Probably why we don't see many Andorians in the shows - they likely prefer to be posted to colder climates, and the few who do serve alongside Humans or Vulcans probably have modified uniforms to cool their bodies.
If redundancy is essential for airplanes (every single system has a backup... or a backup plan in case of failure for the main one), imagine for space ships in the middle of nowhere? :D
Redundancy ?? something that is redundant is no longer needed what is no longer needed on a plane that is essential for them which goes against what redundant means ?.
I imagine actual functional spacecraft would borrow heavily from Submarine design and philosophy. Which is why I find Star Trek highly improbable. Simple, reliable, easy to fix systems with plenty of backup options. And QA checks for days.
@@kingzilla9859 all the back-up systems are "redundancies" because you already have the main, most powerful system. But, when the main one goes down, the redundancies are able to be used instead.
Not sure where 26°Celsius comes from. Canonical reference from the series seem to be 21 or 22 and 37% humidity. Per Memory-Alpha: 21 °Celsius was the temperature Humans preferred in order to operate most efficiently, according to Data's observations. (TNG: "Starship Mine") 21 °Celsius was also the cabin temperature in the shuttlecraft Justman just before Jo'Bril flew it into the star Vaytan. (TNG: "Suspicions") 22 °Celsius was the temperature Spock kept his crew quarters aboard the USS Enterprise set to. (DIS: "Brother") In the 2250s, aboard Constitution-class starships like the USS Enterprise, environmental details were displayed on the outside door controls to crew quarters. Spock's quarters were set to 14% CO2, 92% pressure, 22 °C. (DIS: "Brother") Typically, environmental controls for humidity were set to 37 percent in standard conditions on Federation starships. (TNG: "Brothers")
I live in the US where Fahrenheit is still used, and 26 C is 78.8 F, a warm comfortable, though I personally prefer 75 F which is 23.89 C. The other temps mentioned b Nick Michels 21 C is 69.8 F and 22 C is 71.6 F. All perfectly comfortable for me.
Backup systems are great. I was a Navy Submarine sailor and our systems were "We have 2 of everything and 3 of everything that counts." Keep up the channel. I work nights and your info keeps me up and alert all night long.
I mean when you're inside a pressurized tube that is counteracting pressures that'd otherwise implode the vessel... you sorta needs backups for the backups and redundancies for those backups. Just in case.
Not exactly life support specific, but I do recall reading a DS9 novel (Devil in the Sky) where a Horta was transported to the Bajor system to assist in reestablishing Bajor's mining industry, and the Starfleet transport had it's corridors filled with cement (or something similar) to accommodate it's digging instinct during the trip. It was actually a really fun story, and I'd recommend it to any Trek fan if you can find a copy.
I remember a TOS novel where Horta were used to hollow out an asteroid on a collision course with a planet so that phasers could easily break it up into harmless tiny pieces.
It's really a shame the Hortas don't get more canonical screen time. They've got such obvious roles to play in interstellar society, and would make a nice change from the endless "humanoids with stuff stuck to their heads" aliens of Trek. Be interesting to see how Starfleet would respond to a horta who wanted to join up - and they thought Worf and Data were a little out there? OTOH, maybe there are some Prime Directive-adjacent issues with them? They certainly weren't an independent star-faring species when first encountered, and they're probably owed reparations for all those smashed eggs, but the caretaker adult horta didn't seem at all put off by aliens from offplanet once they stopped killing her kids. No racial inferiority complex there - and did they even have the concept of "outer space" before talking to the Feds? They seem like they'd be pure subsurface dwellers originally.
The last few DS9 uniforms look really warm. 26° would be hell in them. I think 15-20° would be way more appropriate. But then if you grew accustomed to the warm starship conditions over the course of your life it might not be bad.
The only other species I could think of where the Chodak from Star Trek "A Final Unity". They where completely dependent on their exo-shells without them they would be unable to move in a standard 1G environment. But their dependency on those shells was completely their own fault. They evolved into frail, feeble husks over the course of eons, due to ever greater attempts of automation. They literally didn't have to lift a finger to get anything done.
The Medusan's from planet Visalayan were unable to personally interact with most species because of their non-corporeal form. It destroyed the minds of most corporeal beings. Therefore they needed to be seperated from the crew. Star Trek TOS episode - "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" details this.
