What they need is a sympathizer to write "Warp Particles be Free". In order to avoid accusations of plagiarism it could be a ballet.
Glaring flaw
- Thread starter Hypaspist
- Start date
The answer for this question is very simple:
The Shuttle and Torpedo Building Team!
The story goes like this:
Captain's log: Stardate 48942.07 (Friday 10 December 2371)
The latest events have put us in a difficult situation since we have wasted a lot of torpedoes and damaged all shuttles. We have already lost our original shuttles and the one that Lt. Torres and her engineering team recently built has also been destroyed. Therefore I have asked Commander Chakotay, Liutenant Tuvok and Lieutenant Torres to come to my ready room to discuss an idea I have.
"You all know what has happened" said Janeway. "After the recent adventure with the Furies (Voyager book "The Final Fury" which took place between the episodes "Elogium" and "Twisted"), we have lost all our shuttles. We have also wasted too many torpedoes. If we keep on wasting our topedoes in the same way, we will be out of them soon. Considering our long journey and the risk of running into hostile aliens, we need both shuttles and torpedoes. Therefore I want to discuss an idea I have."
"What would that be?" Chakotay asked.
"I suggest that we set up a special workforce on the ship" Janeway said. "The Shuttle And Torpedo Building Team". "Some really skilled people who can have as their priority to build shuttles and torpedoes when it's necessary. If we do so, we will have a chance to avoid being without those in a critical situation."
"That sounds like a good idea", Chakotay said.
"Indeed. And a very logical idea too considering our need for such items" Tuvok said.
"Exactly my thoughts too", said Janeway. "B'Elanna, do you have any people to spare?"
"Well, I think that Dalby, Henley, Gerron and Chell would be perfect for the job. And I would also like to have Lt. Carey in charge of the team. He's the right person for that. If necessary, I can give a helping hand too in a crisis. But I must point out that I need these people in Engineering too and that they would only work with shuttles and torpedoes when necessary."
"I agree", Janeway said. "I would also suggest that we find some other people too among the crew who also can assist with shuttle and torpedo building when necessary. But we start with these five".
Janeway touched her commbadge: "Mr Carey, can you come to my ready room immediately!"
And so The Shuttle and Torpedo Building Team was born. From the beginning, it was Lt.Carey, Dalby, Henley, Gerron and Chell. Later on Rollins, Vorik, Samantha Wildman and The Borg Baby were added to the team. In fact, those people are the true heroes on Voyager. Without their hard work, Voyager's mission would have been almost impossible.
The Shuttle and Torpedo Building Team!
The story goes like this:
Captain's log: Stardate 48942.07 (Friday 10 December 2371)
The latest events have put us in a difficult situation since we have wasted a lot of torpedoes and damaged all shuttles. We have already lost our original shuttles and the one that Lt. Torres and her engineering team recently built has also been destroyed. Therefore I have asked Commander Chakotay, Liutenant Tuvok and Lieutenant Torres to come to my ready room to discuss an idea I have.
"You all know what has happened" said Janeway. "After the recent adventure with the Furies (Voyager book "The Final Fury" which took place between the episodes "Elogium" and "Twisted"), we have lost all our shuttles. We have also wasted too many torpedoes. If we keep on wasting our topedoes in the same way, we will be out of them soon. Considering our long journey and the risk of running into hostile aliens, we need both shuttles and torpedoes. Therefore I want to discuss an idea I have."
"What would that be?" Chakotay asked.
"I suggest that we set up a special workforce on the ship" Janeway said. "The Shuttle And Torpedo Building Team". "Some really skilled people who can have as their priority to build shuttles and torpedoes when it's necessary. If we do so, we will have a chance to avoid being without those in a critical situation."
"That sounds like a good idea", Chakotay said.
"Indeed. And a very logical idea too considering our need for such items" Tuvok said.
"Exactly my thoughts too", said Janeway. "B'Elanna, do you have any people to spare?"
"Well, I think that Dalby, Henley, Gerron and Chell would be perfect for the job. And I would also like to have Lt. Carey in charge of the team. He's the right person for that. If necessary, I can give a helping hand too in a crisis. But I must point out that I need these people in Engineering too and that they would only work with shuttles and torpedoes when necessary."
