Suspended animation seems to be a much more stables and reliable technology by the 24th century. Voyager's crew spent a month in hibernation while traveling through a part of the Delta Quadrant
General Trek Questions and Observations
- Thread starter The Old Mixer
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Suspended animation seems to be a much more stables and reliable technology by the 24th century. Voyager's crew spent a month in hibernation while traveling through a part of the Delta Quadrant
One of Harry Kim's ancestors was aboard a cryogenic sleeper ship that took a good long while to get from one planet to another, though the way he described that ancestor that ship would have existed after Cochrane broke the warp barrier and humans were building warp-capable ships, so sleeper vessels with cryogenic suspension capsules in the 22nd century would have been largely anachronistic.
T'Plot-hol was quite the effective explorer!
They even tried it once.
If a early warp two ship was carrying colonists, suspension would still make sense
Anything under warp factor four, for the nearer stars. Any mission lasting more than ten years, most definitely.
Assuming that there is no peak warp speed (As in my line of thought for the peak warp speed of 320c) then it becomes critical to keep the crew fresh. Colonists would still be kept in suspension until the situation is resolved for colonization. Consider that at warp factor four in one month's time you will travel a distance of 5 and 1/3 light-years. Consider the resources that an awake crew would consume...and this especially in the early days would be considered a "fast" ship.
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I was thinking along the lines of, say someone has to wait to get married but doesn't want to be awake for the waiting. Or there's a war and you want your children to have no PTSD from it.
It'd make an interesting episode - someone who didn't experience a war that changed all their friends and fellow citizens feeling unable to connect with them because they got to sleep through it, which would bring on feelings of guilt if another made the choice for you.
It'd make an interesting episode - someone who didn't experience a war that changed all their friends and fellow citizens feeling unable to connect with them because they got to sleep through it, which would bring on feelings of guilt if another made the choice for you.
to be fair, warp one is esentially light speed, or just over it, and getting any signifigant distance would take a long time. i assume the first few years or decades after First Contact Cochrane is just getting to warp two, with or without Vulcan help or advice. it might simply be more economical to freeze thousands (or more) of colonists -and rotate ship crew in and out- for a couple of years even if they're only going to Alpha Centauri.
or do a kind of tandem thing, even if you have faster warp, slowboat the colonists in suspension while you send engineers and stuff ahead to build infrastructure
I actually think that...
1. The old warp scale was better. Raise the warp factor to the third power, and that's how fast you're going.
2. It should just be open ended, though. Warp 10 is 1000c. Warp 16 is 4096c. Warp 27 is 19,683c. And so on.
3. If they really need to increase it for TNG, just use the fourth power, putting Warp 9 at 6561c. Because no one can raise a number to the 3.3333 power without a calculator.
1. The old warp scale was better. Raise the warp factor to the third power, and that's how fast you're going.
2. It should just be open ended, though. Warp 10 is 1000c. Warp 16 is 4096c. Warp 27 is 19,683c. And so on.
3. If they really need to increase it for TNG, just use the fourth power, putting Warp 9 at 6561c. Because no one can raise a number to the 3.3333 power without a calculator.
:^D
If we use the "third power warp scale" then even during TOS, year(s) passed between each episode...
Sorry, but anyone that thinks using the simple "third power warp scale" model is disillusioned. 
Of course, the real warp scale model is speed of plot. 
@blssdwlf has a neat warp scale model based on actual in-universe data from TOS (https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/warp-space-charts.140446/).
I agreee with his speeds and distances, but instead of gravity/subspace atmosphere factors, I theorize warp speeds are strongly affected by magnetic fields ( or "magnetic potentials" as dialoged in The Galileo Seven) from stars/planets, ion storms, and galactic magnetic ribbons. Sometimes, magnetic fields work against you, sometimes they work for you, sometimes they are not around (the true warp scale), and sometimes they shoot you off to wild designations. YMMV
If we use the "third power warp scale" then even during TOS, year(s) passed between each episode...
Average speed for the Enterprise seems to be warp 6. Warp factor cubed. Warp 6 would be 216c. Earth to Alpha Centauri would be approx 1 week.
If the Federation is 1,000 ly across, it would take 4.63 years
I like my idea better. Time warp factors are a measure equivalent to actual acceleration.
I say 'equivalent to', due to the factual idea that a space warp, is in concept, a shortening of the actual distance between two points.
This brings into Star Trek an explanation for why some closer stars are difficult to get to in terms of actual time. In other words d=1/2*g*t^2, or rather the equivalent to this. Because the ship isn't actually moving...space is. So the rules are different.
So up until, just past the time of the mission of the S. S. Columbia (The Cage), when the time barrier was broken, things were rather dicey...
Which, by the way explains wf^3...
I say 'equivalent to', due to the factual idea that a space warp, is in concept, a shortening of the actual distance between two points.
This brings into Star Trek an explanation for why some closer stars are difficult to get to in terms of actual time. In other words d=1/2*g*t^2, or rather the equivalent to this. Because the ship isn't actually moving...space is. So the rules are different.
So up until, just past the time of the mission of the S. S. Columbia (The Cage), when the time barrier was broken, things were rather dicey...
Which, by the way explains wf^3...
I did stats using stardates (1000=1 year), and the average time between episodes is 3 weeks (+/- 2 weeks though) or about 12 light years distance based on the warp 6 = 216c logic. BUT, we see the Enterprise travel much greater distances in hours, not weeks. The Enterprise has made three trips to the edge of the galaxy yet visited Vulcan, etc. which are fairly inside the Federation core. Also, I think warp 6 is very fast for "normal" travel, most times I believe the ship is traveling at slower warp speeds. I think we need speeds ~10 to~20 times the warp factor cubed model or simply insert the "Cochrane Variable" for environmental conditions. YMMV
I agree. Even warp 3411 sounds slightly less ridiculous than warp '9.999999999987.'
If you do a bit of arithmetic, it turns out that warp 5 (=125 c) would just be enough to cover a distance of 2,4 light years in one week. So Archer's Enterprise could have had its weekly adventure in a different stellar system only in a region of significantly higher than average stellar density, and Kirk's Enterprise could just barely about do it in an average stellar neighbourhood (4.14 light years)
And when the quantum slipstream drives gets you up to ludicrous speed, just increase the exponent. Say, Quantum 2 is 128c, Quantum 3 is 2187, etc. Quantum 10 is 10,000,000c, or fast enough to complete Voyager's journey in under three days.
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