D'deridex Warbird
- Thread starter cwl
- Start date
What is to say it cannot be turned off? Rather, lets assume whatever type of quantum singularity the Romulans are using can be rendered inert or neutralised as a failsafe. It wouldn't make sense to have such a risky power system without the means to shut it down. The Starfleet ships are able to dump their warp cores (and some ships like the Galaxy class can seperate from the stardrive section if warp core dumping should fail).
I expect that the Romulans would also realise the exploitative nature of their power system and devise methods to prevent an attacker from causing their ship to implode. To me the whole quantum singularity stuff just sounds like a cool alternative method of propulsion and it doesn't seem likely that the Romulans go hunting for black holes to capture.
As for how they work, your guesses are as good as mine. I would assume that its similar in practise to the matter/anti-matter method used aboard Starfleet ships. Perhaps the singularity is able to produce the massive amount of energy needed for warp drive?
I expect that the Romulans would also realise the exploitative nature of their power system and devise methods to prevent an attacker from causing their ship to implode. To me the whole quantum singularity stuff just sounds like a cool alternative method of propulsion and it doesn't seem likely that the Romulans go hunting for black holes to capture.
As for how they work, your guesses are as good as mine. I would assume that its similar in practise to the matter/anti-matter method used aboard Starfleet ships. Perhaps the singularity is able to produce the massive amount of energy needed for warp drive?
Oh, I think it would - otherwise the navies on Earth would never have accepted coal boilers or fission reactors as their primary powerplants...
I have the gut feeling that keeping a tiny black hole from swallowing up a starship is much easier than keeping a lump of antimatter from blowing up a starship. After all, all the various cultures of Trek have been shown to be masters of gravity manipulation. The gravity systems built for crew comfort and survival appear to be almost 100% reliable even when all power is lost. That's much better than the observed reliability of antimatter containment systems (even though those, too, keep on working during complete power loss situations). Compensating for the tiny pull of a miniature black hole might be a technological breeze, really.
Timo Saloniemi
^^ I agree, with the appearant ease which the trek universe inhabitants can control gravity its probably a safe kind of powerplant as long it produces usable energy to keep things stable, also... its asn easy way to keep ships falling into enemy hands, just destabilize the whole thing and the ship will get violently torn apart by its powersource...
I don't believe it was ever stated this was their power source, other than in the novels. Still, if it is an artificial singularity, I imagine they can somehow control it's output. If they have the power to move a mini black hole, surely they have the ability to regulate it.
The idea of a quantum singularity power source was first brought up in TNG "Face of the Enemy", where the revelation serves no direct plot purpose, but does nicely remind us that the Romulans are a secretive bunch and that only an infiltrator in their midst would be able to learn such fairly basic secrets of theirs.
The QS concept then gets used as a plot point in "Timescape", where a QS power source is a good nest for some pretty alien aliens while a more conventional powerplant apparently would not be. And in DS9 "The Die is Cast" (and "Visionary"), it's indicated that the Feds have learned to recognize the signature of this type of powerplant, and apparently can tell from it when and where a Romulan ship is in the process of decloaking.
We may wonder if the ship our heroes had access to in "The Next Phase" was also powered by a quantum singularity; that particular power core was ejected before our heroes could examine it. Also, an exotic and unrecognizable QS power source in the ship of TOS "Balance of Terror" would explain why Scotty mistook the ship for only having "simple impulse" power when the ship actually was quite capable of warp drive and of firing high-warp projectiles.
What power source the Romulans used back in the ENT timeframe, we don't know. They did seem to be capable of generating a lot of destructive power in relatively small vessels, though.
Timo Saloniemi
The QS concept then gets used as a plot point in "Timescape", where a QS power source is a good nest for some pretty alien aliens while a more conventional powerplant apparently would not be. And in DS9 "The Die is Cast" (and "Visionary"), it's indicated that the Feds have learned to recognize the signature of this type of powerplant, and apparently can tell from it when and where a Romulan ship is in the process of decloaking.
We may wonder if the ship our heroes had access to in "The Next Phase" was also powered by a quantum singularity; that particular power core was ejected before our heroes could examine it. Also, an exotic and unrecognizable QS power source in the ship of TOS "Balance of Terror" would explain why Scotty mistook the ship for only having "simple impulse" power when the ship actually was quite capable of warp drive and of firing high-warp projectiles.
What power source the Romulans used back in the ENT timeframe, we don't know. They did seem to be capable of generating a lot of destructive power in relatively small vessels, though.
Timo Saloniemi
I doubt the Romulans go capturing mini black holes for their ships. Just as we are able to make artificial diamonds, it is possible that some alien race is able to make artificial singularities for their ships. If they are artificial, they may also be easier to control.
