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A Warp Field

The various Federation and non-Federation ships are capable of reaching velocities in excess of the speed of light. Starfleet ships are capable of this feat by the use of a warp core. The most important component of the warp core is the matter/antimatter reaction assembly. This is the component in which the massive amounts of energy needed for the creation of a warp field is generated. The energy is released from the annihilation of matter (deuterium) and antimatter (anti-deuterium). The reaction is controlled by a material known as dilithium, a substance that is not affected by the passage of anti-particles. The properties of dilithium are discussed below. The warp core is surrounded by a large Tokomac device. this consists of a number of magnetic fields, often generated by torroidal magnets . These magnetic fields curve the trajectory of the anti-particles ensuring they do not inadvertently interact with the matter of the storage devices. The failure of the magnetic fields can lead to a warp core breach. A core breach is normally a positive feedback event culminating in the complete destruction of the ship. The antimatter storage devices were significantly improved circa 2315 when new, reliable superconducting field sustainers and other safety measures were developed for storage. (Sternbach and Okuda 1991) The antimatter used in propulsion is generated at major Starfleet refueling facilities by combined solar-fusion charge reversal devices, which process proton and neutron beams into antineuterons, joined by a positron beam accelerator to produce antihydrogen, specifically heavy hydrogen known as deuterium. Unfortunately there is a net energy loss of 24% using this process. The antimatter is stored in magnetic conduits and compartmentalized tanks aboard the refueling depots but when transferred to starships this method is less effective due to the additional stresses that can be applied to a starship. The Enterprise D had an antimatter loading port on deck 42 where thirty 4*8 meter polyduranium storage pods were located. The magnetic containment field was generated by inner layers of ferric quonium. Each pod contains a maximum volume of 100m³. Therefore the thirty pods when filled would supply 3000m³ of antimatter. The power conversion levels on a Federation Starship are very high. During matter/antimatter reactions usable energy obtained from the energy-conversion is normally around 97%. In 2370 Chief Engineer Geordie LaForge increased the power conversion levels to 97.2%. On a Galaxy class Starship the full antimatter storage pods even given the 3% loss of energy is considered to supply enough energy for 3 years of ship operation. (Sternbach and Okuda 1991). In 2372 the USS Voyager ejected a full antimatter pod in the hope of disabling three Vidiian ships. The fuel supply of matter is stored in the primary deuterium tank located in the engineering section of the hull. This consists of slush deuterium stored at 13.8 Kelvins. The normal deuterium load of a Galaxy class vessel was rated at 62,500m³. A certain amount of deuterium is known to diffuse through the tank walls at a rate of <0.00002 kg/day. The deuterium quantities are expected to last 3 years. In late 2374 the Starship Voyager after three and a half years operation in the delta quadrant initiated Grey Mode cut power to decks 4 through 9 and de-activated all non essentials taking them offline to conserve energy due to severe deuterium shortages, remaining systems operated at 20%. This suggests similar operational time frames to the Galaxy Class Starships. The annihilation of matter and antimatter have been known to create subatomic particles known as omicron particles. These particles can also be used to supplement antimatter supplies aboard a starship. On stardate 48546.2 the USS Voyager attempted to harvest omicron particles from a "nebula" to use as an antimatter substitute. Okuda and Okuda 1997 read this as a method to aid in antimatter production, a facility all starships possess, however this seems to contradict Szollosi and Piller 1995. This site favours the earlier work suggesting that omicron particles can be used to supplement antimatter energy production.

The warp field coils on a starship located within the ship's nacelles are designed to produce a series of interacting, cumulative layers of energy. These fields are designed to reduce the apparent mass of the object in question. (Sternbach & Okuda 1991). As the warp field reaches an intensity of 1000 millichocranhes the ship’s velocity is increased to that of c but for a time less than 1.3*10^-43 seconds.

The geometry of the warp field is controlled by coils within the nacelles. The three forward coils producing a stronger field than their rear counterparts thus allowing the ship to be driven forwards. (Sternbach & Okuda 1991) The field geometry is affected by the design of the ship. For this reason there is a slight determining factor in the geometry of space frames for warp vessels. Figure 2 below shows a field emanating from the two nacelles of the USS Enterprise NCC 1701 D.

