The Transporter

[RobertScorpio]

When someone is beaming down from the Enterprise in TNG, or heck any Trek ship, is it a line-of-site thing? I know they can beam into buildings, but do they have to have that building in view? or could the Enterprise be orbiting Earth, for example, above California, and beam someone into a house in Austrialia on the other side of the Earth?

I would think not...because of the solid rock and all. So does the beaming signal have a certain strength? Sounds goofy, but a friend of mine have been debating this for a month now with no real resolution..

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Timo]

Yeah, we know the beam can penetrate certain materials to a certain depth, but not infinitely. They can't go through planets if they have difficulty beaming even a few kilometers into planets, as in "Return to Tomorrow" or "Bloodlines".

So it must be "horizon range" by conventional terminology. Perhaps not quite the same as "line of sight" as the beam obviously goes through non-transparent things, and can travel much farther than your eyesight when not obstructed, but that's a bit of semantics you two have to fight out between yourselves.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[erastus25]

In DS9 I know there's discussion of beaming from San Fran to Louisiana. Because of the curvature of the Earth, there would be no line of sight.

 

[GotNoRice]

In DS9 I know there's discussion of beaming from San Fran to Louisiana. Because of the curvature of the Earth, there would be no line of sight.

I don't think it's out of line that they would have some sort of relay satellite or over-ground communication system for the information, especially with the system being built for that purpose ( terrestrial transportation).

 

[Rabittooth]

Not to hijack, but my biggest question about the transporter is why the heck people still get old or need organ transplants. Geez...just take an old pattern and keep only the current brain. Synthesize the 25 or 30 year old body in perpetuity, but with the current gray matter.
Fountain of youth. Screw the Doctors.

-Rabittooth

 

[erastus25]

In DS9 I know there's discussion of beaming from San Fran to Louisiana. Because of the curvature of the Earth, there would be no line of sight.

I don't think it's out of line that they would have some sort of relay satellite or over-ground communication system for the information, especially with the system being built for that purpose ( terrestrial transportation).

I had the same thought. I also wonder if they could fire a "relay probe" in to orbit of any planet and use that to transport to "the other side". This assumes a line of sight is necessary, of course.