The Soliton Wave Is Going to be THE AWESOME!

[Timo]

Only if you expect the average wave rider to travel between planets with a surfboard and a space suit.

I'd think that would be a practical design goal, yes. Very big and dumb bulk containers on one end, simple passenger vehicles that are barely spaceworthy on the other... If you want to ditch starships, it's best to ditch them altogether and not to cling on to their superfluous aspects. Although one regular customer type would no doubt also be starships hitching a free ride from star system to star system, on their way to the untamed frontier.

Considering the enormous vastness of space, I really doubt that will ever be a problem.

Space may be vast, but the network would be based on the concept of nodes where congestion and intersection would certainly be an issue. Would each star system be built like 19th century European cities, with separate railway stations for each point of the compass at a distance from the busy downtown?

the wave would obviously pick it up and sweep it along

Does the episode indicate this? The test ship might have actively "hooked on" to the wave, and it might have been possible for it to "hook off" at any point without having to wait for the wave to be dissipated. This mode of operations would not be needed in the test we saw, though. The ultimate operational system could be engineered so that the wave would only pick up those ships that want to be picked up, and would be transparent to space debris.

If we combine the vastness of space with the idea that the waves can be tailored not to be particularly harmful, then the system might be postulated to operate with a constant stream of solitons. A passenger could choose one that fits him, escalator style, rather than order a customized one. Or the pulse schedule could be partway customized, like an elevator service. Or then everything could be user-selectable, and the customer could ask the system to fire a soliton towards a specific target at a specific time.

All of these systems would also cater for the idea that one can unhook from the wave (by design or by accident) and then simply hook on to the next one, even in deep space far away from the sending stations.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Only if you expect the average wave rider to travel between planets with a surfboard and a space suit.

I'd think that would be a practical design goal, yes. Very big and dumb bulk containers on one end, simple passenger vehicles that are barely spaceworthy on the other...

The point is this requires VEHICLES. Even if the soliton wave is moving glorified space stations from one place to another, people will still have to make arrangements to be ON those stations when the wave takes them away. And this ignores private citizens with shuttlecraft and/or small orbiters who might want to sell (or even obtain) passage on the wave rider using one of their craft as a vehicle. One way or the other, coordinating the number or riders with available transport space requires booking, security, and some measure of safety and legal standards. Any way you play it it won't be as simple as "flap your wings and fly." More like "buy a ticket and be there in an hour."

If you want to ditch starships, it's best to ditch them altogether and not to cling on to their superfluous aspects. Although one regular customer type would no doubt also be starships hitching a free ride from star system to star system, on their way to the untamed frontier.

Solitons won't travel to the untamed frontier; their very nature requires their destinations being on EXTREMELY tamed worlds that can afford the infrastructure of receiving them. Your regular customers are more likely to be people like Quark or his cousin Gaila, people with their own small craft who don't always have the time or the equipment to make long interstellar voyages and might just be fortunate enough to ride their shuttle on the Earth-Bajor soliton circuit.

Space may be vast, but the network would be based on the concept of nodes where congestion and intersection would certainly be an issue. Would each star system be built like 19th century European cities, with separate railway stations for each point of the compass at a distance from the busy downtown?

No, because directionality doesn't work that way in space. Planets aren't just rotating on their axis, they're also orbiting the sun, each other, and the galactic core. There won't be any "regular" route for solitons, you have to aim the wave at a point where you've calculated the reception area is going to BE when the wave actually arrives. That means the schedules will be dictated largely by launch windows and orbital patterns. Even if the base stations are located on planetary surfaces in the final implementation, you still have to time the wave so that your destination is at the right place at the right time to receive it. Not only does that automatically preclude any type of "node" configuration (transport would be irregular and to varied reception hubs with varying terminal profiles) but it also reduces the frequency of wave emissions between planets since you can only send them during certain launch windows.

