Properties of dilithium

[Henoch]

A bit of real science to add into the mix: a charm meson has been caught switching from matter to antimatter all on its own. Now, if not dilithium, then TAS’ mention of regenerative fuel or something…

This might even make the Doomsday Machine “deactivating” anti-matter understandable

I once thought that, in addition to providing some magical ingredient (like dark matter/energy) for the warp drive, dilithium also makes its own antimatter once you got the M/AM reaction going in the crystal by changing normal matter into antimatter. Now I'm just confused about this technobabble.

 

[blssdwlf]

I once thought that, in addition to providing some magical ingredient (like dark matter/energy) for the warp drive, dilithium also makes its own antimatter once you got the M/AM reaction going in the crystal by changing normal matter into antimatter. Now I'm just confused about this technobabble.

I hold a similar thought on this. Lithium/Dilithium crystals when hit with high energy generates antimatter (Trek magic like pulling it from an antimatter universe or produces an antimatter byproduct). So in addition to storing energy like a super capacitor it byproducts antimatter... but only in the TOS universe

 

[Mytran]

I hold a similar thought on this. Lithium/Dilithium crystals when hit with high energy generates antimatter (Trek magic like pulling it from an antimatter universe or produces an antimatter byproduct). So in addition to storing energy like a super capacitor it byproducts antimatter... but only in the TOS universe

That effect only occurs with Type A Dilithium...which sadly had all been used up by the time of TNG

 

[Henoch]

That effect only occurs with Type A Dilithium...which sadly had all been used up by the time of TNG

So, that's why TNG only had one gnarly natural crystal versus an endless supply of manufactured paddle crystals...

 

[blssdwlf]

So, that's why TNG only had one gnarly natural crystal versus an endless supply of manufactured paddle crystals...

That effect only occurs with Type A Dilithium...which sadly had all been used up by the time of TNG

LOL - In one universe of Star Trek, all Type-A Dilithium was used up necessitating the complete conversion or retirement of all dilithium-powered ships in the galaxy to the lesser Type-B Dilithium that can only regulate M/AM in dilithium-matrix warp-cored ships. In several hundred years this would lead to the destruction of these types of ships and crippling of the Federation in the Burn. All IMHO

 

[Henoch]

Lithium vs. Dilithium: In my head canon, this terminology was no mistake nor needed retconning. I believe dilithium is an exotic matter form (antimatter or better yet dark matter) of its parent element and is found trapped within its parent element (sort of like an isotope but different). It is formed during the supernova explosion of either a very massive star or maybe an antimatter star or a collision of two neutron stars or etc. Based on the composition of the star(s) and energy level, variable trace amounts of this exotic dilithium is found inside lithium ore (possibly a lithium quartz) that formed out of the supernova remnants. Some very rare crystals are almost pure dilithium and are called dilithium crystals as seen in Elaan of Troyius and TWOK (best for M/AM engines). Some high-grade ore but still lesser pure crystals are just called lithium crystals as seen in Mudd's Women (still good for M/AM engines but gives lower performance). Low-grade ore is sent to Lithium Cracking Stations to separate the dilithium impurities from the mostly lithium base. To "crack" the lithium, i.e. separate out the dilithium, a M/AM reaction/reactor is needed (robbed by Kelso in WNMHGB). If we think this M/AM reactor uses dilithium crystals and its makes its own antimatter fuel, then the only fuel needed to run the cracking station is deuterium. The idea site/planet for a cracking station is where deuterium is locally abundant. This fuel may be the fuel mentioned in WMNHGB, but the fuel can be easily surplus antimatter fuel they then provide to starships which don't have the internal capability to make their own antimatter. I favor the former deuterium because that's a lot of tanks of fuel that if detonated will only blow up a valley and not the planet. Once processed, the enriched dilithium ore is freighted as seen in TAS:The Pirates of Orion and possibly in The Ultimate Computer to sintering/ recrystallization facilities to manufacture the paddle-type dilithium crystals as seen during TOS starting in the Alternative Factor. YMMV .

 

[blssdwlf]

I do like that Lithium and (fictional) Dilithium are both crystals (not metal) which allows for creativity in what they can and cannot do since they don't exist in the real world to compare to.

My head canon is TOS-biased. Before crystals were discovered, FTL travel was limited by how much fuel a ship could carry. Then when Lithium crystals were discovered and used extensively for decades before more capable Dilithium crystals were found and replaced Lithium crystals. Both crystals could store and expand tremendous energy like a super capacitor and a byproduct was antimatter. In WNMHGB, they secured not only lithium crystals but also replacement machinery to handle generating antimatter that was burned out from the barrier (for regenerating the engines). Paddle holders were used whenever large crystals were not available to hold smaller ones in place and connected for energy to flow to them. All IMHO

 

[Henoch]

I put the change over from lithium crystals to dilithium crystals right after the battle in Balance of Terror. During that combat, I got the opinion that the Enterprise was struggling in maintaining its phaser rate of fire, plus no photon torpedoes. After the battle, there was a large gap of 415 stardates (stardates 1709.6 to 2124.5 for Squire of Gothos); more than enough time to retrofit the Enterprise's power circuits. Afterward, the Enterprise seemed to have increased phaser power, a photon torpedo system and obtained higher warp speeds (warp 8 in Arena). Maybe even better shields. YMMV .

