Sci-Fi Starbase Yorktown Plausibility Study (spoilers)

[Tom]

Starbase Yorktown was a massive Federation space station located on the frontier, near the Necro Cloud nebula, in the alternate reality. Containing millions of individuals, it was Starfleet's newest and most advanced base as of 2263 and was commanded by Commodore Paris.

Yorktown was constructed in lieu of a planetside settlement so as not to show favoritism to any particular recently-admitted worlds.

Yorktown's structure consisted of a matrix of city-sized interlocking rings and radiating arms enclosed in a spherical translucent surface. According to Sean Hargreaves, each of the arms of Yorktown was intended to be 17½ miles long.
- Memory Alpha

Plausibility - Highly Unlikely
2263-2016=247 years
Even with advanced replicator technology there isn't enough time to construct a StarBase this size.
Add to it the fact that it is located on the frontier requiring material transport to the edge of known space. The outer shell alone would require centuries to construct. If each radial arm is 17.5 miles long the sphere would need to be 35 miles in diameter or more. (Figuring the arms radiate from a central hub which would also be a massive sphere)
In addition, the base is constructed of rungs that are hollow, housing cityscapes on their exteriors and each of those cityscapes consist of domains to the human scale. The human enviroment alone would require massive details and ammenities. From computer consoles to your bedroom night stand.
Everything would have needed to be brought to that spot in space. Even if it was replicated the matter that is used to resolve the replication would still need to make its way to that spot in space.
As far as I know, the billions of starships required to transport that much matter cannot be built in 247 years. More like 247,000 years. So, the plausibility of a YorkTown class starbase is unplausible but for discussion purposes, lets just ignore that little conflict and say it actually exists.

Atmosphere Within The Sphere​

The interior of the starbase is depicted as having an atmosphere condusive to human habitation.

Plausibility - Highly Unlikely
There are way too many things wrong with this idea

Air is not a void. It is a fluid. Made up of matter which has mass. In a sense, this base is a giant fishbowl. A fishbowl of air that is constantly being stirred. Considering all life that we know has to live within a pressurised system, this fish bowl is not only full of air it is full of pressurized air that is being stirred.
Heat makes air rise (on Earth) but in space where gravity is not a constant (We will get to gravity) heat/air convexion could be in any direction depending upon the degree of heat nearby. Air would radiate away from the hottest areas (matter would move towards cold - basis of air conditioning). Put two hot areas of different temperatures in the same vicinity and the movement will become chaotic. The atmosphere would be unstable with pockets of sparse and dense concentrations wildly blowing in all different directions.

By volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1% at sea level, and 0.4% over the entire atmosphere.

So, by all sanity, there should be storms constantly forming within the sphere.
Maybe that is why the buildings need to have windows?

If you look, you will see there are trees in the cities. This indicates that the atmosphere also has some CO2. In space enviroments, CO2 is scrubbed for human compatability. The more animals breathing, the more CO2 that needs to be removed from the air supply. For plants to survive some of the CO2 needs to be kept. The ratio of CO2 in an atmosphere would need to be closely monitored and controlled. The same ratio would need to be constant anywhere there is atmosphere. (I don't see bubbles over the green areas) Ships and people displace air. The constant stirring motions in the atmosphere along with gravitational hotspots would make the atmosphere deadly to humans and destructive to structures.

Interior Starship Spacelanes

Plausibility - Highly Improbable
Extremely hard to accomplish but still a cool idea.

For the sake of discussion lets dismiss the construction limitations, physics and logistics of creating such a thing. How could it work?
I did not see an airlock at the lane entrance. There is a space door but I did not see a lock. Without such a lock, opening the space door would cause the pressure insde the sphere to rush out the door. This is actually shown in a scene of the movie but at a smaller space door.
Now you may say that the corridors are not pressurized so there would be no pressure differential.

This picture depicts a starship docking platform inside the tube.

The lower right picture depicts a docked starship with a sealed gantry.

