Fun Fact About Hand Phasers

[ZapBrannigan]

In "The Galileo Seven" (SPOILERS), Scotty reports that "one of the lines gave" and therefore "we have no fuel." Then he drains the hand phasers to fuel the shuttlecraft. Later, Spock "jettisoned the fuel and ignited it."

It all adds up to one thing: the phasers are powered by compressed gas, like a butane lighter.

Note that this does not contradict references to phasers being charged, as in "The Cage" ("They were fully charged when we left") and "Whom Gods Destroy" ("You don't think I'd be fool enough to give you a charged phaser"). The verb Charge at dictionary.com has definition 10 as well as 11:

10. to fill or furnish (a thing) with the quantity, as of powder or fuel, that it is fitted to receive:
to charge a musket.

11. to supply with a quantity of electrical charge or electrical energy:
to charge a storage battery.

Under definition 10, you can charge or recharge a crossbow, a catapult, a slingshot, a fountain pen, or a cigarette lighter. So the dialogue fits just fine with compressed gas in the phasers.

[The basic idea here was suggested privately by Metryq, but since he retired from the BBS recently I'm posting it myself.]

 

[C57D]

It is certainly an interesting idea and I could imagine (although I am definitely no chemist or physicist) that some sort of ST tech energy extraction method could be utilised to obtain sufficient energy from such a small fuel tank. Also the fuel could be some high energy yield miracle substance only found on certain planets and so as rare and sought after as the equally miraculous dilithium. Certainly explains the G7 scene.
Maybe ??

 

[Phil123]

Unfortunately I think it's just an inconsistency in the tech. I love G7, I think it is a fantastic episode, but regardless of what powers a phaser the idea that draining it would be enough to power a shuttle out of an atmosphere and orbit is not plausible. It was a plot device, a good one, but doesn't really hold up to even Star Trek science.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

It was a plot device, a good one, but doesn't really hold up to even Star Trek science.

Unless the gas is really potent. Suppose the phaser handle houses two containers: one is a tank of highly compressed gas, and beside it is a magnetic bottle with highly compressed antimatter gas. When you press the trigger, a tiny amount is combined and the heat released by annihilating these particles is harnessed to power the phaser.

 

[Tenacity]

In Farscape, the guns were powered by a fluid.

 

[C57D]

Unless the gas is really potent. Suppose the phaser handle houses two containers: one is a tank of highly compressed gas, and beside it is a magnetic bottle with highly compressed antimatter gas. When you press the trigger, a tiny amount is combined and the heat released by annihilating these particles is harnessed to power the phaser.

Which given that a phaser on self destruct is shown in at least one episode (Conscience of the King ??) To be pretty deadly, maybe it is MAM powered. That would certainly get a shuttle into orbit!

 

[Vger23]

It may not be 100% consistent with the actual dialogue in the episode, but I always assumed the phaser power was actually going to some of the internal power systems that were needed to help get the craft in orbit, not the literal "fuel tanks."

 

[DonIago]

^That reminds me of how I was on a plane that couldn't take off because the engine used to start the primary engines was malfunctioning.

 

[Spock's Barber]

"Captain! Someone accidentally put a Samsung battery in my phaser!"

 

[Jedman67]

^That reminds me of how I was on a plane that couldn't take off because the engine used to start the primary engines was malfunctioning.

I first read that as 'hallucinating'.

I need another coffee.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

In "The Galileo Seven" (SPOILERS), Scotty reports that "one of the lines gave" and therefore "we have no fuel." Then he drains the hand phasers to fuel the shuttlecraft. Later, Spock "jettisoned the fuel and ignited it."

That's not precisely what the dialog said. Scotty said he could adapt hand phasers and use their energy. He specifically said "energy," and he spoke of adapting.

It all adds up to one thing: the phasers are powered by compressed gas, like a butane lighter.

I really don't think so. I'd sooner believe that the "line" they're talking about there was what TNG would have called a plasma conduit than something that conveyed compressed gas.

 

[J.T.B.]

Suppose the phaser handle houses two containers: one is a tank of highly compressed gas, and beside it is a magnetic bottle with highly compressed antimatter gas. When you press the trigger, a tiny amount is combined and the heat released by annihilating these particles is harnessed to power the phaser.

Yeesh, I wouldn't want that thing bouncing around on my belt! What's behind the container bottle, permanent magnet? I know that Trek tech is fantastic, but a pocket-sized M/AM reaction seems a little much for TOS!

It's a fun idea, though. To me, when Scotty is draining the phasers, with the pressure gauge and all, it very much resembles charging refrigerant into an AC sytstem.

I don't mind the propulsion ideas being a little vague, it's kind of charming. I used to read "Tom Corbett Space Cadet" books where they would "pump" more uranium into the reactors for more speed, like a stoker throwing on more coal. And of course Captain Nemo's great power from some kind of seawater-derived sodium-acid battery that, if real, would make being an engineer on the Nautilus something like a suicide mission.

For liquid-powered weapons, they had one in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars. It had "funny looking" liquid-filled cartridges that, when fired, produced a powerful ray! It was all about rays, back then!

 

[Vger23]

^That reminds me of how I was on a plane that couldn't take off because the engine used to start the primary engines was malfunctioning.

Precisely!

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Yeesh, I wouldn't want that thing bouncing around on my belt! What's behind the container bottle, permanent magnet? I know that Trek tech is fantastic, but a pocket-sized M/AM reaction seems a little much for TOS!

I thought about that too. I'm not married to the antimatter idea. It's just that butane seems a little weak.

That's not precisely what the dialog said. Scotty said he could adapt hand phasers and use their energy. He specifically said "energy," and he spoke of adapting.

But Scotty says "We have no fuel" because "one of the lines gave."

Then he "drains" the phasers into the shuttlecraft propulsion system.

Then when they're in orbit, Spock jettisons the fuel and ignites it. So... what fuel was that?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

So... what fuel was that?

Plasma?

 

[fireproof78]

Plasma?

It strikes me that plasma makes sense, but it would require a large amount of energy in order to vaporize a human body.

 

[Push The Button]

Plasma?

Plottanium.

 

[C57D]

This is a fascinating thread. But imho I think that the phaser fuel must have been 100% proof liquid Handwavium lol.
Or just one of Scotty's best whiskies!!!

 

[C57D]

Plottanium.

Hahaha beat me to it by a few minutes.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

It strikes me that plasma makes sense, but it would require a large amount of energy in order to vaporize a human body.

If that's what a phaser on maximum is doing (when a guy glows and disappears), then I think the "dude vapor" would quickly condense and leave a very unpleasant puddle goop, which if left untended would become a big patch of crud.

But in "The Changeling" Spock says two guards have disappeared and "I must assume they are dead."

Maybe the vanishing act is not vaporization, despite Chekov speaking casually in ST6. Maybe the phaser on maximum kills by shifting the person into another dimension. And this other dimension is not even three-dimensional space like the Mirror Universe. Instead, it's a "place" that's not even a place. It's totally incompatible with existence as we know it, and when your body is shifted there, your molecules can no longer exist as such.