Saquist
Commodore
How do you get power from it that's the question...
I now there was a danger of creating mirco singularities in the new super collider....
I believe Picard refers to it as an artificial singularity in Timescape so that's probably where that impression came from ;-).
Actually the Intel on that goes back a bit further.
Remember that Deanna Troi was onboard one of those ships and had time to learn of it's power source from her 'confidant' who forced her to get the Romulan head of government safely to Vulcan.
I don't think we had a reference to the Romulans using a quantum singularity as a power source before that... at least I don't recall anything in early TNG that would suggest that.
As for how would one capture energy from it...
Simple, since quantum singularities were stated in Trek to give off tremendous amounts of power (a practically inexhaustible power source by any definition - Voyager did just that when they first encountered the Hirogen communication network that went through the entire DQ), it stands to reason that Trek races of Federation/Romulan caliber have the right knowledge and tools to create/use them.
Though it's also possible the Romulans or the Feds aren't at the level necessary to tame them completely.
Otherwise it's possible the Romulans would have been much more powerful than the Feds, and they were stated that a Galaxy class is essentially a match for the D'Deridex (Romulan on-screen claims not-withstanding since they always wanted to look more deadly and threatening to the Feds)
Remember that Deanna Troi was onboard one of those ships and had time to learn of it's power source from her 'confidant' who forced her to get the Romulan head of government safely to Vulcan.
I don't think we had a reference to the Romulans using a quantum singularity as a power source before that... at least I don't recall anything in early TNG that would suggest that.
As for how would one capture energy from it...
Simple, since quantum singularities were stated in Trek to give off tremendous amounts of power (a practically inexhaustible power source by any definition - Voyager did just that when they first encountered the Hirogen communication network that went through the entire DQ), it stands to reason that Trek races of Federation/Romulan caliber have the right knowledge and tools to create/use them.
Though it's also possible the Romulans or the Feds aren't at the level necessary to tame them completely.
Otherwise it's possible the Romulans would have been much more powerful than the Feds, and they were stated that a Galaxy class is essentially a match for the D'Deridex (Romulan on-screen claims not-withstanding since they always wanted to look more deadly and threatening to the Feds)
It's definitely possible for them to generate an artificial black hole. This was done by the Enterprise as well as Voyager i believe by modifying their deflector to emit graviton pulses. I believe it would be possible to contain it by using some kind of stasis or force fields. But it goes to reason that they are highly unstable and would need to be constantly monitored and adjusted. Because of the vulnerability of these ships i doubt they would be any good as a space exploration ship because of the many different kinds of spacial disruptions the ship is exposed to (see VOY) that would potentially destabilize the core leading to the destruction of the ship. The Wiki doesn't mention any kind of ejection system which seems to point out that once the engine core is compromised destruction is almost immediate unlike a Warp Core breach which allows time for the ship to eject the warp core.
I got something more worrying.
In "The Neutral Zone", the Warbird is about 1.8 times the size of the Enterprise-D. In DS9, they're about equal size to a Galaxy class.
In "The Neutral Zone", the Warbird is about 1.8 times the size of the Enterprise-D. In DS9, they're about equal size to a Galaxy class.
Perhaps that's the answer to the Romulan's power core question. The Romulans use an incredibly advanced super collider to create a singularity to provide warp power. This way, if it became uncontrollable, they simply switch off the collider and the singularity "dies", for lack of a better term.
Judy Waxhorn
Lieutenant
Try this: they spin the singularity and inject matter and antimatter along a specific path... an accretion disc forms where the reactions take place. The resulting particle-jets from the top and bottom poles of the singularity are aimed at energy-pickup units/transfer nodes.
In effect the singularity is an uber-containment unit that cannot fail under most situations.
Got the idea from reading up on the current understanding of black holes and singularities. Look up polar jetting... fascinating stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_jet
In effect the singularity is an uber-containment unit that cannot fail under most situations.
Got the idea from reading up on the current understanding of black holes and singularities. Look up polar jetting... fascinating stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_jet
Of course, we can also speculate that there's a way to directly derive power from gravitational pull - especially considering how proficient our Trek cultures are with artificial gravity.
Say, it might be that the breakdown of known natural laws at the singularity allows for a "cheat" of some sort where you pump in gravitational energies to create and maintain a tiny black hole and reap much greater radiative energies from its constant decay.
Timo Saloniemi
Say, it might be that the breakdown of known natural laws at the singularity allows for a "cheat" of some sort where you pump in gravitational energies to create and maintain a tiny black hole and reap much greater radiative energies from its constant decay.
Timo Saloniemi
Wow, that's one of, if not the best, theories I've seen on using a singularity as a power source. The people on this board are amazing, I've a masters in IT and y'all still make me feel ignorant on a regular basis.
Similar threads