All consistent with the assumption that the corridors are not pressurized. But this picture blows that assumption right out of the water...get it?

That is the Yorktown beaching at the central hub waterway.
Now it becomes a conflict of plausibility.

See, the Yorktown is in the corridor system. It manuvers toward the central hub because that is where the conflict is at. For that ship to splash through into the hub it would need to pass thru a pressurization lock or when it punches into the pressurized section all the water and atmosphere would be drawn out of the ruptured space door into space. At the very least, the water and air would rush into the corridors not sealed.

It certainly would not float on the shore.

Also notice that the water behind the ship is bubbling upward. It should be whirlpooling downward into the breech.

The Scale

Plausibility - Highly Unlikely
While it looks cool it is still wrong

You look up and this is what you see

The structure is immense. The cities in the distance all have people sized things in them. If you take the people sized windows and place them against any part of the structure the scale of the construction exceeds the overall base size.

There are devices made into the structure for whatever function and they are depicted as huge constructs. Larger than the city buildings sometimes.

Look at that support at the center. To scale, it is huge. Everything is huge. Plus it is huge in a way to depict it is a single constructed structure. The anchor bolts would need to be larger than a house at that scale. Each tube band would be large enough to put a highway inside. Then you have all the little pillars and poles sticking out. Only they are not little when compared to the size of a person inside the starship.

I am going to stop here for now. I hope I irritated some of you enough to try to defend, discuss or comment on this plausibility study.
​

• How would a starship manuver inside one of those corridors?
• We should discuss the ramifications of the gravity control that would be required...
• What other laws of physics are violated?
• What is your favorite part of the starbase?
• Could there be an effective day/night cycle?
• With transporter technology, why would corridoors even be needed? (doors even?)

 

[JacenAster]

...You've made so many flawed assumptions, and ignored so much tech(even modern tech, let alone Federation tech), that truly refuting this would take hours and a point by point approach that frankly isn't remotely worth it. As such, I will point out only a few of the hilariously obvious ones.

1) Why the bleeping hell would anyone haul components from Earth or another Federation world? Every star system in existence, even ones without planets, has enough random cosmic bodies to produce resources for several stations this size. You must not be very used to thinking in cosmic scale. Something like our own asteroid belt probably has enough raw material to produce hundreds of stations this size. Any vaguely sane engineer would simply build space-refineries and manufacturing plants that could turn out all of the bulk parts of the station. Advanced Electronics would be the only thing needed to be brought in from outside the system (or a nearby system if you build in the dark space between solar systems). Current technology, provided the funding, could build a station that size in less than 247 years. In our own solar system, of course, but still....

2) Plants, in a station like this, ARE the CO2 scrubbing. Otherwise you have to drag in oxygen from somewhere else, which is really really stupid. Oh, and before you try to spout some BS about there never being enough plants to do the job? Don't. Recent current technology breakthroughs have led to the creation of artificial cells that work exactly like plants. They take in CO2 and sunlight, photosynthesize and produce oxygen. While the plants are therefore not technically needed, they would almost certainly be placed for aesthetic tastes and do no harm to a computer run system.

3) Weird I-see-no-airlock argument. Seriously? Did you somehow get to this point in Star Trek without seeing a single force field? Not one? No? Go back and watch it again. Any sane engineer that had that tech as an option would use it, rather than physical doors, for any opening of such massive size.

 

[Tom]

Your opening is hostile and confrontational towards me. I purposely wrote this to illicit a response from people that are versed in science fiction because I witnessed these comments from others that are not. Since the whole concept of science fiction is for entertainment you may want to examine your hostility.

