U.S.S. Gros Morne

Starfleet Command and the Federation Science Council formed a committee in 2363 to discuss the state of Starfleet’s aging science and exploration vessels. While the Galaxy class was considered a success, the amount of personnel and resources required to construct one of the massive exploration cruisers was significant. The end conclusion of the committee was that Starfleet required a new science and exploration vessel that was small, easy to maintain, but had the best sensor and scientific equipment possible in a small spaceframe. The Nova class is the result, only entering service in the past few years.

The designers at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards (UPFY) had been devising various next-generation designs for several years when work began on the Nova class. The science vessel was approximately the same size as the NX class from the 22 nd century and had a similar amount of crew, typically requiring around 80 crew, depending on the assignment. Like many ships designed around this time, the Nova class had an integrated secondary hull under its wedge-like primary saucer, capitalizing on both the most recent theories on warp field dynamics and the faster manufacturing that this simpler cross-section would allow. However, though many next-generation technologies were in their infancy at the time, the designers chose to make use of tried, tested, and established components instead, continuing to use an isolinear processing system for both its primary and secondary computer cores and forgoing the use of variable geometry warp drive. The reasoning behind this was that the newer systems were still too bulky for the small vessel and tended to make simulated Nova designs far too cramped for even a bare minimum of crew members. Designers at UPFY nevertheless improved upon these basic components by increasing the strength of the warp field around both computer cores, improving the processing speeds by nearly doubling the field strength around the FTL elements. The warp coils needed for the starship were small, and engineers were able to place gimbal and gyroscopic control elements around each of the individual coils, giving the Nova class an even greater ability to modify the geometry of its warp field than any other starship of its mass at the cost of maintaining a steep field gradient, i.e. a lower maximum speed. To save space, UPFY engineers compressed the impulse systems into a single unit along the vessels spine and only installed forward facing torpedo systems. The type 10 phaser strips were short, reducing weapon arcs but giving the vessel more interior volume that could be utilized by life support and sensor systems rather than EPS transfer systems and heat exchangers. The small crew size and the slow cruising speed of the Nova class mean that its primary assignments are planetary survey and short to mid-range exploration missions lasting no more than six months before crews rotate to larger vessels or facilities. Since the launch of U.S.S. Nova in 2368, three Nova-class vessels have been destroyed or are presumed destroyed including Borealis, Equinox, and Zodiac. While the reason for the loss of Equinox in early 2371 is not yet known, it is thought to be due to a failure of the anti-matter containment systems when attempting to enter warp while under heavy sublight acceleration. This failure occurred in the other two starships, both in 2371. UPFY engineers are currently studying these failures to determine if there are any serious flaws with the design itself; this may determine whether the Nova class has a future within Starfleet.