Detailed Exterior Tour, page 1 :: Ship USS Voyager :: over 15 pages of text, diagrams + screenshots :: Janet's Star Trek Voyager Site - Star Trek Voyager, over 30,000 screenshots in episode transcripts and guides

SHIP'S TOUR: DETAILED EXTERIOR TOUR

CONSTRUCTION AND MAIN SPECIFICATION

The starship U.S.S. Voyager was built at Starfleet's Utopia Planitia shipyards (the screenshot, from [#118 Relativity], shows the starship in its final stages of construction there), and was the third in the Intrepid-class to be constructed. Voyager's warp core installation took place on Stardate 47834.6, fast-tracked to follow Intrepid (as per convention the first starship in its class gives its name to the class; the several USS Enterprise starships being an exception) and Bellerophon by only three months. With assembly and internal systems checks completed, the official launching ceremony of the USS Voyager, registry number NCC-74656, occurred at Earth Station McKinley on stardate 48038.5 (i.e. 14th January, 2371) at 1222 hours GMT. (Source ST:M. I note also that in [#33 Dreadnought] Janeway mentions that Voyager was not in service as at stardate 47582.) A 15-day series of impulse tests, which verified the integrity of the vessel and systems operation at sub-light velocities, culminated in Voyager accelerating to Warp 1.03 with the USS Hauck flying formation for engineering support and emergency backup. Three weeks of warp flight tests added to the Intrepid class knowledge base and ensured that Voyager's computer cores and bio-neural gel packs could receive operational programming loads for deployment in the Alpha Quadrant. USS Voyager, under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway, received her first patrol assignment on stardate 48183.5. All inflight systems data continued to be transmitted to Stafleet Command for evaluation, along a range of velocities from inertial stop to Warp 9.986 and for distances up to 45 light years, with subspace com relays handling the encrypted telemetry loop. Subsequent operational missions validated upgrades from previous Starfleet vessels. Voyager would provide only a few months of usable data before its disappearance in the Delta Quadrant.

USS Voyager weighs 700,000 tons (mentioned in [#5 Phage]) (presumably metric tonnes as metric tonnes were specified in the episode a bit earlier with reference to an amount of dilithium - this is confirmed by source SS). Voyager is 1,130 feet long (344.42400000000003 metres).

Lt Stadi to Tom Paris in [#1 and #2 Caretaker]: "Intrepid class. Sustainable cruise velocity of warp factor 9.975. 15 decks. Crew complement of 141. Bio-neural circuitry....The gel packs on Voyager contain bioneural cells that organise information more efficiently and speed up response time."

Warp 9.9 is about 4 billion miles per second [The 37's]. As regards crew complement, the past Janeway in [#157 Shattered] says she began her mission into the Badlands with a crew of 153. She does not state if her tally included Tom Paris who was aboard officially as an observer. Presumably she excludes the EMH as no one has yet begun to see him as a person.

Voyager is one of the faster Starfleet vessels. Even the USS Prometheus NX-59650 of 2374 [#82 Message in a Bottle], which EMH Mark 2 informs the Doctor was designed to be the fastest ship in Starfleet, could travel only at warp 9.9, fractionally slower.

Voyager is driven by a variable geometry warp drive system, introduced soon after 2370 in the new Intrepid class of starship. This creates significantly reduced stress on the time-space continuum, reducing the possibility of long-term cumulative damage to subspace. This therefore satisfies Starfleet General Order 32 on the matter (discussed below).

MORE ABOUT HOW THE WARP FACTOR SPEED LIMIT CAME TO BE IMPOSED
Scroll textbox to read.

The following is depicted in [TNG: Force of Nature].  The Hekaras Corridor is a region of space, approximately 12 light-years long, near the Hekaran system in the Alpha Quadrant that was commonly used for interstellar travel. Much of the surrounding areas are saturated with unusully intense tetryon fields, so the Hekaras Corridor provided the only means of safe passage for starships. In 2366, two Hekaran scientists, Serova and Rabal, submitted a preliminary report to the Federation Science Council, theorising that the Hekaras Corridor was stressed by warp fields and would soon develop a rupture and furthermore that, if warp drive usage continued at its present rate, the ruptures would spread throughout inhabited space. At the time, the Federation Science Council found their theories lacking sufficient proof. In 2370, Rabal and Serova booby-trapped the corridor with verteron mines in order to gain Starfleet's attention. When USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D was disabled by one of these mines its captain, Jean-Luc Picard, listened to Serova's theory and found it to be worthy of resubmission to the Federation Science Council. Unsatisfied with his response, Serova caused a warp core breach aboard her ship, causing a subspace rupture in the corridor, just as she had predicted. Thereafter the Federation Science Council ordered the corridor limited to essential travel only, in order to slow any further damage to the region and imposed on all Federation ships throughout the galaxy a maximum speed of warp 4.7. USS Enterprise-D and other ships observed the warp speed limit for the remainder of the series [Star Trek: The Next Generation]. Thereafter the development of environmentally friendly variable nacelle geometry, as first seen in the Intrepid-class to which USS Voyager belongs, meant that presumably the warp speed was able to be lifted, as USS Voyager and other Federation and Starfleet vessels have not observed the speed limit.

