My programing agrees that that was well put....
Transwarp
- Thread starter Cmdr Sho
- Start date
My programing agrees that that was well put....
While I think this is a logical extension, given the change in the warp scale that allowed the Enterprise D to exceed sopeeds that the original Enterprise could not even approach, I read a different explanation in "Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise." Of course, it being a book will limit its "canonicity," for lack of a better word, but the explanation says that transwarp is part of Spock's work to combine transporter technology with warp technology, hence the combination of transporter and warp speed to get "transwarp speed." While it failed, it may have allowed for the development of the new warp speed as a slower alternative to transwarp.
I know that the author of the book, Shane Johnson, lurks around these parts. Maybe (scratch that - I know) he can clarify the book's explanation far better than I.
GodThingFormerly
A Different Kind of Asshole
LastGuardian hasn't posted at TrekBBS.com since 2004, although you may be able to contact the gentleman via his official website.
TGT
It was never stated the technology was a failure.
It was only shown to be sabotaged by Scotty.
After that, the TW aspect was completely dropped.
I don't entirely agree with the premise that the sabotaged/failed TW the Excelsior had resulted in an uprated warp scale of TNG.
It would likely be true TW in every sense of the word ... likely close to the Borg TW technology in terms of speed (or the one the Voth used).
It's not infinite velocity, but it's likely very close, riding on the 'threshold' that was mentioned on Voyager but not actually going over the said 'threshold' into 'infinite velocity' territory.
Warp drive seems often referred to as applying "subspace stress" on the space/time continuum to generate an oscillating field FTL propulsion effect, without actually "submerging" the ship entirely in subspace, explaining why deflector dishes are still required at warp speeds as the ship maintains at least some interaction with "normal" space. All the various "flavours" of "faster than warp" drive seem to "tunnel" through what is probably subspace (or a "layer" thereof), having become completely submerged in it and thus outside of normal space and its related velocity restictions (perhaps in a similar fashion to subspace radio signals).
The deflector dish or related system is almost always associated with entering or maintaining these transwarp/slipstream tunnels. I don't know whether it was by chance or design that the dish on the NX-2000 transwarp prototype Excelsior was embedded in an engineering hull with increased volume, including the thick neck above it that replaced the slender pylon on the 1701 type. This gives the impression that a more complex deflector system is associated with the prototype drive and the hull is designed for greater stress. That matte black grille on the neck of the Excelsior with the horizontal fins reminds me a little of the deflector array on the slipstream drive Dauntless NX-01A, though connecting the function of fed and alien components of similar geometry is obviously a stretch.
On a related note, I remember a few "what gives" posts in the past about how a single transwarp coil, liberated from a borg cube, could provide Voyager with transwarp velocity. This makes more sense if it is associated with the deflector system instead of being tied directly into the warp drive.
The deflector dish or related system is almost always associated with entering or maintaining these transwarp/slipstream tunnels. I don't know whether it was by chance or design that the dish on the NX-2000 transwarp prototype Excelsior was embedded in an engineering hull with increased volume, including the thick neck above it that replaced the slender pylon on the 1701 type. This gives the impression that a more complex deflector system is associated with the prototype drive and the hull is designed for greater stress. That matte black grille on the neck of the Excelsior with the horizontal fins reminds me a little of the deflector array on the slipstream drive Dauntless NX-01A, though connecting the function of fed and alien components of similar geometry is obviously a stretch.
On a related note, I remember a few "what gives" posts in the past about how a single transwarp coil, liberated from a borg cube, could provide Voyager with transwarp velocity. This makes more sense if it is associated with the deflector system instead of being tied directly into the warp drive.
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LOL "liberated" 
Really? Humph. I could have sworn I had seen him pop his head up in the Trek Art forum once or twice recently. Senility must be setting in.
I'm not sure about how many ways there are to enter subspace, but it does seem the most likely domain (or domains) within which the various faster than warp drives operate.