I've always wanted the Medusans to make a comeback. They could travel around in modified drones...something like a Dalek. Their version of 'exterminate' would be to just open their faceplates. Or how about that one android-looking crewmember in Discovery? Turns out most of her body was basically a prosthetic. So, get one of those prosthetic bodies, but shove a non-corporeal Medusan into the 'driver's seat'.
@@lukasperuzovic1429 Can we count all the guest appearences of Mark Sheppard? And what about the fact that Tim Russ not only played Tuvok on Voyager but also a terrorist in that TNG episode where the Enterprise has to get some sort of cleanup.
In TNG episode Starship Mine, Data says: "I have found that humans prefer a body temperature of 21 degrees Celsius in order to operate most efficiently."
I was thinking that would be a more reasonable temperature than 26, and thought it was on an episode somewhere, thanks. I thought perhaps the night shift wouldn't mind it going down to between 16-18 degrees and wearing an extra layer, to make it a bit more realistic - over 20 degrees is rather hot for those trying to sleep.
considering that it probably takes heatinginstead of cooling to control air temp on a ship, the standard would probably be set quite cold to save energy?
One of my favorite lines from DS9: KIRA: "About those atmospheric specifications you requested for the Yalosian Ambassador? BASHIR: "Sixty percent nitrogen, ten percent benzene, and the rest hydrogen fluoride, as I recall" KIRA: "Well we ran a test in one of the guest quarters? The mixture is so corrosive it dissolved the carpet." BASHIR: "Don't look at me. It's what they breathe." In the DS9 episode "Apocalypse Rising", a klingon was bragging about ripping the breathing tubes off of a Benzenite captain. Only other instance I can think of. Beyond the Breen who seem to need entire body suits.
30% gaseous hydrogen fluoride by volume would be a problem, to put it mildly. The stuff forms hydrofluoric acid when it contacts H2O, making damage to the carpet the least of your worries in the even of a leak.
Beat me to it! From memory alpha: The Yalosians were a spacefaring civilization. They breathed a corrosive mixture of 60% nitrogen, 10% benzene, and 30% hydrogen fluoride. They also could not perceive the red-orange part of the Human color spectrum. Deep Space 9 hosted the Yalosian ambassador in 2371. Major Kira Nerys was in charge of preparing the quarters for the ambassador. Upon testing the mixture in an empty guest quarters, it was found to dissolve the carpet.
In the novels, the Breen were actually multiple species. They wore the suits to conform. So you didn't know who or what you were talking to, you were talking to a Breen. If you were a a Breen.
In alpha canon it was never explained why the Breen had those suits. Some theories suggest their world had a different climate so they wear environmental suits. And hey, the Klingons also sing operas about their crusade against the tribbles!
This reminds me of a conversation my math teacher and I had once. Me: I think Vulcan would be a fun place to visit. Math Teacher: It's too hot to visit. Me (Thinking I was clever): But it's mostly Desert, so it's a dry heat. Math Teacher: You know what else is dry heat? Fire. Keep up the good work sir!😁
But Vulcan also has a higher gravity than Earth - so it's not just a hot dry climate you would be a lot heavier too - that was not mentioned in the episode Amok Time but Kirk did seem to tire a lot faster than normal - or was that just due to the shot Dr McCoy gave him?
@@martinbennett8752 Watched it yesterday. The heat and gravity probably don't help, but McCoy makes a point of saying Kirk can't possibly win because of the thinner atmosphere when speaking to T'Pau and says he can give him a shot of tri-ox compound to offset the problem. He then shoots Kirk up with a neural paralyzer instead to simulate death, of course. Not sure high-gee and thin (as opposed to just low-oxygen-content) atmosphere go together well, but they were up in the mountains and I think pressure gradients become more severe as gravity increases, so maybe it makes sense. Or McCoy was just bullshitting and T'Pau chose not to call him on it, who knows? She certainly doesn't seem to have ever said anything about why Kirk was still alive later on in the franchise. Either she's pretty blase about dead folks coming back to life (I mean, Spock managed it just fine later on and didn't become a galactic messiah or anything) or maybe these "duels to the death" end up with the loser getting revived with modern medicine afterward rather more often than we're lead to believe.
