the ship wants to make a swift retreat their primary means of doing so is less likely to be damaged or disabled, and if you engage an FTL retreat towards a foes rear that foe needs to turn about and reorient themsevles to give chase, giving more time for the retreating party to take evasive action and avoid further intercepts.
Also, when playing space games, I automatically roll to align my ship's up vector with the ships I encounter, without thinking about it. So I guess human nature plays a role too.
There is a federation standard for which way is "up" based on the plane of the galaxy.
So at least that explains why Federation ships always meet on "level ground"
as for why the romulans, klingon, and various other non federation, especially non friendly species from the other quadrants, would be oriented the same way?
Idk, maybe the progenitor race from that one single episode of tng that never showed up or was spoken of again made some kind of subliminal or genetic memories of which way up should be.
Somewhere, in Alpha Centauri, in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of Leopard, there is a very important looking document titled "This Side Up".
The galaxy is about 100 times wider than it is tall, so if i am bump into someone while we are both crossing a sector, we will likely be on a similar plane, even if we are likely at wildley different "eleveations" . On top of that, being close enough to a ship to make visual contact with a really good telescope (say 20,000km) requires a conscious effort when talking about galactic scales.
They're not. It's better to be disk shaped for combat because you present a minimal cross section to an enemy "in front" of you. If you are the attacker, you can chose your attack to face the side of the enemy ship and minimize your own damage / maximize theirs.
A cube is not stealthy and equally easy to hit from all sides. It's weird that the Borg use it because they don't think up their own ideas; they just copy. And no other species uses cube shaped ships. This is a minor plot hole.
Think of the house you live in. There have been plenty of idealists proposing various domed, turreted, or cylindrical building, but lack of straight walls would make it damn annoying to arrange the furniture. Similar to cargo ships: we used to have hull shaped but now the most important concern is rectangular shipping containers. Extrapolate to spaceship design, and a cube is most efficient for crew quarters cargo storage
Hilariously, they address this in the first season of Discovery.
When Starfleet ships meet with Klingon ships you see them out the windows hanging at odd angles. When two Starfleet ships meet, they warp in at an odd angle then bank and roll to align the ships to each other.
I'm actually surprised you were the first person to bring that up. I was going to, but then I got into a conversation with someone in the thread and forgot. It's the only time I can remember where they really used the idea that space is three dimensional.
They even make a note of it that Khan is possible to defeat because of it. Spock says, "he is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking."
And then virtually all other Star Trek space battles are based on two dimensional thinking. Oh well.
There is no other battle shown in Star Trek to rival the time given to the one in Khan.
Off the top of my head there are incidences of ships being behind moons, in weird places they wouldn't expect, etc. It's just not a) discussed nearly as much on screen or b} shown on screen.
When we do see big battles, they are in 3d - Wolf 359 comes to mind.
I think you are correct that Khan is explicit and gives it a lot of punch, but I would argue we shouldn't be too quick to say they almost never deal with 3d/zero g.
Every time a person transports the transporter annihilates the universe and rebuilds it around the transportee but just a little to the left or right depending where they want to go
This reminds me of how in a lot of sci-fi universes, every planet the characters go down to has earth standard gravity. When in reality there would be a ton of variance, some planets would have 20% stronger, or weaker, or crushing.
Expeditionary Force book series was a breath of fresh air, portray space battles how they probably would play out, at such long ranges you could move your ship and avoid a directed energy weapon. The books also do a great job with there being more variety in planetary conditions too. I loved that series. The audio books are fantastic, R.C. Bray does a wonderful job!
Does M-class include the requirement of having 1.0g (or near enough)? I didn't know that. Does that mean the federation is only made up of planets where humans don't look daft moving around? Or maybe it has something to do with production budgets... 🤔
Here's my retcon. The science of inertial dampeners are such that you have to be precisely aligned perpendicular to galactic north for maximum effectiveness.
This isn't entirely unreasonable to determine, since the galaxy is a big disk and you could map that as a 2D plane. For the most part, ships are traveling across the plane between planets, in the same way that a ship flying from Earth to the Moon or Earth to Mars would be flying through a plane perpendicular to the two bodies. Not a lot to visit above or below the plane, and the shortest distance would be between two points, so...
When I run into other ships in space games I usually orient myself to be head on with them. Unless I'm trying to murder them, then I try to go wherever their guns aren't. Maybe Star Trek just skips showing that part.
Why would there even be a nose? From the human perspective, it all depend on which wall the view screens are on. From the outside, maybe there’s a requirement for propulsion. There’s no reason they need to be the same, nor any reason ships are “streamlined”. I don’t see why they’re not all like Borg Cubes or Globes