Quantum Slipstream Development

[USS Excelsior]

It's a given that Voyager would have passed on any and all information they acquired about the drive including adapting an already existing starship to at least create a slipstream.

With the Federation's top people and endless manpower and resources they probably would have continued to work on it, and perhaps even build prototype ships to better accommodate the slipstream drive.

Maybe they would run into the same phase variance problems but would still have time after to figure out the problem.

So how long could it be until Starfleet ships start using the slipstream drive.

 

[Dukhat]

It's a given that Voyager would have passed on any and all information they acquired about the drive including adapting an already existing starship to at least create a slipstream.

With the Federation's top people and endless manpower and resources they probably would have continued to work on it, and perhaps even build prototype ships to better accommodate the slipstream drive.

Maybe they would run into the same phase variance problems but would still have time after to figure out the problem.

So how long could it be until Starfleet ships start using the slipstream drive.

That's simple: when the script calls for them to do so.

 

[DonIago]

By the time of the Destiny trilogy there's already a ship with a prototype installed, so I'm going to say...not long.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The novels have slipstream ships starting in 2381's Destiny trilogy (Captain Dax's USS Aventine), and a fleet or them (including a refitted Voyager) are sent to the Delta Quandrant in Full Circle.

As for TV/film, probably never. We're not even in that era or timeline anymore.

 

[USS Excelsior]

According to those novels it would have only taken them 3 years to develop it after Voyager got back. Plus they probably should have written that Voyager becomes a museum and an honourary Intrepid Voyager is created in it's place and use that instead.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I doubt it would take long to "develop" slipstream when Voyager and their duplicates already had working slipstream drives (and in "Hope and Fear", Voyager built their first in days!).

Plus Voyager probably sent their data about it to Earth via the MIDAS array long before they themselves got home.

 

[BillJ]

Starfleet was probably already working on it well before Voyager left the Alpha Quadrant, with the Vesta class on the drawing board. The interaction Voyager had with Borg slipstream probably helped Starfleet solve certain issues and accelerate the development process.

 

[shipfisher]

I agree with the above as per fed slipstream drives coming along some time in the 2380's. This gives a few years buffer to incorporate tech brought back by Voyager with whatever starfleet already may have had on the drawing board.

 

[USS Excelsior]

But in "Hope & Fear" Tom Paris said it's something called a Quantum Slipstream Drive, implying that they've never heard of it, and Seven had to look up how it works and study that too.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Seven said a few episodes after "Hope and Fear" that slipstream was very similar to Borg transwarp technology - and Starfleet's been mucking around with various types of transwarp since STIII. It's possible the Vesta-class was concieved as a new transwarp testbed, and easily modifed to use the peanut-headed guy's Quantum Slipstream (which actually works, and causes no lizard transformations) instead.

 

[BillJ]

But in "Hope & Fear" Tom Paris said it's something called a Quantum Slipstream Drive, implying that they've never heard of it, and Seven had to look up how it works and study that too.

Why would a Starfleet Lieutenant have any inkling of what's being worked on at Starfleet R & D, unless he was involved?

 

[USS Excelsior]

Working on it may be classified information but that doesn't mean that the concept of such a drive isn't common knowledge or theorized about. The implication is they had no knowledge of this particular form of transwarp.

 

[The Inquisitor]

If warp drive was anything to go by then it wouldn't be too long before the fed began to perfect the design and installation of such technology (with ample time for testing etc). It took 66 years to go from warp 1 capable engines to warp 5. One would presume a similar level of improvement with QSS.

Its a logical technological step after impulse and the various warp engines. Humans have always pushed to improve themselves and this seems no different in the Trek universe.

 

[Deks]

Working on it may be classified information but that doesn't mean that the concept of such a drive isn't common knowledge or theorized about. The implication is they had no knowledge of this particular form of transwarp.

Indeed.
Unless Voyager as a crew and it's captain were completely oblivious the classified information in question.