@@martinbennett8752 I lost a lot of weight over the past few years. For some reason my body kind of "remembers" and I feel most comfortable with around 30-40 lbs on my back which happens to be about 20% of my present 170. So I'd probably be better suited to handling that gravity issue as well. lol
@@richmcgee434 IIRC, the duels were exceptionally rare and considered a bit archaic. But tradition is tradition, so while the letter of the law was enforced, the plausibly denied details could be diplomatically glossed over.
Someone has already mentioned the Horta. There was a story called, "The Romulan Way" which had a Horta Starfleet spy on Romulus digging tunnels for information and such to help the disguised human spy. The Horta eat rocks and secrete acid, so crewing a starship with them would be interesting.
2:10 "It's a bit of a cheat because the first two alternate" It is actually common practice for "backup systems" to be part of the production cycle. It is by far the easiest way to make sure that the backup remains in proper working order. Datacenters switch to their backup power on a regular schedule specifically to see if the whole thing works properly. If they switch over and the backup has a problem, they simply switch back to primary power and fix the backup. I guess the word you are looking for is "redundancy" rather than backup.
Deep Space 9 had a passing reference to the Yalosians needing very specific atmospheric conditions: a mixture of 60% nitrogen, 10% benzene and 30% hydrogen fluoride. It dissolved the carpets, and Bashir advised not replacing them with anything red or orange.
Speaking of wearing life-support, something I noticed while watching a Gundam show was that people would normally move about space ships with just normal uniforms or civilian clothes, but as soon as she ship entered combat everyone put on space suits. This makes perfect sense if you think about it because that way the crew can survive depressurization from hull breaches and even have a shot at being rescued if they get sucked into space. It really made me wonder why other sci-fi settings don't do this. At the very least, wearing IVA suits should be standard procedure for crews of military vessels.
According to the Star Trek RPG, the Benzite used genetic modifications. Since it wasn't allowed, it was mostly a hush-hush subject and the Federation basically took a "Don't Look for It Won't See It" attitude towards it. But that's Beta canon.
@@HappyBeezerStudios That was a LOT of times. Starfleet and the Federation did a lot of "let's not rock the boat" diplomacy. Just look at the Federation and Cardassian give-and-take negotiations.
It seems silly they ignore the artificial gravity plating so often, got an intruder? Pin them to the floor with 30g and they aren't going to cause any trouble
James White's Sector General series is really interesting when it comes to dealing with other species in it's vast hospital in space. They're well worth a read.
Although he had rather a different read on the reaction of a chlorine-breather like the PVSJ Illensans to an oxygen-rich atmosphere. That poor doctor...
Agreed, the whole Sector General series is almost a must-read for any Trek fan, if nothing else for the rather utopian galactic civilization its set in - although the wide array of alien species (often first encountered as medical puzzles to solve) is neat too. Really all of James White's work is worth the read. I'd also recommend C.J. Cherryh's Chanur novels, which feature an interstellar Compact with a variety of humanoid but quite (culturally) inhuman alien species and a similar collection of very poorly-understood methane-breather races entangled in some convoluted political shenanigans. Good stuff.
Y'know, thinking about it further, are we 100% sure there aren't Tholians working at Sector General? I don't think we ever find out exactly what the STLU species inside those superheated pressurized crawler-suits are, just that everybody yields the right of way to them in the corridors. :)
In the episode of the OST Amok Time, Kirk needed a specialized injection to be able to fight Spock in the oxygen-thin atmosphere of Vulcan. It would probably be too oxygen-rich to be comfortable for Vulcans on federation ships.
Not so. It’s a question of adaptation. If you go from sea level to 10,000 feet, you can breathe, but you may need a month or more to adjust to the thinner air and be able to do things like run or carry weight for a distance. Same deal in reverse. Kirk wasn’t used to the thinner air. Spock may have been likewise impacted, but he was native to Vulcan and Vulcans are naturally stronger than humans...so he’d still have a significant advantage.