Why the bleeping hell would anyone haul components from Earth or another Federation world? Every star system in existence, even ones without planets, has enough random cosmic bodies to produce resources for several stations this size. You must not be very used to thinking in cosmic scale. Something like our own asteroid belt probably has enough raw material to produce hundreds of stations this size. Any vaguely sane engineer would simply build space-refineries and manufacturing plants that could turn out all of the bulk parts of the station. Advanced Electronics would be the only thing needed to be brought in from outside the system (or a nearby system if you build in the dark space between solar systems). Current technology, provided the funding, could build a station that size in less than 247 years. In our own solar system, of course, but still.

Passionate.
The ISS. 1998-Present
Building the International Space Station

When ISS is completed it will cover an area as big as a football pitch and weigh 455 tonnes. It would have been impossible to build ISS on the ground and then launch it into space in one go; there is no rocket big enough or powerful enough. To get round this problem the Space Station is taken into space piece-by-piece and gradually built in orbit, approximately 400 km above the Earth's surface.

Components are being built then being moved to the location.
Yorktown was constructed in components and moved to a location in unoccupied space. Keyword is 'unoccupied'. That means that everything was moved to that location. In reality, this could be done but not in 247 years.
Of that 247 years, not all of them involved Star Trek technology.

On April 5, 2063, Cochrane made Earth's first warp flight

We are now down to 200 years.

According to dialogue in the Star Trek: Enterprise ("ENT") episode "Daedalus", the transporter was invented in the early 22nd century by Dr. Emory Erickson

In 2154, Erickson came aboard Enterprise NX-01 under the guise of testing a new transporter method, which supposedly had unlimited range.

You now have 109 years to construct Starbase Yorktown.
Of that 109 years all the replicator technology needs to be invented and all technologies must be refined before construction on the station can begin. Treaties along the path to its destination must be formed and the exploration to that point in space must be discovered. All the organic compounds used in construction of articles represented on the station must also be grown, processed and moved to location. The air within the dome must be generated in quantity to allow for equal pressure. Leaks must be sealed.
It is pretty easy to see that Yorktown is an element of pure fantasy. The only way it could be constructed and be fully operational within 247 years is by magic.

Plants, in a station like this, ARE the CO2 scrubbing. Otherwise you have to drag in oxygen from somewhere else, which is really really stupid. Oh, and before you try to spout some BS about there never being enough plants to do the job? Don't. Recent current technology breakthroughs have led to the creation of artificial cells that work exactly like plants. They take in CO2 and sunlight, photosynthesize and produce oxygen. While the plants are therefore not technically needed, they would almost certainly be placed for aesthetic tastes and do no harm to a computer run system.

I personally saw the plants as purely aesthetic but others don't. Lets just say for a moment that the plants were not grown there from seed. The plants that I saw, were Earth plants. This argues that those plants must have been relocated from Earth. For all the different worlds of the Federation and all the species of those worlds the only plants available are Earth plants? But lets just say that is what everyone likes. You do realize that it takes more than just sunlight and oxygen for any plant to grow? Plants, any plants are part of an ecosystem that have millions of factors involved. Before you say that the technology allows for those needs to be met, consider immunization via genetic adaptation. Plants, like animals need adversity to grow.
But lets look at the age of the oldest plants shown. If grown from seed by artificial propagation it would take years for some of those plants to achieve that look. If you look at your basic tree you are only seeing half of it (sometimes, with certain species, less than half). The root base extends deep into the soil in search of nutrients and water. If those nutrients and water are provided, the root base will not be as deep. That deep root system is what gives that tree it's stability. As it grows deeper it is able to grow taller. The height of the plants on the starbase is not justified by the soil allotted.
They must be magical plants.

Weird I-see-no-airlock argument. Seriously? Did you somehow get to this point in Star Trek without seeing a single force field? Not one? No? Go back and watch it again. Any sane engineer that had that tech as an option would use it, rather than physical doors, for any opening of such massive size.

There is an airlock argument. It involves the water argument.
A force field has been used many times in Star Trek, especially in shuttle bay operations. A shuttle enters or leaves by lowering the force field. The shuttle bay is evacuated and it enters or leaves and it is then pressurized again. On scenes where the craft passes thru a force field it is shown as such. Another craft (or anything) that is attached to the craft also passes thru. Access is granted via a code sent. This allows craft from unknown design to enter as well. The code for access is not design specific to the millimeter. It allows a mass to pass thru.

