...but you need to stop the matter/antimatter reaction. Can you SCRAM a warp core, or something else akin to a crash shutdown of a nuclear reactor?
Or are you just boned?
Or are you just boned?
Let's say you can't eject the warp core...
- Thread starter Cobalt Frost
- Start date
There's an easier answer to that question than why fail safes always fail in Trek.
I know. Built by the same people who made exploding consoles, employed Murder Droids all over Mars and the Exploder class, I mean Oberth Class: Yoyodine
Bendix guides the warheads in, Avco builds them nice.
Douglas, North American, Grumman get their slice.
Martin launches off a pad, Lockheed from a sub;
We can't get the R&D On a Piper Cub.
Convair boosts the satellite Into orbits round;
Boeing builds the Minuteman, We stay on the ground.
Yoyodyne, Yoyodyne, Contracts flee thee yet.
DOD has shafted thee, Out of spite, I'll bet.
-From Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
(sung to the tune of Aura Lee i.e. Love Me Tender)
Yoyodine is where the Pynchon universe, Buckaroo Banzai and Star Trek meet
...but you need to stop the matter/antimatter reaction. Can you SCRAM a warp core, or something else akin to a crash shutdown of a nuclear reactor?
Or are you just boned?
I think you have the order reversed there. Ideally ejecting the warp core is a matter of last resort, so if they were able to shut down the reaction they would have tried that before, not after, attempting to eject the core.
While in TNG it always seemed as though ejecting the core was prone to failure, at this point we may have seen it succeed more often than fail. Voyager successfully ejected their core twice, as did the E-E in INS.
Dumping the deuterium and purging the reaction chamber might be possible additional safety features, though the latter might lead to a rough ride what with the mixture of matter and antimatter not being contained within the warp core.
Ideally though the warp core ejections system should have multiple redundancy systems and means of activation to ensure that nothing hinders it.
Why wasn't there a shut-off valve for the Anti-Matter feed?
It takes TWO to react.
There should be Manual & Electronic ways to shut-off the Matter & Anti-Matter feeds to the M/A-M Reaction Chamber.
If the electronic Shut-off Valve fails, have a MANUAL backup.
It's really that simple.
I don't know why they didn't design their reactor that way and trust everything to electronics only.
All the best Electronics in the world can fail at the worst opportunities & moments in time due to unforseen circumstances, that's why you need manual shut-off valves on multiple ends.
One on the input end to the reaction chamber, and one from the M/A-M storage feeds.
Shutting down either one would've worked wonders on so many situations.
It takes TWO to react.
There should be Manual & Electronic ways to shut-off the Matter & Anti-Matter feeds to the M/A-M Reaction Chamber.
If the electronic Shut-off Valve fails, have a MANUAL backup.
It's really that simple.
I don't know why they didn't design their reactor that way and trust everything to electronics only.
All the best Electronics in the world can fail at the worst opportunities & moments in time due to unforseen circumstances, that's why you need manual shut-off valves on multiple ends.
One on the input end to the reaction chamber, and one from the M/A-M storage feeds.
Shutting down either one would've worked wonders on so many situations.
I've assumed that in the situations where we've seen warp core ejection fail ("Cause and Effect", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Emissary"(?), GEN are the ones that immediately spring to mind) the ship had either taken extensive damage or the antimatter containment degraded so quickly that manual options either weren't operable or weren't operable with the amount of time they had.
Unfortunately, in Star Trek, even the manual backups will fail.
A "valve" doesn't work for antimatter, unless the valve is made of antimatter, otherwise antimatter would annihilate with whatever matter the valve was made of. One reason why it may take longer than fusion to ever work out how to use anti-matter, even if humanity could make a lot of it, and so far we can't, is containment issues.
Until Voyager and Discovery which had the budgets to do it.
But the Matter/Anti-Matter particles are fed via Electro-Magnetic pipes.
I'm sure somebody can figure out a mechanical solution to halt flow by shoving a EM valve cover into the path way to halt flow of the particle stream.
Funny enough, in "That Which Survives" the TOS Enterprise has a bypass valve for their M/AM reaction chamber. A magnetic field contained and controlled the flow.
Regarding the OP's question, it seems that the warp core on non-TOS ships contains quite a bit of antimatter and matter fuel in the top/bottom shaft that is not only unused but more than the ship could normally consume to make it dangerous. Otherwise if it was an emergency shutdown then it would be simple to just cut the flow the core and let the fuel in the core consume itself and run out on its own.
Gotta keep the expendable quota (security and background personnel) maintained. Key plot personnel like the captain can only by in mortal danger if the script calls for it.
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