@@qdllc It's all based on the partial pressure of gases. On Earth our lungs have adapted to 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, and about 1% argon(which is inert). The pressure at sea level is about 14.7 psi which we call 1 atmosphere of pressure. Even at 29,000 feet, the height of Mt Everest, the oxygen content remains at 21%, BUT the partial pressure is far lower than at sea level. Our lungs and hemoglobin have a hard time absorbing enough oxygen at that altitude, to compensate we have to go to 100% oxygen. Our body in a limited way can temporarily compensate by producing more red blood cells, but this takes time. It can also go the other way, very deep divers can use a gas mix that might have as little as 5% oxygen, but at that depth it is equivalent in partial pressure to 21% at the surface. So wherever we humans go, we will adjust the partial pressure to 1 Earth atmosphere.
kinda like the story called Kevin Jenkins Experience, Earth is a "death" world in comparison to other worlds. deathworlders.com/books/deathworlders/chapter-00-kevin-jenkins-experience/
@@shinyagumon7015 earth is a death world/space australia and humans are space orcs is 1 of my favorite themes. Imo by the time we get to a trek like future the only thing that can kill us is our own dumbass-ness hence all the redundancies
Jonas Sandman well just forget being on a borg ship...... 29% humidity, 39.1 degrees Celsius lol i would just die! The borg must like tropical environments wonder if they ever assimilate holiday resorts lol 😂
Man, you'd hate it on Cardassia, since according to Garak, the standard Environmental conditions aboard DS-9 and most Starfleet vessels are uncomfortably cold and bright for Cardassians
26°? Geez, that's toasty. My house runs at 21° year-round. Couldn't imagine working in that environment, especially in long sleeves. My office work is done in short sleeves, 20° on the thermostat.
I remember that there was an episode of DS9 where Kira complained to Sisko about some ambassadors atmospheric requirements and that it ate the carpets - sorta.
I never understood why they didn't have portable oxygen generators stationed around the ship so if the main and backup and the emergency system failed, you could run the oxygen generators for a time. I remember an old Interplay TOS game had a Save a Ship machine that looked like a real life power generator, but instead of power, it made Oxygen.
I just thought of a topic you could do: space suits. For so many space fairing races in Star Trek doing work in space, it would require the need to go out into the airless vacuum of space and that requires wearing a space suit.
One thing they don't really seem to understand in TNG at least is that life support failing doesn't mean everybody instantly dies, the ship is so effing huge that its got months of air in the volume of the ship. yes co2 and grav plating, plus battle damage are all problems but still they should be fine for it failing for a while
If I'd have the choice, I'd turn off the gravity plating in my auarters when ever I can. Seems fun to float around, drink bubbles from the air and sleep on the ceiling.
One thing I asked myself: When a shop gets boarded, why don't they turn off the gravity plates? Or switch aroutnthe pull of the gravity. Maybe it wouldn't be a surprise for the boarding party over a long time. It could help to defend the ship. Turning off the lights could be a surprise, too.
Less fun would be the visits to Dr Crusher/Pul;aski and the freequent need to thegym, lest your muscles and bone structure deteriorated in micrograv...
As stated by Vulp, extended periods in lower gravity cause muscular atrophy, and also weakens the immune system (unless you're in Eclipse Phase). The gravity on those ships is a massive bonus that should never be forgotten.
Speaking of life support systems, I suggest you make a video about environmental suits, space suits, anti-contamination suits, and other personal life support technology used by Starfleet. Since you've done videos about other types of Starfleet personal equipment, it would be a logical next step.
There is a reason most manned space capsules got 3 redundant computers. If miscalculations happen due to random space radiation knocking bits around, it would usually happen in one of them, and the pair with the same, correct, result can overrule it.
I just thought of something...If the gravity plating is part of the life support. Why no one ever thought of adjusting it to increase gravity for a section of ship to restrain enemy boarding parties? Shields is good and all but an enemy that can still move is an enemy that can get free.
This reminds me about an idea I meant to mention: how about a video on one-off and/ or the unseen aliens in Trek? Like the Medusans (an ally you can’t look at is an interesting plot point), or that one from DS9 with the wings and other weird attributes that you had to imagine. Basically, how about a video about Maris Crane and Bob Sacamano? 😏
Always been surprised the Medusans never re-appeared, even in TOS. Maybe especially in TOS. They've got to be one of the most production budget-friendly aliens ever conceived.
@@NoJusticeNoPeace in one fo the TNG novels, there was an entire starship converted over for a full Horta crew. basically all the normal decks and such were removed and replaced with replicated rock.
