Where Does VOYAGER Get Its SHUTTLES?

Voyager was stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Alone and without Federation or Starfleet aid and their resources. So how in Q's name did they manage to carry so many shuttlecraft?
They get blown up or crashed so often in the series and the ship keeps producing more. Where are they coming from?
This question has been a fan criticism for years but one that I think isn't that big of an issue as we've seen all the evidence to explain this in canon already.
I think... hear me out...
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[@aikiwolfie]

In the early episodes they replicated two giant water containers to bargain with the Kazon. So they definitely had an industrial sized replication.

[@bradleyj.fortner2203]

Yeah. I mean, it wouldn't be automated like it is in Prodigy. But, they would have been able to build shuttles the same way that they built the Delta Flyers.

[@whitewolf3051]

After watching Half Screen’s what’s inside Voyager, two shuttlecraft doesn’t make sense. Also, by showing only the profile/side view of the vessel, you’re not shown how much space there exactly is within Voyager. They should redo this after taking a look a Half Screen’s video.

[@plucas1]

It could explain why the crew were constantly dealing with 'replicator rations', when in normal circumstances the ship should have had plenty of energy and materials for food production. But if the replicator stores and parts were in constant demand for creating and fabricating shuttles and hull plating, that could be a different story.

[@wingedarr0w]

This could make sense. Maybe the deep space missions were stocked such that the crew got effectively free reign of the replicators for morale purposes (got to keep the crew happy on a multi-year mission where they might not be able to see friends or family). They had to give up that privileged to keep the ship maintained.

[@FirePoo]

This is exactly how I perceived the diolog in the show when I first saw the show & even to this day having re-watched several times. They say they are rationing for their "energy stores" and it's pretty obvious that voyager had an industrial replicator that was using significant amounts of energy to keep the ship like new with regular maintenance. Think back to the Equinox episodes where that little nova class looked like crap. Yes, they were under attack, but even before that captain Ransom made this comment "...we had nothing, my ship was in pieces, our dilithium was gone, we were running on thrusters, we hadn't eaten in 16 days, we had just enough power to enter orbit of an m class planet...". That right there tells you that the ship was in pieces before the aliens started attacking. In my opinion it was because that equinox wasn't fitted with an industrial replicator. In that same two part episode they were discussing if they wanted to put out the energy / parts / labor to fix the Equinox. To me, that again meant that voyager had something that equinox didn't (not just supplies). There are countless episodes where voyager stops and gets supplies, food, energy, dilithium, raw ore, weapons, directions / maps, miscellaneous upgrades, ect.. People are forgetting that voyager could probably replicate 90% of the components in a photon torpedo and they most likely traded for the parts that couldn't be replicated. They could probably cannibalize photon torpedoes / other antimatter warheads from other races for the components / metals they needed to make Star Fleet - grade torpedoes. Every single plot hole can easily be explained away... except for the warp 10 Janeway & Paris salamanders. *rolls eyes

[@corthew]

They can't create biomass. Food is biomass and they have a limited supply...and it can spoil. They also cannot create elements. If they are replicating something that has gold in it for example, there needs to be some in storage.

[@TheReaper569]

shorter answer: writers didnt do a good job

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

Years ago, while Voyager was still on the air, I wondered the same thing about the shuttles. I e-mailed Rick Sternbach and asked him what he thought about it, and he confirmed that the crew had to be constructing them, with the additional note that he figured "they had spare warp coils stacked up like car tires."

[@MatthewCobalt]

I meant, that would make sense in some aspects. The amount of materials for backup warp coils though is a bit of a stretch, as the number needed to maintain the number of shuttles in the show would require an engine bay dedicated to just warp coils.

[@relo999]

@@MatthewCobalt trade solves part of that issue

[@jeeshadow1]

Makes sense tbh. They would need to be able to replicate or somehow manufacture the parts to repair shuttle craft and if you can't just replicate warp coils you would need spares. Cargo bays are pretty big so they could devote one to just having spare shuttlecraft warp coils (which probably aren't to large tbh). So ya.

[@hello-ox5rf]

@@relo999 would have been cool if they just bought small craft from different folks they met and ended up with a small fighter strike force of varied alien ships

[@relo999]

@@hello-ox5rf would be cool, but from a sheer engineering and use standpoint you'd want to have the same system for everything. Much easier to diagnose problems and know the limits of a craft when it's the same craft always. That said, seeing a bunch of specialized locally sourced crafts would be fun. They did it once if I from the shipyard, but that had a malicious AI inside.

[@JTOnline89]

I remember an episode where B'lanna says "if I have to rebuild one more shuttlecraft I'm going to go insane" or something similar to that

[@obsidiansands]

Short answer: REPLICATORS Long answer: salvage, salvage, salvage AND replicators. In fact; even IF the USS Voyager didn't have an industrial replicator, their standard replicator can spew out parts to actually BUILD one. You said it yourself, as long as they've got the blueprints, they can build just about anything. The only thing they'd have to lose is room to have one built in - which should be the rooms behind the shuttle bay. If I remember correctly, long range vessels like the Galaxy Class (and probably The Intrepid too) is that most Starfleet ships are more or less very modular in their designs. You can allegedly practically eject a room to install something else for a specific mission. The blueprints of the Enterprise D comes with a replaceable bridge - yes - the bridge CAN be swapped out for another one as an upgrade of sorts. In fact, I believe the Enterprise D had a few internal/external refits during the entire run the series had. SO I am confident that the design of the Intrepid is somewhat similar, and certain sections of the ship can be swapped out or re-designed to meet the crew's needs. That's pretty evident when you see that they had one of the cargo bays turned into a Borg regeneration bay for Seven of Nine. That's pretty much a catch-all solution when in comes to the crazy amount of shuttles they build and lose. I'm pretty sure they even salvaged the damaged ones that they were able to salvage for use to rebuild or make new ones. If there's one thing I actually LIKE about the Federation - and Starfleet in particular - is that they're recycle addicts. Almost everything is used and re-used to the point that you don't really NEED a full wardrobe closet and just a replicator to "print" out the clothes you want for the day and then maybe recycle them for something else tomorrow. I'm sure that's exactly what they did for spare uniforms. Barely anything is wasted.

[@MeNoOther]

The fact that in real life, people use 3D printers to remake car parts for cars that have companies that no longer exist. People are even making cars from standard desktop 3D printers and PLA filament. So with the technology from the 24th century, anything is possible. Modification to a transporter bay to make an industrial replicator would be feasible. Planning things out in holodecks. A cad program like Blender’s physics section, but way more advanced. Hell, even the life extension of every member of the crew with transporters. In real life, this technology would exponentially grow humans to Q or Ancient(Star Gate) status in years.

