Starship technology thoughts

[Cicero]

I've recently been looking at the basic technologies of Star Trek (specifically Federation) ships. I posted briefly about sensors in the 725m Enterprise thread, but I'd like to share my (developing) impressions of other technologies, too.

Phasers
There appear to be at least three types of phaser output:

1. Proximity blasts (seen only in Balance of Terror and Errand of Mercy, unless they also provide the stun capability seen in A Piece of the Action, which might also represent a fourth mode of operation)
Proximity blasts appear to do significant damage within a particular area, but not against a point target. I don't know whether the battle with the Klingon ship in Errand of Mercy

2. Beams (the usual type)
Beams are often fired at warp, and are typicaly fired only one at a time, and are always fired in no more than pairs when used to concentrate fire on a single point.

3. Pulses (what the Enterprise fired at the Narada's torpedoes, the sole mode of the Defiant's main armament on Deep Space Nine)
We've never seen pulses fired at warp; it's possible that they can be fired only at sublight - or that one might not have any reason to fire them except at sublight. (Perhaps they are only effective over short distances, are useful only against certain types of targets, incapable of remaining coherent when passing through a warp field, etc.) The Kelvin fires these types of blasts from visually different emitter types from those that emit beams. These may be preferable to beams when used against unshielded or poorly shielded targets.
​

Shields
Shield effects seem to indicate two types of visual reactions of the shields to attack:

1. Illumination (the frequent effect around Picard's Enterprise)
The shields appear to flare when completely dispersing or absorbing the energy (except perhaps heat energy, in certain cases) directed at them. The effects seen in Generations and Yesterday's Enterprise may suggest that the flash may be specific to energy of a certain frequency. The Enterprise's shields in Generations flare even as the Duras sisters' ship's weapons fire through them, which may represent the dispersal/absorption of those parts of the beam which have varied from the intended frequency. Similarly, the Klingon shields flare before being broken through in Yesterday's Enterprise; I've chosen to interpret this as reflecting variable-frequency phasers aboard the Enterprise (Data's report of "Shields holding, sir" when the effect is seen on the Enterprise seem to support this. The illumination seen when debris hits the ship in Nemesis would represent the absorption/dispersal of certain, but limited, frequencies of energy - as would other instances of damage not seeming to involve variable-frequency attacks.

2. No illumination (seen in the Dominion War, last year's film, etc.)
This type of shield reaction tends to depict hits which breach the shields, or which are so insignificant as to preclude a visible illumination.

Also
Shields are non-ablative, but the systems that generate them can be damaged or the power supply to those systems can be disrupted, despite the use of an integrated power system (which allows the re-routing of power from one system, e.g. weapons, to another, e.g. shields).

Shields may also simply be overwhelmed at a particular moment (see 2. No Illumination).

23rd Century starships appear to have four basic shield arcs, which I presume form a sphere when combined (possible overlapping at the margins of the arcs): Forward, port, starboard, and aft. These can be independently reinforced and reduced, as well as individually damaged, i.e. they are produced by separate emitters/generators.
​

Propulsion
There appear to be two general types of faster-than-light propulsion, which are determined by power source:

1. Warp
Driven by matter-antimatter reactions (or, possibly, by artificial singularity). Warp-powered starships are much faster than those driven by impulse (from key examples, I estimate that a warp factor represents c*x^5, where x is the factor number). This term also appears to be a catch-all for all drives that operate on a space-warp principle.

2. Impulse
Driven by nuclear fusion. Impulse-powered starships are capable of both faster-than-light and sublight travel via space-warp (or apparent space-warp, as some recent physics suggests). Impuse power can be routed through warp coils, allowing faster-than-light travel (much slower than typical warp), or through impulse coils to impart sublight propulsion. An impulse coil propels a ship partly via inertial dampening - essentially by reducing the subspace "drag" which is generally apparent as inertia; it makes possible the command "full stop". (I think this may have been discussed here recently.)
​

 

[Timo]

That all seems rather clear-cut and it even appears there's something of a consensus on the stuff around here, amazingly enough. The nuances of impulse drive are probably the greatest subject of controversy.

