Monarch Class

[Mikey]

Yeah, supposedly the flat, featureless, double-strut type of Nebula pod is an enhanced sensor or "AWAC" pod.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

I don't think transporting a planet in 12 hours is too exagerated - it could work.
Assuming a planet's population of 1 billion (maybe a little small for a whole planet, but within an order of magntidue), that means transportation of 25,000 people per second. Considering it is possible, for example, for ships to relatively easily beam up hundreds of people instanteneously (Voyager and the Klingon prophecy ship, and the AGT E-D). It seems to me that this ship is quite a bit more advanced that Voyager, so for it to be able to beam up at a rate of approximately 50 times greater than that of Voyager isn't all that difficult to imagine - when you take into account it has a dedicated warp core (small or not, they provide immense power), is some years in the future, and will have the most advanced, specialised transporter equipment there is...

Fine... but where do you PUT 1 billion people? Nothing seen in Trek but the Dyson sphere is big enough to hold that, certainly no Starfleet ship. UNLESS, of course, they have subspace transporters that can beam them to another planet...

[Thorin]

That's just the practical side of it - in theory the ship has the power and ability to transport a planet in 12 hours. What you'll do with them is a different matter - maybe move to a space station, another planet in the same system, an orbiting moon. Or even rather than beaming them off a planet, it could also just beam them to the otherside of the planet - if they knew an asteroid was going to hit, or a massive earthquake etc. I think that would be most likely - beaming them to a different place on the planet.

[Captain Seafort]

How the hell can you extrapolate the ability to transport a few hundred people in one go (which always takes several seconds from the order to transport to the transport being completed) to beinng able to transport hundreds of thousands per second? If that pod were packed with transporters I could imagine perhaps a couple of thousand being transported in a single cycle, but not tens of thousands per second.

I maintain that the best way to describe the ship's tranportation ability would be in terms of evacuating a typical Fed colony (with a population of single-digit to low double-digit thousands) or transporting and deploying a brigade and its equipment.

[Thorin]

How the hell can you extrapolate the ability to transport a few hundred people in one go (which always takes several seconds from the order to transport to the transport being completed)

There is no under, it's a continious cycle of transporting thus no communication delay of the order.

to beinng able to transport hundreds of thousands per second? If that pod were packed with transporters I could imagine perhaps a couple of thousand being transported in a single cycle, but not tens of thousands per second.

Because it's some years in the future, has it's own warp core - clearly when Voyager transported the Klingon people onboard, the number you can beam isn't limited by the number of pads you have (I think that just helps). If the 4 transporter rooms (or something) can transport hundreds of people instantly (presumably they could do more, also), then I imagine a place that has much greater capabilities (being in the future some years), far more power, and far more transporter systems would be able to multiply the number being transported by previous ships.

I maintain that the best way to describe the ship's tranportation ability would be in terms of evacuating a typical Fed colony (with a population of single-digit to low double-digit thousands) or transporting and deploying a brigade and its equipment.

You maintain that, then. I'm not interested in your personal view on it - the OP makes clear it's an 'entire planet' - hardly a small colony.

[Deepcrush]

It also doesn't have to transport everyone aboard just one ship. It could just act as a hub with its better trans speed.

[mwhittington]

Okay, okay please, no bickering. How about we compromise and say it can transport approx. 500 million in 24 hours? And it can hold them in transporter stasis if needed for up to 10 days. I think that would be feasible. Let me know. And yes, the Nebula also had an SWAC pod, but the one on mine is 3 times as sensitive and has 75% greater range.

[Bryan Moore]

Leave the pod, take the cannolis.