FTL technologies?

[Vastator]

Greetings all. I wanted to ask about the different FTL methods employed in Star Trek and try, perhaps failingly, making sense of them. Star Trek has always had warp drives being the primary method of space travel with the Federation determining a species ability to break the warp barrier meanining that they are somewhat technically advanced enough to make first contact with. In the movies, we hear about Transwarp and TNG shows that the Borg make use of Transwarp that is much superior to warp.

Now thats all fine and good. But I think its in VOY that we get a whole mass of different types of propulsion technologies which are superior to warp but I don't get what could be the difference between each other or say transwarp. One is of course the Quantum Slipstream Drive and the other is the Coaxial Warp Drive. Now the latter has the term warp in it but it doesnt appear to have anything similar to warp technology since it seems to "fold space" between two spots and highlighted as being a very advanced form of propulsion.

Those are the two that I have been somewhat thinking about in relation to transwarp drives. I am aware that there are perhaps other methods like the Graviton catapult though thats hardly a drive system and one would need multiple catapults to accomplish long distance travel. There is also of course artificially generated wormholes but thats kind of drifting off the topic but I thought I would mention it.

Anyway, the new novels highlight the Federation using quantum slipstream technology. Now with their previous usage of transwarp (TMP Excelsior was said to be made to use it) and Voyager having encountered the coaxial warp drive; why was slipstream chosen in particular? I always thought personally that transwarp was perhaps one of the more advanced ones and would be something the Federation would use and develop for its fleet. Is quantum slipstream drives faster compared to transwarp? Or coaxial?

Apologies for long post

 

[Christopher]

Given all the different ways that "transwarp" has been depicted in ST, it's fairly clear that it's not a single technology but a catchall label for a variety of faster-than-warp systems. However, Starfleet's depicted efforts to harness transwarp drive types have evidently not been successful.

I think the reason the books built on slipstream is simply following Voyager's precedent. That show depicted Voyager experimenting with various new drive technologies, but quantum slipstream was the one they were the most successful at reverse-engineering and using to cover a great distance. It also featured in two prominent episodes, while the gibberish-named "coaxial warp drive" was only in one rather forgettable episode. So it seems like the natural one to build on. (Okay, "quantum slipstream" is a gibberish name too, but a more elegant one. At least "slipstream" conveys a sense of speed and motion. What the hell does "coaxial" mean when applied to warp drive? What two or more things are sharing an axis? What's supposed to be rotating around that axis? Or is a coaxial warp drive just one that gets cable TV?)

 

[Vastator]

The coaxial warp drive I simply what I think technobabble and just cause it sounded cool but seemed to be far different from the other types since it seems to fold two points in space and transport the ship to the other location. To me it seems to be the fastest of the group.

But anyway, Memory Alpha lists Seven of Nine saying that quantum slipstream drives seem similar to transwarp conduits though strangely I always was under the impression that transwarp was very very fast. Plus, the amount of Borg technology brought back, I thought they might have been able to crack the Transwarp problems that Starfleet had.

 

[David cgc]

Given all the different ways that "transwarp" has been depicted in ST, it's fairly clear that it's not a single technology but a catchall label for a variety of faster-than-warp systems. However, Starfleet's depicted efforts to harness transwarp drive types have evidently not been successful.

I like to think the Excelsior's transwarp worked, at least to a degree, and that's why the warp scale was recalibrated. And, of course, once all the starships had it, it just became day-to-day warp drive, and the next thing(s) on the drawing board took over the transwarp name.

 

[FordSVT]

Given all the different ways that "transwarp" has been depicted in ST, it's fairly clear that it's not a single technology but a catchall label for a variety of faster-than-warp systems. However, Starfleet's depicted efforts to harness transwarp drive types have evidently not been successful.

I like to think the Excelsior's transwarp worked, at least to a degree, and that's why the warp scale was recalibrated. And, of course, once all the starships had it, it just became day-to-day warp drive, and the next thing(s) on the drawing board took over the transwarp name.

I like that idea too. It doesn't make sense to me that something so monumental as a "Voyager-style" transwarp drive that could be used to cross the galaxy in weeks or less would have been designed and prototyped within the Excelsior and then simply abandoned the idea for 100 years after Scotty sabotaged its maiden voyage. Most likely it worked just fine after they repaired it and future Starfleet vesseld used a warp drive based on the "Transwarp" drive. Maybe Transwarp was just the project name for a drive that wasn't just going to allow them to add another "warp X" number but really allow them to travel faster than they were previously able to given the same amount of warp energy. Hence, the TNG warp scale.

 

[BrotherBenny]

...the gibberish-named "coaxial warp drive" was only in one rather forgettable episode. ..What the hell does "coaxial" mean when applied to warp drive? What two or more things are sharing an axis? What's supposed to be rotating around that axis? Or is a coaxial warp drive just one that gets cable TV?)

I always thought it was used to suggest a dual drive of some kind.

 

[Mysterio]

...the gibberish-named "coaxial warp drive" was only in one rather forgettable episode. ..What the hell does "coaxial" mean when applied to warp drive? What two or more things are sharing an axis? What's supposed to be rotating around that axis? Or is a coaxial warp drive just one that gets cable TV?)

I always thought it was used to suggest a dual drive of some kind.

It could mean 2 cylindrical shaped warp fields with a common axis. In this case the outer field could warp the inner field, essentially squaring the power of the warp field