Fact vs Science Fiction in Navy Museums
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- In Star Trek Picard Season 3 episode 6, viewers are introduced to Starfleet's Fleet Museum at Athan Prime. In the tradition of the US Naval Academy Museum's NavyCon series, in which presenters discuss real-world navy operations, platforms and issues through the lens of science fiction, our Director, Dr. Claude Berube, provides his assessment of the Fleet Museum
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As per behind the scenes sources, Kronos One is on loan from the Klingons, and some ships from the museum are on loan elsewhere or visiting elsewhere. The whole thing as presented feels borderline more like a Commemorative Air Force, and one could think of the spacedock facility as being a maintenance and repair hub for these ships (whose older equipment isn't necessarily compatible with fleet logistics anymore), but not necessarily their permanent home at all times. Incidentally, said spacedock is also a historical artifact, being the original Earth spacedock from the TOS movies.
On the subject of behind the scenes info, I can imagine what they did with Saratoga could have been contentious with fleet veterans, heh.
I was thinking that it’s closer to the National Museum of the United States Air Force than any naval ship museum, though even more integrated into the active force than NMUSAF.
I’m curious about your Saratoga reference. I know that the Miranda-class Saratoga there was the early one, contemporary with Reliant, which at some point was mothballed and replaced by a newer Miranda-class Saratoga which was destroyed at Wolf 359, and that the earlier ship was then cosmetically refitted to resemble the later version for display. I’m not sure why that would be contentious.
@@SamCogley I think Turkur4738 was referring to Saratoga CV-2 and Saratoga CV-60. When her service ended and she was declared surplus, CV-2 became part of the fleet "expended" during the Able and Baker nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll. CV-60 had been placed on "Museum Donation Hold" for a time after she was retired. At least one organization attempted to obtain the ship from the Navy but failed to meet the financial requirements, to prove that they could generate the revenue to keep the ship up much like Ryan Szmanski shows us frequently, the maintenance, preservation and repair work needed to preserve a 50,000 ton artifact exposed to the weather and salt water 24/7/365. What those conditions can do to a museum ship is clearly demonstrated by the work now being done on Battleship Texas and the damages they are attempting to put right.
Saratoga CV-60 was eventually sold to a shipbreaker in Brownsville Texas. She's gone now. John F Kennedy CV-67 will be making that final voyage from Philly to Brownsville shortly, she has been sold to the same company that broke up Saratoga and is now breaking Kitty Hawk CV-63.
@@robertf3479 I was assuming he was referring to the in-universe Saratoga situation, where an older, retired Saratoga was cosmetically redressed for the museum to represent a later Saratoga of the same general class that was destroyed in battle.
@@SamCogley I think what they did with the Saratoga is fine. Hardly anyone from the 23rd century Saratoga would still be around to care, and the veterans of Wolf 359 would appreciate a permanent memorial to one of the survivors who later became a war hero. Plus I think people in the Federation seem more pragmatic about this sort of thing than worrying about "violating" an old ship.
@@ffnbbq there weren’t many veterans of the massacre. We know that a handful escaped the 24th century Saratoga, and at least 10 escaped the Constance, but 11,000-ish died on the 39 ships destroyed.
The Klingons probably don't their ships in the museum. It's a captured trophy, they'd be proud to show off anything they took
The Federation didn’t capture Kronos One. That had to have been loaned or given by the Empire. The Bounty was captured by Kirk in STIII.
Yeah, I will somewhat agree with this. The Klingons do belive in these sorts of trophies. While it was an international incident at the time, it's possible after the war ended they released claims to it.
@@jhmcd2 I would imagine that after Kirk saved Azetbur’s life (and her father’s legacy), in addition to renouncing the Empire’s desire for Kirk’s head on a platter, she probably allowed Starfleet to keep the Bounty as, if nothing else, a memorial to the role it played in saving Earth.
Klingons are big on honor and obedience to the empire. Kruge conducted an unsanctioned operation, was outsmarted by Kirk, his crew killed and ship taken as a prize. The Klingons probably let the Federation have the ship as it was a reminder of a disgraceful defeat as well as a stain to the honor of the Klingon fleet. Though why they didn't demand at least to have the cloaking device destroyed or permanently disabled as per the Treaty of Algeron is beyond me.
@@Ideo7Z the Treaty of Algeron was with the Romulans. I don’t know if the Klingons were signatories. By the time Starfleet found the Bounty and fished it out of the water, it may have been so obsolete that the Empire simply didn’t care, as long as there were safeguards to keep someone from running off with it.
Something else I didn’t think of. Klingons are big on hunting. They may very well have a bent towards conservation and see hunting a species to extinction that is not a threat to other forms of life (like Tribbles being voracious AF) as dishonorable. As such, Kirk and his command crew using the captured Bounty to not only defeat an opponent threatening to destroy Earth, but undo a dishonorable act that humanity’s ancestors visited upon another species would be an honorable act, something that they would be willing to commemorate by officially handing over title to the Bounty for use as a display. In that line of thought, they might also gain some respect for Kirk (from their “we want his head for his treachery in killing Kruge and his crew” position at the start o the movie) risking his life to swim back into the flooded and sinking Bounty to free the trapped whales.
Canadian MuseumShip volunteer here
The starfleet museum is really the combo of my two largest passions. museumships and sci-fi. seeing as the station is HUGE I imagine its almost a resort in space, with hotels, and other attractions built into it. There seems to be a lot of TNG era ships ships there, only 40 years old at most showing maybe a uptake in interest in Star Fleet among the population following the Dominion War.
Great video
USS Pioneer is supposed to be there, but is out on display elsewhere. As we can see in the Picard outro, it’s contemporary with the Constitution I class. The NX-01 is there, Sulu’s Excelsior, the Constitution II-class 1701-A, the first Miranda-class Saratoga (contemporary of the Constitution II-class), the Bounty and Kronos One (also contemporary of the Constitution II-class, the Constitution I-class New Jersey, and a Romulan Warbird of Constitution I-era vintage. Straddling the gap a bit is the Stargazer, built not too long after Excelsior going by registry, but out of service in the mid 24th century. The TNG era ships are Defiant, Voyager, a Nebula-class, two Akira-class ships, and i think a Saber-class. It seems like most of their ships date to the mid to late 23rd century, with some having service lives into the early to mid 24th.