[@obsidiansands]

@@MeNoOther Exactly!

[@TheFinagle]

Yes, this exactly. we see replicators recycle dishes in DS9, so why wouldnt one be able to reprocess shuttle parts/ hull pieces from a crash? once you can manipulate mater on that level recycling becomes so simple.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@TheFinagle that way if most of the material is there but just have a big failure/fault inside; you just rearrange that mass, you don’t need to add more

[@TheReaper569]

shorter answer: writers didnt do a good job

[@darkage5]

Being able to construct the Delta Flyer answers this question by default.

[@AWMJoeyjoejoe]

Exactly! Not only once but twice.

[@StefanTravis]

Where did the get the materials? From the replicators. So what happened to the replicator rations? And where did they get the power for the replicators? Janeway secretly kept the trilthium from "Threshold", using it to power the industrial repicators. And has Kes pretend to have only limited mind-powers, while really supressing the intellects of the entire crew (also explaining their dumbness in many episodes) so they never ask where the trilithium went or where the shuttles come from. So yeah, "Threshold" is cannon, the crew are all brainwashed, and Janeway is evil. Just like we always suspected.

[@Mamorufumio]

@@AWMJoeyjoejoe oh yeah forgot they crashed the first one.

[@AWMJoeyjoejoe]

@@Mamorufumio The Borg destroyed it in the two part episode "Unimatrix Zero"

[@jameshead9119]

As I recall when Paris proposed making the delta flyer to janeway because he was tired of replacing the standard shuttles and wanted to build a more rebuff craft instead more suitable for their needs

[@user-vn7ce5ig1z]

We _did_ see them trading for parts, materials, and equipment a few times, that's where Tom found Alice.

[@Gartral]

that still touches "we see it, but only when other more interesting things were going on" bit... we never saw day-to-day life for the sake of day-to-day life... from a writing standpoint it's smart, from an "Accurate to life" standpoint, it makes it seem as though the crew of Voyager never got a break.

[@Corgblam]

We also see Voyager making pit-stops to harvest usable materials from asteroids and things in a couple episodes.. Yeah we only see it as exposition for something more interesting to happen, but we can assume from such an activity that they do it on the regular.

[@ploofedoof1]

@@Corgblam OMG....your right and wrong at the same time..."More Interesting" is to be generous. Single worst ep of the entire series was when Voyager found their wonky Dilithium and were able to break Warp 10....ungh! The first 3/4 of the ep wasn't terrible, but the ending.....super cringy.

[@Corgblam]

@@ploofedoof1 Yeah really. Rapid evolution from going too fast? That's not how evolution works, scifi show.

[@yogibro6442]

@@Corgblam not saying you're wrong, but I thought it was time passing faster at that speed or something like that, but then the problem would be the fish things would be ancestors, not them. Then the morality of abandoning their kids???

[@chrisr897]

When you’re think you’ll be stuck in the delta quadrent for 75 years first thing you do I build an industrial replicator in the shuttle bay, duh.

[@sheilaolfieway1885]

Exactly... I think they built an industrial replicator for not only hull repair parts but also other problems that popped up... not to mention the one episode where Hirogen's take over the ship and turn the whole ship into a holodeck almost.

[@maddslothii2532]

I don't get how 75 years came to be the default travel time for Voyager in S1E1 she said "even at maximum speeds it would take 75 years to reach the Federation" which would presumably be warp 9.975. that is listed as the 'cruise velocity' but most people seem to think that is not their actual 'cruise' speed but rather their maximum warp. but regardless we often see the ship going at around warp 6 at that speed it would take centuries to get back to the Federation. 10k light years at warp 6 255 years. 10k light years at warp 9.99 13 years

[@XiahouDun1225]

@@maddslothii2532 You have to give your engines a break, you have to resupply. Also maintaining maximum warp for a full trip would next to impossible. It'd be like trying to floor it through the interstate across the entire US.

[@Logarithm906]

Lol, one that's exactly big enough to spit out new shuttles, fully formed and ready to go, as and when you need them.

[@bipolarminddroppings]

@@maddslothii2532 we all know that Star Trek has never had a good handle on distances and travel times. In some episodes they go a couple of light years in an hour, in others they are 5 light years away and cant make it there for several days.

[@Theonlydump]

Solution: Tea, earl grey, hot. There's coffee in that nebula.

[@zombie666able]

How much sugar?

[@jordanodwyer6552]

All star fleet captains like it hot and black 🖤

[@joermnyc]

DS9, Dax got everyone hooked on Raktajino (Klingon coffee).

[@stapler942]

If a cup of hot tea can power the creation of the Infinite Improbability Drive, surely a few spare shuttle parts are peanuts to replicate.

[@Krooow118]

I always felt that the model being banged up and showing hodge podge repairs as the show continued was a miss oppertunity

[@MLB9000]

They would have done that if they could I’m sure, but the budgetary concerns of making a weekly show means they have to be able to reuse fx shots of the ship over the entire run off the show. Bear in mind that there would be a few ‘bottle’ shows each season where all the action is confined to the ship, with no new sets being required, just to stay in budget.

[@skullhelmet1944]

Would have loved to see more day to day duties like repairs, and foraging for supplies on new planets I always enjoyed the "Lower deck" shows and more of them would be fine with me.

[@Nimmo1492]

"Insistent goldshirt"? Sounds like Reg Barclay to me.

[@mckenziecalhoun316]

But, but sir, what IF this starship were thrown, like, 70000 loght years away, hm? Well, t-then they' d n-need to b-b-build sh-shuttles!

[@kurisu7885]

Yup, this seems like something he would think about.

[@scottmcintosh4397]

SPACE SEED........🍆💦 "Insistent Goldshirt? Hell, Yeah, that's Jim Kirk, alright!" "I know him well!" "Back at Axanar*, we called him Horatio Horndog!!" 🍷👯💋🎶 💃🏃☁☁☁☁ 🍆💦💞💔 😃😅😂😅😂😅😄😘 *Starfleet Academy.

[@christopherg2347]

@@mckenziecalhoun316 That one time Enterprise got stuck 2,700,000 Lightyears in Galaxy M33 really sticks with you. It only got worse from there: memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Where_No_One_Has_Gone_Before_(episode) And then there was the time they got thrown 7,000 Lightyears before the Borg: memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Q_Who_(episode)

[@TrumpCardMAGA]

I wish there was a tv series of Barclay visiting different locations and fixing their problems with a small alien sidekick named Chaese called "The Misadventures of Broccoli & Cheese"

[@J_PIK]

Also they kept Neelix’s cargo ship in the shuttle bay. Which is larger than their shuttles...