Well, the long term natural recycling processes of nature here on earth means that everything you eat, was probably, at one point in time, shit. Could have been a few years, could have been millions. Everything is recycled eventually.
By any standard you care to use, shit that has been deconstructed into raw energy in the recycler to be turned into a meal from raw energy in the replicator is _less shit_ than anything you've ever eaten on Earth. What you're doing _now_ is eating shit by comparison.
Given the typical volume shown for Starfleet ships, just making sure the air you've got doesn't leak out gives you a few days worth of breathable air, if all your recycling equipment stops working.
while not strictly on topic i think the voyager episodes demon are a interesting point about hospitable environments, and those episodes almost deserve a topic of their own, because the voyager crew and ship get cloned by materials made up from a inhospitable planet and begin carrying out lives as if they were the real counterparts, but, from the moment they leave the planet they begin to suffer issues from no longer residing within their own atmosphere, they even try to artificially emulate the demon class planets atmosphere but ultimately it was too little too later.
Another insightful video for us Star Trek fans, You never disappoint your topics are interesting. I appreciate your hard work that goes into delivering a wonderful video. THANKS
Tholians wear spacesuits. Go to New Romulus in STO sometime. They're adorable. Also, in the Enterprise pilot (Broken Bow) there's a kid from some species who has to get used to an M-class atmosphere by having his respirator removed by his mother. I think you pretty much covered it. The only thing I can think of is that those fish people in one of the Lwaxana episodes seemed to breathe air just fine.
Lieutenant Commander Aili Lavena from the USS Titan (Beta Canon). A Selkie from he planet Pacifica. She wore a water containment suit that allowed her to work outside of water. Her quarters were completely aquatic; filled with water from her home planet.
Given that in STO you can have Tholian Duty Officers, most likely an in-canon explanation would be that they spend all their time outside quarters in their environment suits, or they stay in rooms with class Y environments and work remotely. Tholian consoles could be installed in their quarters that would allow them to interface with the ships systems as if they were at a normal duty station.
@@BradFoust1826 You are not the norm. Most people would become a heat casualty doing that not to mention need to drink water far too often to get work done. Room temperature is 72 and most offices are kept in the 60's. You can always put on more clothes in a professional environment. Can't always take layers off.
@@QarthCEO most places in the world where the temperature is hotter, i.e Africa, middle east etc, people find 26 quite comfortable. I worked out in Dubai for 6 months and eventually got used to the soaring temperatures, I actually felt cold when I came back to the UK during August. I had the opposite when I worked in the french alps for the winter, I came back to the UK in May and felt like I was in an oven.
@@QarthCEO Heat casualty at 26^C? Where do you live? In Alaska? If you had said 36^C, that would be quite plausible to have people suffer direly from the heat.
Honestly the Elysians never made much sense. How could a planet that low in gravity even have an atmosphere? The moon isn't even that low in gravity and it has no atmosphere. Mars is almost Earth normal in gravity and even it didn't have enough gravity to keep most of its atmosphere! It would make more sense if the Elysians had evolved to live on pre-warp spacecraft, or even warp-one spacecraft that didn't have gravity plating.
Great point however it is not the gravity of Mars and our moon that fails to hold an atmosphere, rather it is Earth's magnetosphere protecting our atmosphere from being "blown away" by solar radiation. Mars and Luna both lack any form of magnetosphere, so what ever gaseous elements float about their surface tends to interact with solar wind and ejected into space. Further, Mars does have an atmosphere that used to be as dense as ours.
@Alien of Sol 3 Elysians planet probably has a far strong magnetic field than most other planets an may their atmosphere composition also enhance this effect,
the novel continuity has her people be from a world that was artificial, built eons ago. which was basically a network of forcefields and generators around a world made of crystals. memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Gemworld
Moon does actually have an atmosphere. Just stupidly stupidly weak one. Its so weak that any landing damage it(while also creating it), even flying probes particulary close can damage it. Most space bodies have some atmosphere.
It's a bit more complicated, surface gravity depends not only on the mass of a planet, but also it's size and rotation speed. If their planet is big and rotates fast, they are further away from the center of mass and centrifugal forces would be able to reduce felt surface gravity.
