Does the Enterprise run on hydroelectric power?

[Rusty0918]

I'm wondering if anyone has ever caught this: shortly after we see Kirk get Scotty out from those Willy Wonka style water pipes before he hits the giant "dishwasher," we hear Chekov mentioning it's "Water Turbine Control."

I'm not exactly the expert in engineering, but aren't turbines used to generate power? And a water turbine, henceforth, would suggest that the Enterprise runs on hydroelectricity.

I have to admit, this is entirely STUPID. You know how absurd it would be for a starship in space to run on hydroelectricity? I mean, what if the water supply was damaged? Even with replicators, it wouldn't be practical.

This scene was poorly written.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Coolant?

 

[M'Sharak]

I'm not exactly the expert in engineering, but aren't turbines used to generate power? And a water turbine, henceforth, would suggest that the Enterprise runs on hydroelectricity.

Power generation from moving water is only one of many applications in which a turbine can be used. Power can also be applied to a turbine acting as a pump in order to move water (particularly in high volume) to wherever it needs to be -- firefighting was an early use for this type of pump.

Housings for such pumps are not typically transparent, and indeed the "chopper" pump we saw more closely resembled a centrifugal pump containing an impeller, rather than a turbine, but hey, it's a movie, right? (A hydroelectric turbine room would also have been greatly different in appearance -- something more like this or this, or maybe this.)

 

[RoJoHen]

I assumed it was part of some water-recycling system aboard the ship.

 

[Tiberius]

But why the hell did those tubes take such a circuitous route? They went all the way down to the other end of engineering just to come back again!

 

[Jax]

Water Turbine Control must be water to drink, bathe, shower, and piss into How you could come up with Hydro Eletric power is beyond me.

 

[RoJoHen]

Water Turbine Control must be water to drink, bathe, shower, and piss into How you could come up with Hydro Eletric power is beyond me.

Maybe because we've never seen a bathroom on Star Trek?

 

[SilentP]

But why the hell did those tubes take such a circuitous route? They went all the way down to the other end of engineering just to come back again!

It's called a pipe bend, essentially it's a design for piping where there can be a large range in temperatures with the pipe and the fluids it carries. Since materials expand and contract as the temperature changes, having pipe bends give a pipe run an extra degree of flexibility to absorb the changing dimensions as is it essentially 'slack' which you wouldn't have if the pipe ran directly from point A to point B. As it's likely this is part of a cooling system, I'm even more tempted to say that's the reason for it.

 

[RoJoHen]

I just learned something about pipes.

 

[SilentP]

Glad to be of service

 

[The Castellan]

I'm surprised they did not have the Enterprise running on unleaded.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Now we realise why the Enterprise is called she...

Scotty enjoys nothing better than going for a swim in her waterworks.

 

[Gepard]

I just learned something about pipes.

I just learned that the effects team put thought into the Enterprise's cooling system!

 

[bbailey861]

I was hoping the water was being used to feed the vats making the beer.

 

[Green Shirt]

I suppose water pipes were used because Scotty wouldn't have lasted long if he were beamed into a plasma conduit.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I suppose water pipes were used because Scotty wouldn't have lasted long if he were beamed into a plasma conduit.

Which is always the phrase used at the beginning a stream of technobabble.

 

[M'Sharak]

I was hoping the water was being used to feed the vats making the beer.

"Divert 30 percent of the starboard inert coolant flow to the beer reactors, on my mark!"
"Aye, sir - standing by!"

 

[SilentP]

I just learned something about pipes.

I just learned that the effects team put thought into the Enterprise's cooling system!

In fairness, a lot of industrial scale pipework has this, so it's not hard to imagine that they did it because it would look odd for it not to obey a similar visual style to that scale of pipework, rather than intended realism in a cooling system.

 

[David cgc]

Weren't the pipes labeled something like "inert reactant"? That might not even have been actual water.

 

[UssGlenn]

Weren't the pipes labeled something like "inert reactant"? That might not even have been actual water.

Isn't inert reactant a bit of an oxymoron? anybody know of anything that would fit that description?