"I agree", Janeway said. "I would also suggest that we find some other people too among the crew who also can assist with shuttle and torpedo building when necessary. But we start with these five".
Janeway touched her commbadge: "Mr Carey, can you come to my ready room immediately!"
And so The Shuttle and Torpedo Building Team was born. From the beginning, it was Lt.Carey, Dalby, Henley, Gerron and Chell. Later on Rollins, Vorik, Samantha Wildman and The Borg Baby were added to the team. In fact, those people are the true heroes on Voyager. Without their hard work, Voyager's mission would have been almost impossible.
That's so hot.
But then we come back to the line about having no way to replace Photon torpedeos, which implies that whatever onboard replicators they have onboard are incapable of replicating the parts to construct one. So if they can't replicate the parts to construct a torpedeo, replicating the parts to build something more complex like a shuttlecraft should be impossible as well.
But in the end rather than impossing any limits whatsever they queitly dropped them and hoped that no one would notice, which was a potentially wasted oppertunity.
In silent mode, does a commbadge ... vibrate?
Hmmm, but how long did those original 38 last? Into the second or third season?
At some point in the series they did seem to have put at least some of their energy problems behind them. So the problems with replication right after Caretaker could have been a lot less.
If you think about it, BeLanna doesn't come off as a first class engineer, Scotty would have had the ship up to snuff by the end of episode four.
Comm badges are probably always silent. Either that, or they make a tone so soft that only the wearer can hear it. The only reason we hear it is dramatic license.
Bullshit.
It's an intercom.
Chirp-chirp, time to whack your nipples.
It's an intercom.
Chirp-chirp, time to whack your nipples.
Sounds like a good name for the Voyager reboot series. Kate can be the Nimoy of the reboot. The title has a "OITNB" ring to it.
The Nimoy, so she directs? Or you are Vulcanizing her (NO NO DON'T DO IT)
No, no, no.
In Warp Particles are the New Bitch, Kate is ex-Admiral Janeway 20 years after the series finale. She was using orange matter in a fight when she accidentally destroyed Uranus and ended up in an alt timeline in the nuDQ where Molly Ringwald is the nuJaneway.
In Warp Particles are the New Bitch, Kate is ex-Admiral Janeway 20 years after the series finale. She was using orange matter in a fight when she accidentally destroyed Uranus and ended up in an alt timeline in the nuDQ where Molly Ringwald is the nuJaneway.
I see a lot of missed opportunities. It was a good move when they decided to refit their ship to pass through Borg space. It would have made sense if they would have refit their torpedo launcher with some sort of new technology, or even upgraded the armament whenever possible. Maybe I've been playing too much FTL, but Voyager seems to me to be the equivalent of a Light Cruiser. When you think about it, their original mission was to track down some ramshackle terrorists. It makes sense: you give appropriate missions to ships best made to deal with those missions. As soon as they realize they're out of their league, they should start looking for ways to even the odds.
They definitely should have at least mentioned the problems here and there. It's not as though we need episodes dedicated to finding resources like in BSG, but it's still a necessary part of the story. Again with the 'Wagon Train to the Stars' idea. A little bit of Oregon Trail back to the Alpha Quadrant is in order.
Maybe I missed it, but I haven't seen where she is established as some kind of great engineer. They establish Tom as a hotshot pilot. That's a good move, because they've never really had a character like that. They don't need to have the typical genius engineer; I think it would make a lot of sense for a former terrorist who is used to utilizing foreign technology to be good at refits.
They definitely should have at least mentioned the problems here and there. It's not as though we need episodes dedicated to finding resources like in BSG, but it's still a necessary part of the story. Again with the 'Wagon Train to the Stars' idea. A little bit of Oregon Trail back to the Alpha Quadrant is in order.
If you think about it, BeLanna doesn't come off as a first class engineer, Scotty would have had the ship up to snuff by the end of episode four.
Maybe I missed it, but I haven't seen where she is established as some kind of great engineer. They establish Tom as a hotshot pilot. That's a good move, because they've never really had a character like that. They don't need to have the typical genius engineer; I think it would make a lot of sense for a former terrorist who is used to utilizing foreign technology to be good at refits.
When you really stop to think about it, any SF ship in the 24th century that has transporters can be fully self-sufficient.