@@SamCogley you cannot go by registry Number alone as shown with a few outlier numbers in TNG+ classes that are very low while the normal ships have 75000-100000 style numbers... but the Stargazer has a style of naccelles fitting in the Conny refit/Excelsior/Miranda Era (or simply said "Movie decades") too.
@@Ugly_German_Truths Picard always referred to the ‘Gazer as an old ship, the Constellations were built using components similar to the Miranda and Constitution II classes, and it had a 2xxx registry. It was obviously built in the late 2200s or very early 2300s.
@@SamCogley I generally assume the 2280s, as that is implied for the similar USS Hathaway NCC-2593, described in TNG season 2 as 'an eighty year old starcruiser'.
So that would probably be around 2285, the same year as Wrath of Khan (per typical chronologies)
TBH we do know that they have holographis versions not only of most important ships, but the events in which they participated. So my guess is that museum is rather not for casual people, but huge nerds and historians. Who actually would want experience whole thing IRL. My main issue is rather composition of the ships. Most of ships on display has maybe around 20 years? They waste opportunity to show actual range of Federation history. Like for example, where Kelvin Era ships? (i mean pre-time alteration) or Discovery and SNW? Even if we ignore Beta canon designs, there is some number of old ships missing. With few exceptions I feel, I would experience more history by flying active duty Dedalus.
First, Thank you for this video it raises a number of very valid points.
Now let’s nit pick. The Base is the former earth Space dock which is as such something of a display it’s self. It’s size likely means that it’s not just the Museum but also hotels and restaurant to guests. It’s size is considerable yet the Turbolifts of trek serve as both elevator and subway car meaning one likely can visit the ships as they like.
This said we know that the interior of the station is considerable as well allowing for vast displays and even more ships to be house as well as repair.
The Ships around the station are primarily Starfleet vessels with the exceptions being the Bird of prey, Ktinga and Bounty. The Bop class we know canonically is available in other museums and used by pirates, besides the Romulan empire is in extreme decline. It may fall into the same category as Russian naval ships that ended up in China. The K’tinga is Qunos One from ST6 and on loan from the Klingon Navy. The Bounty is the trouble maker. First the live cloak then the ship itself. The Klingons seem to view trophies as just in their law of war. They may have decided that Kirk had won the Bounty. The cloak is another can of worms. It should have been gutted. Unless the fleet museum serves another function. One thought is that Starfleet Academy actually uses the Fleet museum not just for guests but also as an Engineering school. The facility would certainly have the size to house a campus. And it would explain how Starfleet academy seems to serve as both HQ and campus for a Navy that should be graduating classes in the hundreds of thousands. It could be that the San Francisco campus serves as a command school setting well other campuses possibly reusing modern military academy campuses and off world bases are used for more specialized training. With the fleet museum serving as a hands on setting for Starfleet’s engineers looking to learn miracles.
I think your observation about Klingon culture is apt. Klingons had great respect for Kirk as an adversary, and taking the Bounty would be commonly viewed as the just spoils of victory, no matter what the Klingon government would have protested at the time.
Plus, it's been over a century. The Klingons clearly stopped caring about one old ship.
I think your interpretation of a dispersed Academy of many campuses (campi?) is supported by things like Wesley's entrance exam happening at a facility far from Sol.
The museum serving as an engineering campus makes a ton of sense, and really justifies Geordi running it.
Further, I think Geordi would be personally compelled to keep every ship in their care in as operational a condition as he could... Even if it violated the treaty of Algeron.
Finally, the activities in hangar 12 certainly support the idea of a robust engineering faculty there.
@@brendancaulfield970 The only drawback to the argument is that the facility was not overrun with the Borg Generation.
@@cherokee43v6 we don’t know that it wasn’t. Just that Hangar 12, which was kind of Geordi’s private project space, was clear.
@@ffnbbq they officially wanted his head at the start of STIV. After preventing Azetbur’s decidedly non-honorable assassination, paving the way for the rapprochement that Spock and Gorkon had been working towards which would prevent the utter collapse of the Empire, I would imagine that she relinquished any rights to the Bounty, both as a trophy of Kirk’s victory over Kruge, and that it was a Klingon ship that saved Earth from devastation.
Fun video! Thanks for the real world insight into a fictional museum.
In terms off Star Trek lore and how they view history, Starfleet on many occasions through all the series have been shown to have a deep respect and curiosity for not only their own history but other culture's. I think would be safe to say history and the preservation of it is very important. Also the design of the fleet museum is that way cause it was not designed to be a museum. It was a starbase and designed to be a resupply and service hub for deep space vessels. And as someone mentioned the starbase was also the original design of bases from the original series, Seems in Picard was repurposed and turned into a museum. Little fan service. But in a way like how they turned ships into museums.
More than that, it's supposed to actually be the Spacedock from the TOS movies, towed there when they replaced it
I’d imagine the inside of the Fleet Museum is looks like the Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, in that it is packed with other spacecraft. So the outside moorings might be necessary.
The Bounty was captured in battle, so the Klingons are probably fine with it being a prize.
To the victor goes the spoils. It was taken honorably, and to return it would be an insult.
I love the use of Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Final Unity's astrogation screen background music. Awesome game, and Sir, your Trekkie credentials are absolutely rock solid. I salute you.
I'm a graduate student studying international relations and diplomacy in Ottawa. My city here has a number of military museums located in it, including the Canadian War Museum and the Canadian Aviation Museum, both of which house probably the most impressive assortment of military equipment both the Army and the Airforce have used historically in my country's history.
This analysis actually really gave me an impressive policy appreciation of why these institutions are located where they are, and why some of my other favorite museums (Imperial War Museum in London UK, and the Armee de l'Armee in Paris) are located similarly. You seriously have no idea how much I appreciate you guys putting up a video like this, especially as a Trekkie.
The official Canadian Airforce museum is in Trenton, ON. I suspect that was chosen for logistic reasons as the larger artifacts benefit from the facility being attached to CFB Trenton, one of the nation's largest airbases.
I live not far from Battleship Cove in Fall River Massachusetts, it home to the Battleship Massachusetts and other decommissioned vessels turned into museum ships. It's really something to see, we get a lot of tourists and vets that come to the area for tours.
Let's be clear.
- starfleet museum is an annex network so no central location exhibits all ships.
- interstellar travel is encouraged thus ships will go to the Museum.
- fleet museum is a working Starbase hence its busy with thousands a day.
- Enterprise E is not in the fleet museum location......hence its somewhere
- museum is actually Earth's old spacedock from TOS movies. Thus starfleet has means to move stations.