[@BYERE]

I'd like to think that once Seven joined the crew, her knowledge of Borg technology... such as how to do things much more efficiently, as well as tech like self-replicating/repairing machinery AND being able to reprogram her nanoprobes to help... would all be absolutely vital as a means of upgrading Voyager's manufacturing processes, allowing them to repair the ship and create new shuttles (and then later put such technologies to use building the Delta Flyer) much more quickly and efficiently than a regular starship or base would be able to.

[@theavocado6061]

I remember a couple instances of Tuvok telling Janeway about being low on photon torpedos. I wondered why they didn’t start just firing shuttlecraft at the Borg instead since they had an unlimited supply.

[@andrewtaylor940]

Doug Drexxler used to tell a great story about the difference between working on Voyager and the reboot Battlestar Galactica. Both shows about ships, lost on their own fighting for survival. On Voyager, every day after shooting ended, the main Bridge set was cleaned, steamed, shampoo’d, touch up paint applied, and the whole thing plastic wrapped. So it was kept in sparkling new condition. Over on BSG, they told the cleaning crew to ignore the Bridge/CiC set. They made it the designated crew smoking and eating area. They let the filth and stains build up over time. So that the set literally deteriorated in real life as the ship did on screen. The walls became nicotine stained. Crumbs built up in the carpet and consoles. Coffee stains, etc.

[@MatthewAvey]

I don't remember which episode off the top of my head, but I specifically remember a character (Lt. Tores, I think) saying, "We can't keep building those things." Or something to that effect. They were constantly building/rebuilding shuttles from parts in storage/cargo bay and replicate parts as needed.

[@randybentley2633]

Also, take into account that if Voyager didn't leave the drydock with an industrial replicator nothing says that they couldn't have built one.

[@tails0420ify]

I always thought they converted the Aero Shuttle they never use to a machinery/industrial replicator. That thing would have all the components and material needed to produce a lot of shuttles and replacement parts for the ship. If they had lost the shuttle the ship would have had a rather large hole in the hull.

[@jacksonheathen2092]

True. But I got the impression that an industrial replicator was an enormous peice of machinery. I don't know if a galaxy class ship even carried one.

[@michaelbujaki2462]

Why not? they made an astrometrics lab.

[@AndDiracisHisProphet]

@@jacksonheathen2092 there are probably different sizes of industrial replicators

[@jacksonheathen2092]

@@AndDiracisHisProphet I'm sure you're right.

[@normenthegnome7543]

i was thinking it was the replicator they just turned it back into energy when they wasn't using them .. then they just refuel them with anti matter afterwards

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Like how Elite Force managed to let the player carry around half a dozen big guns: They just got beamed away, but instead of being put together somewhere else, the transfer is saved on disk for later.

[@normenthegnome7543]

@@HappyBeezerStudios exactly matter can become energy to become matter, all thats need is a way to store in information to make or remake the things you need them to be, like the transporter or the replicator's in Star-Trek .. their almost the same technology really .. almost .. if i was to build a ship in star trek i think id put the replicator tech on the out side of the ship to have any weapons or armor needed at the push of a button .. i often wonder why no ones thought of this while making the tv shows and movies ..

[@DanielRichards644]

it takes a lot of energy to convert matter into energy or energy into matter, it wouldn't be very efficient use of their power, which comes primarily from the anti-matter reactor (warp core), to be doing that.

[@KuK137]

@@normenthegnome7543 Because it's stupid and replicators never worked that way? There are multiple hints replicators just store base materials, not turn them into energy, if you could do that you'd never need antimatter to power the ship, you'd just turned a few rocks into energy...

[@Joshua-oo9hy]

Replicators are based on transporter tech. They take raw materials from the cargo bay and beam them into the pattern needed to create what ever, manipulating it at a molecular level.

[@suitch]

They have full engineering staff and replicators. Silly question.

[@poloponysk158]

three things to note. One: there is the issue of a Captain's skiff, the outline of which is seen in the underbelly of Voyager, while it is never seen it could have been cannibalized via replicator recycling to construct more practical shuttles or the Flyer which was built 2x. Two: Nelix's own ship was stored on board which would indicate that while the shuttle bay held 2 active shuttles there had to be a hangar of some kind because Nelix's ship always launches from the bay so, it is feasible that for 2 or 3 shuttles to be stored and maybe cannibalized for material. Three: once we get the Flyer built and later re-built we never see another type of shuttle craft meaning potentially that they were now gone having been completely stripped for material for the flyer.

[@kimcoleeppling8177]

Honestly, out of all the well-known plot holes in the show, I'd argue this is the most reasonable; your explanation does a very good job

[@benw9949]

Voyager only once or twice was shown spending any time at an alien space station. Yet over the course of seven-plus years, they took all sorts of damage. They would've had to have done some EVA ship repairs en route, but sometimes, they would've needed to make pit stops in a star system to repair the ship and take on raw materials for the replicators, finished goods from friendly alien races, foodstuffs, and so on. At some point, they should've needed to stop for major repairs, an overhaul or refit, things like that. Or they might have added on alien techie bits as they went along, becoming a hodgepodge of space parts, sort of a multi-species Millennium Falcon, by the time they got back to Federation space. This could've had great story potential too. And they needed to take on replacement crew along the way too, but we never really got this. I wish we'd had more of that and more of the Starfleet and Maquis crews having trouble fitting together over the first year or two, still having occasional trouble along the way. Not a deal-breaker, I loved the series, but still, there were things they should have had to face, realistically speaking.

[@darrellr267]

I always wondered this myself. Seems like everytime someone takes a shuttle out it gets destroyed.

[@joermnyc]

darrell c especially if Chakotay was the pilot.

[@clasicradiolover]

Voyager even miraculously has room for Nelex's ship.

[@dave9441]

Something I've often wondered: 1) we know the replicators (like the transporter and holodeck) convert energy into matter, and 2) replicated matter can be "recycled" (which, I assume, is converting the matter--any matter--back in to energy)--so why can't they run ANY space matter (asteroids, wrecked ships, etc) through their replicators and store up energy for what they DO need, when they need it? If this is true, maybe this is where they got the energy/resources to build the extra shuttles?

[@plasmaburndeath]

I just wish Star Trek took the educational approach and built in little science tidbits like "Just like Late 20th Century Earth 3D Rephotographing and printing,*cut away to mid 90's best in its class versions of given topic*, then back to Voyager, "we use new Quantum 3D printing and replicators and convert random space rocks and debris into spacecraft.. this is also why each time we are hit by enemy weapons ROCKS FALL DOWN UPON US Recycling"

[@user-vn7ce5ig1z]

plasmaburndeath> "Just like Late 20th Century Earth 3D Rephotographing and printing" 3D printing wasn't really a thing in the 20th century (at least not enough for the show to have picked up on or used in this context). The RepRap was the first time it became "a thing" but that wasn't until 2005, and it didn't go mainstream until this decade (phew, just made "this" in under the wire).