They can easily park the ship near virtually any star and collect huge amounts of solar energy via the shield grid, main deflector, or a number of any other systems.
They do have energy conversion capabilities, and I cannot see Solar power being inadequate in terms of how much power a ship can collect.
We already have alternative materials that can create far more efficient photovoltaic systems in real life.
It would be quite unrealistic that the Feds in the 24th century no less (exponential development of tech etc.) would be incapable of using alternative energy sources.
Anyway... you can easily park a ship near a star and replicate away (since replicators convert energy into matter - they don't require previous sources of matter to work).
Spare parts, foods, shuttle components as well as probably even anti-matter - when you have practically infinite amount of solar power continuously coming in and powering the replicators and transporters without even touching your own anti-matter supply, Voyager could have easily made 'pit stops' around any star and restocked itself to the fullest.
Furthermore, Omicron particles were mentioned in 'the Cloud' to be able to enhance antimatter reserves.
I suspect that in Trek, they would operate along the lines of cell-division and effectively initiate a chain reaction that would increase antimatter supply on board.
Again, replicating these particles should be possible (if you have enough power) since SF knows about their uses and composition.... or at the very least, they could set up a mini factory onboard which would be powered by solar energy for the purpose of producing these particles (after all, the crew was able to produce a handheld device capable of generating Thorium).
The only limit to how complex items replicators can create, seems to be dependent on available power.
I suspect the writers never used Solar for that matter because they didn't want to give the ship 'too much of an edge' (a mistake if you ask me - make it probable and have them use their brains as well as their technology to solve problems, in which case storylines would have to be adapted to suit the technology and knowledge of the era... not dumb it down to oblivion).
To that effect... it would be a simple matter to use transporters to replicate larger components and have automation (the computer) assemble everything else.
I find the concept of manual labour in the 24th century to be ludicrous.
But for the sake of the argument, lets say the crew wants to assemble these things by themselves.
Point being, they COULD with more or less relative ease replicate everything they need in smaller components and simply assemble afterwards.
Even if you ignore self-sufficiency capabilities inherent to every SF ship in the 24th century... Voyager probably did trade off-screen with many races to bolster their supplies of antimatter, as well as secure raw materials for shuttle production.
Though, they probably also salvaged shuttles whenever possible, harvested their raw materials and made new ones (if the crashed ones were irreparably damaged).
Or... Voyager could have easily harvested the necessary raw materials from a variety of star systems off screen.
We have seen them searching for polyferranide, which was necessary to seal the Warp coils (mid-end of Season 2 I think).
The ship was equipped with enough technology and knowledge to compensate for every resource issue that could arise in terms of self-sufficiency alone and ease of production.
Trading with other warp cultures off-screen (such as the Talaxians or other friendly races) is also a viability.
They can easily park the ship near virtually any star and collect huge amounts of solar energy via the shield grid, main deflector, or a number of any other systems.
They do have energy conversion capabilities, and I cannot see Solar power being inadequate in terms of how much power a ship can collect.
We already have alternative materials that can create far more efficient photovoltaic systems in real life.
It would be quite unrealistic that the Feds in the 24th century no less (exponential development of tech etc.) would be incapable of using alternative energy sources.
Anyway... you can easily park a ship near a star and replicate away (since replicators convert energy into matter - they don't require previous sources of matter to work).
Spare parts, foods, shuttle components as well as probably even anti-matter - when you have practically infinite amount of solar power continuously coming in and powering the replicators and transporters without even touching your own anti-matter supply, Voyager could have easily made 'pit stops' around any star and restocked itself to the fullest.
Furthermore, Omicron particles were mentioned in 'the Cloud' to be able to enhance antimatter reserves.
I suspect that in Trek, they would operate along the lines of cell-division and effectively initiate a chain reaction that would increase antimatter supply on board.
Again, replicating these particles should be possible (if you have enough power) since SF knows about their uses and composition.... or at the very least, they could set up a mini factory onboard which would be powered by solar energy for the purpose of producing these particles (after all, the crew was able to produce a handheld device capable of generating Thorium).
The only limit to how complex items replicators can create, seems to be dependent on available power.
