Prometheus (Stargate)
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- This article is about the Stargate spaceship. For the episode of Stargate SG-1'' in which this ship first appears, see "Prometheus (Stargate SG-1)".
| |
| Technical Data | |
|---|---|
| Length | 256 m#redirect |
| Width | 104 m#redirect |
| Height | 71 m#redirect |
| Mass | 2.95 million metric tons |
| Max Sub-Light Speed | PSL |
| Defenses | Asgard Shields Trinium Hull |
| Armaments | Railguns Missiles One weapon of Asgard design (possibly defunct) |
| Fighters | F-302 Fighters |
| Status | |
United States Air Force Vessel Prometheus
The Prometheus, otherwise known as the BC-303 (formerly X-303), was Earth's first capital starship. Although small compared to a Goa'uld Ha'tak mothership, it was a large battlecruiser nonetheless, ten times the size of an Al'kesh. It dwarfed its two predecessors, the X-301 Interceptor and the X-302, which accommodated only two people each. Despite some difference of opinion (Colonel O'Neill wanted to name the ship Enterprise, on the grounds that Prometheus was "a Greek tragedy"), it was finally named Prometheus, after the Titan Prometheus of Greek mythology. Prometheus was intended to serve as the prototype for a new fleet of space-faring vessels.Although Prometheus was the first commissioned ship of her class, the BC-303 series has already been rendered obsolete. With adaptations of Asgard and other alien technology the future Prometheus class ships eventually became supplanted by the BC-304 Daedalus class; their upgrades and modifications represented an entirely new class of ship based on the Prometheus design. The Prometheus is the sole BC-303 built. The BC-303 was designed to carry up to eight F-302s for long-range duty, which can be launched and received through a launch bay even when the ship is in flight. Both the F-302 and BC-303 were capable of hyperspace travel, primarily because of advances in hyperspace technology due to the discovery of naqadriah on Jonas Quinn's homeworld.
Prometheus used Asgard technology in its hyperdrive engine and shields, as well as transport beams and their attendant sensors. (There may have been other uses of Asgard technology installed). This technology was fitted by the Asgard in return for Earth's help in fighting the Replicators. It also relied on some Goa'uld technology. Also present were a set of transport rings, an Ancient design based on the Stargates. Most of the weapons systems aboard the Prometheus were of Earth design.
The vessel was equipped with hyperspace engines, and could also operate in a planet's atmosphere and land on the surface. Research and development for the hyperdrive—powered by naqahdriah—cost the U.S. over $2 billion. Prometheus' main purpose was to serve as a platform for the defence of Earth. The ship could achieve orbit in less than 30 seconds, and utilizing the sub-light engines, could travel at 110,000 miles per second. The corridors of the vessel are constructed of trinium alloys. The ships crew complement was over 115.
As part of an agreement regarding the use of the Russian Stargate following the loss of the American Stargate, Russia has received (in addition to a considerable periodic cash payment) the plans for both the X-302 and the X-303 as well as a completed and fully operational BC-304, the Korolev.
Service
The ship was operated by the U.S. Air Force, and its crew consisted of Air Force personnel. Operationally, Prometheus, like her following sister ships, was under the Pentagon's Department of Homeworld Security.Three officers have been shown in command of Prometheus: Col. William Ronson (Seasons 6 and 7), Major General George Hammond (both parts of "The Lost City" and "Prometheus Unbound") and Col. Lionel Pendergast (Seasons 8 and 9).
