# Star Trek: Why not use a giant replicator to create Starships? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 6, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030 "2012-05-06T00:00:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/41 "2012-05-07T06:41:48Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > I believe that Roddenberry was a US Army Air Corps pilot who flew in WW2 and decorated with a DFC. He may not have been aware of the Navy traditions. However, I think he was thinking more along the lines of a futuristic Coast Guard more than a Navy. The earlier TOS episodes were a lot more navy-like than the later ones. TNG, not at all. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/42 "2012-05-07T06:43:10Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Ah, but notice the specificity necessary: “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” needs to be ordered with a British accent. 17 years ago the vending machines in a factory in the Netherlands accepted payment cards that allowed you to pre-program how you liked your coffee. Why Picard can’t say “Tea, the usual” is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/43 "2012-05-07T07:31:24Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > 17 years ago the vending machines in a factory in the Netherlands accepted payment cards that allowed you to pre-program how you liked your coffee. Why Picard can’t say “Tea, the usual” is beyond me. Maybe he has cookies blocked. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/44 "2012-05-07T07:49:05Z")
I’ve often thought that, to make transporters work, you have to throw out the canon explanation of converting someone to pure energy. You need something more like phasing people (and the air around them) into subspace, and then the pattern buffer is used to find them and pull them back out. I also see the Riker duplicate as more of an alternate universe thing, similar to how they first went to the Mirror universe. Thomas Riker is Riker from another universe, who was accidentally moved into our own. In another universe, no Riker just disappeared. It does make episodes where the transporter is used to change ages or fix diseases problematic, but they are problematic anyway for the reasons Chronos states. But it neatly gets around the energy problem, the talking during transport, the fact that they can execute the thing from a distance, and why they can’t just use it to duplicate things. (Though maybe you can use the alternate universe theory for Pulaski, at least.) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/45 "2012-05-07T11:57:41Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Maybe he has cookies blocked. Biscuits. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/46 "2012-05-07T12:14:01Z")
We do know they can replicate shuttles, at least. It’s the only explanation for why _Voyager_ never seems to run out of them 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/47 "2012-05-07T12:16:14Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > We do know they can replicate shuttles, at least. It’s the only explanation for why _Voyager_ never seems to run out of them 🙂 They must be able to replicate expendable crewmen, too, since they lose at least twenty a season. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/48 "2012-05-07T17:45:51Z")
> [@noobzilla](#): > > Yes agreed. > > Why do they need to even train new cadets at Starfleet Academy when they could just as easily trasnport(clone) a few dozen Picards, Laforges, and Crushers to crew their replicated fleet of Enterprises. > > Perhaps the Federation’s idealistic tendencies prevent them from creating armadas of replicated ships manned by cloned crews. considering the problems they had when all the enterprises met up in a cross-dimensional event it would be even more confusing. The future federation time lords would have had a fit sorting it all out. ---
**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/49 "2012-05-08T13:13:13Z")
Just wanted to add that an old episode of Doctor Who ([Revenge of the Cybermen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenge_of_the_Cybermen), 1975) used the idea of transporting someone to make them better again. Sarah Jane had been bitten by a cybermat and the Doctor beamed her (and Harry) down to Voga to eliminate the alien cells infecting her. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/50 "2012-05-08T14:00:57Z")
> [@SunSandSuffering](#): > > Sarah Jane had been bitten by a cybermat Well, that’s the chance you take if you go an uncertified cyberyoga class. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/51 "2012-05-08T15:08:53Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > By comparison, I’m endlessly irritated by how Enterprise is referred to as a “flagship.” Gah! For the majority of us who have not been in the Navy, what’s wrong with that? ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/52 "2012-05-08T15:50:21Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > For the majority of us who have not been in the Navy, what’s wrong with that? In the military definition, a “flagship” will be carrying some type of “grouping of ships” commander (as in “flotilla”, “squadron”, “battlegroup”, “division”, or “fleet”). That person won’t command the [flag]ship itself, there’s still a Captain/Commanding Officer for that, and will leave ship handling and tactics to those delegated to those tasks. Picard rarely commands more than one ship. When he does, it seems to be an “ad-hoc” thing, and it is dispersed once the crisis of the week is over. I’ve been taking to understand that the reference to “flagship of the Federation” to mean something more along the lines of espirt-de-corps: The _Enterprise_ is where only the best of the best of the best get to serve, and represents the best trained, motivated, and idealistic [Starfleet] crew in the service, presenting the “best face” of the Federation as sort of a traveling billboard/Ambassadors-at-large. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/53 "2012-05-08T17:08:49Z")
