1701 warp core?

[Herkimer Jitty]

I always thought the tube-y thing in TWOK was the dilithium crystal housing. Would be a pretty good locale for all that radiation (lotsa it from m/am reaction), so the reactor would occupy the space below the engine room thar. I've always thought of the TOS/TMP reactors as being rather large and rather oddly shaped, with lots of sprawling support equipment and what-have you, unlike TNG's lawnmower-motor-sized reactor (by comparison, anyways).

[Whorfin]

uniderth wrote:

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JNG perhaps that piece in TAS is related to this in TWOK:

Never noticed this before, but what are those overhead frames (windows?, screens?), and are they part of a larger reactor???

[Captain Robert April]

I'm rather fond of this arrangement...

[Praetor]

I wonder why?

I like it too overall CRA, but there are a few details in placement here and there that I'm still a little unsure about. Of course when you revisit it, I'll be glad to provide my thoughts.

[Captain Robert April]

That is a slightly over version, so some of your concerns may have already been addressed. Besides, fielding questions about this monster helps get me in the mood to dive in, so ask away.

And if the discussion moves too far away from the topic here, we can always relocate back over to my thread on Trek Art.

[Whorfin]

Praetor,

Well thought out work, where can I see the rest of it.

[Tallguy]

I object to "warp core" in connection with TOS for two reasons. I think it's lazy - it's this way in TNG so it's always been this way! And it discounts any changes or advances in Trek tech. It's like calling the things on the wings of a B-17 "jets". Sure, it's propulsion and even a similar layout and position. But calling them jets is silly.

But really it's "keep your damn TNG out of my TOS".

[Plecostomus]

Tallguy wrote:

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I object to "warp core" in connection with TOS for two reasons. I think it's lazy - it's this way in TNG so it's always been this way! And it discounts any changes or advances in Trek tech. It's like calling the things on the wings of a B-17 "jets". Sure, it's propulsion and even a similar layout and position. But calling them jets is silly.

But really it's "keep your damn TNG out of my TOS".

I've been saying this for awhile. I assume TOS warp works on a different principle than ENT or TNG warp drive. The basics are the same but the way they achieve the "warp" is different.

Physical "warp generators" as opposed to cast coils for a start.

[JNG]

Tallguy wrote:

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I object to "warp core" in connection with TOS for two reasons. I think it's lazy - it's this way in TNG so it's always been this way! And it discounts any changes or advances in Trek tech. It's like calling the things on the wings of a B-17 "jets". Sure, it's propulsion and even a similar layout and position. But calling them jets is silly.

But really it's "keep your damn TNG out of my TOS".

Didn't NX-01 have a warp core, though?

[Tallguy]

JNG wrote:

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Didn't NX-01 have a warp core, though?

That's kind of my point.

[TIN_MAN]

^^ Well, the NX had a warp reactor with 'plasma conduits' running to/from the nacelles, but I dont think we ever saw a vertical warp core per se? Besides "Enterprise" retconed so many things, it's the main reason many do not consider it 'canon'. But here's a thought FWIW, much ado was made in ST:TMP about "the new engines" implying that they were a radical redesign and departure from past systems? So much so, that on their first attemp at warp drive they were sucked into a wormhole! If the engines were simply a variation on past designes, then Scotty and his crew (not to mention Starfleet engineers in general) should have been familiar enough with the new system to avoid this? As a result, Spock had to stick his vulcan nose in Scotty's domain and help fix the problems, something that surely wouldn't have been necessary if Scotty had been as familiar with this design, as he would have been, if this was just a new twist on an old idea?

[Tallguy]

The reason I used the jet engine analogy was because Andy Probert once said the diff between TOS and TMP was analogous to the jump from propellers to jets.

It would have been really cool if they had come up with an even earlier concept for Enterprise. Not to be, I suppose.

[Mytran]

uniderth wrote:

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I figure that the thing on the floor in engineering in TOS was the reactor. We've seen it house the dilithium in "Elaan of Troyus." It is located at the rear of the saucer section. the two large round things are the mattar and anti-matter injectors. Tmatter and anti-matter are drawn up fromtheir storage areas inthe secondary hull. They are sent through the intermix chamber and then the drive plasma is sent back down to the engineering hull. The whole thing would occupy the same space as seen in TMP…

This sounds convoluted, but bizarrely it’s almost exactly the solution I arrived when I first drew up my own TOS deck plans back in college. My aim was to construct them relying SOLELY on the on-screen evidence, and they went together surprisingly well! I still have them somewhere if anyone’s interested in seeing scans.

[Cary L. Brown]

USS Jack Riley wrote:

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Well, it was the 70's.....

So, you're saying it's a "bong?"

[Saquist]

JuanBolio wrote:

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"Warp core" is a somewhat nonsensical term. "Main reactor" or "matter/antimatter reactor" is more accurate.

Anyway, opinions differ, and the dialog from the show is somewhat contradictory. Some episodes seem to indicate that the nacelles themselves had self-contained reactors. Others seem to indicate that one or more reactors are located in the engineering hull. The latter is what I personally believe. The nacelles are just for warping space - power generation and fuel storage are the job of the secondary hull.

Ancient drew up the best damn 1701 cutaway I've ever seen. You can see the reactor located under the deck in the main engine room:

Very reasonable.
I wanted to believe the core was in the nacelles but that's not logical. To put the ships reactor in such a vunerable location would be folly. The multiple reactors that The last movie displayed is very likely.