Transporter question

[Christopher]

Has anyone ever come up with an idea for what the lighted panels along the rear wall of a transporter platform are supposed to be? The standard design for Federation transporters includes a rear wall with several repeating, vertical panels with narrow struts between them, but I can't seem to find any technical references that offer any explanation for what purpose they serve, either the panels or the struts.

 

[Wingsley]

I always assumed they were some kind of shielding, like a low-level force field to keep the energies of the transporter chamber confined in that chamber (I assumed that field reached all the way around the front as well) so as not to disturb any other ship's functions or habitats. Given how the panels seem to instantly react to the changes in the pads, this makes sense to me.

 

[Mysterion]

^^^
That's a good idea/explanation. Especially, if they'd kept the design of the operator's console from TMP where they had sheilding between the platform and the operator as well.

I've always just assumed that there some sort of [TECH] behind them essential to the whole thing, but have never really given it a second thought.

Maybe that's where the Heisenberg Compensators or Flux Capacitors are.

 

[SchwEnt]

I'm ashamed to not have this knowledge in the front of my brains. I know TNG TM had a complete cutaway of a transporter system, both below deck and above deck and everything in between. Just about every component was described, I'm pretty sure those panels were labeled as... something. Anyone have a copy handy to check?

 

[Christopher]

I'm ashamed to not have this knowledge in the front of my brains. I know TNG TM had a complete cutaway of a transporter system, both below deck and above deck and everything in between. Just about every component was described, I'm pretty sure those panels were labeled as... something. Anyone have a copy handy to check?

If it were that easy, I wouldn't have needed to start this thread. I checked that book and the DS9 TM and the Franz Joseph manual, and I searched online as best I could, but I couldn't find anything identifying what those panels were for.

EDIT: Oh, wait, there's one I overlooked. On p. 69 of Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, the rear wall panels are labelled as the "field generator matrix." That seems to be consistent with Wingsley's suggestion, but the term isn't really explained in much more detail in the text, other than to say it operates with less waste heat than the old design.

 

[Wingsley]

It also would not bother me if the funky chamber paneling turned out to be part of the transport mechanism itself. Kinda like accentuators for the pads, or even the transporter's "antenna" for beaming. After all, the glow of the panels seems to represent some kind of energy at work, and the color and lighting shifts during beaming.

 

[blssdwlf]

Fancier versions of their portable Pattern Enhancers?

 

[Christopher]

Pattern enhancers are for locking onto an off-ship signal, boosters to compensate for interference or great distance between the ship and the thing to be transported. They wouldn't serve any purpose when the thing to be transported is just centimeters from the machinery.

 

[blssdwlf]

I suppose, although that would suggest the machinery should have it's own pattern enhancers like a broadcaster having a bigger antenna to send a signal to a tv with smaller antenna. Normally the transport site wouldn't need a pattern enhancer, but it appears to help alot when there are two involved.

But since there isn't much information on those back panels, they could be anything

 

[Lord Manitou]

Wingsley wrote-
I always assumed they were some kind of shielding, like a low-level force field to keep the energies of the transporter chamber confined in that chamber (I assumed that field reached all the way around the front as well) so as not to disturb any other ship's functions or habitats. Given how the panels seem to instantly react to the changes in the pads, this makes sense to me.

A different transport is the site-to-site transport which is distinguished from the one activated on the transporter pod. The transport from transporter to another transporter is done proficiently so (most likely) it is probably abetting the appearance and disapperance at either end of the transport.

 

[Jose Tyler]

It is probably where all sorts of multi use-sensor and field generators are kept, in some sort of internal sensor pallets. Things like low level shields around the platform to keep stray particles out, bio sensors and filters, and maybe some system to absorb radiation away from transporter users...

 

[Finn]

Why does everything we see have to have a function? I'll buy it in the 22nd Century transporter pad, but not in the 24th century.

 

[Christopher]

Why does everything we see have to have a function? I'll buy it in the 22nd Century transporter pad, but not in the 24th century.

Well, as mentioned above, the rear panels of the original TOS transporter pad lit up and reacted to what was happening on the pad; for instance, in "Assignment: Earth," when the ship intercepted Gary Seven's transporter beam, we saw flowing lights like slow-motion flames behind the rear panels, similar to the roiling-clouds effect of Seven's own transporter. I doubt a purely functional Starfleet transporter would be equipped with decorative mood lighting, so it follows that the panels contributed something to the actual operation of the device.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I'm also inclined to think those rear wall panels are safety forcefield generators. They may help prevent an accidental discharge when the annular confinement beam is activated. It's possible that it may only be necessary when beaming to and from a transporter chamber because of all the other stuff in there (pattern buffers, energizing coils, etc.,).

 

[scotpens]

Why does everything we see have to have a function?

Because we’re a bunch of obsessive, nitpicking GEEKS!

 

[Ninjacore]

Doesn't the teleporter sorta kill you then bring you back by seperating your molecules then putting them back together, so technically you are a new you and the old you is dead?

 

[scotpens]

Doesn't the teleporter sorta kill you then bring you back by seperating your molecules then putting them back together, so technically you are a new you and the old you is dead?

Ah, one of the never-ending Trek debates.

 

[Ninjacore]

Doesn't the teleporter sorta kill you then bring you back by seperating your molecules then putting them back together, so technically you are a new you and the old you is dead?

Ah, one of the never-ending Trek debates.

They make copies its been proven, remember the tng episode with Riker when the transporter cloned him but failed to destroy his original self, leavinh one of him on the abandoned base and the other on the ship...

 

[T'Girl]

They make copies its been proven, remember the tng episode with Riker when the transporter cloned him but failed to destroy his original self, leavinh one of him on the abandoned base and the other on the ship...

But during the course of the sighted episode, it was made clear that what happen with Riker was extremely unusual, and not the way things usually occurred during a normal average transport.

Also, given the examples of Picard's heart and Neelix's lungs, Federation technology lacks the capacity to create living tissue. So where does this "copy" come from as a result of a normal transport?

(double original Rikers were cause by an unique atmosphere)

 

[Christopher]

According to the tech manuals, the particles that make up the transported subject's body are actually transmitted to the destination (in what's called the matter stream) and reassembled in their original form. That's the only way you could have a teleportation system that can beam to any location. Matter can't be created out of nothing, after all. If teleportation were dependent on imposing a pattern on a new set of particles at the destination, then you could only teleport to a pre-existing receiving station with a matter supply already present.

Of course, that leaves the unanswered question of where the matter came from to create the duplicate Kirk in "The Enemy Within" or the duplicate Riker in "Second Chances." But those are exceptions to the rule. Officially, you're made of the same particles at the destination that you started with before beaming. (Even though, from a quantum-mechanical standpoint, that doesn't matter. It's your quantum information defining the positions and states of the particles that defines you as a unique entity; the particles themselves are indistinguishable and interchangeable. It only makes a difference in that it allows the transporter to operate without needing a receiving station.)