Well yeah, “flagship” already means “best of the best” now, seems reasonable to extrapolate it will retain that meaning in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/54 "2012-05-08T17:26:11Z")
> [@campp](#): > > I have a question if I may: Do the replicators merely re-arrange atoms from a “library” on board? It can’t really create matter, simply move it and re-arrange it, isn’t that the technology? > > In other words, there’s a gigantic supply of building blocks for tea, grey, earl. I no longer have my _Star Trek: TNG Technical Manual_, but IIRC this is basically correct. The replicator draws from a stockpile (in some kind of holding tank, I’d imagine) of “free molecules” which it rearranges/reassembles on demand into the requested item. I would imagine that holding tank is one of the things that gets refilled during each scheduled maintenance, and probably topped off whenever the ship stops at a starbase. And since it’s assembling these objects from _molecules_, that would explain why it can only replicate physical matter. It can’t replicate _energy_, which is why a replicator won’t spit out functional phasers. It’ll make you a bat’leth, though. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/55 "2012-05-08T17:50:07Z")
We don’t know how the replicator works, of course. But I always thought of it like a super-efficient ink-jet printer at the molecular level. It pulls from a supply of separate molecules and builds the object requested. Or maybe it’s more like a transporter, in that it would do this all at once rather than building up the result in layers like a [3d printer](http://www.3dprinter.net/) does. OK, so the human body is fairly complex, and the transporter can nonetheless manage to take apart and build one. One assumes that it uses magnetic resonance of some sort in order to aim the molecules into place to re-create the human on the other end. The various molecules of a human body being naturally easy to attached one to the other. How much more complex would this be with a starship? And how many materials involved would have various levels of resistance to being aimed/attached? You could probably do it in pieces, and then assemble them like modular houses though. You’d also have to agree on a “perfect” ship design. I’m betting every starship incorporated new technology that wasn’t quite fully developed as the last one began assembly; and every basic mission had different “best components.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/56 "2012-05-08T18:12:34Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > And since it’s assembling these objects from _molecules_, that would explain why it can only replicate physical matter. It can’t replicate _energy_, which is why a replicator won’t spit out functional phasers. It’ll make you a bat’leth, though. If that were the case it should be spitting out tea, Earl Grey, cold. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/57 "2012-05-08T18:30:26Z")
I read in some official Star Trek guide once that the energy costs to replicate an entire starship are too much to be practical. Besides, I think replicated matter is supposed to have a much shorter half-life than natural matter. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/58 "2012-05-08T19:08:47Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Well yeah, “flagship” already means “best of the best” now, seems reasonable to extrapolate it will retain that meaning in the future. Well, “major” can mean “big, important”, but that doesn’t mean the armies of the future will stop using it to refer to “rank between captain and colonel”. Within the navy, “flagship” has a fairly specific meaning, a meaning that was irritatingly misused from TNG’s very first episode. I get that the writers weren’t trying for accuracy, but don’t be _blatantly_ wrong just because something sounds cool. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/59 "2012-05-08T19:09:30Z")
[QUOTE=Mister Rik] I no longer have my _Star Trek: TNG Technical Manual_, but IIRC this is basically correct. The replicator draws from a stockpile (in some kind of holding tank, I’d imagine) of “free molecules” which it rearranges/reassembles on demand into the requested item. I would imagine that holding tank is one of the things that gets refilled during each scheduled maintenance, and probably topped off whenever the ship stops at a starbase. [/QUOTE] That fits my recollection as well, except that the raw ingredients, so to speak, are perpetually replanished in daily operations of the ship. Rather than ejecting garbage into space, all of the torn uniforms, dirty dishes, etc. are dematerialized by matter processors. What I can’t remember is the sewage - I believe solid wastes are similary processed once the sewage has been filtered and purified into drinkable water. To us in the early 21st century, the idea that going to a replicator and getting a tool or a snack made that was previously someone’s poop is a whole big pile of EEEEWW!, but Starfleet personnel are used to it. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030/60 "2012-05-08T19:34:00Z")
On the question in the OP - it is entirely likely that a replicator built large enough to create an entire starship would be unable to maintain sufficient tolerances on the working parts for everything in the ship to actually work. A modern 3D printer can print working mechanical parts (gears and such) but the quality of those parts is still inferior to what can be produced with conventional machining, and the size of the print bed can’t be scaled up much without degrading the print quality. I would expect that replicators could be used to manufacture many of the bulk structural parts of a starship, but you’d still have to assemble them and install all the finer functional parts manually. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-why-not-use-a-giant-replicator-to-create-starships/621030.md?page=4)