Love this! As someone who volunteers in the independent museum sector I had similar thoughts!
The other question I'd have is... why aren't the ships all INSIDE, not only to protect them from radiator and meteors but also just to use the existing berths inside Spacedock?
It is also possible that the Starfleet museum also functions as a reserve fleet. While some exhibits, such as Enterprise-A, are clearly no longer suitable for service, many of the vessels on display are from the latter half of the TNG era, making most of them less than 30-50 years old. There are 2 Akira class vessels depicted; and we know those were still in service as of Episode 1 of Picard's 2nd Season. The federation has been known to still use ships up to 75+ years old. While I expect combat experience from the Dominion War has changed that doctrine, they may still want to keep semi-current hulls around. To justify the resources used in upkeep, these ships moonlight as tour exhibits.
In the real world this isn't done. IIRC there is provision in the Geneva Conventions that prohibits the use of cultural relics in warfare. When you consider who the other major political powers of the Alpha & Beta quadrant are, an equivalent treaty binding the Federation is unlikely. The only thing stopping the Fleet museum from fulfilling this dual purpose would be historic precedent of Humanity, which the Vulcan's would likely find illogical. It also explains why there is an active duty officer in charge as well.
I also don't think it is Geordie's first choice to be serving as the commander of the fleet museum. In dialog with his daughter, it is specified that Commander Laforge openly resisted the networking of the fleet. Officers who publicly oppose policy directives, particularly if their opinion represents the minority, can find their careers sidelined. No organization is immune from internal politics. Geordie Laforge is too big of legend to be sent away to a frontier command, but putting him in charge of the historic fleet would disguise his re-assignment as honour while removing him from a position of power that could resist the shift in policy/doctorine.
You mention ships 75 years old, I will point out that the US's current carriers are intended to last 50 years, SSBNs 40 years, and I seem to recall reading back in the day in the TNG tech manual that the Galaxy class was intended to last 100 years
@@ericboynton9937 most of our nuclear ships even our Amphibious Assault ships are so capital intensive we make them with 50 year old lifespans and if needed maybe beyond that the Eisenhower and Nimitz Carriers are undergoing that review right now to explore that possibility of extention.
It has at least a strong "mothballing" vibe to it. And seems set up more to instruct engineers or historians on original hardware than to guide lots of private visitors through so much ... space aboard dozens of vessels and the frigging ginormous space dock...
A combined fleet museum and mothball fleet? that makes sense.
@@ericboynton9937 I think the Borg and Dominion conflicts, and the associated rapid technology advances, lead to the projected 100 year service life of the Galaxy class being wildly optimistic.
While the Miranda and Excelsior classes, and a few of the Constelllation class, are still in service in the later third of the 24th century, a lot of them seem to be newer builds based on their hull numbers. Proven, reliable spaceframe, relative inexpensive to build in quantity, and not needing huge crews especially when outfitted with 24th century systems. They’re the destroyers and frigates of Starfleet. (Supporting that thought is the presence of the late 23rd century Saratoga in the museum, while a later build Saratoga of the same hull class was lost at Wolf 359.)
Then there is the B-52, which is almost certainly going to cross 100 years in service (and at the rate things are going, individual -52H airframes are also going to cross that threshold). Likewise, the DC-3/C-47 is very close to being the first airframe to cross 100 years in commercial service, and there are even some Basler rebuilds in military service almost 80 years after the *last* C-47 was built.
In regards to the HMS Bounty, it's Captain Kruge, was considered a "renegade" among other Klingons due to the peace treaty in place.
While the Klingon Empire at the time was adversarial to the Federation, the peace that had started to settle in was to the Empire's benefit since it allowed them to focus their resources on other projects at the time.
The Bounty and her crew was instrumental in saving the Klingon empire.
Thank you so much for the expert analysis! One thing I’d say though- little of the museum was built for that purpose. They mentioned that the Starbase was actually the original Earth Spacedock, which I had assumed was done for historical value of the station once it was retired
Museums often show foreign exhibits. However usually the exhibits are ancient. The Romulans live a long time so they may have strong feelings. This is an interesting point! This was an interesting video thank you!
I would imagine that the Fleet Museum complex is dedicated to just that. With 250 years of Starfleet history, as well as the potential of having the pre-warp terrestrial naval histories of each of the Federation members, which are likely on a rotational schedule, it'd take a dedicated Space Dock level station to manage it all. If this is indeed the case, then the point of commercial access is probably a similar orbital complex to the Museum located on the other side of the planet and likely over Athan Prime's planetary capital, hence the lack of commercial traffic. As to where a station like this would be sourced from, then you'd find a ready supply in all the 23rd-century space docks that would be or soon facing retirement after being sized out as newer and ever larger starships necessitated ever larger volumes within to fulfill these ship's needs. Starships the size of the 1701-F wouldn't be able to fit through the same doors that the Excelsior barely squeezed through in ST:3. With these starbases facing retirement and likely dismantling, it is likely that newer member worlds and assorted colonies would be all too happy to take these complexes off Starfleets hands.
Given the number of times that Sector 001 has come under attack in the last 50 years, it probably wasn't all that safe to keep these historically priceless vessels in orbit of Earth, necessitating their relocation. If each of the vessels were kept in like new condition, then they were all likely to make the relocation trip under their power. If not, then like the Adm. Kuznetsov itself, it's always good to have a tug or three around.
As to the non-Starfleet vessels on display, to the victor goes the spoils, as Commander Tomalak pointed out rather sinisterly when he said that he'd happily display the broken hull of the Enterprise in the Romulsn capital. The Klingons would be no different, given their similar martial culture, though you didn't hear that from me...:looks around to see if there are any angry Klingons about to descend upon me for even daring to make such a correlation: =D
I think that there are more ships on display or are being restored on the inside. I think Geordi transferred to the museum to make sure the Enterprise-D was restored. He may have been in charge of the recovery operation to get the saucer section from the crash site.
Thanks for this video! It is refreshing to hear a first-hand experienced voice critique these details that I don't think we, let alone the writers, think through enough.
Great video. Real-world Navy meets Starfleet is in my wheelhouse.
I don't think that the Federation fleet museum is used quite the same way as a modern fleet museum. But more like that of a mothball fleet, where decommissioned ships can be kept and maintained for later use.
Excellent, excellent video! And thank you for your service to both our country and our country’s history.