On the issue of proximity blasts, I'd hate to go the surprisingly popular route and claim that these were proximity blasts of photon torpedoes rather than phasers. After all, we have seen how versatile phasers are already - why wouldn't they have this one additional mode?

We have seen that our heroes virtually never sweep a phaser in order to hose down a large number of enemies, or to hit an enemy on the move. We might speculate that the phaser beam is not analogous to a stream of water or bullets, but is in fact some sort of a technobabble conduit established between the emitter and the target point - and that some of the energies are lost if the target point is moved around a lot while the beam is on. Perhaps it's perfectly possible to establish a target point in empty space, having the beam release its energies at a set distance (rather than merely at a set direction but at infinity or impact, whichever comes first)?

This "projection point" theory is sort of supported by the fact that the beam always appears to travel from emitter to target in the same amount of time - independent of distance! That is, be it a hand phaser firing at a baddie five meters away, or a shipboard emitter firing at an enemy ship a hundred thousand kilometers away, the beam covers the distance in about three to five frames of film. If that were merely an indication that beam speed is variable (and perhaps dependent on power), shouldn't Starfleet ramp up all its guns so that the beam always reached the target in just one frame of film? If, OTOH, this is a basic property of the phaser phenomenon - that the device establishes a connection to the target and then pumps energy there across three frames - then all sorts of further conjecture can be made to explain the oddities of phaser operations.

On the issue of only one beam being fired, I'd like to argue that this is because all the beam power of the ship can be channeled through any arbitrary emitter. But how does this jibe with two beams always being fired in TOS? Do we simply argue that it takes two emitters to allow the maximum power through in that era, or do we invent a more complex explanation?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[blssdwlf]

On the "proximity blasts", TOS wasn't the only series to feature it. DS9 (the only other series that I think was similar to TOS) used something similiar but termed "expanding energy pulse" that looked alot like a proximity blast in "The Adversary".

As to the two emitter question in TOS, I think the only times that a single beam/pulse was fired were in "Balance of Terror", "The Alternative Factor", "Errand of Mercy" and "The Doomsday Machine". The way I guess it to work is that the main energizers charge up the 4 phaser banks (ie capacitors, buffers, whatever) and any of the phaser emitters can use a charged phaser bank.

The times that dialogue gives any clue are in "The Paradise Syndrome" and "Balance of Terror".

It would seem that 1 phaser bank is equal to 2 phaser emitters on full power for 1 blast ("The Paradise Syndrome").

or you could ala "Balance of Terror" use 1 phaser bank to fire 1 emitter on proximity blast 3 times.

So theoretically the TOS Enterprise could exhaust all 4 banks through 8 emitters at one time, or use each bank/2 emitters at a time and recharge a bank at a time as they are emptied. I think the reason we've never seen more than 2 emitters fired is probably because they've never been close enough to a target to have more than two emitters in the same firing arc (or that there isn't any overlap.)

It would appear that in TOS you can mix and match between "pulse" and "continuous" and that continuous beam firing is probably all 4 phaser banks constantly being replenished so that there are no interruptions between banks. (Just don't do that if the engines are already strained )

 

[sojourner]

Not sure where the OP is getting Impulse being an FTL drive from!?! In every episode I have seen it has been portrayed as sublight.

 

[Timo]

Well, there are one or two controversial points - Romulans with "simple impulse power" flying at warp three or so to escape Kirk in "BoT", and LaForge changing speed by one warp factor by doing "full impulse, aye" in "Conspiracy"... I can't really come up with a third such point, though. And neither of the above two is particularly convincing.

Then there's the "Encounter at Farpoint" saucer that apparently flies at high warp for a while, but nobody ever said it didn't have warp engines...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mytran]

Oh, there's numerous examples - Balance of Terror is a good one (on the Bird of Prey).

EDIT

Timo, you beat me to it!