Then again, I find it more likely the Voyager first encountered the QS in the Delta Quadrant, replicated it twice (with dangerous consequences) albeit in working order, and once SF got a hold of it, their pre-existing theories in TW would probably come in handy to stabilize the technology so they can use it.

Besides, even if SF had nothing to go on, they would still be able to produce a fully functional drive a few years after Voyager got back (and that crew made a superior version just a year or less, after they were exposed to the technology for the first time).
SF would have far more resources and personnel to work on the phase variance issue.

 

[shipfisher]

But in "Hope & Fear" Tom Paris said it's something called a Quantum Slipstream Drive, implying that they've never heard of it, and Seven had to look up how it works and study that too.

Work on supra-warp drives has probably continued since the transwarp program of the 2280's, regardless of the terminology involved. As for "types" of these drives, I still think they all do more or less the same thing. Space/time must have an innate structure which would respond to various manipulations in similar ways. As they say (though lord knows why), there's more than one way to skin a cat - the result being, in all cases: a skinless cat.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Something I was reminded of in another thread today: In 2387, the Federation's fastest ship (Spock Prime's Jellyfish) has a unique-looking spinning engine (perhaps based on "wholly new principles", according to Star Trek: The Art of the Movie), but it seems to function as standard warp.

Since we only ever see the Jellyfish make a short warp jump out of the Sol system, we don't know what it's really fully capable of - but the Jellyfish certainly doesn't feature any of the novelverse's slipstream requirements (a promenant deflector array and an elongated overall shape). Maybe the quantum slipstream drive is a faliure?

 

[DonIago]

Maybe Spock just didn't use it. After all in TSFS Styles didn't -need- to use transwarp, he just wanted to show off...he knew he'd overshoot the Enterprise and have to double-back.

Also possible, Spock didn't want to mess with a technology without having any idea what it was. Warp drive tech hasn't changed a huge amount over time, but WTF is quantum slipstream?

 

[Deks]

The NuSpock certainly had no idea about QS technology... and besides, the plan he hatched with NuKirk was based on utilization of Warp in the first place.

There's only so much a ship can do if the pilot doesn't know what it's fully capable of.

I doubt the QS was a failure.
The Jellyfish was small for the most part, and could have been a prototype which was specifically designed around safe transportation and delivery of red-matter.
Warp drive would be a standard issue FTL propulsion, even by that time.
The QS would likely be used by ships that go on long exploratory missions.

Besides, if SF was still confined to the use of Benemite crystals... then it's likely that faster QS versions would be used sparingly and only to get to certain locations that are too far out in the galaxy.
The slower version of the QS drive that doesn't require the crystals could be utilized by the Jellyfish and smaller ships in general... however, Voyager suffered through quantum stresses that prevented the ship from using that version for over an hour.

We don't know if SF ever worked on THAT version... it's a possibility seeing how it doesn't require the use of special crystals and it's still much faster than conventional Warp, but we all know just how the writers conveniently forget numerous technologies.

 

[Salad Shooter]

One ship isn't going to have the R&D capability of the entire Federation. My guess is Voyager got home, and the Federation (not just Star Fleet) went to work on the Slipstream drive. Several years of massive R&D efforts in parallel could solve the benemite crystal issue and the phase variance issue.

Meanwhile, other technological innovations are taking place as the slipstream is worked on resulting in new warp drive principles and upgrades to existing drives. The Jellyfish drive could be an offshoot of one of these innovations, wholly developed by the Vulcan Science Academy.

 

[Lord Manitou]

In 'Message in a Bottle' something the Prometheus didn't have was slipstream drive-neither did the Romulans. Starfleet already had the technology. In 'Dark Frontier' Voyager handled Transwarp technology with ease just because of one single Transwarp coil from a Borg Sphere. In the Delta Flyer they not only kept themselves away from the Borg guns but showed expertise manipulating the Transwarp Conduit.
This implies in future epics slip-stream drive will come into existence.