SPECIFICATIONS (year 2370)
Sources: SS and Communicator (June 2005 issue). Discrepancies are noted. I compiled the specifications originally from SS, with some reference to Encyclopaedia.
I suggest that the discrepancies can be explained by accepting that USS Voyager's special mission to the Badlands (known as a difficult area of space) required that the normal Intrepid-class specification be varied.

Dimensions Overall length: 344.5 meters (1,130.2 feet)
Overall Height: 64.4 meters (211.3 feet)
Overall Beam: 132.1 meters (433.4 feet)
Overall Draft: 64.4 meters

Displacement 700,000 metric tons

Crew Complement 150 persons

Velocity Cruising: Warp Factor 6
Maximum: Warp Factor 9.975

Acceleration Rest-Onset Critical Momentum: 4.08 sec
Onset Critical Momentum-Warp Engage: 0.59 sec
Warp 1-Warp 4: 1.08 sec
Warp 4-Warp 6: 2.91 sec
Warp 6-Warp 9.975: 5.65 sec

Duration Standard Mission: 6 years
Recommended Yard Overhaul: 24 years

Propulsion Systems Warp: (2) LF-45 Advanced Linear Warp Drive Units
Impulse: (2) FIG-4 Subatomic Unified Energy Impulse Units

Primary Computer System M-16 Bio-neural Gelpack Isolinear III Processor

Primary Navigation System RAV/ISHAK Mod 3 Warp Celestial Guidance

Weapons 11 Type X Collimated Phaser Arrays
4 Mk 95 Direct-Fire Photon Torpedo Tubes (2 forward launchers, 2 aft launchers)
Communicator says that Voyager has "main ship Type X phasers" and 13 emitter arrays.

Deflector Systems FSQ Primary Force Field and Deflector Control System

Transporter Systems
2 personnel transporters
2 cargo transporters
1 emergency evacuation transporter (one-way)

Holodecks 2

Bio-neural gel pack network

Embarked Craft (typical) 2 Workpods
4 Shuttlecraft (various classes)
2 Shuttlepods (various classes)
1 Aeroshuttle Atmospheric Craft
Communicator says there are "2 shuttlecraft (various classes)" and "4 shuttlepods (various classes)".
USS Voyager only:
from 2371 [#1 and #2 Caretaker]: Neelix's spacecraft called Baxial
from 2372 [#31 Threshold]: Type-12 shuttlecraft being an upgraded Type-9; the prototype called Cochrane was destroyed in 2375 [#71 Day Of Honor]
from 2375 [#97 Extreme Risk]: 1 shuttlecraft combining Starfleet and Borg technology called the Delta Flyer, rebuilt and slightly modified in 2377

Since launch, USS Voyager's specification has beeen modified at various times e.g. involving use of Seven's knowledge of Borg technology, and the installation of special anti-Borg armour in [#171 and #172 Endgame].

Standard to Starfleet space vehicles of this era are a duranium hull and artificial gravity plating and, internally, an electroplasma-based power distribution network controlled by the LCARS computer system. Episode sources include [#96 Drone] and [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero].

Although it is not mentioned in the episodes, I surmise that the emergency evacuation transporter is what is used by Voyager on several occasions e.g.

[#11 State Of Flux] to beam back the numerous away teams when Kazon ships are detected
[#10 Prime Factors] when Janeway ascertains Sikarian hospitality to be suddenly terminated
[#160 Prophecy] to beam 204 Klingons to Voyager.
[#162 and #163 Workforce] to beam back all the crew from Quarra, except for a few individuals already on Voyager

PICTURES OF VOYAGER: FORE, AFT, VENTRAL

[#140 Good Shepherd]
[Bride of Chaotica!]	[#106 Bride of Chaotica!]
[#106 Bride of Chaotica!], [#131 Fair Haven]

The flat section at the rear is the underside of the shuttlebay.
[#23 Parturition]

Over 50 screenshots of Voyager's exterior

VARIABLE GEOMETRY WARP NACELLES

Nacelles raised ready to go into warp.
[#71 Day Of Honor]

USS Voyager jumps to warp
(pop-up window)
stock footage e.g. [#103 Counterpoint]

In [Force of Nature] in Star Trek: The Next Generation

, General Order 32 was imposed Federation-wide by the Federation Council in 2370, following the formation of a subspace rift within the Hekaras Corridor. The General Order restricted vessels to a maximum speed of warp 5. The Intrepid class of ship entered service soon afterwards. Voyager, an Intrepid class ship, is driven by a variable geometry warp drive system. This creates significantly reduced stress on the time-space continuum, reducing the possibility of long-term cumulative damage to subspace. At sub-light speeds, the ship's nacelles lie in a flat position, but they fold up into the traditional high position when going to warp and while at warp - this ensures the warp fields generated will not damage the fabric of space.