[@allangibson8494]

@@user-vn7ce5ig1z Cheap ADDITIVE 3D printing didn't become common until this decade - it existed well before that. Numerically controlled machining (Subtractive 3D printing) was in wide use from before WW2 and generic Numerically Controlled Machines were invented in 1798 (during the French Revolution). The 1980's saw general purpose computers used as controllers for the first time.

[@chrisschembari2486]

@@allangibson8494 you're right that subtractive manufacturing has been around for a long time, but do you have a reference showing that subtractive manufacturing was called "3D printing"? AFAIK, that term only applies to the additive manufacturing process invented fairly recently..

[@allangibson8494]

@@chrisschembari2486 The term "3D Printing" is of recent coinage but covers both additive and subtractive manufacturing technology. Desktop version of both are available. They do the same job from opposite directions (but making hollow parts using a subtractive system is much harder - on the other hand they are much stronger).

[@DanielRichards644]

you should really take a look at what unprocessed Silicon (which is what modern computer chips are made from) looks like, the idea that large masses of super energized (like from a phaser blast) Silicon chips could be fused together and explode and come out looking like rocks might not be as far fetched as yo might think.

[@lyconxero457]

I've already seen it pointed out in the comments but Voyager DEFINITELY had some sort of industrial replicator because even at the very beginning of the show it was shown that they were able to create very large things that didn't already exist. We also do see many instances in the show of them working to obtain things that can be converted into energy for the ship along with guidelines in place to limit individual energy use for things like replicators which is why most people ate in the mess hall in a cafeteria-type setting instead of replicating food. This energy issue is seen pushed to the brink during the "Year of Hell" arc where you can clearly see that they not only didn't have extra energy for replicators but were also unable to fully repair the ship. When talking about their plan to create the Delta Flyer (which they made in a few days) Paris specifically mentions replicating the parts and we clearly see them constructing it in the shuttle bay. Also, at the very end of the series we see Voyager get overhauled with futuristic tech which they clearly would have needed to replicate and retrofit onto the ship.

[@constantinegiotopoulos3033]

Let's face it, the maintenance/shuttle number/torpedo number problems in Voyager is essentially addressed with hacks. We don't see every day going-by in Voyager, they just let us assume that somehow they fixed/built things. While it is a possibility that by replenishing torpedo and shuttle parts and applying some extensive engineering on-board Voyager could answer the "where do they find the torpedoes/shuttles" question, I don't remember this being addressed anywhere in the script, so the verdict remains that they ended up applying hacks. Servicing Voyager itself couldn't have been done, Galactica addressed this very nicely, ST: Voyager did not so it is also a hack, a bigger one in fact. I would have loved to see them addressing engineering struggles with out-of-the-box thinking and making the ship's deteriorating condition a factor in the captain's decision-making process. A very well executed and engaging show in spite of all this. I would prefer to restart ST: Voyager instead of watching new episodes of Discovery, every day of the week.

[@VestedUTuber]

To note, even with a ship that can land, having a ship's boat of some sort is still useful. You can't always find room to land a big, 300m long ship, after all. And while transporter tech makes this kinda redundant, you can use the shuttle to send out an away team to a remote location while landing the big ship at a ground-based spaceport or major city.

[@danieltilson4053]

We know there's more space in the shuttlebay than just what the two active shuttles would use. Neelix's freighter was in there, though we never see it in shuttle scenes... So, either they have multiple bays, or the bays are far larger than stated.

[@starshiptrooper2354]

Second. I remember Janeway say park in schuller bay 2. Then take into account they had Neelix 's craft in there. They sure had a hell of lot metal for those repairs. Then again saying rmthe had matter replicators. Why not Photon torpedoes. Now they said only had 32. But I counted quadruple fired

[@LarryH54]

How do you replicate a photon? Some materials are simply too complex to be replicated.

[@Not-Ap]

@@LarryH54 You harvest then from other sources such as Stars, Planets, and Nebula's. Then you task your engineering and science officers to then assemble them from scratch. There are limits of course, due too the size of the ship and what facilities they have on board, but theoretically they should have enough to produce enough of what they need.

[@makomadns4]

I would argue that Voyager was designed post Borg, so it was over engineered, designed to be easy to repaired and probably had the capacity to manufacture just about everything it needed that could be replaced/repaired. While it was designed for rapid response, the fleet deviation left by a borg fight would mean that most star ships would be on their own to try to repair and limp back to a starbase or at least sustain any survivors for weeks until rescue. I also don’t know the schematics of the ship but i would argue that since Voyager was not built with science and exploration as the main mission, the need to deploy with extra shuttles was minimal. However it may still have a large shuttle or cargo bay with the intention of recovering large sections of friendly or enemy space debris and bringing it back to base. Thus it could be possible to store many more spacecraft than it was designed to deploy with.

[@SuperFriendBFG]

Even World War II Warships had machine shops on board to machine new / salvage parts. World War II Submarines had small machine shops in them. B'Elana Tores herself has been on screen mentioning time frames for machining new parts (often times saying it would take a long time). Replicators are another common answer, and they probably do produce some of the parts they'd need. Replicators, especially non-industrial replicators are limited, and cannot replicate just anything however so a combination of both machining and replication are the likeliest answers. They did just that when Designing and Constructing the Delta Flyer. I may be mis-remembering, though I also seem to recall on at least one occasion where Voyager had to find a place to resupply, they sometimes showed requisition lists that included ores and such. The same can be true for producing replacement Photon Torpedoes. While Replicators can't Replicate weapons easily, no reason they can't just use the ship's own Anti-Matter / Matter storage in order to produce more warheads.

[@MagnumForce51]

Maybe they get around the lack of an industrial sized replicator for replacing hull segments by replicating smaller pieces of the hull in normal replicators, then use the transporters to transport them in to position and use some unseen tech to reattach the pieces at the molecular scale? If the transporters can't do it directly I assume they transport it close by and use crew near the damaged areas to weld them into place with some kind of portable device that can do said thing. Surely they have advanced the tech of welding to such a degree that they could easily have crew mates with portable handheld devices to weld in sections of hull at a time. Just a quick thought I had on the matter. I'm not super familiar with all the tech lore that is currently in this era of Star Trek. At least if I was on the ship at the time that would have been an idea I'd shoot out if they were thinking of ways of repairing the hull without said replicator used in ship construction.

