Vertical Intermix Chamber and TMP Enterprise
- Thread starter CTM
- Start date
I'm at the point now where I'm thinking the ship probably uses some kind of rankine-cycle turbine (along with some other stuff, probably MHD generators or something) for power conversion. We've never seen them, of course, but I really think this is more likely than the idea that the entire ship is lined with a network of very small (and somewhat explosive) plasma conduits behind every bulkhead and console. Probably there's a series of refrigerator-sized electrical generators in every deck and compartment that use the charged plasma from the impulse/warp reactors into useable energy.
Then I don't even know what your point is anymore, except just being argumentative.
More sound than WHAT? Did you propose an alternate theory or didn't you?
No, it's a reference to the fact that the speed of light moves at a certain speed and a starship is now moving faster than that speed. Einstein didn't discover light, you know.
There's no evidence of time dilation or impulse engines as a field drive. Sauce for the goose.
Adequately explained in the TNG tech manual, and in detail I might add.
ON THE OTHER HAND, since you seem to be something of a canon-wonk, consider this: with a handful of exceptions, the visual record pretty much establishes "impulse speeds" to be nowhere even remotely close to light speed. In fact, if you go by visual cues from from the first six feature films (TMP notwithstanding) then we'd have to establish "full impulse power" at something in the neighborhood of a 100m/s. A field drive wouldn't be very fitting for these types of maneuvers, though a type of magnetoplasma rocket would more than suffice.
Actually, in MOST situations, starships rarely exhibit accelerations greater than a few dozen meters per second. It seems to me the only way to reconcile those few exceptions would be to take them at face value, really taking them AS exceptions and then build a technical explanation around them. The TNG tech manual describes an "overthrust" capacity produced by injecting small amounts of antimatter into the impulse exhaust; if you combine this with the "subspace driver coils" mentioned in the same chapter, then every instance of unusually high speed impulse velocities (such as in "Relics" where the Enterprise-D covers a distance of almost one AU in about three minutes) could be interpreted as some kind of "impulse afterburner" that allows high sub-light or even superluminal speeds at TREMENDOUSLY high fuel consumptions.
Plus the lack of shield effects in TUC, the opening scene of Generations, the lack of shield effects in every major fleet battle of DS9, the invisibility of IDF/STI fields, and so on. Specific examples can be found in Way of the Warrior, Call to Arms, Favor the Bold, Sacrifice of Angels, Tears of the Prophets, For the Uniform, and mutliple scenes in Star Trek XI.
Once again: the only forcefields that are visible when disturbed are deflector shields and security forcefields. All other types seem to be completely transparent at all times, which makes sense, because REAL forcefields are invariably invisible unless they are acting on something sufficiently luminous.
That's the most I am willing to state on this issue, as I am compelled by the Prime Directive not to interfere with your self-induced rectal-cranial inversion with respect to this particular issue. There is nothing in canon that suggests any thrust reversal device MUST produce a visible forcefield; it remains the most logical solution that is consistent with the tech manual.
It wasn't. My point was the tech manual suggests impulse engines are a reaction device, not a field drive, and certainly do not use drive plasma from the intermix chamber--or any other source--the way warp engines do. They do, instead, eject an exhaust plume at high velocities that imparts thrust on the starship, and (according to the TNG manual) they are aided in this task by use of subspace driver coils that reduce the effective mass of the ship.
I have no idea, now, what your argument actually is. You don't really seem to have one.
Saquist
Commodore
LOL
I stand corrected!
And now, the Pakled response:
Impulse engines make ship go. Warp engines make ship go really really fast.
Impulse engines make ship go. Warp engines make ship go really really fast.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
Maybe they should have pissed it all away then; ejecting the whole of engineering into the black hole to escape would justify a refit to make that part of the ship look like it was built in a future century.
This and C.L.B.'s linked explanation open up a way of thinking about "warp plasma" that had never occured to me before - and it's BRILLIANT! The fact that a M/AM reaction doesn't produce plasma, just energy has always bothered me - where was the plasma coming from? Now we know - it was in the pipes already.
I also agree with C.R.A. in that this approach helps to make sense of Voyager's hitherto bizarre handling of Trek engineering concepts. Not to mention the hoo-har about impurities in the sample of warp plasma in "Fair Trade"
Saquist
Commodore
Maybe they should have pissed it all away then; ejecting the whole of engineering into the black hole to escape would justify a refit to make that part of the ship look like it was built in a future century.
It could have been a good segway into the next movie.
no but honestly................................think about this................does data have hairy balls...????..................or for that ,matter does he have balls......................wait dont answer the last coz he was apparenty...correct....still unsure regarding his nut sacks tho!!
Saquist
Commodore
You now have an infraction for spamming. Knock it off.
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