Luna Class Starship 

Ah, the Pocket-Sovereign!

"We will name this new Luna class ship... the Ganymede!" "We're onto Sol System moons? Wow, did we run out of British Imperial ships and Earth rivers to name our multi-species federation's ships after?" "Yes, actually. But don't worry; we have plenty of Earth writers, philosophers, cities, activists, trees, and nostalgic sitcoms to name ships after. It'll be a long time before we have to resort to naming any our ships after, I don't know, Bolian or Tellarite stuff." "...sir, I AM a Bolian." "...a noble and accomplished race, to be sure. Now you'll excuse me, I need to be… somewhere else."

Ironically it's design was shelved for the war but once they were deployed (Titan) it turned out to be a juggernaut. They even ran circles around the Sovereign and Akira class initially. It also inspired overhauls of the shielding and sensor system for nearly every active ship design in service. A lot of people seeing a Luna defeat a Sovereign, Defiant, Akira and Prometheus class in online can't figure out why a long range explorer class is beating ships designed for combat in some way. My answer: is it's like the Kirk era Constitution class, being alone for years at a time with no backup it quite literally needed to be better.

Since the bulk of its generated energy for defensive purposes is generally used to power those ridiculously powerful shields, I'd still say it's a much better exploration vessel than most other Starfleet vessels. The galaxy can be a dangerous place after all...

I wish there was more of an on-screen explanation, but I like how the large Swiss Army Knife ship classes all have an overall similar design that amounts to "current Enterprise, but without a piece and the nacelles go down". Miranda/Soyuz based on refit Constitution, Nebula based on Galaxy, and now Luna based on Sovereign. It was a brilliant way to make the ships look like they fit while being clearly different, and the utility pod gave it a clear niche each time they revisited it. Obviously, each was designed in different ways by different people with different goals, but they ended up similar and filling a similar niche.

In my mind most species dont see a human majority in star fleet as a bias but rather a sacrfice by earth. The andorians continue to have a navy, the vulcan science accademy is their navy, earths is the vestigial earth defence force. Instead earth allows itself to put researches and people into starfleet for the good of the federation rather than splitting their focus between their own and starfleet like most do.

Ah yes, returning to Star Fleet's values of peaceful research and exploration with *checks notes* quantum torpedoes and ablative armour

Given the truly *insane* number of moons that both Jupiter and Saturn have, there are certainly *plenty* of names for Starfleet to choose from, with both planets known to have over 50 moons each.

I played a Star Trek adventures game in a Luna for 3 years! Glad to see this ship get cannonized

I’ve always seen the Luna class as a counterpart to the intrepid class as well both being modern constitution class ships. A ship that prioritizes science but has teeth and looks more elegant and friendly than actually agressive. Even with how armed the Luna class is it would be better to send that ship than something like a galaxy class or sovereign to an alien species you are trying to be diplomatic with

I like the tighter placement of the nacelles to the hull, makes it look more sturdy

''OUTSTANDING" show and A super great starship! We need an animated show about Captain William T. Riker on the U.S.S. TITAN on Paramount Plus!

I always see the Luna class from the forward section. Didn’t even realize that there was a significant secondary hull most of the time and only really saw it as a Akira class

I like to think that Starfleet Engineering basically came up with the Luna class design when they took an Akira and filled all of its hangar space with sensors and labs.

I love the USS Titan!

Whatever direction you're going with these "Starship Index" videos, keep it up! The starships are one of my favorite aspects if Star Trek!

The design of this ship is awesome

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO OUR COMMENTS ABOUT DOING MORE SHIP REVIEWS….. YOU THE MAN!!!!!!

Thanks for this review Rick! The Luna, like the Sovereign and Akira classes, are my favorite ship classes! The nacelles pointed downward just seems like a better, more compact and sleeker look, and I'm just partial top that look! Nicely done video!

Looks like a cross between the ole reliable Miranda Class and a Nebula Class. 🖖

I would love to see a series about this ship. This is the type of Star Trek I've been wanting.

The Luna was such a cool design. It was an excellent merge of the militarized style from the Post-Borg Scare & Dominion War (Defiant, Akira especially, Norway, Sabre, Sovereign, Steamrunner, & Intrepid) with the original scientific style of the Post-Cardassian War era (Galaxy, Cheyenne, Niagara, Nebula, New Orleans, Freedom, etc.).