We are told that the most basic warp field was generated on Earth by C.D.P. mechanisms, that is continuum distortion propulsion. The early designs used quantum fluctuations around the speed c never retaining a given speed for longer than 1.3*10^-43 seconds. This is presumably the type of drive used on the Phoenix. (Berman, Braga, Moore 1996)

Image Showing Cochrane's First Successful Manned C.D.P. Warp Capable Vessel; The Phoenix.

Launch date April 4^th 2063.

(Image from Okuda and Okuda 1997)

The warp field creates a bubble that has the effect of reducing the local gravitational constant, the factor relating force to mass and distance in Newton’s law of gravitation. It is universal and only more recent investigation suggests possible alteration with time. The constant approximates to 6.670*10^-11 Nm² Kg^-2. The field coils in the nacelles must create a balanced field, thus they must operate in union. In practice the general form is to have two (or multiples thereof) engines mounted parallel to the axis of desired movement but offset from the line of the ship's center of mass. The nacelles are usually above or below the ship's center of mass. In many occasions they project arterially from the engineering section but held apart from the ship's central line by struts. These are in place to allow a vessel to jettison them should an emergency occur. A recent addition to the Starfleet, USS Prometheus (NX 59650), has been shown to employ warp nacelles above and below the axis and in a central line with the ship's center of mass. These small nacelles were used on the saucer section module during multi-vector-assault mode. Though traditional vessels use one pair, exceptions including the Constellation Class vessel have been noted where multiples of two are employed. (Forrester 1987). Most recently Starfleet has found methods of alternating nacelle and engine use to maintain speeds previously only useable as emergency velocities. (Zimmerman et al. 1998). Many of these improvements are based on the initial Pathfinder development programme developed first for the Defiant class spacecraft. The nacelles are of tritanium and duranium framing combined with longitudinal stiffeners and overlaid with 2.5 meters of gamma-welded tritanium hull skin. The alternate future USS Enterprise 1701-D from "All Good Things" had a third warp drive along the ship's central line. Though the episode neither confirms or denies this, the ship is referred to as a transwarp Enterprise, the third nacelle perhaps giving the transwarp capability. Nevertheless, the ship like the two nacelled Olympic Class USS Pasteur achieved warp 13. The calibration of warp scales is discussed below.

Image Showing Two Lobed Warp Field Produced Around The USS Enterprise NCC 1701 D

(Sternbach & Okuda 1991)

The energy to drive the ship into warp is most commonly provided by the controlled annihilation of matter and antimatter. This takes place in the matter/antimatter reaction chamber housed in main engineering. The reaction was originally controlled by lithium or cracked lithium but has been replaced since 2266 with 2<5>6dilithium 2<:>1 diallosillicate 1:9:1 hetoferranide (dilithium crystals). When subjected to high-frequency electromagnetic radiation in the mega-watt range the dilithium crystals become non-reactive with antimatter. It allows the passage of antihydrogen through its crystalline structure, without atoms coming into direct contact. Similarly tungsten targets are used in particle accelerators to retard and redirect incoming antimatter particles. This principle is presumably identical to the use of dilithium aboard the Enterprise. As Wesley Crusher pointed out in "Coming of Age", the reactant ratio between matter and antimatter would always remain fixed at 1:1 though the absolute quantity of reactants could be changed.

Warping space

Special Relativity postulates that no object may move locally faster than that of light in a vacuum, that is approximately 2.997925*10⁸ ms^-1. However, general relativity tells us that space-time is curved by mass and that the whole universe is curved. Instead of a flat Euclidean geometry we must think in terms of non-Euclidean surfaces where the trajectory of particles are geodesic about the space time distortions created my mass. These theories have been supported quite accurately by the discovery of wrinkles in space-time. The famous COBE image can be found at the early universe section of this site. This means that the local markers need not be seen as necessarily be considered preventive to faster than light travel. (Krauss 1995). Space itself has had periods of faster than light expansion when matter was created forcing the space to expand faster than light even though no particle possessed a speed in excess of c. Therefore, bending or creating space would allow apparent speeds that are very high. Unfortunately, the energy requirement to do either is prohibitive. That is not simply a problem that can be solved if we could develop a method of creating more energy, as the total mass of the universe if annihilated could not create enough energy to propel the Starship Enterprise.

