USS Orbiprise
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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Captain: Red alert, it’s the Borg
Borg: Red alert, it’s the Orb
Close, but it was actually the Wasp class that was ideal.
Spaceships are not boats! The engine is not at the back, the engine is at the bottom!
Tag yourself. I'm "large, rolling rock"
Is that an extra nacelle or are you just happy to see me?
Get on my level, heretics.
Peak performance does not include a deflector dish?
This is peak ship form:
Also the one on the far left fits up your bum easier.
No flared base though, might get stuck up there.
To boldly go where 2 dudes went last weekend.
Boldly going to your mom
Yes, I see.....
Edit: Did your mom tell you it's peak performance?
It me
Set phasers to cum.
Not just for the ladies either 😏
I realize it would have been nearly impossible for the model makers to do it, but I think that model could have been even better with a rotation to the "saucer" area- for free gravity inside.
That ship is in shape!
(Round is a shape.)
Ship shape!
I appreciate the joke, but, er, no.
This has me thinking: if ships like this are only ever in the void of space (so never needing to land on a planet or interact with any aspect of it), would there be any point to designing an aerodynamic ship like this vs a huge cube?
Like sure having a more streamlined ship could make navigating asteroid belts or whatever easier vs a huge box, but like, does it matter for the force required to make it accelerate and decelerate?
(I just woke up so this might be an obvious answer)
A sphere is the ideal shape to distribute the force of the atmosphere inside the ship on the hull. A cube would not distribute the forces evenly and would need to be re-enforced in places.
There are the considerations with exterior aesthetics, but it's also about being able to maximize interior space and meet design criteria. A change in doctrine after Wolf 359 was to leave as small of a target profile/silhouette as possible, do ships started becoming more streamlined. This also lead to ships being able to travel faster because that lead to creating a more efficient warp bubble around the ships.
Out of universe, Roddenberry said the nacelles need to see each other, operated in pairs, and the bussard collectors (glowy red parts in front) need to have unobstructed view so they could collect materials from space.
I am not sure about how this phenomenon works in context of the warp drive where space-time itself is warped around the ship, but in universes with more conventional FTL mechanics where objects are contradictory to special relativity just accelerated to speeds beyond the speed of light, yes, aerodynamics do actually kinda come into play again.
Space isn't really a vacuum, it just is empty enough ao that we can mostly treat it like one. But space still contains a lot of particles, dust or debris for example, that with higher speeds, there is something very similar to an air reaistance, drag and all that.
However, there may be other factors that can be more important for a space craft design. If you are into absolutely overthinkinh such things, I can recommend Isaac Arthur on Youtube.
The deflectors primary purpose is to push dust and junk away from the hull and to some extent into the brussards and you can make that basically any shape and size for that matter.
According to the technical manual, the Enterprise-D looked aerodynamic because it made the warp field more efficient.
But yeah, as others have said, the rule of cool always applies.
Not if it never encounters an atmosphere, but many sci-fi ships are supposedly capable of planetary landings.
Don't forget frequent dips in Nebulae.
The honest answer: Aerodynamic ships look cooler
I think the Pasteur is a beautiful ship.
It's the ideal form!
I thought peak performance looked like a police box…
Not aerodynamic enough for space travel
Does warp speed require an aerodynamic hull?
Probably not. There have been a few times where someone has been outside the hull but inside the warp field and they didn't get blown off.
That would be a weird place to receive oral sex.
yes
The Borg got it right. Right angles are easier to build, and expand on. There's no need for aerodynamics in space.
Really, though, the most likely outcome is something like this:
They just use more power.
Borg cubes also technically utilize a different warp technology than Starfleet vessels. Not to say the Starfleet warp tech requires an aerodynamic hull.
According to the TNG tech manual, the smooth curves of the ship makes it easier to maintain a warp field in a shape that uses less power while traveling at warp. So, not aerodynamic, but voidynamic, or something.
Bubbledynamic?
Subspacodynamic?
Iirc borg have transwarp as well as backup warp capability. And as to “how it works”: I was under the impression that, regardless of the type of warp reactor (federation dilithium/antimatter, Romulan microsingularity, whatever the borg use, etc) the main important output is a shitload of energy, and the thing generating the energy is largely irrelevant - all that matters is that an Alcubierre effect is generated, and serves as superluminal motive force.
Plus little sheet metal feet that flip down, like a lawn chair
Not an aerodynamic hull, per se. Just a hull that allowed for an efficient warp bubble to be created and maintained.