I suspect the writers never used Solar for that matter because they didn't want to give the ship 'too much of an edge' (a mistake if you ask me - make it probable and have them use their brains as well as their technology to solve problems, in which case storylines would have to be adapted to suit the technology and knowledge of the era... not dumb it down to oblivion).
To that effect... it would be a simple matter to use transporters to replicate larger components and have automation (the computer) assemble everything else.
I find the concept of manual labour in the 24th century to be ludicrous.
But for the sake of the argument, lets say the crew wants to assemble these things by themselves.
Point being, they COULD with more or less relative ease replicate everything they need in smaller components and simply assemble afterwards.
Even if you ignore self-sufficiency capabilities inherent to every SF ship in the 24th century... Voyager probably did trade off-screen with many races to bolster their supplies of antimatter, as well as secure raw materials for shuttle production.
Though, they probably also salvaged shuttles whenever possible, harvested their raw materials and made new ones (if the crashed ones were irreparably damaged).
Or... Voyager could have easily harvested the necessary raw materials from a variety of star systems off screen.
We have seen them searching for polyferranide, which was necessary to seal the Warp coils (mid-end of Season 2 I think).
The ship was equipped with enough technology and knowledge to compensate for every resource issue that could arise in terms of self-sufficiency alone and ease of production.
Trading with other warp cultures off-screen (such as the Talaxians or other friendly races) is also a viability.
I can't remember them using the shield generators or deflector to gather energy, these devices consume power, they don't collect.
A replicator dematerializes matter, the matter stream is manipulated and altered so that what rematerializes is different than what dematerialized.
Translation, their replicator couldn't manufacture this substance.
Trade was shown to be a necessity, this activity was indispensable to their journey home. There are things a replicator simply can't do, on top of which it eats power.
Shields are damaged by close proximity to stars and completely rendered by strong gravimetric fields.
(Have they completely licked Multiphasic shields yet?)
That and photoelectric power is a microscopic trickle compared to the trillions of subatomic particle reactions per second generating power in the Warp Core as matter and antimatter collides.
Maybe you were thinking of the Bussard Collectors?
Although in the horrible ripoff Blazing Saddles, Enterprise's "Marauders" it's seen that although ships might have the capacity to replenish stock's of deuterium, they still need to go to the gas station from time to time, if not constantly.
In Voy Night, Janeway was stock piling Deuterium in portable batteries.
This means that either the ship's Bussard Collectors can be turned up to collect more deuterium than the ship needs, or that the engines were running dry since eggs in one basket in this situation was seen as a bad idea.
(Have they completely licked Multiphasic shields yet?)
That and photoelectric power is a microscopic trickle compared to the trillions of subatomic particle reactions per second generating power in the Warp Core as matter and antimatter collides.
Maybe you were thinking of the Bussard Collectors?
Although in the horrible ripoff Blazing Saddles, Enterprise's "Marauders" it's seen that although ships might have the capacity to replenish stock's of deuterium, they still need to go to the gas station from time to time, if not constantly.
In Voy Night, Janeway was stock piling Deuterium in portable batteries.
This means that either the ship's Bussard Collectors can be turned up to collect more deuterium than the ship needs, or that the engines were running dry since eggs in one basket in this situation was seen as a bad idea.
The main deflector was used for a variety of purposes.
As for shield generators... they do disperse incoming energy in order to protect the ship and consequently consume power, but it should be possible to modify them to redirect some of the incoming energy to other areas.
It was repeatedly stated on-screen that replicators convert energy into matter (but the reverse is also possible for recycling purposes which effectively gives a bit less energy back to the system than what was originally expended, as is rearranging the existing matter into something else - there is practically no concrete evidence to support the claim that replicators need raw matter to work with).
That's just 1 possible explanation (and could easily be an unlikely one).
Another is that the ship didn't have enough energy to replicate the substance in question (since they were repeatedly mentioned to be a large energy drain - which makes sense if you take into account direct energy to matter conversion).
This was taking place in the second year when Voyager was rationing its replicator usage when it came to food alone - I would imagine complex materials in large quantities would trump the energy requirements compared to food).
Considering how much the writers dumbed down technology in late TNG, DS9 and VOY, its no wonder that they would have to resort to trading.
My point about trading here was to illustrate that there was a viable explanation behind shuttles being repaired as well as creating new torpedoes.