According to STO's species description in the Character Creator, Benzites are known to use genetic engineering to operate in more common humanoid environments.
I can't remember the name but I read a star trek novel with one of the benezite's that met Wesley crusher underwent gene therapy to adapt him to oxygen, although it only worked on 1 out of every 6 of their species
Now see, that's how retcons should work - oh we made an error.. .but see what if you say that some Benzites has recently found a way to undergo genetherapy to adapt them to life outside their homeworld much better.... cuz reasons.
One of my biggest pet peeves on Trek (and the occasional other sci-fi) is when they're in a dire need emergency and they reroute power from life support. In the grand scheme of the ship's power systems, you know, the ones that bend the laws of physics to travel several thousand times the speed of light, the life support systems would be a rounding error.
The benzite question was answered in STO, apparently they have a voluntary genetic modification process that allows them to breathe M class atmosphere indefinitely
Diane Duane gave us Ensign Naraht of the USS Enterprise - not surprisingly, he was in the planetary geology team, as he could eat a sample of a given planet's surface and give an assessment better than some tricorders (although usually peppered with comments about the flavor - he got terrible heartburn-equivalent the time he had to eat through a duranium door).
@@DeaconBlues117 Yup...and more germaine to the discussion, he had a teflon coating designed by Dr. McCoy, otherwise he'd burn up from excessive exposure to a high-oxygen atmosphere like that on a Federation starship.
Despite all the redundancies, Seven of Nine began to suffocate in a massive cargo bay within an entire ship full of air two seconds after turning off life support.
environmental conditions are also customizable to the rooms which people stay... their "quarters" if you will. you can adjust the conditions so that they are more suited to your taste.
I'd love to see a video talking about the various accessibility devices we see in Trek! Either for aliens from different environments (like the Barzan, Benzites and Elaysians) or for disabled humans (like Geordi La Forge and Dr Emory Erickson, or even just that background extra in the wheelchair in Discovery). A deep dive into every single example of disability/accessibility devices would be awesome! Keep up the good work!
The Dark Mirror book is amazingly well written and has a Dolphin crewmember on the D. Sadly some of its science isnt cannon any more but who knows it might be again :)
Well, there's the Breen, who I seem to recall need a supercooled environment, but they aren't Federation...and might also not be a single species. A little hard to tell with all-encompassing environmental suits being basically all that we know about them.
I believe it was in Peter David’s New Frontier series of books that they introduced an intelligent Mugato as a crew member. From what I recall reading,(reminded me a lot of Beast from X-men), he liked to hang upside down like a bat when sleeping and even covered with that thick coat of hair, preferred a tropical, humid environment for his quarters.
26 degrees Celcius is pretty warm for a climate-controlled environment even for humans. I usually keep the thermostats in my house and cars at between 19-21 degrees Celcius
"Alpha quadrent tech has too many redundancies backups for your backups and even then emergency power always fails anyway" -Hazari describing a holo emitter in Star trek online.
I live in northern germany and kinda enjoy it when the temperature is about 25°C - winter is my season of pain. My computer doesn't like it as much, though...
Room temperature's more like 19 or 20 where I'm from. :) (It's more like 31 or 32 in this non-climate controlled shop where I am now, though. A little under 90 in old money. :) )
If I remember correctly, the Benzites (and I believe this was cited on show) went with a Gene Therapy that allowed their respiratory systems to be more capable of operating in both atmospheres.
That would probably okay with Federation standards. That is something that could be done in the near future, not for breathing different athmospheres, but for diabetes and similar factors.
I think for the chest-mounted benzite breather-inator, it might not have dispensed air unless they wanted it too. Some kind of skin-sensitive value maybe?
Judging by the way the Benzite’s original respirator was attached to the neck from the side, it seems more like a direct line to the throat and lungs rather than a force field. Could definitely give a better explanation as to why the next generation wouldn’t even be visible.
This does show the extreme logistical difficulties of using crews of different species. We on earth would struggle to field naval ships with crews from different nations where the mere accents would be a hindrance and say nothing of the different dietary standards. One way or another, someone is getting food they never liked.
04.05 whilst they may scrub some of the carbon dioxide, I don’t think they would replace it with oxygen. I think it would be the oxygen/nitrogen/inert gases mix.