The force fields needed to contain those internal pathways would need to be complex and highly selective to allow a starship to pass thru from a corridor, into a reservoir and ultimately breach the main hub. If the force field containing the water were set to not allow H2O to pass, any H2O on the ship would also be restricted. Humans are made of H2O.
Lets talk about the docking platforms inside the pathway tunnels. It depicts a landing and a path to reach the enclosure.

You step out of the Enterprise, walk across the pathway and enter the enclosure.
You could just transport to your destination directly so why is there a docking station at all?

Lets say you step out onto the platform. There is air and gravity and moisture content. There is heat and pressure and you can walk to the door of the enclosure without a space suit. The ship came to that location from space. It passed thru many force fields on that journey. None of the environment was effected? There are no gale force winds from all the pressure differentials? None of the water from the breech to the main hub is present?

Let me say this:

I like Star Trek. I love seeing the technology and thinking about its implications. This movie was pretty good and I just love the depiction of Star Base Yorktown. Its scale and scope are marvelous to look at. If you leave it at the 'eye candy' level and carry on it is wonderful.

But... Just like any Star Trek concept, suspension of disbelief is needed. There are many things depicted in the Star Trek Universe that defies logic and reality. The stories are always the same. They are just dressed up with glitter and glare. Star Trek is fantasy. I like fantasy. I feel cheated when I consider the science. My Baloney Detection Alarm blares to me with every rendition. But hey, Its cool to look at.

 

[JacenAster]

Your opening is hostile and confrontational towards me. I purposely wrote this to illicit a response from people that are versed in science fiction because I witnessed these comments from others that are not. Since the whole concept of science fiction is for entertainment you may want to examine your hostility.

Wait, what? I've reread my opening comment four times and can't find a single thing that was hostile. And the point of disagreeing about something is...kinda confrontational. If you weren't prepared for someone to shoot you down, I'm not sure why you wrote this. It also means I didn't read any of the rest of your post, since I'm not about to let myself be drawn in and argue with someone hostile to debate as the first series of posts I make on a forum -_-.

 

[Tom]

Twice now

 

[FortyTwo]

Perhaps next time avoid phrases such as "I hope I irritated some of you" when inviting responses?

Anyway. To address your conclusions, could you show some of your work? For example, what assumptions were involved in deciding the Yorktown's construction would be "highly unlikely" with respect to the Federation's available mining, transport and production capacities?

For example in 2005 the nations of Earth, still trapped on a single world and with technologies primitive in comparison to the 23rd century Federation, managed to produce and transport within their demesnes 1.544*10^9 metric tonnes of refined iron: enough to build the metal frame of a 36-mile-diameter fully-enclosed spherical Empire State Building in roughly 43 years (i.e. Yorktown-sized, and Starbase Yorktown has orders of magnitude more open space by comparison).

While 2005 Earth could not actually afford to do that, the Federation by comparison is an advanced interstellar polity that can mine entire star systems (e.g. metal-rich asteroid fields) via numerous technologies the industries of Earth can only dream of: subspace sensors for finding ores, phasers for cutting and melting, gravitic, inertial and forcefield manipulation for containment of volatiles, transporters for rapid atomic-level refining, fusion and antimatter power generation for the energy demands and the vast computational power requisite to heavily automate everything involved.

 

[Tom]

Perhaps next time avoid phrases such as "I hope I irritated some of you" when inviting responses?