[@douglaseid9021]

We did see Voyager landed and the warp coils being repaired on one episode. My question is how did Discovery get repaired after getting the forward top of the hull smashed by an asteroid while Burnam, Pike, etc. were rescuing the Hiawatha crew? You see hull plating flying away, yet later in the same episode ... TAH DAH! No damage.

[@BlueSideUp77]

Consider the Cardassian / Bajoran rebuilding efforts during the development time period. Probably the Excelsior fit that role (as well as fast engines), but since it was aging, a new and smaller class (which was less resource intensive but still fastest engines) could now take over that role. (Note that the Excelsiors are often seen as flagships, until DS9 when an Intrepid class fills that role for Admiral Ross.) Having a ship which could go in to a Bajoran colony, construct lots of things for them and hand them out, would be a useful quality to have for the Intrepid class.

[@timothyhansen6581]

What do you mean, "little in the way of resource depletion?" Most of the entire first season of Voyager had the ship limping from one POSSIBLE source of Dilithium to another because they kept running out of it, for crying out loud! And, that was the entire reason the people on the Equinox "had" to resort to using alien bodies to supercharge their warp core to try & make it home. As for consistent damage, they kept fixing whatever got broken - or, in the case of the bioneural gel-packs, got sick - when they could. The entire reason they landed on the Demon planet where they came across the living mercury that assumed their forms - as well as the time they got taken over by the former Maquis woman & her Kazon associates - was because they had to land on a planet to do maintenance work that they kept putting off as long as they absolutely could. Besides, Voyager is classified as a "Long-Range Science Vessel." Obviously, this would require the ship to have a larger-than-normal complement of replacement parts. Also, they have replicators, & even if you only start out with regular replicators you can use them to create industrial replicators. What I would like to know is, if Archer came across a fully-automated ship repair station that used nanotechnology & replicators to quickly repair an entire ship damaged from going through a minefield in a fraction of the time the shipyards on Mars could do with entire teams of repairmen working in tandem back before the Federation was even created, why in all of creation did they not download the specs for that station when they were on it, take those specs to Earth, & then spend the next century or two - if need be - reverse engineering that tech into their starship designs so the ships could repair themselves automatically!? And, you could use that same tech to create new shuttles - or even entire ships - practically out of thin air!

[@killerkrafts8997]

The repair station was blown up and also not feasible because it required humanoid brains to function as well as the station not having a real interface to download the schematics and scans being blocked

[@timothyhansen6581]

@@killerkrafts8997 First, if you actually saw the episode to its finale, you would have seen the epilogue bit where the station started putting itself back together. Second, it didn't HAVE to have organic brains to function. It only did it that way because as it was found by more & more different races with their different ship designs it couldn't keep up with the computational & storage needs fast enough. (Arguably, I don't see why a station that can rebuild itself after being blown up couldn't just create new circuitry & new computer sub-cores to help out, but whatever.) Thirdly, they wouldn't have had to use that exact stations schematics if they couldn't scan them. Once they blew the sucker up, they could have found the main computer core - or whatever was left of it - & taken it whole-hog with them back to Earth. Then, even if you couldn't scan the computer you could still - given its near-Data like para-sentience - probably get it to give you its schematics once you came to an agreement about implementing the same system in all of the ships in the Federation.

[@wraithleader2906]

Theory: Voyager was set up for a long “stealth” mission behind lines and needed the capability to repair or build shuttles. The photon torpedo problem, writers can’t count. (Being funny)

[@willjenkins4195]

Wraith Leader some staff writer in season one was probably canned for that stupid piece of dialogue

[@LodenVor]

Alternatively, the industrial replicator was built after their arrival in the Delta Quadrant.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

Since replicators are an outgrowth of transporter technology, the cargo transporters might have a replicator setting.

[@chrisschembari2486]

Loden1 that makes perfect sense. Once Voyager had been in the Delta Quadrant for a while and restocked her antimatter and raw materials (after that early rash of power shortages and replicator rationing), the crew could have replicated any specialized components needed to tie a transporter"s input into one or more replicators' output. They might even have used such an expanded replicator capability to use in trade with Delta Quadrant civs - trading replicated food, supplies, and technology (without sharing the details on HOW to replicate stuff) for items that can't be replicated. It would have been a far more sensible approach to first contact with the Malon. They were dumping tons and tons of perfectly fine antimatter in a remote region of space because it was contaminated with theta radiation, which Voyager showed them could easily be filtered out with Federation technology Voyager would freely give the Malon. The Malon weren't interested. It'd cut their profits from dumping down. (Just one example of how little Star Trek writers know about economics.) Far more sensible would have been for the Voyager crew to find something the Malon wanted that was also okay to give them in exchange for an agreement: "We're just passing through here, so we realize it makes no sense to try to stop your polluting ways. We'll give you X in exchange for not dumping the next few tankerloads of antimatter. We'll take care of it for you so you can stay in Malon space and not have to come all the way out here in Nowhereville to do a dumping run." Voyager would get enough antimatter to run the ship lavishly for years and helped with the dumping situation for at least a short time. That last bit is all that can be expected of a ship far from home and any backup, but no, the writers took a different route.

[@nicksantos43]

In the episode where they build the Delta Flyer doesn't Tom say something to the effect of "why build a standard ship/shuttlecraft when you can build something with style?" I think its pretty much a given that based on their ability to build the Delta Flyer, slipstream drives, new warp coils, an omega particle containment unit, an astrometrics lab and various types of torpedoes and other tech over the years that making a standard shuttlecraft would be no sweat.

[@Ae3lolz]

The cargo bays have industrial sized replicators that make parts to build and repair the shuttles, that's why they never have enough for coffee and switched to real food, they use all the replicator resources making parts to repair the ship, and shuttles, and probes.

[@salenstormwing]

Ah yes, Voyager's shuttles. Almost as weirdly numerous as Voyager's torpedo count.

[@KuDastardly]

The only way you could ever see Voyager undergo degradation is if it was constantly under fire with no rest for the weary. And this has happened in the episode *"The Year of Hell"*

[@NineWorldsFromDrew]

6:28 - “…And although we never see that…” -No, we RARELY see that! We do see an episode - “Nightingale”, I believe - which opens, with a shot of Voyager having landed on a planet, and undergoing what Janeway logs as a “maintenance overhaul”. We don’t get to see very specific repairs. But we do see the considerable effort being made, of a shuttlecraft lifting an entire warp coil, from the warp nacelle. And this does make sense, in relation to Voyager’s Mission Lifespan (I can’t remember the exact term, at the moment - even tried looking it up! 😣) - this would probably be not much longer than 5 years. They’d probably have a bit of give-or-take from that length of time, given the need to find the first suitable planet on which to set down, and naturally chose that as a convenient time, in which I’m sure many external repairs of varying importance were probably included.