I can’t think of anything that you got wrong, but you would know better than me. As much as I enjoyed this episode, these were the very thoughts that crossed my mind: Why is this in the middle of nowhere? And it clearly is in the middle of nowhere, because it clearly doesn’t have any visitors or staff, other than Geordi and his daughter (who is quite young for such a “quiet” posting), which is odd. So secluded is this place, that a rogue ship this size of the Titan can quietly slip in and out, unnoticed; literally park themselves at one of the conveniently open moorings and NOBODY NOTICES-and they proceed to use this as an isolated base of operations, even returning to it later. They clearly feel comfortable enough in their belief that no one (other than Geordi and his daughter) is going to observe them here. No one is there (which kind of makes the museum sadly pointless, doesn’t it?).
Why is this spacedock so unmanned, so isolated, yet so HUGE? It could be argued that this classically designed station is itself a retired massive city in space and is, itself, part of the display. This seems akin to putting all of downtown Manhattan on display as an empty museum piece. Perhaps it was damaged in the Dominion War and moved here…to nowhere…to serve as the museum that nobody visits.
I also had the same thoughts about the foreign ships. Now, I would tend to agree that the IKS Gorkon is likely donated by the Klingons, because to my knowledge, it was never captured. It was part of a historical event, there was a battle, but ultimately the event ended in a historical agreement between powers. There’s no other reason for the Gorkon to be in Federation possession, other than donation by the Klingons. The “Bounty” is a different matter. It WAS captured. However, I would speculate that following the Accords, with Kirk and crew having saved the proceedings and possibly the life of the new chancellor, I could see how an agreement might have been made. The Klingon sense of honor might also allow for Kirk having “won it” fair and square, and then save the galaxy a few more times, including at the Accords, I could see how the Klingons could have a certain admiration for that and allow it to be on display.
The Romulans, however, are a different matter. I don’t see them ever taking kindly to the Federation displaying one of their ships.
I would suggest that the large mooring rings might be large shield or force field generators to protect these vessels from even elemental things such as micrometeorites. That’s what I assumed when I saw them. But I’m not sure why Geordi would have access to a full compliment of weapons to load onto the Enterprise, which again they are able to steal unnoticed.
-Its not in the middle of nowhere, its a few hours from Earth at most. Like how the Marine Corps Museum is 30 miles outside of town.
-The Titan blended in because it was another ship being added to the fleet of ships already present, but they even mention its a very temporary solution.
-People were at the museum, they just can't trust them because they didn't know who was a changeling. Also the fleet was focusing its efforts getting ready for Frontier day, so most tourists would have been there instead.
-Starfleet has built multiple of these types of Stations. It is a commonly used design.
-They dug the Bounty up from the ocean long after Kirk's time. Klingon's would not care about a century old ship being displayed. Gorkon was likely a donation, or saved from a Klingon scrap yard.
-Romulans do appreciate science and history, and would also not be mad about an obsolete vessel being on display in the Federation, especially now that their government doesn't exist.
-The Station likely still serves as a defense platform for the people on the planet, and would have its own defenses. Also likely to protect the cloaks on the 3 vessels from being stolen. Not to mention the torpedoes are likely taken off the ships in storage and just kept on the station.
This was an interesting analysis.
Thank you.
It's reminded me how much I enjoy museums. 😉
Thank you for an interesting and informative comparison. When I first understood that the museum included Klingon & Romulan vessels I thought this was potentially controversial. I posted online if Federation enemies might then have Starfleet vessels on display in their museums and learned some novels already discuss this Romulans in particular.
TY for this - this answered all the questions I had too! most informative and keep up the good work, museums are amazing places!
I think one of the reasons for the Fleet Museum to be around a planet system near the SOL system, but not in it is clear in Trek lore. In many books and shows some non human worlds see Starfleet as Human centric. Yes a lot of alien member worlds have ships and people in the fleet, but the fleet still has a lot of humans. To move the museum to another world helps show the fleet does not just want to be earth side. Plus it brings tourists to that new system. Also the base housing the FM is the first earth Spacedock, the one seen in the TOS movies. It would not make sense to keep that in the SOL system with the new spacedock. It makes the old SD as a museum piece as well. Plus in cannon and beta cannon the SOL system has tons of stations and bases. It would make no sense to place it there. Also the Federation is said to have almost a thousand member worlds and systems. Not everything is locate in SOL. Its like Star Wars were there is the core worlds and the fringes are much father out.
You missed the most important reason the museum couldn't be in the Sol system.... it wouldn't work with the story they wanted to tell!
I suspect the "Fleet Museum" may have been a fan-service kiss, giving us something back to the 1970s fan-generated space docks, space stations, and starbases that contained ships and large grassy promenades. It's incredible and humbling the level of detsil fans and aircraft engineers put into Star Trek "engineering and history" in print.
Thus, the Cygnus website is always a heartwarming site to visit. When I was aboard the USS FLINT (AE-32) from Jann85 to March 86, several of the GMGs, BMs, and others played the FASA Star Trek games, using die and deck drawings. I can still hear them rolling hex die, consulting a cheat sheet of damage and regenerations and what not in the Ship's Library (a MT 53 SHIPALT'd into the library...).
I didn't play, but I did buy the game sets for the alternative and supplementary view of the Federation, Klingon, and Romulan Star Empire ships. But, I also drew my interpretation of USN SSNs and SSBNs to enough detail (in 1982 a 7-bladed propeller on one of my SSBNs with realistic take, skew, and pitch) that torqued him pretty badly (he yelled at me and declared they blade I drew represented USN Top Secret information. Well, after I saw the cover picture, I immediately hated my earlier props. So, I cut an aluminum beer can and tested 2-10 bladed props cut and shaped, and placed arop a Bic pen. The 7-bladed when blown down on lififted so fast it cut my face. So, heart warmed, I picked it, lol). I otherwise only took cues from the cover of a USNIP Issue showing a tarp-covered JMSDF or European navy diesel sub sporting a 7-bladed prop. It was an article on how Toshiba compromising the USN's ability to reliably track then-Soviet subs.
As for the Federation museum, Geordi could not run that facility alone, so, it's lamentable that STP didn't show any digital crew, docents, and security. Perhaps even midshipman and special contractors theoretically would visit and spend 2 to 6 week stints there for officer and contract repair quals, like SIMA/NAVELEX/MOTU/MTT/AIMD, etc?
I clicked on this thinking, "this museum guy's probably gonna use some points about Star Trek that were written down for him." I was wrong. This guy knows his Star Trek. Kudos!