I'm glad you mentioned the design contest that spawned the Luna-class. I was working on my own submission (but life got in the way) that was very similar to the winner. A few design tweaks here and there (let's face it, there's only so many ways you can configure 2 hulls and nacelles and call it original) but my design featured dual axis thrust-vectored impulse engines for increased maneuverability, as well as 4 nacelles at first. I dropped the extra 2 because I was worried it wouldn't look good on a 2D book cover, but if I had known it would be featured on screen I would have pushed on! I want a do-over, where's Q when you need him?

Your editing efforts are appreciated.

I love my Luna-class in STO. I run it as a support ship using Tetryon arrays, for the bonus shield drop effect. I don't kill much, but I help drop enemy shields faster.

I don’t have much to add, but an excellent overview! I suppose I could say it’s interesting they revived paused designs rather than make new ones, while the latter is more common with the military IRL. But then Starfleet have often thought a bit more long-term.

These starship profiles are awesome videos. Keep up the great work.

Hmm. I might point out that other Starfleet ships could vary gravity and temperature on a room by room basis, though that could possibly mess with power requirements. Also, it be pointed out that all of Fleet we see other than Lower Decks are still all-hominid crews.

Where some might see an identity crisis, others might see a well rounded individual.

Even before the Dominion Wars there were some ships mainly geared towards science that were still fairly well armed like the Intrepid class the Voyager which was lost in the Delta quadrant before the Dominion Wars even began was pretty well armed

All of youir ship summaries have been SO well done. Thanks!!

It would seem as though the Luna Class has struck the right balance of all requirements. You talk about all-rounders; well, I think this is the best of them. She seems sturdy as hell.

Another excellent video. I love your Star Ship breakdowns.

Another fantastic video. I'll add my name to the ever-growing list of folks asking for more content like this, Rick. I'm really enjoying your ship breakdowns. More, please!

Never heard of anything that could be described as “luxury life support systems” until now.

Another of my absolute favorite ships in Star Trek. It's my third favorite canon ship, right behind the Akira and Sovereign. I'm so glad the design has undergone basically no changes since it's original non-canon appearance. The Titan showing up in Lower Decks actually made me really happy, to see all that work had finally resulted in a canon on-screen appearance in an official Star Trek show. Now TWO, considering she was part of that fleet in Picard, alongside my other two favorites.

It's the Titan!

Thanks for sharing.

We did a Star Trek RPG game and used the Luna Class ship, The Europa, as the hero ship[. It's perfect in that role.

Really digging the side profile of the Luna class. The underslung warp nacelles give it a faster, sleeker look. Like a sports car or a fighter jet.

Nice looking Ship!!

The Luna-Class' overall shape is more tightly compacted allowing for easier shielding, and a "less big" targeting profile. The Luna Class was clearly designed with defense in the primary, not exploration. Although all-out combat may be, in certain variants, a secondary purpose. Starfleet seems a bit more tepid in fielding super large vessels, like the Sovereign and Odyssey classes, for this same reasons. Ships best used for their staying power in battle or command ships for a overtly military purposes*. This coming back to Starfleet not being allowed to be a proper military and the Federation, more for PR reasons, being needlessly adverse to treating the word "military" as anything less than a "swear word". I would not be surprised if the Luna was pushed HARD, by Starfleet, because other similar displacement-sized designs were throwbacks to the spread out, hard to defend hard to maneuver, "tall" ships of the past but would easily pass the Federation's approval boards. Despite citing the need for preparedness throughout the fleet, building ships that can fight effectively and win decisively, which makes having a peaceful stance overall MUCH easier, Starfleet has to "sell" new ship designs with the most PC terminology possible. This however goes to how the writers and producers look at Star Trek as a Whole. You have an advanced, ostensibly post-scarcity, spacefaring civilization and nation and you can not have a dedicated Science Corps with its own fleet? This foisting onto Starfleet more responsibilities and capabilities than any proper defensive military force should have and can use. Defense of Federation territory and her interests, maritime enforcement, search and rescue, projection of power needed for diplomacy, security, and stability of the union. Frankly, I am more than a little peeved the UNITED Federation of Planets has not fractured or lost members permanently because they feel Starfleet can NOT protect them and is often too far away to try even if they could. Stop demanding member worlds not have their own fleets is Starfleet is very frequently going to be out of position to properly defend them. *I see Starfleet using ships such as the Galaxy, Nebula, Sovereign, and Odyssey classes as command ships to coordinate large task forces for defensive, maritime enforcement and combat purpose. However, in peacetime, these -fleet- formations (I have been calling them "Sentinel" Formations in my head canon), can coordinate larger exploration and investigatory taskforces, especially in more dangerous and difficult regions. If one exploratory "Feeler" ship gets into trouble it is not days, months, or years away from the nearest assistance.