 

[blssdwlf]

I'm thinking that that the timing (post-"Balance of Terror") for the change is about right but the machinery didn't catch up until Season 2. For example, the phaser firing rate was the same between "Balance of Terror" and "Errand of Mercy" but the ship's endurance everywhere else appeared increased with the new crystals. When S2 came about, the crystals were moved from the energizer room and into one of the engine rooms which allowed a bigger energizer to channel much more power as we see later in the series. I do think that they could fall back to Lithium crystals if there was an emergency since the interface appeared to be the same (large crystal or paddle). All IMHO

 

[Henoch]

The TOS power system(s) showed a progressive improvement (primarily with higher warp speeds, but may include more powerful phasers, better shields, etc.) throughout the three seasons. In the middle of season one, Scotty was sweating imminent explosion at warp 8 (Arena). By the end of season three, the Enterprise was hitting warp 10 with no concern from Scotty (Let That Be Your Last Battlefield).

 

[blssdwlf]

In general I agree that everything got stronger/better as TOS progressed. The Enterprise's shields could withstand multiple Romulan plasma weapon hits in "The Deadly Years" when they couldn't really take one "Balance of Terror". We do get some indication on speed limits in "The Changeling" and "That Which Survives" that the ship is "not structured to take that speed (Warp 11+) for any length of time". So perhaps Scotty wasn't too concerned with Warp 10 in "LTBYLB" as he knows from experience that the ship can stand going faster? But... Scotty was still concerned about burning the engines out or something bad happening in "The Paradise Syndrome" and maybe "The Day of the Dove" although it could be explained in both instances something bad was already happening with the dilithium crystals.

 

[publiusr]

I think the Federation was more profligate with it. I can see the whole top and bottom sensor domes being dilithium of a type. By TMP…engine cores only!

 

[Tuskin38]

They did have a dilithium matrix on the NX-01.

 

[HappyMcWonderful]

So paging through my TNG manual, they talk about manufacturing and recrystallizing crystal at scale and in the warp-core. And my Klingon Tech manual kind of implies that Klingon reactors are made for easy crystal manipulation.

My take on it: Natural dilithium became extinct as an easy-to-access mineral due to the temporal wars and other such nonsense, leading to a situation where a single crystal was cloned many many times. It was fairly simple to take this one crystal lattice structure and copy it using handwavum over and over and over again and keep Starfleet running while everyone scrambled to find a new power source that was practical.

The upside of this was it was a practical and simple solution. The DOWNSIDE is every single crystal cloned off that donor crystal had the same resonant handwavum, so when the shockwave that instigated The Burn propagated every ship with a cloned crystal suffered a catastrophic warp-core Really Bad Day.

Surviving ships had either slightly defective crystals, naturally occurring crystals or crystals that had been sourced from various other means. They were safely outside the harmonic do-da-didly and were largely unaffected.

In the chaos that ensued from the loss of that many ships, no one really sat down and looked at the root cause, indeed a lot of the people who COULD determine the root cause went up in meson-smoke and plasma-soot.

That's my headcanon and it's the only way barring traveling back and re-writing the entire story arc I can make it make sense in my head.

 

[Mytran]

If we take what's onscreen in TAS as (mostly) visually accurate then the Enterprise has more than one type of (di)lithium crystal on board, which presumably perform different functions. We're all familiar with the paddles and natural crystals which function as plot devices in various episodes, but in The Teratin Incident there's also at least 6 larger crystals housed in a large glass structure in the middle of an engineering room somewhere (Geoffrey Mandel's cutaway puts them in the nacelles):

Unlike the smaller crystals & paddles who often seem to have the role of power generators/converters in the episodes where they're featured, these bigger crystals are explicitly called out as being crucial in the the M/AM reaction. If they're in the nacelles then this makes even more sense! The dialogue below shows Scott talking about dilithium in two distinct areas of the ship:

SCOTT: Engineering. No casualties, Captain, but trouble aplenty with the engines. Every dilithium crystal connection's smashed in the warp engine circuitry. We're trying to bypass them now.
KIRK: What about main circuits?
SCOTT: Well, you have to see it to believe it, sir. Those big crystals in there have come apart. Each of them unpeeling like the rind of an orange.​

That situation seems unusual as it seems rare if not unheard of for the "big crystals" to fail - they are different somehow. Perhaps a combination of single function but larger and therefore more robust, happy to keep regulating a M/AM reaction for years at a time so long as no-one messes with them.

The smaller paddles which convert main power for deflectors and weapons etc are more versatile but also more fragile and so require re-energising or swapping out sometimes, be that with paddles or natural crystals.

 

[HappyMcWonderful]

Seems those larger crystals were used in much the same way a "warp coil" would be used after TNG came up with 'em.

Anyone on here do a breakdown screen shot by screen shot of all of the old TAS engine-room and nacelle shots?