It was never stated that a replicator is fundamentally incapable of replicating any specific substance known to Federation science (I would imagine that SF might impose some restrictions on potentially deadly substances... such as the one that Q created to help Quinn commit suicide because the replicators wouldn't produce it.
Here's an extract of the dialogue:
TUVOK: Doctor, do you generally keep samples of fatal poisons in storage?
EMH: No.
TUVOK: The replicators will not produce them either.
JANEWAY: So how did he get his hands on Nogatch hemlock? )
In this case, we could easily deduce that the Nogatch hemlock was a fatal poison that the replicators wouldn't replicate due to being a health hazard ... though, its possible such poisons could be replicated with a given authorization for research purposes or whatnot).
Data in TNG simply states during diminished power levels that the ship lacks the power needed to replicate sophisticated elements - raw matter was never brought into the dialogue there or on Voyager as being a necessary component for replicators to generate objects.
You wouldn't have to get very near a star.
Solar radiation in space is up to 20 times greater than the one hitting the Earth through the atmosphere.
Just park the ship far enough away from a star where proximity isn't an issue (in terms of being a threat to the ship) and start collecting the energy into designated 'batteries' which would be used for replication.
Are we sure about that?
It is estimated that enough solar energy hits the Earth in one single hour to power the entire globe for a full year.
Current global power requirements equate to about 0.5 Zettajoules per year.
We already have the technology with which we can tap into 2000 Zettajoules of Earht's Geothermal power alone (out of 13 000 Zettajoules in total).
I would imagine that powering the replicators with Solar (what with all of the efficiency improvements they probably did to the technology ever since it was conceived) alone would fall well within that power envelope - especially when you consider that there's 20 times more solar energy in space (the Earth filtering out most of it).
For comparison purposes: A photon torpedo packs roughly 1.5 kg of antimatter and 1.5 kg of matter in TOS.
It was stated that a 100% conversion would result in a 64 megatons of explosive energy.
It's a pretty big number yes, and by TNG, I would imagine SF's Photon torpedoes do produce much bigger explosive yields... BUT, a 64 megaton explosion (from antimatter in TOS with 100% conversion) equals 0.0002677 Zettajoules.
Now I realize that these figures are compared to a weapon (with a variable yield), but, given how big of a difference there is in just that aspect alone... a Star should be able to provide huge amounts of power... more than enough to convert into energy usable into plasma that is used in the EPS grid (actually its possible the ship would have to intentionally LOWER its energy intake to be able to cope with the load and still produce high levels of energy - or just store it into proper equivalent of batteries or generators)
Close proximity to a star is not necessary... especially since ships easily orbit Earth with shields down, or even much closer to the Sun itself (depending where in SOL they are) without engaging shields to protect themselves.
Only extreme proximity to a star would require shields... and Metaphasic shields (to go inside a star's corona for a limited period of time).
And besides, 24th century SF does use solar power in space.
The MIDAS array was packed with solar cells and that thing used hyper subspace technology to communicate real time with Voyager over 16 000 LY's away.
I would say Solar is more than viable - and SF would have the ability to harvest it far more effectively - specially in the field.
Actually, I completely forgot about those, but thank you for reminding me.
If I'm not mistaken, TOS explained how SF ships use the collectors in deep space to continuously power themselves (independently of the warp core).
For obvious reasons (to give any sort of credibility of 'scarcity'), the writers evidently dumbed Voyager at times down... but there was an episode where they used toxic byproducts in an alien atmosphere to give themselves a huge power boost (which also blew several relays, but time was an issue here).
Which seems relatively non sensible considering that deuterium could be found practically anywhere in Trek galaxy and how in TOS its not required to generate energy.
But even so, it should be relatively easy to synthesize.
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For a ship to collect the same amount of energy as a planet from a sun, it would have to have a photoelectric collector the size of a planet. Yes a sun pumps out a lot of energy, but it is not focussed or concentrated.
Which is the nature of bussard collector/buzzard ramscoop. A magnetic(?) funnel extending out from the ship for thousands of kilometers, creating a collection catchment of 10's of millions of square miles. The ships shield in comparison barley has a greater surface plane of 17 square KM if it's facing the star amidships.
You can catch more rain in a dumpster than a thimble.