[@Doso777]

As long as they have one working replicator and enough magic crystals to power them they can make all the stuff they need. The power of space magic.

[@seanhiatt6736]

I think NASA is now using a 3D printer to make parts on the International Space Station. So I don't think it's a stretch that in 300 years it won't be possible to make things like torpedo/missle or other components.

[@marcusmanchester7095]

Coming back to this over a year later, the answer to the storage issue was given by Discovery, since that ship (and the original 1701 Enterprise) had a Turbolift Tardis as early as the 2250s. Voyager obviously has the storage space of a whole starbase inside of it.

[@SuprSBG]

TurboTardis?

[@padalan2504]

I would have loved it if Voyager absorbed different technologies as it encountered new species and integrated it into its arsenal. Sadly the best we got were some tweaks and bits sprinkled in. With that said, they were able to create an entire kitchen for Neelix, invent new advanced technologies, repurposed a lot of rooms towards their survival and I'm pretty sure most starships are able to mine hydrogen out of nebulas and stuff. There were some mining and repairing operations mentioned, along with all the constructing and in one episode they got caught trying to smuggle dilithium off a planet. So scavenging and manufacture certainly were a thing.

[@disposablebasterd]

I’ve always wondered about the delta flyers size, it seems the same size as a regular shuttle until you get inside and it has multiple rooms and floors. Did the Borg assimilate Gallifrey?

[@robos3809]

No it only has 2 rooms and 1 floor with a Jeffreys tube

[@gayahithwen]

One possibility is that they didn't come with an industrial replicator to start with, but because they're Starfleet and have insane amounts of technical specs and ludicrous levels of ingenuity, they reprogrammed their food replicators to make the parts they needed for a bigger version and worked from there. Or maybe they found some kind of large 3d printer they could trade for. The big parts (hull plating etc) probably don't need to be super complex as long as you load the printer up with the right alloys, and the smaller tech components can be replicated (or they just have a huge amount of spare parts in storage).

[@TheAllMightyGodofCod]

I can answer this easily: When I first watched this series in the 90's I loved it. When I re watched it in 2016 (after BSG, The Expanse, etc) I was like "what a huge piece of shit script! The script was rubbish and the screenwriters had almost no talent at all. How wouldn't there be plot holes?

[@dongilleo9743]

When I noticed the writers were reusing plots and storylines from TNG for Voyager, it kind of ruined Star Trek for me. Decades ago I was a big fan of The Six Million Dollar Man. Then they had the Bionic Woman. When they had an episode of the Bionic Woman that was a shameless copy of an episode of Six Million Dollar Man; same plot, storyline, even the same word for word dialogue, that was it for me. If that was the best the writers for the show could do, why bother watching?

[@dspartridge84]

Stands to reason you would build in the facility replicate an industrial replicator and any equipment for refining and extracting ores if needed. The ship was probably completely redesigned during its voyage to accommodate the needed features, more than just the overly visited kitchen. Completely agree there are lots of missed opportunities for these scenes and interactions.

[@ArkLord001]

If they were able to build the Delta Flyer this means that they had access to adequate resources to either salvage and repair shuttle craft or build new ones. Also, let's not forget replicators. They don't use them just for food. When in areas of greater resources and they re able to obtain them it would make perfect sense that they would replicate spare parts, tools, etc and could also in theory replicate shuttle components via tie-in to the transporter system as it uses the same energy to matter conversion technology. Program the part needed and have a transporter materialize it in a shuttle bay for use.

[@Glaciace]

torpedoes? "no way to replicate photon torpedoes" "full spread" a lot of times

[@DanielRichards644]

the ONLY part of a photon torpedo that couldn't be replicated was the ANTI-MATTER, once you get a new source for anti-matter getting new torpedoes is Super Easy, Barely an Inconvenience.

[@willjenkins4195]

DanielRichards644 ... time to lay off the pitch meetings there good sir :-)

[@DanielRichards644]

@@willjenkins4195 but Pitch Meetings are tight

[@clintmatthews3500]

Sometimes I think the writers forget that the torpedos aren’t just balls of light.

[@imperlast2]

@@DanielRichards644 we need voyagers pitch meeting

[@pancake_crab4457]

Voyager being a small long range exploration vessel does make having extra reserves and repair equipment necessary. Sure, it can warp back home at extreme speed. But, if it is damaged and can't warp home it will be waiting a long while for help to arrive. Just imagine what an Antarctic expedition needs to take with it in case thing go wrong. I'd guess Voyager had 1-2 additional shuttles in storage. And, stacks of replacement parts, especially the stuff hardest to make (like warp cores). And as for major hull repairs: perhaps they had or invented replicator like those on the repair station from Enterprise.

[@terryforsdyke306]

Obviously, Voyager's crew builds them, they constructed the Delta Flyer in (if I remember correctly) 4 days, the Delta Flyer seemed to be a lot more complex and, one would assume, much more difficult to build than a standard shuttle, I figure it is closer to a runabout, so it would probably only take 1-2 days to build "regular" shuttles. The same with the Photon Torpedoes, Voyager may not have been designed to build them but I would assume the hardest part of building a Photon torpedo is getting the antimatter for the warhead

[@DragonstarFighter]

I would like to point out that the moment you have a transporter, you have the capacity to turn raw materials into any form that they can be made into... if you can molecularly deconstruct and reconstruct an object, you can deconstruct raw materials, mix, and rearrange them, to make whatever you want, if you have enough of the materials

[@seanmikeuj]

In one episode of Voyager, it did show the ship on a planet and the crew servicing the warp coils.

[@briananthony4044]

That Voyager has industrial replicators is shown in the beginning when she transports down to the planet surface 2 large shuttle sized tanks fill of water to show the Kazon. It also showed she has industrial transporters. I just finished an episode where they acquired material to rebuild the warp coils so she was restocking on the go.

[@ktoliman]

I would think, that they would use the regulator replicators to create parts to make their own industrial replicators and retrofit them into the ship. They may have even repurposed areas of the ship to house the modifications. Like converting an adjacent cargo bay to a workshop. Reasigning crew quarters to another part of the ship, and using those, now empty crew quarters as storage compartments after required modifications. The only limitation would be to keep the modifications within the original hull design as to not damage it's integrity. Interior walls can be torn down and bulkheads can be reinforced in heavily modified areas.