Things get simpler if the base stations are in solar orbits within the solar system so you only have to aim the wave at a particular station around a particular star, timed so they arrive at the right moment. In either case, though, it would fall to space traffic controllers to monitor the planned trajectories of the waves and make sure that not only do they arrive at the right spot at the right time, but also to make sure nobody's in their path when they do arrive, and to make sure no two waves violate each other's safety margins (you never know if one wave might amplify or deflect another, even at a distance).

the wave would obviously pick it up and sweep it along

Does the episode indicate this?

It's implied in the destructive capacity of the wave; without a base station to dissipate it, it would eventually strike its sister planet and obliterate the whole thing. Planet or space debris, it's all the same to a soliton: the wave would pick up a huge chunk of the planet and carry it away at warp speed, shattering it like an ice cube.

If we combine the vastness of space with the idea that the waves can be tailored not to be particularly harmful, then the system might be postulated to operate with a constant stream of solitons. A passenger could choose one that fits him, escalator style, rather than order a customized one. Or the pulse schedule could be partway customized, like an elevator service. Or then everything could be user-selectable, and the customer could ask the system to fire a soliton towards a specific target at a specific time.

No, again there's the timing issue. A soliton can only be launched within a specific window so it gets where it's going at the right time. This is complicated for planetary targets because the wave has to arrive when the planet is facing the right direction (solitons can't go into orbit). Transit between systems highly above each other's ecliptic is bound to be easier (assuming the base stations are properly aligned) but there's still the little matter of safety, security and booking.

 

[Timo]

The point is this requires VEHICLES. Even if the soliton wave is moving glorified space stations from one place to another, people will still have to make arrangements to be ON those stations when the wave takes them away. And this ignores private citizens with shuttlecraft and/or small orbiters who might want to sell (or even obtain) passage on the wave rider using one of their craft as a vehicle. One way or the other, coordinating the number or riders with available transport space requires booking, security, and some measure of safety and legal standards. Any way you play it it won't be as simple as "flap your wings and fly." More like "buy a ticket and be there in an hour."

I don't see any of that happening, not beyond the prototype stage. You see a wave coming, you hop on, you hop off. No booking required; a properly configured wave can accommodate as many riders as need be. And you don't really need a vehicle; you just need the add-on component that transforms your vehicle to a waverider. It really is as hippie as travel can ever get - surfing from star to star at your leisure.

Solitons won't travel to the untamed frontier; their very nature requires their destinations being on EXTREMELY tamed worlds that can afford the infrastructure of receiving them.

Naah. The stations will be erected where they are needed, just like starbases. They will be self-sustaining, just like all other Trek installations. Some will coincide with centers of population, others with centers of industry - and probably one of the biggest beneficiaries of the system will be mining operations on the far frontier, now able to invest on a soliton station and then get essentially free rides for their ore, rather than purchase the services of a complex and expensive freighter for each and every shipment (and for each and every useless holds-empty flight to the mines).

Even if the base stations are located on planetary surfaces in the final implementation, you still have to time the wave so that your destination is at the right place at the right time to receive it.

But the second implementation would logically be a free-space station that can fire at any desired direction at any desired moment. Why build ten stations for ten directions when one firing ten times will do? And there you have your nodal point.

It's implied in the destructive capacity of the wave; without a base station to dissipate it, it would eventually strike its sister planet and obliterate the whole thing.

But that capacity isn't a property of the wave if it behaves as planned. When the wave started misbehaving, it immediately destroyed the waverider. We have no evidence that it would have destroyed or displaced anything in the normal operating mode.

A soliton can only be launched within a specific window so it gets where it's going at the right time.

And the delays on retargeting will be on the order of, what, minutes? Even the test flight, which apparently relied on hardware bolted on to bedrock, there was no mention of a launch window. Rather, the scientists started the experiment at what sounded like their earliest convenience.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Crazy Eddie]

The point is this requires VEHICLES. Even if the soliton wave is moving glorified space stations from one place to another, people will still have to make arrangements to be ON those stations when the wave takes them away. And this ignores private citizens with shuttlecraft and/or small orbiters who might want to sell (or even obtain) passage on the wave rider using one of their craft as a vehicle. One way or the other, coordinating the number or riders with available transport space requires booking, security, and some measure of safety and legal standards. Any way you play it it won't be as simple as "flap your wings and fly." More like "buy a ticket and be there in an hour."