Initial Mission
Prometheus was hijacked before completion by rogue NID agents demanding the release of Colonel Frank Simmons and the Goa'uld infested Adrian Conrad, while holding hostage then-Major Carter, Jonas Quinn, and a news reporter. The US Military complied with the demands, but then the ship was launched - Simmons intended to use it to travel to a world supposedly containing a cache of Ancient weapons. Before it made its hyperspace jump, Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c boarded the ship using Goa'uld Death Gliders and regained control of it, but not before it jumped to hyperspace. Due to design flaws in the hyperdrive (See: Original Human/Goa'uld Hyperdrive) the ship emerged from hyperspace at an unknown location but was found by the Asgard, who enlisted the help of SG-1 and their ship to help them trap the Replicators within a time dilation bubble. The Asgard thanked Earth by fitting advanced systems onboard the X-303.Shakedown Cruise
The ship was subsequently finished and began a shakedown cruise. A problem while in hyperspace damaged the hyperdrive, and a subsequent attempt to jump resulted in the Naqahdriah reactor overloading. The crew were forced to eject the reactor into space where it exploded, stranding the ship over an alien world.Prometheus remained stranded until she was fitted with the hyperdrive taken from a captured Al'kesh bomber. Unfortunately this meant that the ship was underpowered, since the Al'kesh reactor couldn't generate the power needed to fully operate Prometheus. She set out for Earth, but was attacked by an unknown alien ship en route and suffered damage while hiding from it inside a corrosive nebula. The damage was reparable, however.
Anubis' Attack on Earth
Prometheus served in the defense of Earth from attack by Anubis's forces, and was almost destroyed before the Ancient weapons found in the Antarctic outpost were activated.Last Mission
When Prometheus was attempting to intervene after one of two nations locked in a generations-old Cold War ("Ethon"), the Rand Protectorate, begins building Ori-designed satellite weapons technology, it was destroyed by the weapon when it struck first while the Prometheus was debating on its course of action.
Out of the 115 crewmembers aboard during the mission, only 76 survived; its commander, Col. Lionel Pendergast, was killed in the third and final energy blast that destroyed the Prometheus. Its wing of F-302's successfully made planetfall in Caledonian territory, along with the survivors of the Prometheus, successfully evacuated by its Asgard Transporters prior to Prometheus' destruction. Its final mission was unsuccessful as subsequent peace talks failed, and a major war was launched, leaving the Stargate on that planet inaccessible and presumed buried under rubble.
Hyperdrive
Original Human/Goa'uld Hyperdrive
The X-303 was the first Hyperspace ready, Earth-human-built capital spacecraft. Its main engine was reverse engineered from Goa'uld technology and powered by an unstable variant of Naquahdah called "Naqahdriah" found on the planet Kelowna by SG-1. Jonas Quinn provided a small amount of Naqahdriah when he defected to the Tau'ri, and this Naqahdriah was at the heart of the Prometheus' hyperdrive core.However, the technical difficulties in extracting a stable energy flow from Naqahdriah meant that while the hyperdrive worked, the unstable hyperspace window produced made accurately plotting a course impossible (a problem shared by the hyperdrive on the F-302). Before it was completed, the ship was hijacked by rogue members of the NID and used to travel to a planet with a supposed cache of Ancient weapons. After dropping out of Hyperspace, the ship found itself not in orbit of the planet in question, but at an unknown position in interstellar space. Fortunately for SG-1 (who had infiltratred the ship before it made the hyperspace jump and had since regained control of it), the Asgard detected the hyperspace event and rescued the ship.
A buffer system was later incorporated into the hyperdrive which successfully stabalised the power output enough for accurate hyperspace travel. While testing the upgraded drive on its shakedown cruise, Prometheus passed through an intense gravity wave from a collapsing star - this caused a power surge in the Naqahdriah reactor so large that it destroyed the buffer. With no way to repair the buffer, the ship attempted a short range hyperspace jump to a nearby planet that was believed to have a buried Stargate. The jump, while successful, proved too much strain on the reactor without the buffer, and it overloaded. The reactor and hyperdrive module was jettisoned over the planet (Tagrea) where it exploded, thus stranding the vessel on the inhabited planet until a new reactor could be fashioned for the ship.
After this the Prometheus got hyperspace technology from the Asgard so they could travel to the Pegasus galaxy to search for the Atlantis team.