 

[blssdwlf]

And there is also the SS Valiant from "Where No Man Has Gone Before" used her impulse engines to fight against a magnetic (likely ion) storm.

SPOCK: Decoding memory banks. I'll try to interpolate. The Valiant had encountered a magnetic space storm and was being swept in this direction.
KIRK: The old impulse engines weren't strong enough.

For comparison, when the Enterprise is checking out an ion storm in "Court Martial", Kirk orders the Enterprise to Warp speed to presumably get out of it.

Also, possibly implied in "Space Seed" that space travel between planets didn't need to be in sleeper ships after 2018 were with impulse engines since warp drive hasn't been invented yet. Although it could be just specific to interplanetary travel

 

[timelord1010]

There is also another form of Faster than Light travel. In the "Nth Degree" episode on TNG, Barkley converts the Enterprise-D engines to jump engines and takes the ship to the center of trhe galaxy in minutes.

Also on TNG, it was shown on the episode where they find the Enterprise-D frozen in time with a Romulan ship that the Romulans use a artificial sigularity to travel faster than light so the Romulans don't use the type of warp core engines the Federation uses.

 

[sojourner]

^Now your just confusing power generators with drive types. The Romulans use artificial singularities to generate the power for their warp drives, instead of matter/anti-matter.

 

[timelord1010]

^Now your just confusing power generators with drive types. The Romulans use artificial singularities to generate the power for their warp drives, instead of matter/anti-matter.

True, but what about Barkley's jump engine modification? That was not warp drive that was point to point travel similar to a Einstein/Rosen bridge.

 

[sojourner]

^What about it? There are several FTL drives in Star Trek not mentioned by the OP. Transwarp, transwarp conduits, slipstream, just to name a few.

 

[Timo]

Also, possibly implied in "Space Seed" that space travel between planets didn't need to be in sleeper ships after 2018 were with impulse engines since warp drive hasn't been invented yet. Although it could be just specific to interplanetary travel

Later Trek has made references to continuing use of cryosleep or other suspended animation techniques in starflight, up till at least the 2210s (VOY "11:59"), so it makes sense to assume that only interplanetary flight got rid of that encumberance in 2018. Quite possibly there was no other kind of spaceflight back then.

Although that's not categorically known. Ships like the Charybdis from "The Royale" might have been intended for sublight interstellar journeys, and some of them might well have succeeded in reaching distant stars before Cochrane introduced warp. Granted that the Okudagrams of "The Royale" suggest the Charybdis only attempted to reach the immediate outskirts of the Sol system, and that no mention has been made of crewed exploration of alien stars before Cochrane (either reaching the stars before him, or then at least launching before him). But if Khan could do it, others might have tried as well - without knowledge of each other, perhaps, but with knowledge of what the technology of that time was capable of.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[T'Girl]

On more than a few occasions, while the Enterprise was already at warp, Riker increased the ship's speed by ordeirng "full impulse."

There would seem to be numerous incidents of small ships, traveling at low warp numbers without the benefit of a m/am reactor. It's difficult to imagine the Romulan ship (BoT) doing what it did with out some form of FTL, so it's "simple impulse" somehow got the job done. It looks like the Romulan had two warp nacelles powered by impulse. To travel at low warp speed a impulse engine might be able to supply enough charged plasma to generate a warp field, The speed most likely is restricted.

I can't find anything in FC to suggest that Cochrane's Phoenix possessed a antimatter reactor, probably only a fusion reactor.

If on the other hand you want a big ship to move really fast, you'd need a m/am reactor.

 

[Timo]

On more than a few occasions, while the Enterprise was already at warp, Riker increased the ship's speed by ordeirng "full impulse."

Ah? I'm only familiar with that one case in "Conspiracy":

Riker: "Increase to warp six."
LaForge:"Aye sir. Full impulse."

And even there, the reason Riker wants to increase speed is LaForge and his criminally bad jokes. His "Aye, full impulse" could easily be another of those... Especially given the context where Riker wants to go fast because of him, and he knows it very well indeed.