Thanks. I'm pretty sure I'm the only Trekkie on staff. Hope you also enjoy this more controversial presentation I did at a NavyCon about the Battle of Coppelius. trekmovie.com/2020/07/05/us-naval-academy-professor-argues-for-single-ship-design-seen-in-star-trek-picard-battle-of-coppelius/
I always loved museums because they are fascinating places to visit. The uneasy part about museums are the security guards patrolling as if someone may try to steal any of the priceless artifacts. The guards may also stand in the museum gift shop like they were watching for potential shoplifters.😂
Thanks for an interesting perspective.
This is an informative, entertaining and quite thorough analysis. Thank you very much.
Fantastic analysis. Glad I stumbled across this video
Great presentation. BTW, thank you for your service!
thanks for doing all this. the presentation was fantastic.
A large part of the reason I joined the USN was Horatio Hornblower, and..."Star Trek".
Same!
I got the sense that this museum was more of a reference collection. It was more a place for engineers and cadets to study older technology, and not so much of a tourist destination.
Very nice. One of thr most entertaining videos I'd seen in ages.
The fleet museum is very likely somewhere near the heart of Federation border or between some founding member species territory. Although this show is made on earth and it is cheaper to put humans as members of Starfleet, it does not mean what we see on screen is the whole story. The Federation outside of humanity would likely have been begging for a piece of history to be proud of near them, and likely got them commissioned through one of the Federation’s former non-human presidents.
This was an excellent video. Thank you!
This is so great, thank you!
Thank you for your service, sir.
Great video and analysis!
thanks man, nice to put a real wold aspect to this. i lived near the old Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne, its not ised now for old war vehicles from especially the Vucars factoy any more.
Geordi ended up showing the historical value of the Enterprise D, lmao.
Although only mentioned directly in non-canon sources (ST Encyclopedia, novels, Ships of the Line calendar), it was always assumed that the Starfleet Museum was an annex to the Smithsonian in Earth orbit. This makes a whole lot more sense than moving the original spacedock to some different planet ( that's not one of founding members), especially with Earth being not only Federation capital, but housing both Federation AND Starfleet headquarters.
With respect to the question of location, Athan prime is close enough to Earth for a shuttlecraft (admittedly a 25th Century shuttlecraft with highly advanced warp engines) to zip there, the crew to liberate an item in preparation for exhibit, and for that item's presumably slower warp drive to deliver them back to the Sol system in less time than it takes a huge fleet to destroy a space station.
It's similarly close enough to the Daystrom institute's off-site station to travel from there to Athan, appeal unsuccessfully to the resistant C/O, reminisce, steal a cloaking device, install it, and get back to Daystrom inside an hour.
I think it's safe to say both locations are within our local group of stars, 10 light-years or less.
That's a day-trip excursion for tourists on Earth, likely with a dedicated transport shuttlebus leaving and returning every hour.
And we must not forget that the Spacedock itself had to have been transported there from Earth. Probably a fleet of low warp tugboats and a huge warp field propagation network installed across the station to maintain field and structural integrity. They wouldn't have taken it far.
Thanks for this video, it was very interesting seeing the US approach to your military history. I would like to add that there is also a WW2 era submarine called HMS Alliance in "a sort of dry dock" in Gosport, just accross the harbour from Portsmouth in the UK.
The could have parked the old spacedock (the museum) in orbit of Jupiter but that runs into plot issues. Even Saturn would have been fine but parking it at "8th and Pine" is fine too. Also I spent 5 hours climbing around the USS Alabama. The Star Fleet Museum would be like a week's vacation for me if this was real.
Yup, while I enjoyed Picard, the notion that they swiped a functioning cloak from the Bounty made me roll my eyes, especially since the Federation has forsworn that technology by treaty. It's comparable to stealing a functional nuclear-armed Polaris missile from a decommissioned sub.
To be fair, the political entity they signed that treaty with no longer exists.
It is odd the cloaking device wasn't removed for secure storage somewhere though, given it's sensitive technology.
@@entropy11 I figure Starfleet still just doesn't use cloaking devices on principle with or without the Treaty of Algeron, but their intelligence agencies do.
There was a TNG novel where Scotty (the one Picard and co rescued from the Dyson Sphere) visited the fleet museum and stole the cloaking device Kirk stole from The Enterprise Incident, and used it to abscond with the USS Constellation (which indeed, was somehow spaceworthy and fueled).
Thanks, this was a fun video and my first introduction to the USNA museum. All hail the algorithm? That's how I got here. Well, that and Star Trek of course.
Such a brilliant analysis, you really should be a consultant for the entertainment industry, they could use somebody with the knowledge and blue water experience that you have. I will definitely visit the Naval Academy Museum when I am in the DC area again!
This video will probably get you more views then all your other videos. I even just shared it on face book.
You should make more videos comparing how Star Fleet and other sci fi Navies work to how a real one would.
The museum station is the original Earth Space Dock - so its not designed specifically to be a museum, but it makes sense that it is *itself* an exhibit.
You are forgetting a few things in the overall premise of this video.
-Starfleet is not a military organization. It is a militaristic Scientific Armada. So a museum would not be for recruitment or to justify themselves like Armed Forces need to.
-Starfleet would absolutely put those ships on display to mark their history and heritage. To teach people about the past and they would dedicate resources to this endeavor.
-Money isn't and issue and with the size of the Federation resources are essentially unlimited. Building ships during the Dominion war was a matter of time and personnel, not materials. So during 30 years of peace time it would be nothing for them to build a Spacedock type station. I would also image the planet was a resort world and people would visit the museum during their trips. Like the museums at Pearl Harbour.
I really appreciate the in-universe canonical attempt to rationalize what was clearly meant to be an (almost?) over-the-top fan servicey moment. I know I couldn't stop grinning at seeing a true to form, faithful, 100% canonically accurate TOS Connie (USS New Jersey, NCC-1975).
I wonder if you'll do a followup video about how utterly ridiculous the "resurrection" of the D was. I can't imagine that's how it works IRL.
The closest comparison would probably be raising sunken battleships from Pearl Harbor and repairing them to fight later WW2. But they weren't rebuilt to be museum ships.
Most informative, thank you! In the tie-in comic Star Trek Countdown, Geordi La Forge is said to have designed the Jellyfish vehicle Spock was piloting in the movie Star Trek (2009), in use about 14 years before this story. If Geordi was working on the Enterprise-D for 20 years, it suggests he also designed at least one ship while at this museum posting.