[@andrewhills9746]

This show just totaly lacked continuity on so many levels

[@dongilleo9743]

All the Star Trek shows had the lack of continuity problem to one extent or another. Things happen, often really bad things, and next episode it's business as usual. There were times we did get to see the longer term effects of things, and those tended to be some of the better episodes. Worf's ongoing struggle with losing and regaining his family honor, with his son, and with various people and events in the Klingon Empire, were some plot lines that were carried through multiple episodes and even seasons. Picard's recuperative trip to Earth, after his experience of being turned into a Both, was one of the times we got a good story dealing with the consequences of an immediately preceding episode.

[@Voodoomancer]

An answer that solves all these conundrums: Bootstrapping. An intrepid might not have, or be expected to need, an industrial replicator. But what if you can use normal replicators to produce the parts to build an industrial replicator? If so, it's reasonable that among the first things the Voyager did was to set up an industrial replicator in one of the cargo bays.

[@josephb8268]

Keevan the Vorta wasn't exaggerating when he said “I’m willing to bet that you’ve brought one of those famed Starfleet engineers who can turn rocks into replicators”

[@dimensionlordgambitmccoy9727]

I think the same place where they get their proton torpedoes from. Buy two get one free discount shop😎.

[@henrya3530]

We know that Voyager is operating with a smaller-than-standard crew compliment and several times during the run of the show it is mentioned that parts of the ship have been shut down because they are not needed by fewer crew. The unused parts of the ship could be repurposed/cannibalised to repair Voyager and build more shuttlecraft. In most episodes we only see a handful of "crew" plus the main characters. So what are the rest of the "crew" doing for seven years? I believe they are actually working full-time building shuttlecraft and hull plates while doing their best to avoid becoming the latest episode's "Red Shirt" ;-)

[@TiptronicSS]

I googled exactly this while rewatching Voyager last month 😄 I remember Chakotay saying, we have a full complement of shuttles at the end of season 6. They may be able to build them, but surely they can't just replicate so much material they could make a whole new Voyager with. They had to ration simple food. They lost 1 massive shuttle almost every other episode. They also had endless photon torpedoes. You can't replicate explosives surely?

[@norman7566]

Let's not forget Neelix's shuttle. So, Voyager and TOS's Constitution class ships are about equal in size and the Enterprise had a very large shuttle bay and most schematics of starships have a garage type bay below the main shuttle bay or behind. It is feasible Voyager could have held at least six shuttles and various repair pods with ease if not slightly cramped. I also wish the show had story lines centered around this and refilling resources. I guess the writers just thought the replicators filled those needs

[@C4nn15]

Possibly why they were on replicator rations during parts? So perhaps that is why, all energy was being rationed to build up those parts? Also with ram scoops they could've gotten quite a few materials? They picked up 7 of 9 and throughout ran along other species, perhaps the just done things there as well? On alien starbases?

[@lukearoo]

I suppose that the bulkiest parts of the shuttle are essentially empty, they might be prefabricated flat packed and entirely non operational requiring repliactor enhanced fabrication and part assembly, fuelling and then final assembly in the shuttle bay or nearby storage /work bay.

[@ElizaWheeler79]

I love that Prodigy has resolved this question

[@CelticCubby]

I still wish that over the seasons of Voyager the ship had slowly changed as the crew added and adapted new technologies and such over the trip home. I think it would have made it feel more like an actual long road home than what they were able to show.

[@Intrepid17011]

I think even if the didnt have a Industrial Replicator in the first Place, they should be able to build one in one of the Cargo Bays . They have Tons of Smaill Replicators, Regular Materials, they could scrap Parts and so on.

[@georgemercer402]

I personally prefer to think that Voyager made the post-battle repairs between episodes and feel that stops for bartering were done to acquire the necessary materials for said repairs; I doubt the shuttles would be left out if they were used.

[@bfjl86]

The schematics always said they could store a bunch of auxiliary craft under the main shuttle bay deck. They could build new ones to replace the lost ones but they had a back log to give away and use or destroy

[@thevoiceofthefleurieu614]

As well as that, how did the "Delta Flyer" fit into the shuttle bay when she was too big to fit inside the shuttle bay, in fact the makeshift "shuttle" also far too large to get through the doors? And considering the fact that antimatter reactions yield huge amounts of energy from relatively low use of raw matter and antimatter, I think their fuel reserves, though small, would surely have lasted far longer than was claimed in the series as well

[@paulrenes.padilla8595]

This was later explained in Star Trek: Prodigy via the presence of a vehicle/industrial replicator. Although they were short on materials and replicator energy at the beginning of the series, they could have acquired the mateials to do so on the way back.

[@Bobrogers99]

I've always wondered where they obtained the huge amounts of exotic alloys and other materials to repair damage and to construct things like the delta flyer. Add to that the fuel required to generate the huge amounts of energy to propel the ship and run enormously complex things like the holodeck.

[@tenchraven]

The Intrepid class is technically an explorer type. It would be reasonable to have a small industrial replicator on board to repair damage. The most logical place to have it, IMO, would be in the (smaller) shuttle bay. But yeah, I can't explain the anti-matter thing.

[@blazercage]

The extra ship that was on the bottom of the Voyager was the thing that made me always question the show on why they didn't fix or complete that ship on the show when they would fix or make a replacement shuttle craft.

[@keithtorgersen9664]

As far as having downtime goes, the episode “Night” indicated that there had been several weeks where absolutely nothing happened. So I am assuming that they had a great chance to prepare for contingencies well in advance.

[@CRAZYCR1T1C]

Whole episode where Tom Harris creates the Delta flyer explains it. There was even mention of the replicator being big enough to create large panels. As for resources, when you have near limitless energy from the Warp drive it is easy to mine asteroids etc along the way. How about salvaging the countless enemy ships destroyed along the way.

[@josephyoung6749]

They're a culture that can literally create matter/objects out of pure energy, of which they have a near infinite supply. The shuttles are simply and effortlessly "replicated" in a replicator, either whole or in part and then assembled.

[@MrSheckstr]

So even without calling into question the Ships ability to rebuild shuttlecraft and other expendable components (torpedoes) it’s also possible that throughout their voyages the contracted the construction and fabrication to friendly species they came across

[@amead78]

If these shuttles were capable of warp, then Voyager would need spar parts for a warp drive as well as dilithium. Also, we’re not sure how well stocked Voyager was on supplies since the initial mission was supposed to have been a short one.