Here enters a discussion on the use of zero point energy or zero point motion. First and foremost the above statement, that we do not have enough mass, is based on a false assumption. The assumption being we know how much mass is in the universe. Quite simply this is wrong as you will see in the page dedicated to dark matter the mass of the universe has a margin of error so large that we can not at present make any predictions about the energy available. Even so, collecting enough mass to warp space to allow "rapid" movement between the stars seems unlikely. This brings us back to zero point motion. Heisenberg’s indeterminacy principle states that there is an uncertainty in energy time measurements. (Hey and Walters 1987).

We now turn to look to the work of one of the twentieth-centuries greatest scientists and possibly its second greatest thinker, second only to Albert Einstein’s famous thought experiments. Paul Dirac born 1902 in Bristol England Dirac went on to discover antimatter, the material that powers the Enterprise's warp drive and most primary systems (Sternbach and Okuda 1991). Dirac stated that empty space was not in fact empty, we were just observing the absence of the positive charge we wanted to see. This meant space-time was a boiling pot of virtual and real particles. (Watkins 1983). We now turn to an experiment to help in explaining where our discussion will go next. The experiment is quite simple; to freeze helium liquid into a solid. Simply put all matter must exist in one of four states plasma, gas, liquid and solid. The difference between them is simple the energy of the particles referred to colloquially as heat. Therefore, if we remove the energy, cool down, the particles the matter will revert to one of the less excited states. Unfortunately, the cooling of helium was very difficult. In 1898, Sir James Dewar announced hydrogen liquefaction at 12K. Switching to the problem of helium liquefaction in 1904 Dewar predicted the temperature needed would be 6K even though he could not experimentally prove this as 6 K was colder than his apparatus would currently achieve. In 1908, Kamerlingh Onnes liquefied Helium at around 4 K. However, the change from liquid to solid has never been achieved. There is a zero point motion of atoms as described by Heisenberg’s Indetermiancy Principle that keeps the helium from solidifying. (Hey and Walters 1987).

Therefore, we see energy existing where one would expect there to be no motion. This coupled with the existence of virtual particles may lead one to suspect that there is quite a lot of untapped energy that could be harnessed to power a spacecraft. Once again though the uses of such energy sources are bleak and at the present the best use of zero point motion in helium is for super conductivity not for faster than light travel. For, even if one could find energy surpluses the use of them would still be confined by Special Relativity and acceleration to high speeds would incur the Fitzgerald Lorentz manipulations discussed later. A similar example to this can be seen in Nature volume 232 page 440 and followed in volumes 240 and 246 where the birth of the universe from a quantum fluctuation is addressed. The theory here is known as the Free Lunch Universe Theory. This is a theory that gave much concern to Eistein and almost led to his an friend George Gamow's death. (Gribben 1996)

While crossing a road in the 1940’s Albert Einstein and George Gamow were talking and he brought up the fact that the negative gravitational energy of a star could equally but oppositely match the mass of energy. Thus, if the two cancelled then according to the equations of Quantum Mechanics stars of such type could be born out of quantum fluctuations. In addition, it is understood that in Quantum Mechanics if something is not forbidden then it must occur. According to Gamow:

"Einstein stopped in his tracks, and since we were crossing a street, several cars had to avoid running us down." (Gamow 1970)

Were the universe a product of a quantum fluctuation then it would have destroyed its self instantly by gravitational collapse. The problem of this was "resolved" by Guth in the early 1980’s with Inflationary Theory. A theory that has been revised many times until we arrive at the theories available today.

(Hawking 1988 Gribben 1996)