Agreed, I invited confrontation. Not the best way to have a discussion. Was based on my understanding that Star Trek and Star Wars fans are fanatically passionate. There are many things that make no scientific sense in both Universes. The plausibility of the starbase being finished so early in the timeline gave me pause to its credibility. I love the look, just kinda wished it was still under construction.

the metal frame of a 36-mile-diameter fully-enclosed spherical Empire State Building in roughly 43 years

Keywords are Metal Frame. 43 years for just the frame. Yorktown was completed in 109 years, keyword, completed. Completed as in totally fitted and inhabited. Inhabited long enough for the inhabitants to have established routines.

Nano assembler technology might make it possible but to my knowledge this period of Star Trek Universe had not developed nano bots yet. Granted they had some construction technology that could enable fast assembly of some parts of the station and a super computer to forecast and work out construction delays but 109 years is a short amount of time to construct, fit and establish a starbase of this magnitude in the detail shown in the movie.

As for the technology level required to finish this station, many of them were in infancy or had not been developed when construction started. The design may have been great but when working on any construction, no matter its level of design, there is a series of delays that slow the process.
This depiction of Starbase Yorktown occurs within the alternate timeline of Star Trek. In this timeline Vulcan has been destroyed and long range transporter tech is rather recent. It may be plausible that the remaining Vulcans, no longer an established civilization might abandon their prime directive and release technology to the Federation. Other civilizations, seeing the demise of Vulcan and the efficiency of the Federation in removing the threat, might also make technologies available to the Federation.
Even with that possibility in mind, the Yorktown appears to be a Federation design.

Any one aspect of the station can be explained using magical technology arguments but the film shows a completed and fully functional station. The idea is asking us to believe it went from nothing to fully manned and operating in a mere 109 years. There are full size cities on the arms. Full sized cities imply occupation capacity. They don't need to be occupied but why build them except for anticipation that they might be occupied? So they are built "just in case". This means that for every building, in every arm city, there needs to be a room of some kind that is fit for occupation. Bathrooms as well (unless beings no longer need bathrooms?), beds, linens for the beds, doors, floor coverings, paint on the walls, lighting, gadgets and comfort items. Multiply the requirements of every living and working space for every building in every city on every arm and 109 years is just not enough time. Plus there are centralized buildings, walkways, green areas with trees, bushes and grass. Plus, that is a lot of water to transport and contain. You might argue that the water was fabricated at the station. After all water is only H +2 Os. Which means that hydrogen and at least twice the amount of Oxygen would have to be transported to the station. Then, the water is clear and clean. Granted water should stay clear and clean if it is kept pristine. But the water depicted is not pristine. There are craft moving in it and it is exposed to atmosphere. Atmosphere that has carbon based life breathing it. Filters would need to be in place to keep the water clean. That is more construction that would need to be done.

I can go on and on about why what was depicted is not plausible. It's fantastic to look at and imagine but not science in fiction. It is a fantasy element disguised as science. I find Star Trek full of these quandaries. While it is a nice suspension of disbelief it implies technology that is implausible. In the Star Trek Universe the Starbase Yorktown could happen but I don't believe it could within the time frame given. Thus, it is not plausible.

 

[FortyTwo]

Keywords are Metal Frame. 43 years for just the frame. Yorktown was completed in 109 years, keyword, completed. Completed as in totally fitted and inhabited.

1. No, not for "just the frame". Earth didn't only produce 1.5 billion tonnes of refined iron in 2005. It also produced millions of tonnes each of various other elements, plus more millions of tonnes each of various textiles.

2. Because in large scale construction you don't wait for the entire frame to be complete before you start on fittings and furnishings for any one part of it. You're not building a single house, you're building an entire city - multiple dozens, actually. Yorktown is an example of what the industry calls "megascale engineering".

3. You don't need to totally fit, furnish and occupy the entire station before declaring it "open". How much of the interiors of the Yorktown's 64 visible cityscapes did we actually see? Point one percent? Point zero one percent? Point zero zero one percent? Less? It's called "megascale" for a reason (as an aside, the digital model used for Yorktown contained 1.3 trillion polygons).