On a side-note, there is a series of books by James White that covers the issue of truly diverse aliens. That's the Sector General series about a deep space hospital. The first book - Hospital Station - was written in the early '60s with the final book, Double Contact, in the late '90s. They're really worth looking for.

WOW like Luna very much

Looking at the Luna's slim narrow design. It looks to be near tailor made for Slip-Stream Drive.

I hope Lower Decks will feature more of the Titan's non-human crew at some point. It looks like Tuvok is unfortunately not serving on the Titan in canon. However, I do hope that Counselor Sen’kara and Dr. Ree might make an appearance at some point.

I always thought of the Akira and Luna classes as sister ships. Same basic design cues, but specialized for their specific mission profiles. Would not surprise me if both ships missions pods are actually interchangeable with each other down the road.

Just wanted to say your content is awesome!

I still sit in the camp that exploratory ships should be well armed. Perhaps not battleship level, but they need enough shields and weapons to successfully defend themselves against hostile races they come across. Otherwise there is a much greater chance they won't make it home at all.

I like how u did this review. Very informative…. A+ from me

I really wish we'd had a Titan series with Captain Riker!

One thing that bothers me about the whole "tubes filled with water" thing: aquatic species presumably still breathe air, like dolphins; there's not enough oxygen dissolved in water to allow for advanced brains like a sapient species would require. So... how do these aquatic crew members actually breathe? I imagine they can hold their breath for quite a bit longer than the others, but still, just being stuck in pipes with no air around seems like it'd get unnerving.

Seems like an interesting ship. Thanks for pointing out to me.

I really enjoy this class. I even made a story around a new Cardassian Captain who took command or the NCC-80109 Collisto. A sister ship of the Titan.

Federation personnel have the right to explore AND make it home alive.

When entering the unknown, you always take as big and powerful of a weapon as you can with you. Dead fools are the ones who didn't because it violated their ethics.

This is the only Eaglemoss model I own currently and it was worth every penny. Love the Luna class!

tough little sciencey ship

I like that the design choices of Star Fleet are realistic. Yes, it's not a traditional military like the Romulans or the Klingons. Fighting is secondary to its main mission of exploration, discovery and diplomacy. At the same time, they're not going to design a ship for peace when they need to defend themselves, and you can see that in the wake of Wolf-359. It's why they made the Defiant. It's why they made the Sovereign class a warship first. Then as the Dominion were no longer a threat, and relations with the Romulans were normalized, Star Fleet tried to get back to its main mission, but the Gamma Quadrant was still hostile territory. The Luna class needed to be that weird hybrid of warship/explorer because of the situation. Totally practical.

So much diversity and representation!

The Odyssey class from STO is my favorite.

The Luna Class looks like a a combination of the USS Reliant and the Intrepid Class

Yay, more "Rick, here!" Honestly, its my favourite opener on youtube, short and to the point.

The difference between the NCC1701 and every other ship seen afterwards is the original Enterprise looked like a tall ship on screen. It might just have been the filming angles but it seems every other ship since as looked hunkered down.

In the books the CMO is a Dinosaur.

I typically really dislike downward swept nacelles on Starfleet ships, but I do quite like the Luna regardless.

The Luna class was my go-to science ship in STO...it seems it has not received a facelift yet?

I think I remember my Luna from STO- E’Montgomery. When I was playing as a science officer on Federation science vessels, I was naming them after actresses who played witches on film

Surprised Starfleet didn't just mass produce more of the Interpid class due to how well Voyager did.

Not just factors of life support, but that all of the furnishings and accessories need to be designed to endure those life support settings. One can't use leather in an aquatic environment nor wood in a chlorine-heavy one.

What beter ship for Riker than an ass kicking, sciense focused, piece of art

"it's another enterprise"- pakled officer

I am surprised you didn't also bring in the events of voyager into the explanation for the Luna class being heavily armored. Not that voyager brought the equipment but that a ship mostly designed for short range operations got stranded and spent 7 years far from starfleet support. After all if the galaxy is dangerous then you still saw the efforts to keep their ships up to par with the galaxy class being well armed and equipped by it's era's standards while it did diplomatic and scientific missions. No the Luna's extreme cutting edge combat equipment including the armored hull suggests that they didn't want any ship caught out like Voyager was.

200th comment, I can't get enough of starships.

These tunnels, could they be filled with dirt for Horta?

While i do Like the Luna it always struck me as a weird ship. It was specially designed for the Gamma Quadrant. Why? It's not like any other ship, like Intrepid or Galaxy would do worse because it's the Gamma Quadrant. It's not like it's a special area of space like the Expanse. Also, why do we need a new ship when the brand new Intrepid and Akira exist around this weight class? It is however still a cool ship despite some wonky Lore. Good Video Rick, Keep it up.