The concept that the mass (energy) density in any one frame would always be at least equal to or greater than zero is called the "weak energy condition." Ken Olum of Tufts has followed a reverse tack in arguing that superluminal travel is possible in certain warped versions of space/time but that this would entail the existence of negative energy. In this case the concepts of superluminal motion and of negative energy need to be explored. An object with negative mass would be less massive than empty space. We don't know of any such object, but physicists have detected small regions of space characterized by a very slightly negative energy density (the so called Casimir effect; see Updates 122 and 300). If you combine negative energy with positive energy you get nothing, very different from the explosion you get when you combine matter and antimatter. As for superluminal travel; in Olum's model objects and signals do not actually travel faster than light. Rather, the curvature of a spacetime incorporating a negative-energy density is such that one can arrive quickly at distant places using sub-light speeds. (Physical Review Letters, 26 October 1998.) This work is very much a continuation of ideas that Miguel Alcubierre is quite often attributed with being among the first to begin work on. Though this is by no means correct Alcubierre did conduct extensive work into the manipulation of pace itself as a driving force for a vehicle. In his work the space behind a starship is expanded and contracted in front of it. The starship would rest in a "warp bubble" between the two spacetime distortions. The result would be a wave in spacetime along which the starship would travel almost surfing along the displacement wave. The idea allowed for faster than light travel because the vehicle did not need to accelerate and so no relativistic effects would effect it, the ship never attained high speeds the instances just altered. A very interesting side effect became that the vehicle and crew would be weightless as we have discussed the ship suffers no acceleration and given the principle of equivalence acceleration and gravity are indistinguishable. Given that there is no acceleration the risk no longer exists of injury due to extreme G-forces of acceleration and deceleration. (BBC Online Network). On the USS Enterprise this is countered by the use of a Structural Integrity Field, which maintains ship rigidity and monitors the gravitational effects within the ship to counter dangerous G-forces. It is therefore unlikely that Enterprise uses this form of distortion technology. However, Miguel Alcubierre's work shows no Lorentz Fitzgerald contractions; once again no acceleration means no dilational effects. This effect is shared by the Starfleet vessels. While using extreme impulse speeds the crew are affected by the dilation of time, which is why Starfleet imposes restrictions on the use of impulse drives. However, while within a warp field the crew are not effected by dilation. 

While Alcubierre's idea was a sound and supported mathematically it was completely impractical, as discussed above, even considering large amounts of energy from zero point motion the construction of a warp bubble would be impossible in practice. More energy than the entire universe could supply would be needed to create the spacetime distortions.

However, more recently June 1999,  Dr Van Den Broeck's analysis has suggested a similar plan with far lower overhead of energy. The reduction in required energy is of the order of 1*10⁶². Dr Van Den Broeck is quick to cautions in his forthcoming paper in General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology:

"This does not mean that the proposal is realistic."

Dr Van Den Broeck concludes his analysis by saying, "The first warp drive is still a long way off but maybe it has now become slightly less improbable."

USS Enterprise NCC 1701 D

Red Dwarf and Star Trek Galleries

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4196/

What We Know About the Mechanics of Warp Drive.

The warp drive creates the field discussed above. The effects within that field are outlined by (Sternbach an Okuda 1991) and in various episodes (Richard Danus 1990). In Deja Q (Danus 1990) Geordi and Data try, and fail, to alter the trajectory of an asteroidal moon at Bre’el IV by reducing the Gravitational Constant of the universe. However, if one lowers G the localised warping of space-time is made more difficult.

The warping of space around a celestial body is defined by the equation:

Schwazchild Radius = 2GM/c² (Kaufmann 1991).

As G decreases the effect is the same as reducing the bodies mass. This means that a warp field negates the possibility of curving space and bringing distant objects "closer".

This leaves us with a problem, the warp drive can not disturb space time. However, one may question whether the warping is relative. The lowering of G in the bubble would be equivalent to the highering of G on the outside. Could therefore, the warping of space, which is too difficult to perform over such massive distances, be achieved by lowering G on a small area, that of the bubble around the ship? Alas this is not so, the increase in G is not enough to warp space time as an objective observer would not notice the increase and therefore the ship would not move.

A further indication of the fact the Federation does not employ a curvature type propulsion is in their meeting with various races whose technology differ from their own. Folded space transport was employed by the Sikarians in Voyager’s "Prime Factors" (George & Stillwell 1995) and the Ansata terrorists of Rutia IV who used a simpler method based on the Elway Theorem (Danus 1990). We are told in this episode that the folding of space was abandoned in the mid 23^rd century when it was deemed unviable due to the damage to the subject. However, there is clearly a difference between personnel transport and ship transport. We assume Starfleet abandoned both lines of research.

Alternative Uses of Lowering Mass.

We know that the Gravitational Constant is lowered and have already touched upon Zefram Cochrane’s C.D.P. devices. A discussion of the development of faster than light travel can be found in the History of the Federation section of the website. The interesting fact is that General Relativity breaks down below the Plank time and that is one of the contributing factors to the problems describing the early universe. (Kaufmann 1991).