Ships in the trek universe interact with subspace in a number of ways without actually being in it, per se. FTL comms, sensors and the isolinear computer processors of the TNG era all utilize subspace effects, and at least some impulse drives (or all of them, if the term denotes more than just a re-branded rocket engine) utilize subspace fields for performance enhancing reductions in the inertial mass of ships using them.
Subspace is basically the "get out of jail free card" of the trek universe when some present day law of physics needs to be roughed up a little.
Subspace has been referenced on-screen as a separate layer of the universe (that also has different layers of it's own) into which various FTL drives tap to work.
Warp, TW, Slipstream, space folding, the catapult ... they all utilize subspace in one way or the other, but ships never actually enter subspace.
Think of it as a partial phase effect to use properties of something else (subspace for example) to your advantage.
SF does have the technology to manipulate subspace after all ... otherwise they wouldn't be able to use Warp or various other technologies that use subspace properties to work.
It was also mentioned in one of Voyager episodes with the Omega particle that warp travel would become impossible if Omega exploded on a wide scale ... space-faring civilizations would cease to exist (implying that virtually all forms of FTL in Trek utilize subspace).
Omega apparently interacts with subspace on a much more aggressive level and is able to destroy that specific layer.
Warp, TW, Slipstream, space folding, the catapult ... they all utilize subspace in one way or the other, but ships never actually enter subspace.
Think of it as a partial phase effect to use properties of something else (subspace for example) to your advantage.
SF does have the technology to manipulate subspace after all ... otherwise they wouldn't be able to use Warp or various other technologies that use subspace properties to work.
It was also mentioned in one of Voyager episodes with the Omega particle that warp travel would become impossible if Omega exploded on a wide scale ... space-faring civilizations would cease to exist (implying that virtually all forms of FTL in Trek utilize subspace).
Omega apparently interacts with subspace on a much more aggressive level and is able to destroy that specific layer.
Agreed. The tunnels or conduits that deflector systems prop open to utilize subspace for transwarp drive, etc. permit physical objects (ie. ships) to transit subspace without actually being in it, per se, if that makes any sense.
Warp drive bends space, needing subspace as the "platform", for lack of a better word, on (over/in?) which to do it. Gravitational fields bend space through something outside of the 3 dimensions we live in - subspace would be as good as anything to describe "where" this is happening even if it's not a "place" as we can grasp it.
Energy emissions (FTL comms, etc.) can be "submerged" in subspace as these don't occupy space anymore than em radiation occupies normal space as it transits through it. "Physical" space has no "3D" subspace equivalent, unless you have fully transitted or "phased through" to another realm or alternate universe.
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Whilst the prefix "trans" may refer to a particular, relative speed or state beyond the normal rest state of matter, it tells us little or nothing about its function or origin.
"Trans" simply means "beyond" with no further information.
How is "transwarp" significantly different to warp?
That's the crux of the matter: It isn't.
"Trans"warp is just a way of saying "faster than standard warp speeds" which is why TNG/DS9/VOY's warp speeds would be considered "transwarp" from a TOS perspective.
Quantum Slipstream, Borg conduits, and such are just different methods of achieving "transwarp" in the sense of "faster than conventional TNG/DS9/VOY warp speeds".
The Excelsior's "transwarp" drive may have just meant speeds faster than any ship currently in use by the federation at the time.
The projected speeds may have been comparable to say Intrepid class top-end speeds since this would have been very impressive at the time (easily fast enough to run rings around a damaged constitution class).
Since they never really said how fast Transwarp was IIRC that is what I believe would have happened if the Excelsior's transwarp drive had worked.
The projected speeds may have been comparable to say Intrepid class top-end speeds since this would have been very impressive at the time (easily fast enough to run rings around a damaged constitution class).
Since they never really said how fast Transwarp was IIRC that is what I believe would have happened if the Excelsior's transwarp drive had worked.
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USSHermes,
That's my opinion
That's my opinion
