Why do torpedo casing glow when fired?
- Thread starter Photon
- Start date
doubleohfive
Fleet Admiral
"chitlit" 
"chitlit"
Chiclet.
And not to sound stupid, but perhaps that's what's required to get the torpedo to move at impulse/warp velocities?
"chitlit"
Chiclet.
And not to sound stupid, but perhaps that's what's required to get the torpedo to move at impulse/warp velocities?
Hey, if you find a better way to propel a matter/anti-matter warhead at impulse/warp speeds, I'd like to hear it!
I forget who came up with the explanation (maybe Bernd Schneider?), but I liked it: the torpedo has a built-in shield generator that goes into overdrive to prevent it from being destroyed by the target ship's faster-than-light sensors and near-light-speed particle weapons; when putting out that much power, electromagnetic waves in the form of visible light gets spit out as well.
I think Bernd's (or whoever's) explanation, combined perhaps with the afterglow of the booster engine being refracted through the mini-shield, is a perfect explanation.
Slightly OT, but do we know for sure, even though it was definitely the intent of the TOS staff at the time of production, as documented in 'The Making of Star Trek' that the TOS torpedoes were only energy encasements? It seems awfully odd now, and would make later 'chiclet' torpedoes seem like a backstep.
Slightly OT, but do we know for sure, even though it was definitely the intent of the TOS staff at the time of production, as documented in 'The Making of Star Trek' that the TOS torpedoes were only energy encasements? It seems awfully odd now, and would make later 'chiclet' torpedoes seem like a backstep.
Again, Starship Down. There was no shield, because Quark could open the torpedo up, and it couldn't have been glowing white-hot because he could touch it with his bare hands in relative safety.
But that torpedo actually glowed. The prop has a translucent/frosted casing and clearly was fitted with lighting elements. (I'm guessing since the lights were pretty much off they thought it would look good.)
And so did parts of this Krenim chroniton torpedo.
Starfleet torpedoes don't have glowy parts, so the explanation of shields/engines could still work there. Unless their casing turn translucent and they start glowing sometime after launch?
And so did parts of this Krenim chroniton torpedo.
Starfleet torpedoes don't have glowy parts, so the explanation of shields/engines could still work there. Unless their casing turn translucent and they start glowing sometime after launch?
After watching the original series for almost 4 decades, it seems apparent to me that photon torpedoes were originally intended to be strictly energy weapons and not "torpedoes" in the traditional sense. It was only with The Wrath of Khan that photon torpedoes became ordnance, perhaps because Nick Meyer and Harve Bennett were clueless about its usage in the original series, and all subsequent usage of photon torpedoes built upon this misinterpretation.
I'd say the original interpretation of the torpedoes as energy spheres was the "mis" one. It simply doesn't jibe with the other TOS technologies that lean towards steampunk at times: very physical pipes and tubes with hand-operated valves on them, mechanically swiveling instrumentation and machinery, switches and levers.
Physical casings make TOS sense: they follow the WWII naval analogy that is otherwise prevalent in this fairly militaristic show. Perhaps the TOS casings weren't intended to look exactly like the ones in ST2, but had there been an episode of TOS that actually dealt with photon torpedoes up close, they would most definitely have had physical casings with a general elongated shape remniscent of WWII weapons.
Timo Saloniemi
Physical casings make TOS sense: they follow the WWII naval analogy that is otherwise prevalent in this fairly militaristic show. Perhaps the TOS casings weren't intended to look exactly like the ones in ST2, but had there been an episode of TOS that actually dealt with photon torpedoes up close, they would most definitely have had physical casings with a general elongated shape remniscent of WWII weapons.
Timo Saloniemi
3D Master
Rear Admiral
They glow because they are shielded. It's pretty much the only way to penetrate navigational shields as well as the deflector shields; delivering it's explosive power actually INTO the shield matrix.
(Otherwise; you get like Stargate; explosions smoothly splashing onto the shield, remaining outside of it, and barely doing any damage if at all.)
(Otherwise; you get like Stargate; explosions smoothly splashing onto the shield, remaining outside of it, and barely doing any damage if at all.)
Then again, shuttles get through shields (atmospheric ones, at any rate) without having a colorful field around them. Perhaps the color is an inevitable byproduct of any field strong enough to merge with and penetrate an uncooperative shield?
I'd be quite happy with the idea that the glow comes solely from the engines of the torpedo, too. However, in the real world, much effort was put into developing a torpedo that doesn't leave a visible wake, because the tactic of evading a spotted torpedo was perfectly valid. Since it's possible to evade a torpedo in the Trek realm, one would think that stealthing the weapon would be a high priority there, too. And we do know that Trek propulsion systems can be built so that they don't glow much - so the theory of engine glow isn't all that appealing after all.
Timo Saloniemi
I'd be quite happy with the idea that the glow comes solely from the engines of the torpedo, too. However, in the real world, much effort was put into developing a torpedo that doesn't leave a visible wake, because the tactic of evading a spotted torpedo was perfectly valid. Since it's possible to evade a torpedo in the Trek realm, one would think that stealthing the weapon would be a high priority there, too. And we do know that Trek propulsion systems can be built so that they don't glow much - so the theory of engine glow isn't all that appealing after all.
Timo Saloniemi
I always assumed the shields were dropped so the shuttle could get in....
A tangential question of mine to this issue is whether they ever actually said on Enterprise that the NX-01 was using a matter/antimatter drive system. If so, there's no way the Romulan War was fought with atomic weapons, because it's just way too simple to throw antimatter out a tube at a guy.
I'm pretty sure it is clearly established that the NX-01 is power by matter/antimatter.
However, there are lots of creative ways of explaining atomic weapons used in the war. For example, we don't know what all the other ships in the fleet were powered by. Since the NX's reactor was such a big deal, it could have been one of the only ones. Antimatter could also have been in short supply during the war, making it 'cheaper' to just build nukes. Alternatively, Earth could have discovered that the Romulan ships had a particular vulnerability to simple nukes. Or, it could have only been the Romulans using nukes against the Earth fleet, for the same reason.
So you see, it's still possible with a little imagination. (And squinting)
However, there are lots of creative ways of explaining atomic weapons used in the war. For example, we don't know what all the other ships in the fleet were powered by. Since the NX's reactor was such a big deal, it could have been one of the only ones. Antimatter could also have been in short supply during the war, making it 'cheaper' to just build nukes. Alternatively, Earth could have discovered that the Romulan ships had a particular vulnerability to simple nukes. Or, it could have only been the Romulans using nukes against the Earth fleet, for the same reason.
So you see, it's still possible with a little imagination. (And squinting)
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