Plank time = Ö Gh/c⁵=1.35*10^-35

Relativity predicts that as energy is applied to an object to accelerate it part of the energy is transferred to mass. The relation between mass and energy is described by the equation:

E=mc²

This means that some energy is transferred to mass and the increased mass retards the propulsion of the object. The amount of energy transferred to mass is exponentially related to the actual velocity whereby the faster the object is moving the more energy subsequent acceleration transforms into mass. The result is before an object can be accelerated to a speed in excess of c its mass approaches infinity. This is known as a Fitzgerald Lorentz transformation and by the equation:

M=M_o/Ö 1-(v²-c²)

As v upon c approaches 1 the mass approaches m/0=¥ . However, if one could proportionally lower m with increase of v so that m/v= constant, then mass would not increase and the energy would be converted into kinetic energy instead of mass thus propelling the ship forwards. The warp field is therefore designed to limit the mass of the ship to an observer in the manner that increased velocity would not increase mass. (Kaufmann 1991).

Unfortunately, time and length would also be affected as one crosses the threshold of warp so that the clocks aboard the enterprise slowed radically during acceleration and length to an objective observer would collapse towards the plank length. The opposite of what we observe in the episode, i.e. the ship stretching as it goes to warp.

High Warp Speeds.

Warp 10 represents infinite velocity therefore it can not be exceeded. Infinite velocity being instantaneous travel to any point in the universe and quite possibly the occupation of every point simultaneously. When Paris attempted to cross this threshold we can assume he reached warp 10 and did not exceed it (voy: Threshold). The Borg conduits (Descent etc.) are extremely fast but not warp 10.

The progression curve up to warp 9 has been plotted below, I have cropped the graph and made the y axis logarithmic, the same kind of graph can be seen on page 55 (Sternbach and Okuda 1991).

For speeds below warp 9 the curve is a simple geometric expression:

Note the actual speed varies dependent on local interstellar medium density and subspace effects. (Sternbach and Okuda 1991)

Above warp 9 the exponent gradually changes but below warp 9 using 3 1/3 is acceptable. If one wanted to know the exact exponent for warp 9, then it would be a simple case of re-arranging the equation. Given that 9^x = 1516. Then if take logs to base nine of either side we get

log₉ 9^x = log₉ 1516

x = 3.333218935

However, though this works perfectly for warp 9 it is slightly less successful for the other warp factors. Remember though, that this is really a void discussion given that each warp factor can only approximate to a given ideal velocity, as this velocity is affected by many external influences. It is important to note that the original series of Star Trek used the exponent 3 for all warp velocities. The velocity being simply the cube of the warp factor. The original Enterprise had a rated cruising speed of warp 6 (216 c) and a maximum rated speed of warp 8 (512 c). The Nomad modifications from the episode "The Changeling" (Lucas 1967) allowed the ship to move at warp 11 (1331 c) as did the Kelvan modifications the following year in "By Any Other Name". (Fontana and Bixby 1968). The fastest recorded speed the Enterprise moved at was Warp 14.1 in 2268 when the computer image of Losira from the Kalandan Outpost sabotaged the ship. "That Which Survives" (Lucas 1968). A warp factor of 14.1 would have given a velocity equal to around 2803.221 times the speed of light. All these higher speeds were made at extreme risk and duress.

In 2370, it was established that a warp field effect could result whereby damage to subspace could manifest in real space. In an area known as the Hekaras Corridor long term damage to subspace caused disruptions near Hekaras II. (Naren Shankar 1993) The region was 12 light years long and due to the intense tetryon fields that saturated the region of space surrounding the system was the only means of safe passage for starships. In 2366 two Hekaran scientists, Serova and Rabal, submitted a preliminary report to the Federation Science Council detailing the stresses in the Hekaras Corridor and the likelihood of a rupture. Unfortunately at the time the Council believed that there was insufficient proof. By 2370 problems had escalated to the point where Rabal and Serova deployed Verteron mines across the corridor. The purpose being to alert Starfleet of the dangers continued high warp use would incur in Hekaras Space, the ruptures predicted in the scientists work would have isolated Hekaras II. Unfortunately, to demonstrate her point Serova caused a warp core breach killing herself but also opening a subspace rupture, thus proving that continued warp propulsion systems would destroy the space around her homeworld. After this point Starfleet restricted all Federation vessels to a maximum speed limit of warp factor 4.7. In the time after the ban certain missions allowed ships to move beyond warp 4.7 for emergencies. Soon afterwards ships were commissioned that were capable of moving above the warp speed limit. It would appear that at some stage more "environmentally friendly" warp cores were introduced, high warp propulsion has also been observed in older model vessels suggesting that these could be remodified.