They don't need to be occupied but why build them except for anticipation that they might be occupied? So they are built "just in case". This means that for every building, in every arm city, there needs to be a room of some kind that is fit for occupation. Bathrooms as well (unless beings no longer need bathrooms?), beds, linens for the beds, doors, floor coverings, paint on the walls, lighting, gadgets and comfort items.

Really? Everywhere needs to be fit for occupation from day one? When instead the Federation could just construct the core station facilities, cityscape superstructures and exterior shells first and be continuing construction inside, providing completed apartments and beaming in final fittings and furnishings from central stores only as the expanding population requires?

Please read this: Just-in-time manufacturing - Wikipedia

Now consider that UFP humanity has had between two and three centuries to refine that concept. Furthermore, Earth is not the only core member of the Federation and Vulcan (its unwillingness to share technology aside) is not the only other core member of the Federation; even that "early" in the timeline, the Andorians and Tellarites - each not too dissimilar to Humanity in their technological capabilities - had been fellow founding members for just over a century. That's an entire century of peaceful cooperation between four warp-capable species. Can you imagine what our Earth could achieve if America, Russia, China and India actually cooperated? Even if one of those nations remained somewhat aloof? Now imagine those nations each controlled entire solar systems instead of a single tiny blue planet.

I can go on and on about why what was depicted is not plausible. It's fantastic to look at and imagine but not science in fiction. It is a fantasy element disguised as science. I find Star Trek full of these quandaries. While it is a nice suspension of disbelief it implies technology that is implausible. In the Star Trek Universe the Starbase Yorktown could happen but I don't believe it could within the time frame given. Thus, it is not plausible.

When I see the Star Trek universe, I have to suspend disbelief in the other direction, because the producers simply don't have the CGI budget to show how vast the industrial base of an interstellar polity with the Federation's level of technology could be. Fortunately for my SOD the writers for some reason (heh) focus on the locations where you don't need to ask your graphics team for another of those 1.3 trillion polygon models every few episodes.

EDIT: P.S. I'm not suggesting that the UFP of the 23rd can just churn Yorktowns out willy-nilly. Not at all. But as their equivalent of what we would consider a key national infrastructure project? Yes, I can certainly envisage it as that.

 

[Tom]

What caused my 'skeptical eye' was that the Yorktown depicted in the movie knocked my socks off at how advanced it seemed to be depicted. To me, it just didn't fit in with the technology I had witnessed so far in that timeline and not even close to the technology depicted in the first timeline.

Its depiction caused me to look at it closer. The closer I looked the less plausible it looked to me. I don't study Star Trek. I watch it. What I saw was physics that didn't make sense. Scale that was off the norm and dynamic interactions that denied logic. I'm not a scientist I am a truck mechanic. I don't study Earth processes I live on it.

Its only a Star Trek movie. I see similar plausibility problems in most SciFi films. Look at Babylon Station, the Death Star and some of the Stargate stuff. I was impressed but it clicked a light on in my mind that "Hey, wait a minute, How could that be accomplished?"

I haven't rewatched the movie since my original post. Perhaps I will see something different on rewatch. At the level of technology depicted to construct and operate the Yorktown I should expect to see a fully functional Federation Dyson Sphere within three more movies. Perhaps a Federation Halo is more realistic?

Granted technology does make major jumps and when the AI Singularity arrives, if it stays with us, we will see significant jumps over a short period of time. When Nano Technology develops AI controlled nano bots construction will become nearly instantaneous, on our scale. Anything is possible but only some things are plausible based on the technology depicted.

The thing about fiction is we tend to work out the details not given in our heads. If you believe the Yorktown is plausible then by all means you are entitled to your own fantasy. If you believe that aliens mostly appear to be humans with bumpy heads, again, your own fantasy. For me, some things break my disbelief. I see warp drive as plausible where others may believe FTL is impossible. But...there are things that travel FTL so if one thing in the entire Universe can travel FTL then it is plausible that it could happen.

