Question about warp core ejection system
- Thread starter Shran
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When TOS was devised the nacelles were the power generators, as such they were designed to eject. The Constituion-Class was also capable of saucer separation, so if her core couldn't be ejected then the crew at least had a means of escaping with a piece of the ship.
They ejected the warp core in the 2009 reboot movie. I wouldn't be surprised if the ships in Discovery can do it too, they've pretty much retconned all of the 24th century Treknology into the 23rd.
First thing that came to mind about a question about the warp core ejection system when I read the topic of this thread:
Why doesn't it work.
Why doesn't it work.
There was a phrase worth noting that Kirk said in "The Savage Curtain."
SCOTTY: I can't explain it, sir, but the matter and antimatter are in red zone proximity.
KIRK [OC]: What caused that?
SCOTTY: There's no knowing and there's no stopping it either. The shielding is breaking down. I estimate four hours before it goes completely. Four hours before the ship blows up.
[....]
KIRK: Scotty, inform Starfleet Command. Disengage nacelles, jettison if possible.
So as you can see, the "red zone proximity" for the "matter and anti-matter" must be Scotty's paraphrase of an impending warp core breach. It's just that in TOS days they didn't have that terminology. See Kirk's reply? The ship may survive if the nacelles are jettisoned. That would of course imply that each nacelle has it's own separate warp core. This is different from TNG, VOY, etc... where the's one core.
SCOTTY: I can't explain it, sir, but the matter and antimatter are in red zone proximity.
KIRK [OC]: What caused that?
SCOTTY: There's no knowing and there's no stopping it either. The shielding is breaking down. I estimate four hours before it goes completely. Four hours before the ship blows up.
[....]
KIRK: Scotty, inform Starfleet Command. Disengage nacelles, jettison if possible.
So as you can see, the "red zone proximity" for the "matter and anti-matter" must be Scotty's paraphrase of an impending warp core breach. It's just that in TOS days they didn't have that terminology. See Kirk's reply? The ship may survive if the nacelles are jettisoned. That would of course imply that each nacelle has it's own separate warp core. This is different from TNG, VOY, etc... where the's one core.
The other interpretation is that Kirk and everybody else knows the problem with antimatter is always with the warp core, and therefore the core is not mentioned by name. Kirk just wants Scotty to disengage the nacelles from "it", then jettison "it" if he possibly can. Nacelles being the part of the power loop that consumes what the core puts out, meaning the loop will remain "live" unless the nacelles are disengaged from it first and you can't jettison a core from a live loop lest the ship blow up.
Or, replace the core in above with the antimatter tanks, because thar's yer problem in the most literal sense. Jettisoning the nacelles ought to solve nothing much, and indeed if that's what Kirk tries to achieve, then why's he micromanaging this "disengaging" bit first when it necessarily must precede jettison? It seems as if disengaging will already help some, and the jettisoning part is a nice extra they can live without.
"That Which Survives" has other relevant stuff, with Scotty struggling to jettison a single key piece of machinery from within the ship proper lest the antimatter blow. The struggle need not indicate lack of ejection systems, as we're observing a skilled saboteur at work, meaning all sorts of helpful stuff would be jammed and broken.
"One of Our Planets is Missing" has our heroes kickstart the warp engines by feeding antimatter (of a new, "regenerating" sort they just discovered) into a doodad in one of the two warp nacelles. Kickstarting systems rarely correlate with regular ones much ITRW, though.
Core ejection is hardly a mandatory system for TOS in any case - none was ever mentioned or shown in action, and the preceding ENT shows a ship that cannot eject anything without people first spacewalking to unscrew a dozen bolts. But ENT also firmly estalishes that "warp core" is a vital piece of starship machinery, and ST:Beyond supports the notion that those things were fashionable in the 2140s already. Having a core sounds like a must for Kirk and Scotty; having it eject at the push of a colorful button, more like an optional extra.
Timo Saloniemi
Or, replace the core in above with the antimatter tanks, because thar's yer problem in the most literal sense. Jettisoning the nacelles ought to solve nothing much, and indeed if that's what Kirk tries to achieve, then why's he micromanaging this "disengaging" bit first when it necessarily must precede jettison? It seems as if disengaging will already help some, and the jettisoning part is a nice extra they can live without.
"That Which Survives" has other relevant stuff, with Scotty struggling to jettison a single key piece of machinery from within the ship proper lest the antimatter blow. The struggle need not indicate lack of ejection systems, as we're observing a skilled saboteur at work, meaning all sorts of helpful stuff would be jammed and broken.
"One of Our Planets is Missing" has our heroes kickstart the warp engines by feeding antimatter (of a new, "regenerating" sort they just discovered) into a doodad in one of the two warp nacelles. Kickstarting systems rarely correlate with regular ones much ITRW, though.
Core ejection is hardly a mandatory system for TOS in any case - none was ever mentioned or shown in action, and the preceding ENT shows a ship that cannot eject anything without people first spacewalking to unscrew a dozen bolts. But ENT also firmly estalishes that "warp core" is a vital piece of starship machinery, and ST:Beyond supports the notion that those things were fashionable in the 2140s already. Having a core sounds like a must for Kirk and Scotty; having it eject at the push of a colorful button, more like an optional extra.
Timo Saloniemi
Well you don't expect the final fail safe system to work do you? That's just crazy talk.
Indeed, why should we expect anything to work in a ship in such bad shape that she wants to eject her warp core?
Since core ejection doesn't work in saving starship crews from death, perhaps we should surmise this is not its role to begin with. It may well be impossible to rapidly rip out the heart of an antimatter power system without causing a giant kaboom in the process. But sometimes a giant kaboom is preferable to a ginormous kaboom, and if the crew is going to die anyway, then they could just as well die saving their ship from that ginormous kaboom that would destroy the dozens of fellow starships flying in formation around them...
We do see wrecks of starships after many battles, which makes remarkably little sense. Why should there remain a wreck if a warp core goes kaboom? But perhaps the core ejectors worked, meaning most of the antimatter was launched safely away, and there was only the secondary kaboom from the very act of ripping out the core, leaving the mostly intact wreck (and lots of corpses).
Timo Saloniemi
Since core ejection doesn't work in saving starship crews from death, perhaps we should surmise this is not its role to begin with. It may well be impossible to rapidly rip out the heart of an antimatter power system without causing a giant kaboom in the process. But sometimes a giant kaboom is preferable to a ginormous kaboom, and if the crew is going to die anyway, then they could just as well die saving their ship from that ginormous kaboom that would destroy the dozens of fellow starships flying in formation around them...
We do see wrecks of starships after many battles, which makes remarkably little sense. Why should there remain a wreck if a warp core goes kaboom? But perhaps the core ejectors worked, meaning most of the antimatter was launched safely away, and there was only the secondary kaboom from the very act of ripping out the core, leaving the mostly intact wreck (and lots of corpses).
Timo Saloniemi
The warp core ejection system on starships kind of reminds me of the autopilot from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. When activated a box with arms and legs and a blinky light for a head comes out, examines the situation, then takes the last parachute and bails out.
The ejection system needs to be redesigned with multiple redundancies and and it's own internal power so that it ALWAYS ALWAYS works.
And they need to redesign that stupid starboard main power coupling while they are at it.
The ejection system needs to be redesigned with multiple redundancies and and it's own internal power so that it ALWAYS ALWAYS works.
And they need to redesign that stupid starboard main power coupling while they are at it.
Port side main power coupling seems to work just fine always.
I guess when the main starboard power coupling goes, it takes the back up with it, if there even is one.
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