Star Trek's warp drive is the single most complicated and powerful component of the USS Enterprise. It is the device that has allowed humanity to access deep space, making contact with alien lifeforms possible, and has changed nearly all technological civilizations in the Milky Way.
Warp drive allows space travel at faster-than-light speeds. This is accomplished by generating warp fields to form a subspace bubble that envelops the starship, distorting the local space time continuum and moving the starship at velocities that exceed the speed of light. These velocities are referred to as warp factors. Warp drive is the most common form of interstellar propulsion used in the Milky Way Galaxy, making interstellar civilization, trade and warfare possible.
ENTERPRISE RENTAL
THEORY AND APPLICATION
Zefram Cochrane, the scientist credited with the creation of modern warp physics, built his work upon the shoulders of other giants. Beginning in the mid-twenty-first century, Cochrane, working with his team, derived the basic mechanism of continuum distortion propulsion (CDP). He was able to grasp the potential for higher energies and faster-than-light travel, which led to practical operations beyond the solar system. The ensuing promise of rapid interstellar travel saw his team take on the task of an intensive review of all of the physical sciences.
Their work led to a set of complex equations, materials formulation, and operational procedures that described the essential details of super luminal flight. In early warp drive theories, single or double shaped fields, created at tremendous energy output, could distort the space/time continuum enough to drive a starship. As early as 2061, Cochrane's team succeeded in producing a massive prototype field device. Described as a fluctuation superimpeller, it first allowed an unmanned flight test vehicle to straddle the speed of light (c) "wall," alternating between two velocity states while remaining at neither for longer than Planck time, 1.3 x 10~43 second, the smallest possible unit of measurable time. This had the net effect of maintaining velocities at the previously unattainable speed of light, while avoiding the theoretically infinite energy expenditure otherwise required.
Early CDP engines-which were informally dubbed "warp" engines - met with success, and were almost immediately incorporated into existing spacecraft designs with surprising ease. Though slow and inefficient by today's standards, these engines yielded a substantial reduction of time dilation effects, and paved the way for round-trip flights on the order of a few years instead of decades.
WARP MEASUREMENT
Warp drive velocity in Star Trek is generally expressed in "warp factor" units, which correspond to the magnitude of the warp field. Achieving warp factor 1 is equivalent to breaking the light barrier, while the actual velocity corresponding to higher factors is determined using an ambiguous formula.
Star Trek artist Michael Okuda devised a formula based on the original one but with important differences. For warp 1-9, s(w) = w^{10 \over 3}c. In the half-open interval from warp 9 to warp 10, the exponent of w increases toward infinity. At velocities greater than warp 9, the form of the warp function changes because of an increase in the exponent of the warp factor w. Due to the increase in the derivative, even a minor change in the warp factor corresponds to an exponentially larger change in velocity.
Cochrane units are used to measure subspace field stress. Cochranes are also used to measure field distortion generated by tractor beams, deflectors, and synthetic gravity fields. Millicochranes measure fields below Warp 1.
The amount of power required to maintain a given warp factor is a function of the cochrane value of the warp field. The energy required to establish the field is much greater, and is called the peak transitional threshold. Once that threshold has been crossed, the amount of power required to maintain a given warp factor declines. While the current engine designs allow for control of unprecedented amounts of energy, the warp driver coil electrodynamic efficiency decreases as the warp factor increases.
Warp fields exceeding a given warp factor, but lacking the energy to cross the threshold to the next higher level, are called fractional warp factors. Travel at a given fractional warp factor can be significantly faster than travel at the next lower integral warp, but for extended travel, it is often more energy efficient to simply increase to the next higher integral warp factor.
THEORETICAL LIMITS
Eugene's Limit allows for warp stress to increase asymptotically, approaching but never reaching a value corresponding to Warp Factor 10. As field values approach ten, power requirements rise geometrically, while the aforementioned driver coil efficiency drops dramatically. The required force coupling and decoupling of the warp field layers rise to unattainable frequencies, exceeding not only the flight system's control capabilities, but more important the limit imposed by Planck time. If it were possible to expend the theoretically infinite amount of energy required, an object at Warp 10 would be traveling infinitely fast and occupy all points in the universe simultaneously.
WARP PROPULSION SYSTEM
As installed in the Enterprise, the warp propulsion system consists of the matter/antimatter reaction assembly, power transfer conduits, and warp engine nacelles. The total system provides energy for its primary application, propelling the USS Enterprise through space, as well as its secondary application, powering the defensive shields, phaser arrays, tractor beam, main deflector, and computer cores.
The final propulsion system specifications required the Galaxy class Enterprise to sustain a cruising speed of Warp 6 until fuel is expended, a maximum cruising speed of Warp 9.2, and a maximum top speed of Warp 9.6 for twelve hours. The total estimated vehicle mass was reduced through materials improvements to 4.96 million metric tons.
Star Trek Enterprise NCC-1701-D Warp Drive
Todd Egli
[http://www.startrekmodelships.com]
ENTERPRISE RENTAL
0 comments:
Post a Comment