You’re using the Final Unity navigation panel music. I see you there. 🖖🏻🖖🏻
The museum being the original Earth space dock, makes me think an apt comparison might be to the Intrepid museum in NYC - where it is both that there are various things on display, but also that the display base itself is a significant artefact.
This is fun. Go Navy!
Really good analysis
Thank you! That was so interesting! I'm ok with the info in this video. Perhaps a follow up talking about the season finale? A lot of people saying the Titan shouldn't be renamed Entprise G but would love your assessment.
Thank you for the excellent and informative assessment! I found it interesting comparing both actual military museums to a fictional museum. I wonder if this museum was limited to Starfleet personnel and their families only which explains the lack of traffic. Also it could because you have the frontier day celebrations happening where active starships can be seen so why go and see the de-activated ship when you can see a fully functional starship near Earth?
As for Geordi being in command, the wiki says he was at Mars helping with the evacuation fleet mentioned in Season 1 so it could be that he wanted an easy end to his career but I wonder if he got moved there by Starfleet Command as a result of the attack on Mars.
As for the cloaking device, plot convivence. Easy to overlook that. Also they could have taken it from the romulan ship or Kronos One (leaving a note saying 'borrowed your cloaking device, will return in a few days')
Probably the way to look at the Fleet Museum is a cross between the USAF museum and AMARG, where there is a lot of research on storage and refurbishment of older aircraft.
I’m curious how they got Spacedock from Earth to this other planet.
It could have a ring warp drive. Enterprise TV series shows a large saucer-shaped moon mining base with a ring warp drive.
I imagine a small fleet of ships could probably merge their warp fields around it and get it (slowly) to its destination.
@@mos6581com Yeah, a larger version of how DS9 was moved across the Bajor system on just a handful of thrusters.
Towed by tugs.
@@ffnbbq High sublight speed is too slow for interstellar travel.
the biggest elephant in the room is how did Commodore Geordi Laforge who spent 20 years rebuilding a Galaxy class ship in hangar 12 go undetected from starfleet command and the fleet supply office?
I presume the project is in the budget and starfleet knows. But nobody who would think to tell the brige crew about it reads the budget, so Laforge was keeping it as a surprise for them until it was finished and ready for display.
One of my biggest questions concerning the Fleet Museum is "Where is everybody?" and I'm glad that was touched on in this video. We don't see any planetary traffic, no museum traffic, and no staff other than Geordie and his daughter. Who is doing the ship maintenance and restoration work there? Who is running and maintaining the museum?
They mention in dialog that the museum is not open at the time Titan-A is there.
It likely does not take as much effort to maintain these ships as in our world. One early episode of TNG had the ship get a deep clean at a star base. The cleaning consisted of all crew leaving the ship and a powerful energy wave being sent over the ship that destroyed all organic material on the ship.
the simple answer is everyone is at earth celebrating foundation day.
@@mr6johnclark I think that's pretty much it. They closed the museum for the event.
@@Evil0tto some times the best answers is the simple ones.
I would imagine that an amount of maintenance is done by industrial transporter/replicators based on spacedock. have the fabric and cushions of the chairs on Ent-A deteriorated? just hit a button and the transporter/replicator will de-materialize the cushions and reconstitute them to exactly how they were when Ent-A was first scanned in to the museum's database. plastics liquified? carpets worn out? lightbulbs blown? wood rotting? same solution.
When it comes to valuing history, picard is a historian and regularly brings up history and TNG onwards does have more positive cases of historians. I'd say that starfleet does have some value for history, mainly what can be learned from it rather than any sort of patriotic value, more purely educational.
As for their ships, it could be more that starfleet doesn't like to appear militaristic and having a load of ships that featured in historical battles might come across in ways they don't really want to.
Subbed . Very educational
Some great clips from various Trek shows. And it's almost like you put more thought into this museum than the writers of this show...
One thing to say, the Starfleet Museum is the former Spacedock One (Earth Spacedock, replaced by Probert Station as shown in Picard).
It's implied that the starbase that's serving as the Fleet Museum is the old Earth Spacedock we saw on ST3 which they somehow moved to its new home.
At least for the HMS Bounty two words from The Expanse sum her up 'legitimate salvage'
There's also the possibility that's not the only Starfleet museum. That might just be the main one. I can also see some ships being donated to certain member worlds as museum ships. Definitely the warpcores, weapons, sensors, and anything else still deemed classified would have been removed.
Well, the Constitution Class was specifically built to counter the Klingon D7 class. If you wanted to be honest, we could go down the list of U.S. Navy classes of ships, aircraft, specific mission types, built and commisioned to counter one specific threat: then decommissioned because that enemy platform was retired.
You forget a major tool of ship maintenance in star trek, Replicators. In our world we cannot replicate parts accurately due to manufacturing techniques being lost. This is not an issue in star trek during that century and would allow ships to operate closely to when they were in service. Also the ships don't deteriorate in space like ours do in water and the structural integrity fields fitted to all starfleet ships would ensure little degradation none of which would affect structural performance.
In a few cases where damage may be extreme (Enterprise E), it would prevent ships operating near their service capabilities but it wouldn't mean such ships couldn't be preserved as a platform rather than as a ship with engines etc removed like we do currently (M33 & HMS VICTORY are good examples of ships that are preserved but cannot float or sail again)
Another reason for the museum not being at earth could be due to the threat risk, if you are putting significant cultural and historical artifacts in one place. You don't want to risk them being destroyed during an assault on what is usually the main target of the federations enemies. when countries are at war their most valued objects are spread out or moved away from the threat. I feel that this is a logical reason to move the facility as well as a way of reducing the risk of damage from busy shipping routes.
It's good to know that there those in the Navy who share an interest in Star Trek. My interest in Naval history is actually drawn from Star Trek. In both real life and in fiction, each ship has its own history and purpose, and often times, parallels can be drawn between the two.
The idea of a Starfleet Museum is hardly a new idea. Masao Okazaki has had a website for a very long time that elaborates on such a concept, but mostly for the very old designs, all the way back to the Romulan Wars.
In my opinion, Athon Prime is not the primary Starfleet Museum annex, but just a subsidiary, with many more museums scattered throughout the Federation. It's not like there isn't multiple museums like this in real life, although what I have in mind is different from the individual single-ship museums.
My guess is that every major world, or at least every world with a robust space maintenance infrastructure would have a museum of some kind. This would allow many of the potentially historical ships not on display at Athon Prime to be preserved elsewhere throughout the Federation. It's even possible that museums would exchange ships on a regular basis, giving citizens living in that sector of space to make repeating visits.