Voyager was the first Federation starship on 'Star Trek' to feature variable geometry warp engines. When the raising of the nacelles is shown on tv, it is a computer-generated image.

The Star Trek Voyager Technical Guide V1.0 (intended as guidelines for writers, which has the subtitle "Yes, but which button do I push to fire the phasers?") states: "Because Voyager employs a new folding wing-and-nacelle configuration, warp fields may no longer have a negative impact on habitable worlds, as established in TNG." This statement, along with support from other canon publications e.g. ST:M and TOSTFF, is the only indication that the folding nacelles prevent damage to subspace, the damage caused by ordinary warp flight having been demonstrated in [TNG: Force of Nature]; it was never mentioned on the tv screen. Of course, for tv viewers who have not seen [TNG: Force of Nature] nor read the canon publications, the reason for moving warp nacelles must seem to be a mystery.
There are two possible problems as regards the practicality of the warp nacelles:
In theory, the efficiency of the warp field could be increased if the nacelles are folded up futher as warp speed rises, but this is not actually the case as portrayed on tv - once folded up to a certain position, the nacelles stay fixed in that position regardless of the warp speed at any given time. The real reason, of course, is that it would be horrendously expensive and a continuity headache for the show's production staff to realise the theory on screen.

As the moon pans left, creating eclipse and flare, Voyager is revealed flying out of the light. Voyager passes a planet and heads toward a distant nebula. The ship's nacelles fold and Voyager jumps to warp speed.
(pop-up window)
[opening credits]

As the warp drive is offline at impulse speeds, one wonders why the warp nacelles are folded up at all every time the ship goes to warp, as it would seem practical to have them permanently fixed in the folded position. The real reason is that Rick Berman, executive producer, ordered that the new ship should have something that moved - see Behind-the-Scenes: Designing USS Voyager: interior and exterior - and for dramatic reasons the Star Trek writers had already occasionally broken the warp 5 speed limit imposed throughout the Federation at the end of [TNG: Force of Nature] but the show's staff did not feel it was the ideal way to create storyline flexibility. Hence creating the moving warp nacelles on Voyager implied that these new nacelles solved the problem of damaging subspace, hence the abolition of the warp 5 speed limit from the very start of [Star Trek: Voyager].

USS Voyager immediately before going to warp. [#147 Unimatrix Zero, Part Two]

USS Voyager jumping to warp. [#114 Think Tank]

Voyager fires a spread of photon torpedoes aft while at warp speed.
(pop-up window)

Each warp nacelle features a photon radiator grille - these are spill ports to prevent excessive photonic build-up in the field release gap between the warp engine's warp-coils.

Diagram of a warp nacelle's internal layout (pop-up window) Within each warp nacelle the warp coils are arranged as an upper and lower series. The warp coils utilise the high-energy plasma generated by the matter-antimatter reaction assembly to generate the asymmetrical subspace field which makes faster-than-light (FTL) speed possible. A row of subspace field sensors monitor the subspace field geometry and provide realtime feedback to the warp drive systems control computers. At the front end of each warp nacelle is a Bussard collector also known as a Bussard ramscoop.

Source: STMech
click above image to enlarge
Source: STMech

Nacelle detail
Source: STMech
Nacelle detail, including Bussard collector and
part of the photon radiator grille
Source: STMech

Detail showing nacelle hinge
Source: STMech
Detail showing part of the
nacelle and its hinge
Source: STMech

Until May 2002 it could be assumed that USS Voyager has an emergency separation system (ESS) in the event that a catastrophic failure occurs in the plasma injection system (PIS), or if a nacelle is so damaged in combat or other circumstance such that it cannot be safely retained on its support. For on the Galaxy-class starships introduced earlier, ten explosive structural latches can be fired, driving the nacelle up and away at 30 m/sec. However, in May 2002 via ST:M a Starfleet document available under Starfleet Intelligence Regulation INTEC-34-5G (see SHIP USS VOYAGER: Intrepid-class Design Lineage), it became known that saucer separation was a feature not required for Intrepid-class starships.

Next page: BRIDGE MODULE. VOYAGER'S "SPINE" AFT OF THE BRIDGE.

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Nacelle detail Source: STMech	Nacelle detail, including Bussard collector and part of the photon radiator grille Source: STMech
Detail showing nacelle hinge Source: STMech	Detail showing part of the nacelle and its hinge Source: STMech