Goa'uld Al'kesh Core
The second hyperdrive core installed in the Prometheus was salvaged from a Goa'uld Al'kesh that Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c stole from Baal's Jaffa. This engine core was not designed for a vessel of Prometheus' size, and required that it be operated in short hops, to prevent the core from overloading.Asgard Hyperdrive
Following the return of the Prometheus to Earth, the Asgard refit the Prometheus engines, for the third time in the ships' lifetime, providing their own technology to replace the unreliable Tau'ri/Goa'uld hybrid technology. This hyperdrive engine performed admirably for the remainder of the ship's lifetime. It takes 3 weeks for Prometheus to get to Pegasus Galaxy.Weapons
Installed Weapons
The BC-303 used conventional missiles as weapons, as well as Vulcan/Phalanx CIWS as point defense weapons. Additional advanced weaponry such as point-defense railguns and one main railgun were also installed on Prometheus. The Prometheus was given some Asgard technology, primarily for shields and teleportation as well as a weapon of some sort (possibly removed since).Asgard Weaponry
A year after the initial launch of the Prometheus at the hands of the Rogue N.I.D., Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, arrived at Earth and informed the delegates of an international conference that he had arrived to install Asgard-designed weapons and shields on the Prometheus as a reward for SG-1 helping trap the Replicators in a time dilation field. It is unknown whether the weapons Thor was referring to were energy/particle based weapon systems similar to those on Asgard ships, or whether they were technical augmentations to Prometheus existing human-made arsenal.The existence of an energy weapon cannot be confirmed or denied as while Thor explicitly mentioned weapons and has been one reference to charging a primary weapon, suggesting an energy cannon of some sort in the episode "Memento", it has never been used or mentioned since (including during the battle over Antarctica in "Lost City" and during its last battle). The reason for this discrepency is currently unknown.
Trivia
- In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity. Since the USAF Prometheus is a human built warship reverse engineered from the technology of the Goa'uld and the Asgard--races that played gods to early humanity--the name is fitting.
- The name is also a reference to NASA's Project Prometheus, a project aimed at nuclear spacecraft propulsion.
- Prometheus and Daedalus share names with two vessels in the Robotech, Macross, and Star Trek universes. See the Daedalus article for details.
- Colonel Jack O'Neill wanted to name the BC-303, formerly the X-303, the Enterprise, saying that the term Prometheus was a Greek tragedy. O'Neill is something of a Star Trek fan, though probably not a complete Trekkie.
- The episode in which the Prometheus was destroyed was called "Ethon," which shares the namesake of the eagle who, in Greek mythology, fed off Prometheus' liver while he was chained to the Caucasus mountainside, punishment determined by Zeus for betraying the gods.
- The Prometheus was the first of the BC-303 series to be developed and the only one seen in the Stargate universe. Its design was immediately supplanted by the Daedalus class.
References
| Technology in the Stargate universe | [http://encycl.opentopia.com/ Edit] | |
| Tau'ri technology | GDO | IDC | Stargate Iris | Kull Disruptor | P90 | MALP | Naqahdah Generator F-302 | Prometheus (BC-303) | Daedalus (BC-304)-class Battlecruiser |
|
| Goa'uld / Tok'ra technology | Al'kesh | Death Glider | Ha'tak Mothership | Hand Device | Healing Device | Intar | Sarcophagus | Staff Weapon | Tel'tak | TER | Tunnel Crystals | Zat | Zatarc detector | |
| Ancient technology | ATA Gene | Atlantis | Aurora-class Battleship | Dakara Weapon | DHD | DNA Resequencer Drone Weapon | Healing Device | Project Arcturus | Puddle Jumper | Repository of Knowledge Ring Transporter | Stargate | Time Dilation Device | Zero Point Module | |
| Other races' technology | Beliskner-class ship | Daniel Jackson-class ship | O'Neill-class ship | Thor's Hammer | Ion Cannon | Wraith Dart | Wraith Hive-Ship | Supergate | Ori Battlecruiser | |
| Technology by Race | All | Tau'ri | Ancient | Goa'uld | Tok'ra | Asgard | Tollan | Wraith | Ori | Other | |
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