[@brentsvideojournal6161]

Agreed. I wish they would have shown more about how they got the extra shuttle crafts

[@oddish4352]

A very brief scene would have resolved three, count 'em THREE of Voyager's stupidest plot holes in under a minute. Ext. scene of Voyager flying through space. Cut to inside. Janeway and the senior staff are gathered around the table. JANEWAY: "Lieutenant Torres, what's the status of the equipment we traded the Zorlonians for?" TORRES: "The plasma injectors and the warp engine manifold are functioning within normal parameters. As for the industrial replicator, we're having some issues with converting the power matrix, but we should have it online by the end of the day." JANEWAY: "Good. I want you to make a priority of producing more photon torpedoes. If the Kazon or the Vidiians show up again, I want to be ready." CHAKOTAY: "We should probably start fabricating more shuttles, too. We've lost quite a few." JANEWAY: "Agreed. Make shuttle production your second priority." TORRES: "Aye, Captain." JANEWAY: "Just one more thing to take care of. Mr. Kim, could you come up here, please?" Harry approaches. Janeway produces a black rank pip from somewhere and sticks it on his collar. JANEWAY: "As captain of this ship, I grant you field promotion to the rank of lieutenant, with all privileges and responsibilities involved. Congratulations, Mr. Kim." (applause from the others) KIM (grinning): "Thank you, Captain!" Janeway starts to continue, but is interrupted by the ship's comm, alerting them to the threat of the week. It would have been... so easy.

[@gaoutlaw]

Did the shuttle bay encompass several decks? They had at least 11 shuttles destroyed during the shows run, plus housing Neelix’s ship and the Delta Flyer, and occasionally having a guest dock in the bay.

[@virtious8]

With the vastness of space you have to imagine most of the off screen time is fairly uneventful. So they are probably maintaining, repairing, scavenging and building stuff. They built an astrometrics lab too.

[@TheSilliestWilly]

The answer to this question is simple and easy. Voyager uses their small-sized replicators to make a bunch of small, individual sheets of metal. Then, B'elanna focuses her fiery Klingon rage and fuses the metal plates into larger ones using her bare hands through sheer force of will.

[@benw9949]

If you've got a deep space vessel and you have replicators, then I'd think you could create nearly any spare parts you'd need from plans, a sort of 3D printer recipe gone wild. We do know the original Enterprise had machine shops, etc., (from blueprints and books about the making of the show, and I think from some in-show dialogue). We know the Voyager crew built the Delta Flyer by creating custom, original plans and built it from scratch. So presumably, they could built shuttles and many other things at will, as long as they had enough mass to toss into the replicator bin, so to speak.

[@beccawolf8328]

Like a lot of other people on here DELTA FLYER explains everything and if that's not enough when your stranded with no help you go into survival mode which means you scavenge, reuse and barter, which they do mention doing on the show on more than one occasion

[@dennissvensson6051]

A idea could be that replicators have a second funktion, namely being a advance 3D printer, being able to take raw material and bend it's shape to what they want. So you could put the dameged parts/raw material in the replicator, set the chape to what you want it to be and it breaks it down and rebuild it again, if some mass is missing you ad some material, if you want to change the alloy you ad that komponent you want in the brakedown process. This would probably save a large amount of energy instead of replicating everything from pure energy.

[@KinseySS]

Don't forget Neelix's ship was taking up space the whole seven years as well

[@BaconMinion]

It would only make sense for a deep space exploration ship to have at least one industrial replicator installed on them, especially when it comes to the UFP, whose design philosophy was increasingly more focused on creature comforts. Less space allocated to supplies of replacement parts that could be to more roomy quarters, or more holodecks, gyms and other recreational needs or wants. Especially if the ship is smaller than, say, the Galaxy class, which was so massive that even with quarters that can rival whole apartments in the modern world and huge water tanks for dolphins, they had ample space to spare. It would simply also be faster and easier to replicate whole cloth things like workstations or other large pieces of equipment that would be tedious to build from a host of replacement/spare parts in the cargo bay.

[@thevoiceofthefleurieu614]

Actually, you do get to see, quite literally and opening shot of the hull being repaired, along with the warp coils (S07-E07) "Nightingale"

[@ohgoditshimrun1346]

You're overlooking the obvious answer. Mulgrew herself described Janeway as being written with some unspecified psychiatric ailment. And the very first episode hinges on Tuvok not realizing that photon torpedoes have had timers built into them since TOS. Matter-antimatter annihilation warheads, built on a technology base the Kazon had never seen before, and the Kazon lacked the technological savvy to grasp how food replicators worked, so the odds of them managing to defuse an armed timer-detonated photon torpedo were several million to one against. For a veteran tactical officer to not realize that, calls the reality of the entire premise into question. And Janeway was written as a psychiatric patient... The name of the ship is Voyager. A name with a certain history for Starfleet. Starships are named by Admirals, who have security clearance to know the nasty parts of that history. I can not believe that a Starfleet Admiral would name a ship after V'ger. But I cam believe that a holodeck programmer, researching the history of human space exploration for a name not in use by Starfleet would choose the name without knowledge of V'ger. A holodeck program designed to let institutionalized psychiatric patients play-act at being responsible members of society. And every time they wreck the ship, or jettison the contents of the shuttle bay, it's very simple to say "Computer, access the Voyager program; delete all damage to the ship, and restore all shipboard supplies to default settings" before bringing the next patient to the holodeck. Kathryn Janeway makes a lot of sense as one such patient, doesn't she?

[@jonocc5548]

When the ship is fully operational I don't see any issue with replacing hull panels, manufacturing auxiliary craft or torpedoes etc. As you mention, they must have had weeks go by with nothing going on, they could literally have half the crew trained on doing specific tasks to assist with construction.

[@KertaDrake]

They probably have a cargo hold full of IKEA shuttle flatpacks. If you break down a shuttle to it's basic parts, it wouldn't take a lot of room. One cargo hold could probably hold a dozen or more if flattened out.

[@MajorButtons]

most every naval vessel today has a machine shop onboard capable of fabricating and reconditioning tools and parts for repairs and damage control while underway. this generally isn't enough to restore the ship after taking large damage but is perfectly capable of fabricating needed components for smaller craft. given starfleet vessels are a logical progression of seagoing vessels it's entirely likely all star trek ships have something similar where they can replicate components. and once that's done they can assemble the subassemblies into finished shuttles, which is clearly how they built the delta flyer.

[@jumpyg1258]

Actually the biggest one I've always heard was where does Voyager get all of its torpedoes? I saw a video once that did a count of how many they fired in the show compared to how many they said they had when the show started and it turned out that they fired like 10x the amount of torpedoes in the show than what was stated they had.

[@Blasted2Oblivion]

They majority of the torpedo can be replicated easily. The only part they couldn't replicate was the warhead and it is implied that they trade for/salvage those materials.