Glenn Class

The Curiosity-class heavy cruiser, also known as the Glenn-class heavy cruiser, is a Starfleet exploratory vessel first developed in the late 2380s. Derived from the Crossfield-class spaceframe, the initial run of Curiosity-class starships included the Curiosity herself and the Ibn Magid, both launched in 2388. The design features extremely long warp nacelles and a unique circular warp sustainer field in the primary hull to allow the ship to hold high speeds for long periods of time. During an incident in 2390 only made public in 2399, the Ibn Magid was erased from all Starfleet records by Commodore Oh, and the entire Curiosity-class program was quietly cancelled, ultimately replaced by the more combat-oriented Inquiry-class exploratory cruiser. Once Oh's subterfuge was revealed and Starfleet began to return to exploratory missions, Starfleet revived the Curiosity program, with system upgrades to bring them to the latest standards. The first of these vessels, the Glenn, was launched in 2401, leading some Starfleet officers to colloquially refer to this class as the Glenn class.

Science and Exploration

Of all of the heavy cruisers in service, the Curiosity is the best equipped for pure scientific research. With sixteen science labs in a mix of specialized and mission-configurable layouts, the science department aboard a Curiosity-class cruiser is approximately equivalent to that of a Springfield-class science vessel. This allows the Curiosity to conduct in-depth scientific analyses of planetary bodies or interstellar phenomena, while also embarking a significant number of secondary and tertiary mission specialists. The class's high endurance is also useful for stellar mapping missions, as it can go further and faster than other cruiser designs.

Starfleet intends to use Curiosity-class vessels almost exclusively in exploratory roles, and operational protocols have been developed for three and five-year missions. The bulk of these vessels will be used to continue exploratory efforts in the vast, unexplored interior of the Federation or for jaunts outside of the borders. Thus, they carry all of the personnel and equipment they need to perform any type of scientific task, as well as conduct first contacts.

Diplomacy

Intended for regular first contact missions, Curiosity-class starships are well equipped for diplomatic missions that involve one or two parties. They have comfortable quarters for visitors, as well as advanced holographic technology to make meeting spaces attractive and useful for negotiations. Because much of their internal volume is taken up by scientific equipment, they're less adept at hosting multi-party talks or conferences. They're also somewhat wasted on purely diplomatic missions, because of their exploratory utility. With their high top speed and endurance, however, they can be useful as diplomatic couriers in a pinch, and many flag officers would love to have a ship of this type available to transport them.

Engineering

With their very long, slender nacelles and unusual primary hull, Curiosity-class starships are a departure from the standard of Starfleet's shipbuilding practices. Incorporating the same hull geometry as the Crossfield-class starship of the 23rd century, the purpose of both the nacelles' long length and the gap in the primary hull is to create warp field geometry that is very stable and fuel efficient at high speeds. Originally intended to be a competitor with the Vesta as the first production-model slipstream-capable starship, the shortage of benamite led to the design as it stands: a cruiser that is capable of sustaining high warp speeds nearly indefinitely, but at the expense of internal volume that could be utilized for other mission priorities. The warp sustainer rings in the primary hull occupy a significant amount of space and create logistical challenges for crew moving from the core, which houses the bridge, computer cores, and most labs, to the outer ring of the primary hull, where crew quarters and support facilities are located.

Though first introduced over a decade ago, Curiosity-class starships maintain maintenance intensive, as they have not yet had significant service in the field to help fine-tune operational protocols. They operate proportionally larger engineering crews than other cruisers to account for this.

Small craft capabilities are provided by a single hanger on the stern, which is capable of embarking a modest assortment of shuttles and runabouts.

The Curiosity Class In-Play

• As much as possible we, Bravo Fleet, attempt to use the name given in production materials for each class. In this case, we were attempting to locate a design that at least ostensibly could match the sillouhette of the Curiosity-class as seen on Rios's case in Star Trek: Picard, as that design was never seen on screen. We settled on the Glenn-class from Star Trek Online, because layout of this design (more or less) looks like the image from the show. This is why the article references both class names.