I don't see any of that happening, not beyond the prototype stage. You see a wave coming, you hop on, you hop off.

How do you arrange to be in the path of the wave when it gets there?

a properly configured wave can accommodate as many riders as need be.

And how does one configure the wave properly if they do not KNOW how many riders will be there? A wave that is designed to accommodate fifty shuttles and a freighter becomes perilously crowded when when two dozen Cardassian supertankers all try to hop on at once.

And you don't really need a vehicle; you just need the add-on component that transforms your vehicle to a waverider.

So you don't need a vehicle, you just need an add on component for your... er... vehicle.

Naah. The stations will be erected where they are needed, just like starbases.

Right. Starbases, which are invariably VERY close to major colonies and ports of call for Starfleet vessels.

They will be self-sustaining, just like all other Trek installations. Some will coincide with centers of population, others with centers of industry - and probably one of the biggest beneficiaries of the system will be mining operations on the far frontier, now able to invest on a soliton station and then get essentially free rides for their ore, rather than purchase the services of a complex and expensive freighter for each and every shipment (and for each and every useless holds-empty flight to the mines).

All of which are populated, "tamed" worlds with functional governments and a pre-established infrastructure that would find a soliton wave generator useful. Places like Bajor, Deneva, Pacifica, etc. You're not going to explore strange new worlds on a soliton wave.

But the second implementation would logically be a free-space station that can fire at any desired direction at any desired moment. Why build ten stations for ten directions when one firing ten times will do?

Because a single station isn't always in the proper position at the time you want to SEND the wave. Soliton waves cannot maneuver, so orbital mechanics becomes a factor in this. You CAN'T send them whenever you want, you can only send them at pre-calculated launch windows when it is safe to do so. Orbital stations simplify the calculations, but if you don't time it right you wind up sending the wave towards it destination in such a way that it arrives when the station is behind a moon or a planet. Even if the wave doesn't destroy the body it collides with, it's lights out for anyone riding it.

I'm sure there will be nodal SYSTEMS, sure. Major worlds and major systems will have lots of inbound and outbound traffic. But multiple waves to a single station involve complications of timing and spacing that a busy world like Bajor might not have the patience for; instead of having to deal with a transport bottleneck that can slow down operating times, it makes more sense to just build a string of receiving stations in the outer solar system that can shuffle incoming and outgoing traffic back and forth between them.

But that capacity isn't a property of the wave if it behaves as planned.

Indeed. If it behaves as planned, the receiving station will be able to dissipate the wave before it hits the planet. If the wave gains too much energy, you can't dissipate it; it hits the planet, and hilarity ensues.

A soliton can only be launched within a specific window so it gets where it's going at the right time.

And the delays on retargeting will be on the order of, what, minutes?

Since the soliton traveling behind the one in front of it cannot brake for emergencies, it depends entirely on how long it takes for the reception area to be cleared of traffic and disembarking craft and passengers. Since it also rather depends on how long the window will stay open, turnaround time can vary significantly. Both the sender and the receiver will have to be in communication to coordinate wave transmission, because there's no way to abort the transport before it gets to its destination.

Even the test flight, which apparently relied on hardware bolted on to bedrock, there was no mention of a launch window.

They didn't need to mention it, it's pretty explicit in the way the test was setup. It's sort of like watching a movie scene where a sharpshooter scores a bullseye on a moving target; he doesn't need to mention the fact that he's leading his target with a calculated deflection angle; he wouldn't have HIT the target if he wasn't.

Mind you, these are all questions that any decent administrator is going to ask when someone proposes installing a soliton network between his planet and any other. Whatever the engineers may think is feasible, the local government is going to want you to explain to them what you've done to gaurantee the safety of their passengers. If you roll your eyes and say "Safey smafety, it's as easy as flapping your wings and flying to the moon," you're probably not going to get approved.