Would a photon torpedo move forever through space
- Thread starter Clym
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but once an object is moving in space (a vacuum) it never loses momentum and moves forever until it hits something I think? Or until it goes into the orbit of a planet
At least if that's how I remember my physics.
A beam of light should travel forever through space too.
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You're right of course, that's on me. The question said move, but I took it the wrong way. What a chump. (Although Trek often has objects slow down and stop when not under power, so that must be why I spaced on the science of it! Yeah, that's the ticket.
)A phaser blast isn't just light though, so wouldn't the energy dissipate?
I have no idea. Too stupid for this one.
It is likely for this reason they'd have a self destruct range tied to the ships original firing position.
it wouldn't just be drifting, it would be moving at the same velocity so would still be highly dangerous unless its explosive content was somehow neutralised after a time.
presumably a phaser beam can't be auto-destructed, so Trek space must be awash with errant phaser beams all over the place. For that reason I think it would prudent that ships keep their shields up at all times
Phaser beams would start to lose cohesion (IE. to spread over wider area) and thus eventually become harmless and undetectable. A torpedo of course would go on forever, however considering the scale of space, a chance of a random torpedo hitting anything is pretty damn small.
Backstage chatter has the torpedo being powered by its own onboard antimatter supply - the very same it uses for blowing up stuff at the destination. There thus would seem to be three ways for the journey of a torpedo to end, if it never hits its target:
1) Commanded or self-commanded detonation of the (remaining) warhead, presumably after the torpedo uses its onboard sensing and tracking systems to find a safe spot in which to detonate.
2) Running out of antimatter, after which the torpedo drops out of warp (if it was there to begin with) and drifts on forever as an inert and harmless empty shell.
3) Cutting off the engine after it becomes obvious that the target wasn't hit, meaning there still remains a quantity of antimatter aboard; in this case, the torpedo drifts on until the containment on its remaining warhead fails, perhaps centuries down the line.
The third option would seem to be something Starfleet would wish to avoid, so it probably both tries to command 1 and makes sure the torpedo has no cutoff program so that 2 will be achieved as a backup.
As for phaser beams and bolts, they can travel at any arbitrary speed, from walking pace to high warp. We could assume that the latter at least is "costly" to maintain, what with breaking known laws of nature and all, and that the bolt would "decay" after a given time or distance. The end results may look like the "proximity detonations" we saw in TOS "Balance of Terror" - essentially, the phaser energies spill out of their subspace sheath, with some minimal destructive potential but generally just the potential to generate one of those curious micro-nebulae so often found in interstellar space in Trek...
We don't know if phaser beams are subject to dispersion or other weakening in the style of electromagnetic radiation, or cooling or dissipation in the style of particle beams (say, bolts of molten tungsten, or machine gun bursts). They may obey completely different laws of physics that have no inverse-square laws or anything comparable. But even in "Balance of Terror", the use of phasers at what Stiles considers a ridiculously long distance (i.e. several minutes at emergency warp) is only said to reduce the odds of a hit, not to weaken the impact of the beam at the target!
Timo Saloniemi
1) Commanded or self-commanded detonation of the (remaining) warhead, presumably after the torpedo uses its onboard sensing and tracking systems to find a safe spot in which to detonate.
2) Running out of antimatter, after which the torpedo drops out of warp (if it was there to begin with) and drifts on forever as an inert and harmless empty shell.
3) Cutting off the engine after it becomes obvious that the target wasn't hit, meaning there still remains a quantity of antimatter aboard; in this case, the torpedo drifts on until the containment on its remaining warhead fails, perhaps centuries down the line.
The third option would seem to be something Starfleet would wish to avoid, so it probably both tries to command 1 and makes sure the torpedo has no cutoff program so that 2 will be achieved as a backup.
As for phaser beams and bolts, they can travel at any arbitrary speed, from walking pace to high warp. We could assume that the latter at least is "costly" to maintain, what with breaking known laws of nature and all, and that the bolt would "decay" after a given time or distance. The end results may look like the "proximity detonations" we saw in TOS "Balance of Terror" - essentially, the phaser energies spill out of their subspace sheath, with some minimal destructive potential but generally just the potential to generate one of those curious micro-nebulae so often found in interstellar space in Trek...
We don't know if phaser beams are subject to dispersion or other weakening in the style of electromagnetic radiation, or cooling or dissipation in the style of particle beams (say, bolts of molten tungsten, or machine gun bursts). They may obey completely different laws of physics that have no inverse-square laws or anything comparable. But even in "Balance of Terror", the use of phasers at what Stiles considers a ridiculously long distance (i.e. several minutes at emergency warp) is only said to reduce the odds of a hit, not to weaken the impact of the beam at the target!
Timo Saloniemi
Even worse than a torpedo sailing off forever...
We've seen ships battle in orbit of a planet before. If a torpedo misses its target, what stops it from getting caught by the planet's gravity, getting pulled down to the surface, and causing an ELE?
Good thing they seldom seem to miss...
We've seen ships battle in orbit of a planet before. If a torpedo misses its target, what stops it from getting caught by the planet's gravity, getting pulled down to the surface, and causing an ELE?
Good thing they seldom seem to miss...
I would make sure torpedoes have a system that auto-safes and auto-returns the torpedo to the ship. Considering how valuable they seem to be. At the least they should transmit a signal to locate and retrieve them later after a battle. Just think how many torpedoes missed their target in Nemesis.
It would be interesting if after the battle the ship transmitted a return signal. And then opened a landing bay.
And then after a while there's a bunch of torpedoes lined up on the deck after returning.
It would be interesting if after the battle the ship transmitted a return signal. And then opened a landing bay.
And then after a while there's a bunch of torpedoes lined up on the deck after returning.
I think photon torpedoes are programmed to self-destruct if they haven't hit anything in a minute or less. If it has an antimatter warhead or propulsion system, its containment field may only have a very short lifespan to begin with after being launched, so they could easily be fire and forget weapons.
They really should do that, can't be too hard to program a "disarm and return home" option, the torpedoes already have a targetting system so they should be able to follow a signal the ship sends out.
There was an incident during WWII where a US sub fired a spread of torpedoes at a Japanese ship. A few of the torps missed, and continued on under power for several miles, and randomly hit and sank another ship!
Until a starship slams into it at high warp speed.
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