In fact, I like to go even farther and interpret, unless someone can point me to irrefutable evidence to the contrary, that the NX-01 had a fusion engine. My rationale for this assumption is as follows:
Although I can't find it referenced anywhere, I believe that it was once stated in one form or another (perhaps dialog?) that it did use matter/antimatter, or at the very least a 'hatch' on top of the reactor was described as a dilithium access hatch. So unless we need dilithium to convert energy from fusion reactions...
1)The Earth-Romulan War was fought with atomic (which is clearly meant to be read as "thermonuclear") weapons;
2)An antimatter explosive is a better than a fusion device by a factor of well over a thousand assuming similar levels of efficiency (afaik it's the most efficient method of energy release physics even allows);
3)Given antimatter production on a scale able to support the NX-01, not to mention the allied Vulcan, Andorian, and Tellarite ships with similar performance and built in greater numbers, antimatter weapons would be used in preference to atomic ones;
4)Hence, my preferred interpretation is that the NX-01 used a fusion engine.
In some thread or other (
) Praetor pointed out some counterarguments to this line of reasoning, namely that antimatter might be so expensive in the 22nd century that ubiquitous use might be prohibited. Unfortunately, I disagree with this hypothesis. Firstly, very small amounts of antimatter need be used to be militarily useful, probably amounts significantly smaller than those needed to run a starship. Secondly, antimatter is
so militarily useful that it would probably be preferable to employ it as a weapon than a fuel source. Like naval battles, most major combat in the Romulan War is likely to occur near solar systems, not in open space. Speed is surely far less useful than weapons that make nuclear bombs look like firecrackers.
I actually basically agree with you, despite my provided counterarguments in that other thread. In fact, I agree that most of the ships that fought in the war would probably be fusion-powered, since it does seem workable. I just think that the NX class probably used matter/antimatter, and that wartime ships rolled back to the tried-and-true fusion method. And I also agree that at that stage antimatter probably existed in such small amounts that it had to be rationed carefully. So if 90% of weapons were cheap-o nuclear bombs and pulse/phase lasers, maybe 10% of weapons were the antimatter equivalent of the A-Bomb?
If evidence from ENT contradicts this, I'm afraid I'll have to go with my fallback position, which is that the entire show was Riker playing a video game.
You mean the same historically imperfect holodeck recreation we saw on UPN?
Praetor - I put my $0.02 worth in on a similar subject not too long ago (and in this economy, $0.02 ain't what it used to be). Regarding Scotty's statement in BoT, I had always thought that the Bird of Prey being impulse only was a result of it basically being a gun platform. For FTL requirements, the ship attached to a larger mother ship that had warp drive capabilities.
Similar to the US A-10 aircraft. It is essentially an airframe wrapped around a big gun in the nose (even the nose landing gear is off center to make room for the gun).
I agree with the theory of the BoP as a flying gun. Have you ever had a look at the deck plans that have been done for the BoP? They have giant machinery for the plasma gun dominating a large part of the bow of the ship. They're online, found
here.
I'd thought for a long time that it had no warp drive too, but the more I thought about it the more I found it hard to accept that she didn't have some form of warp drive due to the strikingly similar nacelle pods.
I am going to have to watch the episode again, but it is also possible that the bird of prey is impulse only when cloaked (as may have been suggested above). Similar to she can only fire when not cloaked, she can only move at warp when not cloaked, due to the power requirements of the cloak.
I think this is the safest assumption - she had some warp capacity, but would need a mother ship to be ferried long distances. Perhaps this is something the Romulans started in the E-R War that carried over for a while until they acquired D7s to supplement them, and then developed alternative long-range propulsion. Alternatively, this might be the only Romulan ship that is limited in this way, due to the plasma weapon. Other birds-of-prey might not even have the weapon. The ones in 'The Deadly Years' seemed to due to effects re-use, but then the Enterprise seemed to take several hits of whatever that weapon was, which seemed unlikely with the plasma weapon. Perhaps this was a low-power variant that allowed greater warp speed and range?
You know, that brings up something I hadn't thought of. The Romulans had Klingon D7s, and according to 'The Voyage Home,' the bird-of-prey at the very least had a dilithium-based power core, which to me means M/AM.
So theoretically the Romulans might have then indeed
had M/AM circa 2267 despite my thoughts about them ignoring it in favor of the artificial quantum singularities!
I wonder why the Romulans would have favored the singularities if it was less efficient for warp speed as stated, unless there are other benefits? This seems to even more strongly point to the Romulans having an antimatter shortage.
The big problem with fusion reactors for drives is that they'd consume a lot of fuel. Probably 70% of the ships mass or so would be devoted to fuel, and the reactor would consume it rapidly. As for fusion reactors not being powerful enough to power warp flight - we'd need to know exactly how much power is needed to warp space and propel you beyond the speed of light to know that.
These are excellent points. However, both the early Earth ships and Romulan ships seemed to have limited speed and range. This could make Bussard collectors a much more important component of early-era warp ships that has previously been supposed. Imagine skimming a hydrogen-heavy nebula to refuel rather than carrying massive fuel tanks.
And a fission-powered Phoenix would work for me,
Juan.
Right. We don't even know exactly what dilithium crystals DO, dude.
For my money, they convert the gamma rays produced by a M/AM reaction into usable power. That kind of thing wouldn't do a battery much good at all. Nor would it be very useful in a fusion reaction.
All of this has actually led me to a rather intriguing idea.
If dilithium is some sort of catalyst that translates the M/AM reaction into power, what if dilithium could ALSO be used to translate small-scale fusion reactions into power, thus permitting them to achieve fusion-powered warp without gigantic fuel tanks?
That could even allow for the NX-01 to have a fusion reactor power system, if all that is refenced is the dilithium. Hell, that could even allow Kirk's BoP (and perhaps even D7s) to have a fusion reactor power source while dilithium is present.
Has it ever been clearly stated what powers Klingon ships? I know there was mention of the 'tritium intermix' being what allowed a single Klingon ship to survive the Second Battle of Chin'toka, but did they clearly state it as being part of the ship's M/AM intermix?
Memory Alpha states that the change made that allowed the ship to survive was in regard to a 'warp core containment problem.' Very vague.
Thoughts?
