Plasma conduits for everything - Why?

[Deimos Anomaly]

The person responsible for the whole plasma-everywhere engineering ethos of the UFP should be tried for treason against the Federation.

The deaths of thousands of non-main-characters slain by their own exploding control boards and computer consoles is on his hands.

Plasma conduits are only nescesary, I'd imagine, for the warp drive, possibly the shields and weapons, and maybe the main computer.

Everything else could run electrically, including all those computers on the bridge, and they wouldn't blow up in peoples faces, spray lethal shrapnel, and hurl people bodily across the room. Pipes full of boiling pressurised plasma have no business being anywhere near the bridge damn it!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The Federation charter guarantees the right of every citizen to own and bear plasma conduits. That so many people die as a result is certainly regrettable, but what can you do?

 

[Trekker4747]

The ships computers work with processors capable of reltavistic speeds. Conventional electricity isn't going to cut it.

 

[HRHTheKING]

They need to have highly explosive pieces of equipment on starships and space stations, because it looks dramatic on-camera.

 

[Christopher]

Deimos Anomaly said:
The person responsible for the whole plasma-everywhere engineering ethos of the UFP should be tried for treason against the Federation.

Forget the plasma. What about the lack of seatbelts? What about the fact that holodecks continue to be installed on starships after dozens of life-threatening malfunctions? What about shuttlecraft with no airlocks? What about beaming into untested alien environments without protective suits? What about working on unknown and potentially dangerous alien devices three meters from the warp core?

Engineers design technology to minimize the risk of catastrophe. Adventure writers design technology to maximize the risk of catastrophe.

Everything else could run electrically, including all those computers on the bridge, and they wouldn't blow up in peoples faces, spray lethal shrapnel, and hurl people bodily across the room. Pipes full of boiling pressurised plasma have no business being anywhere near the bridge damn it!

What makes you think those have anything to do with plasma conduits? Even an electrical system would have the same problem. Even if your house has good circuit breakers and you have good surge protectors on your equipment, a direct lightning strike could still blow out your computer or TV, because a voltage differential huge enough to cause an electric arc from a cloud to the ground thousands of meters below is certainly going to be more than big enough to cause an electric arc across the gap in a circuit breaker or to overwhelm a surge protector. It's plausible that a really powerful alien zap gun could have a similar effect. Even 24th-century surge protectors would have fundamental physical limits that a powerful enough energy spike could overwhelm, causing consoles to short and blow out.

 

[Jimmy_C]

You know how in Star Trek III the torpedoes caused electrical arcs all around the ship? I bet most weapons on Star Trek do that, causing the overloads.

 

[Jimmy_C]

Christopher said:
Forget the plasma. What about the lack of seatbelts?

I always figured that, at the forces encountered on the show, if the inertial dampeners didn't compensate then you're boned whether or not you have seatbelts. If you really needed them, then increasing the gravity under your feet or installing a containment field would work just as well.

What about the fact that holodecks continue to be installed on starships after dozens of life-threatening malfunctions?

Maybe the Enterprise-D and Voyager just had bad luck, and the one billion other holodecks didn't malfunction so there's a good track record?

What about shuttlecraft with no airlocks?

Force fields. ;-)

What about beaming into untested alien environments without protective suits?

Force fields. ;-)

What about working on unknown and potentially dangerous alien devices three meters from the warp core?

Force fields. ;-)

Engineers design technology to minimize the risk of catastrophe. Adventure writers design technology to maximize the risk of catastrophe.

Everything can be solved with duck tape and force fields. ;-)

What makes you think those have anything to do with plasma conduits? Even an electrical system would have the same problem. Even if your house has good circuit breakers and you have good surge protectors on your equipment, a direct lightning strike could still blow out your computer or TV, because a voltage differential huge enough to cause an electric arc from a cloud to the ground thousands of meters below is certainly going to be more than big enough to cause an electric arc across the gap in a circuit breaker or to overwhelm a surge protector. It's plausible that a really powerful alien zap gun could have a similar effect. Even 24th-century surge protectors would have fundamental physical limits that a powerful enough energy spike could overwhelm, causing consoles to short and blow out.

Just use a force field. ;-)

 

[Ronald Held]

And when the force fields fail or have a temporary interuption of power?

