Space Locks

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Me, my brothers, and my sister-in-law went on a short cruise through the Peterborough Lift Lock this past weekend. https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=486

It got me thinking about using a similar device to get starships around a turbulent, dangerous area of space quickly without having to go around it, which would take longer. Would that be feasible?

I suppose wormhole generators could be employed, or something which creates a clear tunnel of space through which the ship can travel in an otherwise full of storms, plasma, etc area.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

If you have Warp Drive, you can plot your way around the Turbulant area of space.

Any form of "Space Weather" has to be limited in volume to some degree.

Given Space is 3D, you just move around it.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

You can, but suppose, as I said above, there are reasons why a short cut would be preferable/required? Maybe there's some kind of regulations governing the region, acceptable travel throughout, treaty complications, etc, or episode plot reasons.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

You can, but suppose, as I said above, there are reasons why a short cut would be preferable/required? Maybe there's some kind of regulations governing the region, acceptable travel throughout, treaty complications, etc, or episode plot reasons.

If you have access to other forms of FTL, you can literally just bypass it by using those.

If you have Voth Style TransWarp, you just outrun it by going faster like "The Flash".
If you have Borg Style TransWarp Conduit, you bore a tunnel through Subspace and punch right through it.
If you have Quantum Slip Stream Drive, you just enter the Quantum Realm and bypass it.
If you have CoAxial Warp Drive, you just fold space and jump past it.
If you have SubSpace Vortex Generator, you just enter Subspace and bypass it by entering Subspace.

If you know how to open a Spatial Flexure like Q Junior, you can literally make a tunnel through space to bypass vast distances, the only limit is knowledge on what is on the other end so that you don't open the Spatial Flexure into a Star or Black Hole and get yourself killed. (Good Knowledge of Space Cartography is a must along with aim and calculation capability). Remember, Discovery almost jumped into a Star because they lacked precise control, with the Spore Drive in the early days. Messing with a "Spatial Flexure" using only a Deflector Dish could be risky, but the major risk is your knowledge of what's on the other end and how far did you map space ahead of you so that you aren't waltzing into a Black-Hole / Star / Spatial Anomaly / etc.

If you have a Graviton Catapult, you enter Null Space and bypass it.
If you have a Spore Drive, you enter the Mycelial Network and bypass it.
If you have a Displacement Wave Generator (CareTaker Tool), you can move vessels past it to anywhere in the Galaxy.
If you have a Soliton Wave Driver, you can create the Soliton Wave and ride it at FTL to go through it.
If you have a Temporal Drive, you can literally travel through Space-Time to any where you want at any point in time.

 

[C.E. Evans]

There was an off-screen idea proposed about 20 years ago or so that some ships utilize "subspace shortcuts" to zip across vast regions of space in a very short period of time. These shortcuts could multiply any given warp factor by a considerable degree, enabling a vessel to travel hundreds of times faster than it could otherwise at the same speed. The idea of subspace shortcuts was used to handwave how NX-01 Enterprise could travel from Earth to Qo'noS in just four days or how Enterprise-A could travel towards the center of the Galaxy so quickly. it was key to have fully-detailed star charts in order to know where these shortcuts existed because they're not everywhere, and not knowing where they are likely doomed Voyager to take the long way home from the Delta Quadrant.

 

[David cgc]

If you really wanted to, you could come up with some concept for the spectacle. A line of force-field generators holding open a tunnel through a turbulent nebula or star. The old Star Wars EU had giant umbrella-ships that cast a shadow so normal ships could follow them to a planet that was dangerously close to its dangerously hot sun.

Here's an idea for how you could specifically match the canal-lock experience. Supermassive black holes can be so large their tidal forces are on a gentle enough incline that an object can survive passing within the event horizon. If you had some planet or space station inside the event horizon of the black hole, maybe you could have some kind of ship-sized transporter or portal device outside that let you get in and, more importantly, back out (I don't think canon Trek has ever worked out if warp drive works inside the event horizon of a black hole, and tie-ins are divided on if it's as simple as a ship still being able to escape so long as it can travel faster than light).

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

There was an off-screen idea proposed about 20 years ago or so that some ships utilize "subspace shortcuts" to zip across vast regions of space in a very short period of time. These shortcuts could multiply any given warp factor by a considerable degree, enabling a vessel to travel hundreds of times faster than it could otherwise at the same speed. The idea of subspace shortcuts was used to handwave how NX-01 Enterprise could travel from Earth to Qo'noS in just four days or how Enterprise-A could travel towards the center of the Galaxy so quickly. it was key to have fully-detailed star charts in order to know where these shortcuts existed because they're not everywhere, and not knowing where they are likely doomed Voyager to take the long way home from the Delta Quadrant.

That sounds awfully close to "UnderSpace".

 

[publiusr]

There was an off-screen idea proposed about 20 years ago or so that some ships utilize "subspace shortcuts" to zip across vast regions of space in a very short period of time. These shortcuts could multiply any given warp factor by a considerable degree, enabling a vessel to travel hundreds of times faster than it could otherwise at the same speed. The idea of subspace shortcuts was used to handwave how NX-01 Enterprise could travel from Earth to Qo'noS in just four days or how Enterprise-A could travel towards the center of the Galaxy so quickly. it was key to have fully-detailed star charts in order to know where these shortcuts existed because they're not everywhere, and not knowing where they are likely doomed Voyager to take the long way home from the Delta Quadrant.

Space lanes....I always liked that idea

 

[matthunter]

If you really wanted to, you could come up with some concept for the spectacle. A line of force-field generators holding open a tunnel through a turbulent nebula or star. The old Star Wars EU had giant umbrella-ships that cast a shadow so normal ships could follow them to a planet that was dangerously close to its dangerously hot sun.

Even more recently, the Jedi Survivor game had:

Spoiler

Something very similar to your first example - a series of "arrays" that could bore a safe channel through a dangerous nebula, allowing ships to navigate to a planet hidden inside.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Nice.

Regular locks navigate a three-dimensional obstacle. Maybe space locks would navigate various other dimensions of time and space.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Nice.

Regular locks navigate a three-dimensional obstacle. Maybe space locks would navigate various other dimensions of time and space.

Or be a tiny local artificial Worm hole that is held open by Stationary physical gates.

Like a "Transwarp Corridor", but uses a different layer and form of Subspace that doesn't take nearly as much power to operate and doesn't risk leaking vital technology if kidnapped.

Something like a dedicated "Spatial Flexure Generator" that opens a tiny rift to the location past the troubled area.
Shuttle Craft sized Deflector Dishes are fairly common, so it's not really special technology.

Once you arrive to the buoy with the "Space Lock", you hail it, it opens up a Spatial Flexure with it's deflector dish, and lets you bypass the troublesome patch of space by hopping in and out of the Spatial Flexure.

This way you get to the other side w/o issue and with minimal energy usage.

 

[publiusr]

A bit like the stargate in Buck Rogers.

Those four pulsars or something powering it?

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

A bit like the stargate in Buck Rogers.

Those four pulsars or something powering it?

We'll find a long lasting compact power source, something reasonable that won't exhaust it's energy supply soon.

 

[Ithekro]

Space bagels to power the Space locks?