Does anyone know how fast Warp 13 is in "all good things"

[Timo]

Sounded realistic enough to me. A problem is discovered, politicians panic and quickly do something very visible and very stupid so that they can be seen doing something, and then reason quietly asserts itself and the problem is given only the attention it is actually due.

I don't think there's "safer warp" within the horizon as TNG closes yet. Work on such may be proceeding, or then it may have been declared irrational and unnecessary for the next ten thousand years. What we do know is that

a) work on alternate methods of fast travel is underway, with alien inventions falling on the Federation's lap every which week, and
b) the texture of the universe within Milky Way has not been torn to shreds by the preceding four billion years of fast travel yet

so having a reaction of any sort to the "problem" at hand seems excessive and misguided. And therefore quite realistic.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BillJ]

While it never made it into an episode, pretty sure the variable-geometry warp nacelles on Voyager were there to minimize the damage to subspace caused by warp speed.

Maybe @Rick Sternbach could give us more insight, or point out that I am misremembering that bit of info.

 

[at Quark's]

While it never made it into an episode, pretty sure the variable-geometry warp nacelles on Voyager were there to minimize the damage to subspace caused by warp speed.

Maybe @Rick Sternbach could give us more insight, or point out that I am misremembering that bit of info.

I seem to remember the same tidbit. Which would be implausibly fast imho, since there would only have been about half a year between the discovery of the problem and Voyager's first mission. The only way I could acccept that if that type of nacelle had been under development anyway for different reasons and then it was discovered it also minimises the damage as a positive secondary effect.

 

[BillJ]

I seem to remember the same tidbit. Which would be implausibly fast imho, since there would only have been about half a year between the discovery of the problem and Voyager's first mission. The only way I could acccept that if that type of nacelle had been under development anyway for different reasons and then it was discovered it also minimises the damage as a positive secondary effect.

Or maybe the Federation already had an idea that they were damaging subspace?

 

[at Quark's]

That's possible, yes. An idea then probably known to some inner research circles and upper echelons (so that grants were given to develop 'friendlier' technology), but not brought out into the public much (not even Starfleet officers in general). At any rate, Picard & co (who work with the stuff daily as professionals) seem genuinely surprised (and dismayed) by the discovery ...

 

[matthunter]

I thought I'd seen it suggested somewhere that the AGT warp factors were intended to reduce the warp 9.99x stuff by renaming the scale so that Warp 9.9 became Warp 10, 9.99 warp 11, 9.999 Warp 12, etc...? So Voyager is, by AGT standards, capable of a sustainable speed of between Warp 10 and Warp 11.

When TNG started, the E-D had a top sustainable speed of Warp 9.6 (which, on the TOS scale, was about warp 12.6). In the 7 years before VOY came along with it's 9.975 speed, that's a jump from 2018c to 5126c or more than double. There are then 25 years to the future seen in AGT... now the E-D was supposed to have had a long developmental process, so there may be more than 6-7 years development in the bag, but it's at least 4-5 times as long between those timeframes. Assuming drive speed CAN be pushed just over twofold every 6 years, then by AGT they should be at (((5126)x2)x2)x2)x2 = 82,016c by AGT. Warp 12 as 9.999 is 32,000c and Warp 13 as 9.9999 is just shy of 200,000c so this isn't actually a bad progression projection.

The problem is, of course, whether warp drive can keep improving like this. At the time of TNG, they hadn't looked at stuff like slipstream drive or transwarp conduits, so they stuck with warp.

 

[Rick Sternbach]

While it never made it into an episode, pretty sure the variable-geometry warp nacelles on Voyager were there to minimize the damage to subspace caused by warp speed.

Maybe @Rick Sternbach could give us more insight, or point out that I am misremembering that bit of info.

That was pretty much a rationalization that was suggested internally by never officially established within STVoyager; funny how ever other Starfleet vessel ignored the whole pivoting pylon thing throughout the rest of DS9 and Voyager. Oh well.

 

[thribs]

Remember the galaxy is 3D. perhaps they went up to the galactic rim.

 

[Kerock]

I would imagine it to be asymptotic when you the curve gets closer and closer to warp 10 (infinite speed) but never quite get there. Much like the speed of light is asymptotic for mass.

 

[Tallguy]

I would imagine it to be asymptotic when you the curve gets closer and closer to warp 10 (infinite speed) but never quite get there. Much like the speed of light is asymptotic for mass.

That's exactly it. It's still terrible story telling.

I remember there was a special on Voyager shortly before the release where they were trying to impress you with how fast the ship was. "Warp 9.654!" "And how fast is the Enterprise?" "Phht! Only Warp 9.632!" "Ummm...."

 

[Kor]

The adjustable nacelles on VOY were the culmination of many many decades of arduous engineering work necessitated by whatever catastrophic event rendered the mycelial network unusable for instantaneous travel.

Kor

 

[Tallguy]

The adjustable nacelles on VOY were the culmination of many many decades of arduous engineering work necessitated by whatever catastrophic event rendered the mycelial network unusable for instantaneous travel.

Kor

You're a bad person. Good for you!

 

[Paul Bowman]

The problem is, of course, whether warp drive can keep improving like this. At the time of TNG, they hadn't looked at stuff like slipstream drive or transwarp conduits, so they stuck with warp.

What if we shift the scale back where it was in TOS, then anything after Warp 10 becomes a Transwarp playground. This would eliminate all the point addons we seem to be encountering more and more. The use of Quantum state drive systems, like Slipstream, would seem to be the next advancement in Warp Technology, which may be the next step in going faster. Possibly I'll take a trip for the brig on this idea, but possibly anything in the Transwarp range would then be on a different scale, such as a change from warp speed to the 3rd power, to lets say the 5th power. This would show why Transwarp is doable as a function of transitioning between two different subspace layers (if we believe that concept is possible) and reset the system from the damage a well intentioned idea caused. I have thought about this for a few years but the only issue that immediately jumps up is communications system speeds. How fast is the standard communications speed in terms of Warp? (Speed of Plot of course, but...) Is Hyperchannel actually a form of signal communications at Transwarp? Will this idea actually have the ship move faster than its communications ability with Starfleet? I was hoping to get a good take on these thoughts and this would be the place to get it.

Paul

 

[FreddyE]

I always thought that "Warp 13" was only a shorthand for Warp 9.9999999999999999999999998567321323423342 or something like that ;-P