 

[starburst]

Thats when the duck/duct tape comes into play

Ive always thought it strange that they work on things in Engineering, better to work in a lab (ala B4 in Nemisis and the occassional Voyager episode)

Seat belts would still be good, how many concussions would be avoided if someone was belted into their station when the ship gets shot at

 

[Deimos Anomaly]

If a missile hit some random part of the forward hull of the USS Nimitz and blew a huge hole in it, not one person on the bridge would be killed by an exploding computer, nor would any computer in fact explode.

It's silly.

 

[Christopher]

Jimmy_C said:
I always figured that, at the forces encountered on the show, if the inertial dampeners didn't compensate then you're boned whether or not you have seatbelts.

The point is, we've been shown hundreds of times that the inertial dampers let enough force through to toss people out of their chairs and across the bridge. That alone is enough to cause serious injuries or death if someone lands badly or hits their head on the corner of something. If they're going to claim that IDs are perfect enough to eliminate the use of seatbelts, they shouldn't have actors flying around the bridge. And if they're going to claim that enough shock gets through to send people flying, then there should be seat restraints.

Personally, I've never bought into the belief that having the actors fly around and fall out of their chairs (or having sparks fly out of the consoles) makes a scene more exciting or dramatic. If the characters are already in danger of being blown out of the sky, does it really raise the stakes if they're at risk of broken bones or electrical burns as well?

What about the fact that holodecks continue to be installed on starships after dozens of life-threatening malfunctions?

Maybe the Enterprise-D and Voyager just had bad luck, and the one billion other holodecks didn't malfunction so there's a good track record?

In real life, if a deadly accident happened even once, then the entire product line would be recalled and re-evaluated. (But then, maybe they have no lawyers in the 24th century?)

 

[starburst]

Its added drama, I think its engineers skipping safety steps personally, during the TNG time no computers blew up throwing people around, when it got to Generations, Voyager and onward everything blew up over ever bump in the road lol

That said the exploding panel in the E-D engineering in Gen was really dramatic and was needed for the events

 

[Basill]

Christopher said:
In real life, if a deadly accident happened even once, then the entire product line would be recalled and re-evaluated. (But then, maybe they have no lawyers in the 24th century?)

Well, according to the history of Q they were all wiped out in the 21st century.

 

[Ronald Held]

Even though it is purely for drama, I can see that under certain circumstamnces, the AGS and IDF are not in lockstep with the ship's manuevers.

 

[Deimos Anomaly]

Trekker4747 said:
The ships computers work with processors capable of reltavistic speeds. Conventional electricity isn't going to cut it.

Rubbish. "Conventional electricity" is absolutely sufficient for all the consoles and panels on the bridge. All they are is human-machine interfaces. How fast do you think the humans using them are? If plasma is somehow required for these "relatavistic computers", they should be in their own sealed off area on some part of the ship far from the bridge. All the bridge equipment is only their "front end".

The plasma conduits themselves, wherever they do exist, should be a lot thicker too, the better to withstand sudden overpressures.

 

[Christopher]

Besides, the power system is actually the electro-plasma system. It does use electricity. It just conveys it in a more "futuristic," supposedly more energetic way.

 

[SonicRanger]

^^^

I assume that it is superconductive.

 

[Ronald Held]

I cannot see how it is superconducting?

 

[Cary L. Brown]

plasma is, by definition, dissociated matter. In other words, the electrons have been fully stripped from their associated nuclei.

Metals are good conductors because some of the electrons are only "loosely" tied to the metallic nuclei. These loose electrons form an "electron sea" that is what makes metals
(1) malleable
(2) conductive
(3) strong yet flexible
(4) opaque.

So a fully-ionized plasma would be much more highly conductive (since ALL the electrons, not just the outer few, would be unconstrained).

By the way, this is nothing new. Flourescent lights operate on a very similar principle. You need a "ballast" or a "starter capacitor" to give an instantaneous burst of power to ionize the gas inside. Once ionized, it's much more conductive and can carry the current without difficulty.

All plasma is, is TOTALLY IONIZED gas.

The use of some form of plasma as the conductor of electrical power aboard-ship does make perfect sense, then, I think.

 

[ancient]

The use of some form of plasma as the conductor of electrical power aboard-ship does make perfect sense, then, I think.

It's also handy for dispatching extraneous redshirts.