It's difficult to imagine the Romulan ship (BoT) doing what it did with out some form of FTL, so it's "simple impulse" somehow got the job done.

Or then Scotty was dead wrong about the ship only having "simple impulse". After all, the enemy hadn't demonstrated warp capacity by that timepoint yet.

Several reasons why Scotty could be out of his depth here. The Romulans might have rerouted warp power to their plasma weapon (which itself is capable of very high warp), confusing Scotty. Or the Romulan warp power source could have been too alien for Scotty to recognize; later on, we learn that this is indeed the case, that Romulans use tiny black holes for power more often than not.

No reason anybody ought to correct Scotty, either. When the enemy demonstrably goes to warp later in the episode, it would only embarrass the good engineer if somebody opened his mouth and pointed out the obvious.

I can't find anything in FC to suggest that Cochrane's Phoenix possessed a antimatter reactor, probably only a fusion reactor.

Nothing direct there, it seems. They do speak of "intermix" at one point, though, so it's probably not deuterium fusion. Could be deuterium-tritium fusion, or perhaps a chemical reactor of some sort.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Cicero]

Not sure where the OP is getting Impulse being an FTL drive from!?! In every episode I have seen it has been portrayed as sublight.

Mostly, I based my conclusion on Where No Man Has Gone Before, wherin the Enterprise is years away from bases at impulse which were days away at warp. The context of Kirk's comment in his log entry seemed to require FTL impulse. Taken with several of the examples listed here, with the lack of significant contrary on-screen evidence, and (perhaps most importantly) with a recent scientific article describing a hypothetically possible FTL impulse drive, I surmised that impulse technology is capable of faster-than-light propulsion.

 

[Timo]

Mostly, I based my conclusion on Where No Man Has Gone Before, wherin the Enterprise is years away from bases at impulse which were days away at warp. The context of Kirk's comment in his log entry seemed to require FTL impulse.

Why? The difference between "days" and "years" could well be the difference between greater-than-cee and lesser-than-cee speeds. It does suggest a difference of at least two orders of magnitude, and we've seen impulse being used in a manner suggesting better than 10% lightspeed in many an occasion...

...Including this very episode. The feat of reaching Delta Vega is not an indication for FTL propulsion. Dialogue is explicit in that the distance from their initial location to said planet is just "a few light-days", and the plot fully allows for the journey there to take several days or possibly weeks, assuming impulse engines can do a few dozen percent lightspeed.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[blssdwlf]

...Including this very episode. The feat of reaching Delta Vega is not an indication for FTL propulsion. Dialogue is explicit in that the distance from their initial location to said planet is just "a few light-days", and the plot fully allows for the journey there to take several days or possibly weeks, assuming impulse engines can do a few dozen percent lightspeed.

Depends on how you look at the episode's accounting for stardates.

SD 1312.4 picking up Valiant's distress recorder
SD 1312.9 "heading back on impulse power"
SD ?? "Delta Vega a few light days from here (where they currently are after traveling for an unknown period of time who knows?)"
SD 1313.1 Standard orbit around Delta Vega
SD 1313.3 Kelso re-energizes engines
SD 1313.8 end of episode

If you go by the decimal point as part of a day, then the time to go a few light-days is less than a day from where they are to Delta Vega, implying FTL.

Although we could just say the SD system is arbitrary. But if we do, then we can also say the time between the engine burnout and the decision to go to Delta Vega is arbitrary as well. And for that purpose, the Enterprise could have been at FTL impulse going to a starbase or colony (instead of just cruising at a slow .5c or something) before diverting course

edit: Besides, where was the Enterprise going at impulse prior to diverting to Delta Vega anyway? As far as we know from Kirk's log, he was heading back presumably to an Earth base.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Not sure where the OP is getting Impulse being an FTL drive from!?! In every episode I have seen it has been portrayed as sublight.