Ok while the Prometheus and the defiant (ds9 version) are my favorite ships in trek cannon this one would take a close third

Starfleet: Despite how it looks, the Luna Class is a science vessel Romulans: what’s with all the guns and shields? Starfleet: Today we’re going to learn how many torpedos we can shoot up your tailpipe!

What are you on about? The Luna class was canonised in _Nemesis_ when Riker is promoted and takes command of the Titan. I double checked Memory Alpha to make sure I wasn't hallucinating this.

I love the idea that the Xindi join the Fed. Especially if they're early adopters.

"putting it alongside the sovereign" 3:30, I think the fairer comparison is with the Intrepid class, since their warpfactors match exactly. 9.995 is quite a bit faster, going by the TNG scale definition on memory alpha.

THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON PICARD

IMHO the Luna combines the best design elements of the Miranda and the Akira classes. Looks sleek af. Had quite a few hours of fun with it in Star Trek Online. Gone with the name USS Ganymede to follow the naming convention.

This seems to be the modern equivalent of what the Constitution class was in TOS, the top "everything" ship that only needs its chief engineer/refitters to make it borderline magical.

The Luna Class, as well as the Intrepid Class, are the successful replacements for the Miranda Class.

Miranda is to constitution, nebula is to galaxy, the Luna is to sovereign a more utilitarian version of the flagship class

35.000 light years is over half way the distance Voyager had to travel 😳 At that time Star Fleet could easily have picked up Voyager - imagine that 🤔

first off: cool video. please do make more of these on the various ship classes. second: sorry to be so nitpicky, but I'm genuinely interested to know: where do you get your info from that the Luna-class was eventually upgraded with type 13 phasers? I've only ever heard of type 12s on the Sovvy and contemporary classes. is there a canon or licensed source for the type 13? thanks :)

I WANT ONE !!!!

Gee. I wish could play this game.

Seems like the Intrepid has it on speed and endurance. Which aside from it's armaments makes the Luna a bit redundant.

Beautiful ship. Although, I find it odd how the Titan-A isn’t a Lunar or Titan class.

I wish they made it look like an updated Nebula class with the warp nacelles further forward and underneath/protected by the saucer section. Now it looks like every other Starfleet starship out there with the nacelles far back held on by two spars that are either above or below the saucer section :/

it didn't have artificial hallway gravity that shifted as the crew moved around, but you got everything else right.

I like the Luna class but from the stats you give here it's mission seems to be significantly at odds with it's capabilities and capacity. Surely if you wanted a truly long range, long term exploration ship you'd essentially make a replacement for the Galaxy class? Something that can go nearly a decade without resupply? *Especially* if your intent was to go into the Gamma quadrant though the wormhole- which there is no guaranteed access to. You'd essentially want a ship with a cruising speed greater than Voyager ended up with, and one with *much* more endurance and many more facilities. Hell if you were going that far and *potentially* for that long it actually makes a ton of sense to bring back the idea of having crew onboard and perhaps having a purpose built warp capable detachable module for them to live in before you go somewhere even remotely dangerous, like a purpose built dedicated version of saucer separation that doesn't compromise the ship in any way. The Luna class as specified is basically a really good multi purpose medium endurance ship, someone said pocket-sovereign and I have to agree with them. It seems like a more multi-mission adapted cut down sovereign, where less of the in-built focus is on combat but strong all round capability remains in a smaller package. This is basically an 'a-tier' ship in a smaller more cost efficient package than the larger flagships, but you loose that truly long range endurance as a result and a little bit of the absolute top end capabilities + combat capacity

To quote a friend of mine, "Exporers go out to see strange new sights and meet strange new people, but they'd be fools not to take a shot gun with them, in case of bears." I am pretty sure a shot gun will piss off a bear more than it would fend them off, but his point stands.

How much more exploring can Starfleet do? Thea map of the alpha and beta quadrants show us that the Federation is hemmed in on all sides. Often by politcal rivals and others who wouldn't want the Starfleet crossing their territory. Even travelling through the Bajoran Wormhole takes them into unfriendly territory. It seems to me that scientific vessels tasked with mapping and examining stellar an interstellar phenomena in Federation space would be of more use.

When a Nebula Class and an Akira Class love each other very much.........

By the schematics the Luna looks like it would be to the sovereign class what the nebula and Miranda were to the galaxy and constitution class ships.

Cruising speed of warp 8?!?! Do we just not care about ripping holes in subspace anymore!?!