I think that the lack of apparent ships taxing visitors is a visual inconsistence, and that there should be. But then, there are very few civilian Federation ship designs in canon, and even fewer that are in any way modern. I think that it was a lack of budget, and while most visitors would probably prefer to use transporters, I could see at least small dedicated fleet of shuttles. The spacedock had a number of shuttlebays for arrivals and departures, and those would most likely be the locations of the spaceward lobby or lobbies.
Also, speaking of surface-to-space rides, since space travel can be so thrilling, so I could picture at least some museums offering rides in shuttles with their inertial dampeners set only to filter out a g-load that could cause harm to passengers. They might even wear G-suits, so that they can experience what it was like to be an astronaut or a fighter pilot.
These rides might take place on the way up, depart from a shuttlebay, and/or as visitors depart.
I would like to think that naval and air force museums could offer something similar, if not for the fact that jet fuel is so damned expensive, and that airframes that pull too many high-gee maneuvers can lose their airworthiness, not to mention the risk of the pilot loosing consciousness. The Federation likely has access to alloys that are far more resistant to the stresses caused by high-gee maneuvers, as demonstrated by the saucer section of the Enterprise-D and USS Voyager during their crash-landings, while their computers are likely advanced enough to take over in the event that the pilot does pass out. The Federation uses fusion for their small designs, which would provide plenty of energy for short-ranged spacecraft, and probably wouldn't even need to refuel after every flight. Finally, they might have memory materials that can self-repair the hull in the event that the frame is overstressed.
The fleet museum seen over Athon Prime is a retired starbase, and a museum space in of itself. Core planet museums would probably be designed more like how you described them. But then again, the ships alone are very big structures, with the size of a Constitution upwards easily taking up at least an hour, to say nothing of something the size of an Excelsior or Akira class. Transporters would be essential in order for visitors to make the most of their time, and even then, if most have the time for a multi-day visit, then that is what they're probably going to do! Or not, since most major worlds probably have many of their own attractions. The Vulcans probably don't have any theme parks to visit, but the Andorians, Alpha Centaurans, and Tellarite might, to pick an example out of any number of natural parks, other museums, historical sites, and other odd attractions that they might host!
Other museums might also be more modular in nature, and designed to add on more sections as more ships are retired. I picture an discoid or circular base with the docking mounted inwards, as you described, where the first ships are docked, following by a stalk growing out both the top and bottom, with docking rings for further ships, and/or a set of concentric rings that are added to the base module over time to grow the size of the museum. It wouldn't be practical in every sense, with the need for at least a double hull (one for the museum as is, and another outer hull that can be exposed to the vacuum of space as more sections are added. Altering the mass and structure of the station and having construction bots, ships, and materials floating in the general vicinity would create issues.
But then, I've probably just seen Valerian too many times!
Of course the viewing rings are hardly practical in design. They were definitely designed during the years of peace and excess of the TNG era, and not during the Dominion War. I presume that visitors can board the ships via transporter. Making sure that a docking airlock maintains a pressure seal might have been a potential headache that they wanted to avoid. Other than that, I can't think of any reason why there are no airlocks physically connecting the ships.
Finally, while not all museums throughout the Federation might be maintained by Starfleet, we have to keep in mind that they might still have their original anti-matter reactors. Are there any vessels in the US Naval Museum with a nuclear reactor? Anti-matter reactors are basically potential bombs waiting to happen, and while they are probably drained of fuel, or allowed to expend what they have left, it might be considered of importance that these remain well-maintained, especially for vessels that are still somewhat modern and could prove useful enough to reactivate in an emergency, such as the Defiant, Voyager, and that Akira class on display. The Federation might want people who have plenty of experience with these power sources, and it is possible that many engineers nearing retirement might just volunteer to direct one of these museums. Other possible heads includes engineers who have had careers on freighters or passenger ships, and are familiar with such components.
Just curious, as they have the both USS Enterprise 1701-A and D in a fleet museum. Is this a speculation that may be a commentary on the US Navy when they decided to scrap both USS Enterprise CV-6 and CV-65 (Due to the reason of nuclear reactors and only the tower is saved).
im pretty sure they said that if the cloaking drive was tampered with at all in any way, the romulans would see that as an act of war. i believe at this point that the romulans allowed this ship to be kept as a museum piece because of the federations efforts towards evacuating romulus and remus (even if that evacuation was ultimately unsuccessful, enough romulans were able to evacuate to establish a new capital on dewa III
8:10 One critique: The federation ran out of building capacity in the Dominion war a. because it was the first full scale war for them since the Romulan war. In normal circumstances (not a war) the fleet yards are most likely absolutely capable of providing the materials to build that rings around the space ships. and b. because the Dominion had damaged many of the Fleet yards, like Utopia Planitia.
The thing that bugged me, was the museum itself. It's the size of the Earth space dock. There isn't a canon number, but the Star Trek Online game places Earth Space Dock with a crew compliment of 312,000. Even if the museum doesn't have the same importance, it's still huge. All those lights are windows in offices and other rooms. You can say it's mostly automated, but then why all the lights? It's the same problem when the Enterprise-D powers up and Riker tells Geordi they'll need all the power they can get for the shields....but all the lights on the ship are on. It looks cool and that's about the only reason for it.
Also knowing what we know about… THAT ship, we can understand why Geordi would probably want to be at the Fleet Museum. I agree with some of my fellow commenters about this Fleet Museum being more of a repair hub/resort/academy campus. I have a personal theory about the HMS Bounty’s cloak in that it’s kept near bay 12, which Geordi would label as a black site until… THAT ship is completed.
I also think this might be more of a fleet museum for the reserve fleet and storage. It's possible there is a smaller fleet museum near Earth of only a few ships and historic artifacts, see Bozeman in Lower Decks for fist contact. The reason not all are displayed at the Earth museum is like you said, one's like the Bird of Prey Bounty and Romulan ships, were clearly sources of embarrassment so they are not rotated into the 'normal' more public museum near Earth. Nothing stops anyone from visiting this one, it just isn't the main one.
Although, I would say it is surprising that not one of those ships wouldn't be in the rotation for the museum on or near Earth but again like you said, this may not be a time period where highlighting Kirk's Enterprise or the Defiant might be difficult to highlight, say for example if a reformed Cardassia is trying to gain Federation membership, having the Defiant at the museum near Earth would send the wrong message to Cardassian diplomats.