Could the Yorktown exist, sure, eventually. Could it be built in 109 years by the Federation in uncharted space, sure, just not within the time frame of the new series timeline. Just take the divergence point. Kirk's birth. We have no evidence that the Yorktown existed at that time. Kirk is in his 30's or so when they visit the Yorktown in this film. Even if he was in his 50's that is a mere 50 years. A major station like the Yorktown would be major news all over the quadrant, yet, nothing. Supposedly Kirk applied to command there. His career is what 20 years at best? It is implied that he would be relieving a retiring commander. Since the commander that is leaving has no back story at the Yorktown his duration of command is left to speculation.
I'm not sure but I think the lost colony in the dead zone were stranded within a lifetime. At the time of stranding the Yorktown did not exist or it would have been mentioned. I dunno, I guess I am going to have to unzip the file and watch it again. Might be a good reason to binge watch the entire new timeline movies so far.

 

[Tom]

Well, I binge watched all three movies last night. Seems the only thing I liked in all three movies was the Yorktown.

 

[Kevin]

What caused my 'skeptical eye' was that the Yorktown depicted in the movie knocked my socks off at how advanced it seemed to be depicted. To me, it just didn't fit in with the technology I had witnessed so far in that timeline and not even close to the technology depicted in the first timeline.

So you don't think the technology, as displayed by the Kelvin Enterprise itself, the USS Vengeance in ST:Into Darkness, the "transwarp beaming", or San Fran' as depicted in the first two movies would be on par with doing something like the Yorktown?

Could the Yorktown exist, sure, eventually. Could it be built in 109 years by the Federation in uncharted space, sure, just not within the time frame of the new series timeline. Just take the divergence point. Kirk's birth. We have no evidence that the Yorktown existed at that time. Kirk is in his 30's or so when they visit the Yorktown in this film. Even if he was in his 50's that is a mere 50 years. A major station like the Yorktown would be major news all over the quadrant, yet, nothing.

Just because it wasn't shown in the Kelvin timeline or talked about doesn't mean it never existed. In ST:Beyond the USS Franklin disappeared 100 years before the events of that movie and that ship was notable because it could achieve warp 4.

I think the problem with not accepting the Yorktown in the Kelvin timeline is trying to compare it to the Prime timeline. We know from the first Kelvin movie that the Enterprise technology was already beyond the abilities of the NCC-1701 of the Prime timeline so it's plausible that even if the two timelines share a common history up to the point of divergence (in 2233 when the Kelvin is attacked and Kirk's father dies) that by the time of the construction of the Kelvin Enterprise in 2255 that the technology in the Kelvin line has been rapidly advancing far faster than the Prime line.

 

[Tom]

In the first movie, when Kirk is recruited and arrives at the shuttle where he meets McCoy the Enterprise is being constructed at a land based shipyard. You can see cranes and scaffolding and regular construction methods being used to construct it. When The Enterprise is manned for the sudden mission to Vulcan, it is the maiden voyage with a new crew. Appx 3-4 years after we saw it in mid-construction. In the shipyard the Enterprise appeared to be more than halfway completed. At the least, it needed another 3 years of work or it would have already had an established crew by the time Kirk made his way onto it. Figure 9 - 10 years to construct the Enterprise on a land based shipyard in an atmosphere using mechanical construction methods.

The Yorktown is presented as a massive starbase in unexplored space. It was constructed in unexplored space by the Federation. Relatively, the hub where the Enterprise was originally moored was constructed in Earth orbit. Tho presented as large it was not massive compared to the Yorktown. From the construction methods used to construct the Enterprise on the planet and the relatively small size of the base at the heart of the Federation I find it unlikely that the Yorktown could be built using the technology presented in the movie, at that time.

There is certainly a 'WOW' factor to the Yorktown. To me it just doesn't fit.
"Its like finding Moses' DVD collection" ~ AVP

 

[Tom]

Watched it again just recently - still no justification.
No matter how many times I watch it - it DOESN"T make sense.