Starship Transmission

[Neversummer 0]

Well the starships fly by computer with input from the pilot...

 

The whole fly-by-joystick thing in Insurrection was just weird...there's no way a stick could control a dozen RCS thrusters and impulse engines more efficiently than the ships computer.

I could.

[Sam_SemaJ 0]

thats exactly what i though, i think the whole manual controls available on the bridge is really cool, however a two-button/two-axis joystick would not cut it

[WxMurray 0]

Well the starships fly by computer with input from the pilot...

 

The whole fly-by-joystick thing in Insurrection was just weird...there's no way a stick could control a dozen RCS thrusters and impulse engines more efficiently than the ships computer.

I think that the manual steering column still interfaces with the computer for that. Actually, the steering column may give better response time. Instead of pressing buttons to tell the computer what to do, you just move the joystick.

 

In any case, I thought it was pretty cool.

[Neversummer 0]

I wouldn't be that hard to control pitch and yaw. Its just like playing a video game with a joystick. But shifting gears might be hard....think of what the clutch pedal would have to do....whoa. ::does a 'thinker' position::

[Sam_SemaJ 0]

yeah, i agree manual controls are better, but they would be more sophisticated than that sissy joystick.

[Nemesis 0]

yeah, good point, as difficult of a decidsion as it is...i would take a 67 Shelby GT 500 over the ARGO

I have One! :wacko: It's kinda in pieces in the garage but I do have one

[FredM 0]

Would Starfleet engineers really make warp cores put out an increasing amount of power for higher warp velocities, or do starships have a 'transmission' of sorts that allows them to cruise with less power?

 

What do you think?

Hey there,

 

I don't think warp cores themselves produce the power. Going off of the theory behind the technobable....

 

It is known that mixing matter and antimatter will result in a large energy release of some sort (present science doesn't exactly how now big, but knows it's just a juuuust a bit more than a battery). The theory behind the warp drive, as best I can comprehend and have learned, is this.

 

The "warp core" itself is just a containment vessel. It's similiar to your car's engine. The warp core itself (and it's containment systems, etc) are powered by a fuel supply known as deuterium. Using this system, injectors pump matter and antimatter into the reaction chamber itself. Here, the two items mix and release their energy. That release is stablized by the use of dythlium crystals. With the energy release now stable and controlled, it is then used to create super heated plasma. This plasma, containing within it a stable form of the energy itself, moves thru conduits to warp engine coils mounted within nacelles. Via these coils, the energy is released and "pushes" the ship into faster than light travel. (Note: This is also how over the decades, other species have actually had "warp speeds" without using matter/antimatter as a power source. They simply have an alternative method to creating the energy output required. TOS mentions an ion propulsion system as being a plausible method of doing it, though as of that era Starfleet had not yet developed a way to generate enough power via ion drives to create a warp field.)

 

Now, there are several items and steps I'm missing of course, but for the purpose of this discussion...I basically just described what could be considered the modern "fuel injection system." Now, just as with your car, if your sitting in park...the engine itself is still operating. Fuel is still be consumed, etc. However, instead of being fed into (using Trek's case) the warp coils, it's moved into power distribution systems throughout the ship.

 

When more "power" is required, it is basically just a request to have the injectors pump more matter/antimatter into the reaction chamber...thus increasing the energy transferred to the plasma and thus the energy released via the warp coils. "Maximum safety levels" come into play when considering how fast the injectors can function, how fast the coolant systems can keep the "core" itself from overheating, how much power the warp coils can handle before melting, etc.

 

Of course, fusion reactors are the primary source of propulsion power (and secondary power) when at impulse.

[Vex Xiang 0]

Actually deuterium IS the matter...the antimatter is specifically anti-deuterium. Any seperate power source for the warp core would have to be a fusion generator, which is incidentally the Impulse engine generator.

 

Antimatter and matter do not actually meet...the resulting explosion would be catastrophic (see warp core breech, hehe)...they are channeled through the injectors, through the big pulsing things (I forget their name), into the dilithium crystals where they become plasma...which is then shunted into the power transfer conduits.

 

The 'containment' is within the storage units, injectors, and warp conduits themselves. But the actual reaction does indeed occur within the warp core chamber.

 

Warp power simply produces an effecient, effective power source for generating a "warp field" which allows a starship to slip into subspace. Other power sources COULD be possible, but Starfleet believes this to be the best.

 

For example, the Bajorans had sail ships that could enter subspace with no power. Don't ask me the details on that one! But I'm guessing that the sails 'pressed' against existing subspace energy which allowed it to slip into subspace.

 

This is how other species such as the Romulans have used alternate power sources (ie the quantum singularity)...it is not the source of the power, its the amount of power you generate and what you do with it.

 

A modern fuel injector analogy is quite accurate if you consider fuel/air mixtures in combustion engines, but the similarities end there. The formation of the warp field is actually produced by the nacelle coils.

 

When more "power" is required, it is basically just a request to have the injectors pump more matter/antimatter into the reaction chamber...thus increasing the energy transferred to the plasma and thus the energy released via the warp coils. "Maximum safety levels" come into play when considering how fast the injectors can function, how fast the coolant systems can keep the "core" itself from overheating, how much power the warp coils can handle before melting, etc.

 

This is pretty conjectural but I would agree.

[Dumbass 0]

I just press the "Warp" button when we need Warp speed. If BcH asks about it I just make up some technobable.

[FredM 0]

For example, the Bajorans had sail ships that could enter subspace with no power. Don't ask me the details on that one! But I'm guessing that the sails 'pressed' against existing subspace energy which allowed it to slip into subspace.

Hey there,

 

Disagree with you on a few points, but I'm not going to get into debates about theoritical application of matter/antimatter warp propulsion units of the twenty-fourth century. :wacko: On most points though, from what I read, we really do agree on most of the basic concepts.

 

As to the sailing ships, that can be explained by the B&B Equation. Berman + Braga = Duh.

[Sam_SemaJ 0]

I have One! :wacko: It's kinda in pieces in the garage but I do have one

i'll buy it from you...seriously

[Sam_SemaJ 0]

hey, what about voyager's core, that was transparent and you could see the reactioin going on inside (not all of that was B+:wacko:

[Tachyon 0]

The Bajorans used tachyon particles that they caught in their solar sails. :wacko:

 

(How they caught them is another matter, must have been the free food . . .mmmm)

[Nemesis 0]

i'll buy it from you...seriously

Get $260000 AMD and then we'll talk :wacko:

 

Jking, I wouldn't sell it took my father forever to find one to restore.

Edited February 19, 2005 by Nemesis

[Neversummer 0]

hey, what about voyager's core, that was transparent and you could see the reactioin going on inside (not all of that was B+:wacko:

How about we put a warp core in the Shelby

[FredM 0]

hey, what about voyager's core, that was transparent and you could see the reactioin going on inside (not all of that was B+:wacko:

Hey there,

 

To answer that, I would say this. When you shutdown a nuclear reactor, the "reaction" itself doesn't immediately stop. It takes time for the material "already inserted" to finish it's job. A core ejection is simply releasing the containment vessel (and other storage devices I won't mention). Anything in the core itself will still be "reacting" to create energy until all the raw materials previous injected are exhausted.