The National Museum of the Air Force is in Dayton, Ohio which is 7 hours away from DC so there might be a reason for the Star Fleet Museum being not close to Earth.
Thank you for the interesting video. I enjoyed this episode of Star Trek Picard myself. Can you tell me what series/movie you got the clip of the Enterprise 1701 - E exiting warp with the other ships? At 13:11
That is a fan-made edit for Picard season 1 to correct the atrocious copy-and-paste fleet.
That spacedock is gargantuan. If they're keeping these historic ships outside, then the only sensible explanation I can think of is that the base itself is serving another primary purpose, with the fleet museum just being that ring of ships moored around it. What really doesn't make a lick of sense is somehow moving Earth's spacedock to another planet.
Interesting Video, and for example our German Navy Museum is in Wilhelmshaven the Town in it is the biggest Naval base of the german Navy.
Great video very good insight there is a mig 15 in the National museum of the air force captured Korean
My rationalization for why it's out of the way and with a top engineer overseeing the place: Think about where (and when) some of these ships have been and what they've encountered. Fluidic space. Flung across time and space. Partially assimilated. Exposed to you-name-it anomalies and hull-breached by weapons from every quadrant. Just like natural history museums keep samples that are pulled out from time to time for research, no doubt all of these ships have at least a bit of residual RnD or scientific value to make them worth preserving.
You'd need to book a weeks vacation to visit all the ships in the Starfleet Museum.
Imagine in the U.S had all it's museum ships in just one area, along with ships on loan or bought from other countries.
I find your assessment very informative. However you overlooked one very important thing about the placement of the fleet museum. And that is plot armor. You can't have a fleet Museum where you're going to go get the ship that's going to rescue the Galaxy close to the point in space that being invaded or all shot up. And given how long it didn't take them to get to the fleet Museum I would guess it's not that far away from the Terran system
You do have ONE thing wrong. Star Fleet is NOT a military organization, though they do have war time military doctrines should the need arise. They are a civilian/exploration/ Psudo military organization. They are also a part of the Federation. An Organization made up of thousands of worlds. Star Fleet and the Federation have hundreds of space stations all over the Federation's territory. Having one space Station being a dedicated fleet museum is just fine. And, Yes, while no resource is infinite, the Federation's resources are immense. In the time of Star Trek they are living in a post scarcity economy. If a part on an old ship breaks down, all they have to do is replicate another and replace the broke one. But My guess is that the Ships were deactivated and no longer had internal power sources and got their power from the space station itself. That would save a lot of wear and tear on the ship as well. And having a very experienced Engineer like Geordi as head of the museum makes sense. One of the best engineers in Star Fleet history is in charge of keeping all the most important historical ships in tip top shape. I would consider that a great honor. As for the Klingon ships, The "Bounty" was the ship of a rouge Klingon commander (we've seen rouge Klingons before). A Klingon who had been dishonored by the council. I bet the Council didn't mind one bit that Kirk managed to take it. Also the Federation could not use the Clocking device from any of the Klingon or Romulan ships anyway because of the treaty of Algeron. Now I have to think that the D7/K't'inga class ship was on loan from the Empire. The Klingons had already retired that class and replaced it by the end of the Dominion war with the Vor'cha. And the Klingon's were now close allies with the Federation. So lending one to the Federation museum seems like a good diplomatic and friendly gesture. And I wouldn't worry about the Romulan ship either. At the time of Picard there was no more Romulan Empire to complain about it. So having a ship from an Empire that no longer exists isn't a problem, as in your example of U-505.
One thing I DO agree with you with though is the location of the fleet museum. It did need to be in Earth Orbit or at least somewhere in the Sol system itself. But for the purposes of Picard it needed to be in another system so as to not become a target for the Borg/Changlings.
Thanks. I actually discussed that at The Great Derelict podcast a while back: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/is-starfleet-a-military/id1080222616?i=1000500391446
I would think that the easiest way to get from ship to ship would be to have them moored to each other as we did the first time I was in Rota Spain. The Valdez FF1096 was the fifth ship out and we'd cross from one quarterdeck to another. Easy to do if you weren't bringing on supplies. Despite what many believe is a post scarcity society with limitless power, the Federation still needs to pay for things and power would never be completely free. And now, as an engineer with decades of experience, I've come to believe simpler is always better.
As both a Star Trek fan and an historian, I found this video a thoughtful exercise. The Fleet Museum existed as much for fan service as plot relevance, but if they are going to include a Fleet Museum, they should think through the implications. It really never was clear how this facility served the public.
Interesting video 👍 the only information i could add is that the enterprise A was a different Constitution class ship ( perhaps the Yorktown) so it's been in active service for over 80 years, and Starfleet is funded by the United federation of planets so they would have the resources to build those rings, and everything has internal and external sensors so keeping track of people shouldn't be too hard, and i would suspect that they keep the ships fully usable incase they need them ( which they did as the other ships were compromised) and i would assume the design of the shipyard is for the people on other ships or shuttles have something cool to look at as they fly by.
regarding captured "foreign" equipment on display (like the D-7 and Bird of Prey...
I would point out that the Aberdeen US Army Ordinance Museum has many captured vehicles on display so perhaps it is not so unusual for Starfleet to have Klingon and Romulan ships on display. Depending on just how good relations now are with those powers "in-universe" those powers may have agreed to let the ships be displayed.
Great video, by the way!
Thx for sharing, I have to visit
Great video. Wouldn't have hurt to edit out all the slip ups though. That's the great advantage about recording stuff.
Wouldn't hurt to have professional staff who could help me create these. But I'm a simple historian. Sorry about the technical side.
Hello from Groton Connecticut!
1 minute before: "the german sub on Chicago", now: "it's weird that there are enemy ships here"
I think given the nature of the idealized future of star trek, where the same organization is responsible for diverse goals such as peaceful exploration, scientific study, colonial expansion AND military defense, all with seemingly little conflict between those cross purposes, we can allow that starfleet and the federation as a whole would take such a museum very seriously. The US military as well funded as it is couldn't justify the expense and personnel to maintain a huge museum complex, neither would it dedicate its entire fleet to pure scientific study between wars or divert an entire flagship to transport a single sickly child to a specialist.
We just have to accept that in this future we do things differently and have different priorities. And so the equivalent of half our planets gdp spent maintaining old ships under the direct command of a high ranking active officer is an acceptable proposition.