What is this thing and what does it do on the ship?.
Symmeterical warp governor
- Thread starter Mr Pointy Ears
- Start date
I believe it regulates the warp field shape so the ship can travel at high warp.
They're talking about the structure between the warp nacelles labeled in this diagram. I didn't know about its supposed function myself until recently when I saw the graphic in the Starship Collection magazine. I don't know if this is something ever mentioned on the show itself, though.
I bet it is intended to keep the warp engines in balance/symmetrical with each other. I have seen diagrams of devices called governors in steam engines that spin in such a way to detect and regulate the speed that an engine shaft is turning, so the shaft won't turn faster than the engine can handle.
I don't think that's possible. The engine is the source of power and therefore of motion.
Old style steam governors typically comprise two weights on hinged arms that rotated around a vertical part of the drive shaft. when the RPM gets too high, the centrifugal effect causes the arms to lift above a certain point, opening a valve, causing excess steam to harmlessly vent, reducing pressure in the engine and slowing the RPM.
Obviously the Symmetrical Warp Governor uses a different technology, but it would seem to be a piece of kit that makes automatic 'on the fly' adjustments to the power delivered to each nacelle in order to maintain a stable balanced warp field.
Obviously the Symmetrical Warp Governor uses a different technology, but it would seem to be a piece of kit that makes automatic 'on the fly' adjustments to the power delivered to each nacelle in order to maintain a stable balanced warp field.
I just look at it as something that keeps the ship's warp envelope together as it approaches Warp 5. IMO, the very need for it represents a problem with Earth's first Warp 5 engine that was eventually solved in later engines (no thanks to the Vulcans).
That is a waste of energy. It is better to find a way to store the excess, to either use it later, or for something else like lighting for example.
Anyone else remember the fanrage caused when the classic movie Enterprise's "Impulse Deflection Crystal" was repurposed into the NX-01's "Symmetrical Warp Governor"?
I'm not sure what ether of them were meant to do, but it sure drove Trek techies up the wall.
I'm not sure what ether of them were meant to do, but it sure drove Trek techies up the wall.
Anyone else remember the fanrage caused when the classic movie Enterprise's "Impulse Deflection Crystal" was repurposed into the NX-01's "Symmetrical Warp Governor"?
I'm not sure what ether of them were meant to do, but it sure drove Trek techies up the wall.
And that is a shame since these things usually require a lot of work.
Nowadays you are right, but their original operation was the best that was available back in the 1800's.
That only shows how much room there was for improvement.
The past is only good to show us how badly we did things before we learned how to do them right.Stupid people, living in the past like idiots
That blue dome is present on some starships and absent from others, so the first assumption is that it does nothing really important...
No fewer than eight blue domes are found on the Defiant, though. There might be something to the idea of blowing excess steam when one considers how that tough little ship was supposed to be "overpowered", incapable of putting the reactor output into good use without breaking something.
"Governing of warp fields" sounds rather compatible with "impulse deflection", for whatever it's worth. Supposedly, warp fields reduce the inertial mass of the objects they englobe, and reduction of mass is vital for impulse drive (at least if we assume there's rocketry involved, because the mass of a starship couldn't be made to travel the way it does with the amount of rocket propellant it has, not even if that propellant flew out of the nozzle at lightspeed, unless some mass-reduction magic were at play). So this blue dome thing could manipulate the warp field to allow impulse to happen; subspace fields do glow blue, or at least active warp engines almost always do.
So what about ships that lack the dome but still travel at impulse? The TNG Tech Manual goes to some length about how the Ambassador class introduced mass-reducing coils in its impulse engines. The Ambassador is one of those ships without the blue dome; the obvious conclusion is that mass-reducing coils and blue domes are two competing technologies for the same purpose...
Timo Saloniemi
No fewer than eight blue domes are found on the Defiant, though. There might be something to the idea of blowing excess steam when one considers how that tough little ship was supposed to be "overpowered", incapable of putting the reactor output into good use without breaking something.
"Governing of warp fields" sounds rather compatible with "impulse deflection", for whatever it's worth. Supposedly, warp fields reduce the inertial mass of the objects they englobe, and reduction of mass is vital for impulse drive (at least if we assume there's rocketry involved, because the mass of a starship couldn't be made to travel the way it does with the amount of rocket propellant it has, not even if that propellant flew out of the nozzle at lightspeed, unless some mass-reduction magic were at play). So this blue dome thing could manipulate the warp field to allow impulse to happen; subspace fields do glow blue, or at least active warp engines almost always do.
So what about ships that lack the dome but still travel at impulse? The TNG Tech Manual goes to some length about how the Ambassador class introduced mass-reducing coils in its impulse engines. The Ambassador is one of those ships without the blue dome; the obvious conclusion is that mass-reducing coils and blue domes are two competing technologies for the same purpose...
Timo Saloniemi
Ships at warp supposedly need navigational deflectors to keep stardust from punching holes in them. If the ships were "hidden" in subspace and the dust was not, this wouldn't make much sense.
Although admittedly it's only the tech manuals that describe the above process. Onscreen, navigational deflectors might be purely for sublight sweeping. Or for some other job altogether, as they really aren't discussed at all.
Timo Saloniemi
Although admittedly it's only the tech manuals that describe the above process. Onscreen, navigational deflectors might be purely for sublight sweeping. Or for some other job altogether, as they really aren't discussed at all.
Timo Saloniemi
I like the bussard collectors. I don't know what they are useful for but the name sounds funny.
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