A few notes that might be helpful....
Displacement = mass in tons (since you are "displacing" that many tons in
water). The space shuttle masses about 78 tons empty (it is supposed to
be about the size and weight as a DC-9) and can carry about 23 tons of
cargo to LEO.
By Traveller standards, and by modern Earth standards, the Enterprise is,
pardon my language, fucking huge. A few modern Earth ships, to put it in
scale...
Broadsword (NATO) frigate 3,500 tons (4,400 full load)
Los Angeles class attack submarine 6,900 tons (dived)
Nimitz class aircraft carrier 91,000 tons (full load)
USS Enterprise is supposed to be 190,000 tons...that's two Nimitz class
carriers. Since the Enterprise does not have to dedicate so much of its
internal space and mass to flight hangers, maintenance equipment, etc.,
it might be better to call her 4 Iowa class battlships (they're about
45,000 tons, as I recall).
By the way, using the 6,000-man crew of the Nimitz as a rough measure,
the Enterprise uses only about five percent of the man/kiloton ratio of
modern naval vessels. Now that's what I call impressive automaintenance!
Take care, all.
Mark
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