In Star Trek IV, the Yorktown, after it have been sucked dry by the Probe, used a solar sail to keep life support awake and gain some propulsion.
Then of course there's DS9 Explorers.
Which is the nature of bussard collector/buzzard ramscoop. A magnetic(?) funnel extending out from the ship for thousands of kilometers, creating a collection catchment of 10's of millions of square miles. The ships shield in comparison barley has a greater surface plane of 17 square KM if it's facing the star amidships.
You can catch more rain in a dumpster than a thimble.
In Star Trek IV, the Yorktown, after it have been sucked dry by the Probe, used a solar sail to keep life support awake and gain some propulsion.
At the time I assumed that this was an energy field, but now I'm thinking that they must have quickly fabricated hundreds of hectares of some material, probably a flexible metal, and pitched it... I have an old memory of the Yorktown with it's glowing red solar sail square rigged, but it might not be real.
Then of course there's DS9 Explorers.
There's a very big difference here since we're not suggesting collecting same amount of energy that a planet does from the sun.
For one thing, civilization as we know it today uses roughly 0.5 Zettajoules per year, and we have the technology to utilize 2000 Zettajoules via Geothermal (which is 6.5 times LESS compared to Earth's estimated Geothermal potential).
Plus, it is also estimated you need about 1.2% of Sahara desert area to power the projected energy demands of the globe in 2050 - that's using solar panels with current low efficiencies.
SF's equivalent in the 24th century would be(at least) multiple orders or magnitude more efficient, better, and occupy a microscopic fraction of the space by comparison.
Collecting that amount of power from the sun on a continuous basis should be more than possible for a SF ship in the 24th century given exponential technological and scientific developments that occurred continuously in roughly 360 years (from now) in Trek.
And how much energy you can collect depends on how good your technology is efficiency and storage wise.
Size matters relatively little since the process of technical efficiency allow us to do more by using less (effectively harvesting and using MORE solar power, by using less space, or if you will, creating 10 times more in terms of superior synthetic materials [compared to cost efficient/regular ones by using 3 times less resources from the landfills alone - all of which is more than doable today - how much more efficient do you think SF would be compared to us?).
We have ample evidence from on-screen dialogue to confirm that most of SF technology efficiency ratios are close to 99%, and they do posses energy storage capabilities.
Focusing the energy of a star for the purpose of power accumulation for use in replicators could probably be utilized via minimum power expenditure from using either tractor beams or phaser arrays (SF ships were seen to be able to share energy with other ships using phaser arrays... and they were also mentioned/seen to be able to receive it if I'm not mistaken), or simply modifying the hull itself to collect the solar power (for instance we've seen them do a lot of things with the hull by simply polarizing it... so what prevents them from using the hull to focus solar power and collect it into batteries... or the mechanism could be entirely internal and the power could be collected via wireless means - we've seen them focus a lot of other types of energy in a variety of ways... there's no reason it couldn't work for collecting solar in replication).
Either way, I doubt collecting solar power (let alone enough of it) would be an issue for the purpose of replication.
Scientifically and technologically, SF ships should be able to do it.
Or if you want to avoid using energy to matter conversion... why not simply go to an empty system filled with asteroids and beam up sizeable chunks of matter, then play around with the matter while still in the matter stream by rearranging it into something else on a subatomic level and materializing for example spare parts, hull components, food, etc.?
Raw matter is all you'd need for the process, and there's no shortage of asteroids in the Galaxy (as it would seem).
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Okay lets say that you're right.
That surface area of the collector doesn't matter.
That increased collection efficiency over a radically smaller area of collection will still yield usable amounts of power for a starship.
The power of a hundred atomic bombs per second restrained to a zone of a few square meters?
And this isn't just some special area of the universe, no, it's every cubed inch of space equally, even that which we are both in our respective corners of the world are sitting on is exactly that same destructive confluence of solar power as well...
Why aren't we dead?
That surface area of the collector doesn't matter.
That increased collection efficiency over a radically smaller area of collection will still yield usable amounts of power for a starship.
The power of a hundred atomic bombs per second restrained to a zone of a few square meters?
And this isn't just some special area of the universe, no, it's every cubed inch of space equally, even that which we are both in our respective corners of the world are sitting on is exactly that same destructive confluence of solar power as well...
Why aren't we dead?
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