Mostly, I based my conclusion on Where No Man Has Gone Before, wherin the Enterprise is years away from bases at impulse which were days away at warp. The context of Kirk's comment in his log entry seemed to require FTL impulse. Taken with several of the examples listed here, with the lack of significant contrary on-screen evidence, and (perhaps most importantly) with a recent scientific article describing a hypothetically possible FTL impulse drive, I surmised that impulse technology is capable of faster-than-light propulsion.

There's also Mudd's Women, where Enterprise is still able to reach Rigel 12 after their last lithium circuit burns out. Since later production implies that (di)lithium is critical to the warp drive, it means they had to travel the entire rest of the trip on impulse only. This is similar to the case of Enterprise being attacked by Reliant and then proceeding to Regula-1 at impulse power; we don't know how long that trip took, but since Kirk hadn't had a chance to change his uniform along the way we can presume it took no more than a day and a half (and Kirk had really bad B.O. for the duration of the movie).

The only explicit example of FTL impulse is in "Relics," where Enterprise apparently flies from the atmosphere of the central star to the Dyson Sphere's exit, covering a distance of 1AU in considerably less than the 8 minutes it should normally take at light speed.

 

[Timo]

Actually, in "Mudd's Women" it's a plot point that one crystal survives, and that loss of this would be disastrous...

At arrival to Rigel XII (or 14 hours before arrival, but Kirk's already worrying about settling to orbit), this last crystal may have failed since the ship is said to be on auxiliary impulse power, but Kirk's log doesn't make this explicit. Nor does the log suggest that any FTL traveling would take place at "auxiliary impulse power". Which is in fact quite a sensible term, I guess: normally, impulse engines would no doubt get their power, or most of it, from the warp power system, but now they don't...

If you go by the decimal point as part of a day, then the time to go a few light-days is less than a day from where they are to Delta Vega, implying FTL.

If the trip does take place at sublight speeds, then it would indeed take less than a day... Time dilation at the necessary STL speeds would be very noticeable!

Not that I'm all that fond of the idea that stardates are subjective, ship-specific and mission-dependent. They are used as absolute timekeeping datapoints elsewhere in the show, after all.

The only explicit example of FTL impulse is in "Relics," where Enterprise apparently flies from the atmosphere of the central star to the Dyson Sphere's exit, covering a distance of 1AU in considerably less than the 8 minutes it should normally take at light speed.

We don't get any time indication for that trip, other than 1 min 40 s remaining after the Jenolan's systems start to fail and after LaForge has managed to convey this to the E-D. The total flight time could well be eight minutes for all we know. Although in fact the distance to be covered is a bit less than 100,000,000 kilometers (as per Data's establishing the sphere's diameter earlier on), not 150,000,000. So, more like four to five lightminutes.

No FTL speeds required there, then. Just ginormous acceleration, which we already know ought to be possible in the general case.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[T'Girl]

SPOCK: Recommendation one. There's a planet a few light days away from here. Delta Vega. It has a lithium cracking station. We may be able to adapt some of its power packs to our engines.

Captain's log, Star date 1313.1. try to regenerate the main engines
Captain's log, Star date 1313.3. the engines of the Enterprise are almost fully regenerated

An interpretation of Spock's statement.

The problem with the main engines wasn't the warp coils but the power production, the M/AM reactors. If the impulse engines could provide enough power to the warp coils, enough charged plasma, then the Enterprise would have been able tp move at a lesser warp speed (warp three, whatever), So Kirk already had a slow but sure plan for getting the ship to safety. Getting the power packs from Delta Vega was risky, the ship could have been trapped in orbit if it didn't work. Kirk previous plan was more secure. They primarily went to Delta Vega so Kirk could get rid of Mitchell with a clean conscious (without beaming him into space).

Kirk spoke of the main engines being burned out. TNG dialog and the TNG tech manual seem to make clear that the warp core (the M/AM reactor) was THE MAIN ENGINE. What was up in the nacelles was just "the propellers." If Scotty could have powered the propellers with the impulse engines they would have had some level of warp drive.

The other two alternatives is that the impulse engine is a "baby warp drive" all by itself or that Kirk was going to bypass Delta Vega and travel to the the nearest Earth base solely a sublight speed.