The Starbase, Deep Space 9 is supplied from a network of Federation outposts. Due to the current (circa 2373+) political structure of the Alpha Quadrant, most prominently the continuing hostilities between the Federation and allies (Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire etc.) and the Cardassian Union and Dominion, certain precautions need to be taken along shipping lanes. As such the final leg of the supply run begins at Star Base 375 at a distance of 50.3 light years. Once clearance is obtained the run is completed within 6 days by high warp courier. This means an extended flight at warp factor 9.92 (approximately) a speed only normally possible for short periods. This is accomplished by using alternating twin M/ARAs and nacelle pairs. It has been noted that modifications on space frames, allowing the use of four-engine (nacelles?) allows the passing of the previous 1,000 light year per year efficiency boundary. (Zimmerman et al. 1998)

High Speed Transportation

The ship in Vis à Vis used a method that Starfleet had been unsuccessful in properly utilizing but were "dreaming of". Though Tom Paris does say the transport is instantaneous over huge distances, his later words do imply a limitation, and also when Tom is on the ship towards the end of the episode the length of scene time, suggest a none instantaneous travel time. Also the test pilot "Steth" mentioned that Co-axial drive allowed incredible speeds. (Robert Doherty 1998) It would not have been logical for "him" to make this statement if the ship traveled instantaneously. This information suggests co-axial is not at or exceeding warp 10. However, it is clearly far in excess of the drive system used on USS Voyager or any other Starfleet ship to date. The drive system, apparently using a "warp core" of some description worked by folding space. A flow field was present, the parameters of which allowed the differential induction drive to come on-line a device that starts a co-axial leap. The deceleration of a co-axial ship into normal space was signified by spatial anomalies and localised folding of space. The drive system, though very efficient ran the risk of a warp core overload. Such an explosion could collapse space for a radius of 1 billion kilometers. A symmetric warp field contain instabilities in the space folding core advanced subspace geometry. Even after deceleration residual folds in space could be felt by starships in the wake of a co-axial warp powered ship. Co-axial is a violent procedure, but the act of folding space was in spurts but instabilities were known to overload the engines. Isokinetic containment fields were tried to balance the instabilities but this was found to be ineffective. The vessel's drive system was powered by a co-axial induction drive, a small device removable from a tripod energy containment facility that was bathed in blue light from above the apparatus and a red glow from below core. The co-axial induction drive itself was perhaps 12 cm long 4 cm diameter. The device draws in subatomic particles and reconfigures their internal geometries. This is what allows the ship to fold space, however the act was sporadic at best. The spurts were caused by the instabilities in the particle stream. A polaric modulator from a standard impulse drive can be used as a carburetor to dilute the particle stream as it enters the co-axial drive. This was successfully tested on the co-axial ship when Thomas Paris was sent back to Benthos space. However, as this was a single and probably small (20 light year) jump, we can not be certain if the polaric modulator would work for extended periods of space folding (if indeed the concept of extended periods is applicable to a drive as advanced as that used by the alien ship). "Steth", while disguised as Thomas Paris, was instructed to implement the technologies found in the co-axial ship onto a Type 9 shuttle craft. It would appear that the shuttle was salvaged and even given the fact that a chromoelectric pulse knocked out the polaric modulator there is no reason to believe that the systems could not one day be re-used to create a workable co-axial drive. However, there is no certainty that diluting the flow stream would allow the co-axial jump, but the simulations and the aliens attempt to escape would suggest that one of Voyagers Type 9/2 shuttle craft may well be capable of the incredible speeds allowed by folding space.

In 2284 Starfleet built what was deemed "The Great Experiment", to explore transwarp speeds. The Excelsior was given a transwarp engine and launched circa 8210.3. The transwarp drive was at first tampered with by her then Chief Engineer, Montgomary Scott. Later the ship was considered a failure and outfitted with a standard warp system. This ship and its class went on to become one of the single most important part of the fleet. The class was later modified in 2293 and this upgrade is still in service as late as 2375. During the second Borg threat to Starfleet in 2368/69 the Enterprise found a series of transwarp conduits through subspace. We consider that the Borg conduits were simply very fast (sub warp 10). It is important to note that the Borg seen using the conduits were not in fact members of the Borg collective. Rather they were drones whose individuality had re-asserted and had come under the influence of The One (Lore). Seven of Nine has stated on many occasions that the Borg do use subspace conduits or the like to travel through space. However on many occasions including the Enterprise's first encounter with a cube in sector J7 the Borg pursued the Enterprise in normal space. Also the cube that entered Federation territory in 2373 was detected and intercepted at the Typhon sector suggesting it too demonstrated normal warp propulsion. After passing through a subspace conduit Geordi Laforge stated that the speed was at least twenty times faster than top rated Starfleet warp capabilities. Starfleet vessels have been able to utilise these conduits by emitting an encoded high-energy tachyon pulse alternating over two separate frequencies. The fact that the Borg conduits are described as transwarp may be part of the problem in the interpretation of their actual speeds. The encyclopedia categorically states that transwarp is:

"A velocity equaling warp 10"

It can be argued that given the many episodes that have dealt with the subject we can state this quite so confidently. It is my opinion that this is another example of not necessarily a mistake, on the behalf of Okuda and Okuda 1997, but certainly an oversimplification in their work. Subsequent appearances of the Borg conduits have shown slightly different versions and methods of use, it seems now that ships use a transwarp coil, to initialise the conduit travel. An idea of the speeds used by the Borg in circa 32623, can be seen when the Raven encounters a Borg Cube. The Cube is preceded by a tri-quantum wave and a symmetrical warp field measuring some 2.9 terracochranes and rising. Bearing in mind that a normal ship can only move in the kilocochrane range one therefore gains an appreciation of Borg transwarp conduits. 2.9 terracochranes approximates to 29,000,000,000,000 c. this is many order of magnitude faster than anything available to Starfleet and many order of magnitude faster than the conduits used by the Borg during their time with Lore.

A similar method to the Borg Conduits was a propulsion method developed by Arturis' species (Species 116 Borg Classification). This drive system was known as Quantum slip stream and was first seen in "Hope and Fear" (Berman et al. 1998). The drive was very efficient requiring 3 months to cover 61,000 light years. This is approximately 244,000 times c or 73,200,000,000 kilometers per second. The ship did not use antimatter but channeled the energies produced through the ship's main deflector. The Quantum Slip Stream system took the ship out of normal space, however moving into and through the slipstream puts extreme stress on the hull of a starship. One significant difference between Quantum Slipstream and the Borg transwarp conduits seemed to be the control over the actual tunneling. While in control of the USS Dauntless NX01A Arturis was capable of changing the speed of the ship. It is noted that when the USS Voyager later attempted to move through a Quantum Slipstream a maximum speed limit was imposed, this may have been due to the fact that the Intrepid Class was not outfitted to travel through Slipstream like the ships of Arturis' race, even though it is noted that the Voyager did manage to intercept Dauntless with the aid of sabotage onboard Arturis vessel. Early versions of the Borg conduits seemed to act at a single speed and were apparently fixed "streams" of high warp subspace material. Therefore, though one could very well drop back into normal space at a given point the trajectory was defined by the conduit one entered. This did not seem to be the case with Quantum Slipstream technology which allowed not only movement within a single conduit but also changing the heading of the ship was possible. Quantum Slipstream was seen again in the fifth season episode "Timeless", here the standard Class 9 warp drive on Voyager has been integrated with Borg technology and benamite crystals (possibly found in the previous episode "Once Upon A Time, where the Delta Flyer crashes into a planet with a benamite mantle). The quantum slipstream drive seen here is substantially faster than previous version, possibly due to the integration of the Borg systems. In under a day the Slipstream will take Voyager home, but a phase variance destabilises the drive.

Whether using standard warp or other methods if one were to eventually find a technology many times in excess of warp factor 9.975 it would then become inconvenient to list a warp speed consisting of multiple decimal points. A recalibration occurred between TOS and TNG and it seems likely this would once more occur before the alternate future events in All Good Things. Where warp speeds of 13 were quoted, a speed impossible under the current calibration.

In the episode Where No one Has Gone Before, the Enterprise is recorded as exceeding Warp 10 but we must examine exactly what happens. We are seeing speed increases due to the Kosinski field equations more we are examining how the Traveller used himself as a lens to travel beyond our space. Initially to the M 33 Galaxy, which is obviously still in our "dimension" then most probably beyond what we observe as space time. Star Trek is very fond of parallel dimensions beyond what we discuss traditionally in math’s or physics. Even though warp 10 might represent infinite velocity, it only does so in three dimensions. The concept behind the Traveler's abilities to create new high speed travel was that there is more to space-time than we arrogantly believe at the moment. The question might more accurately be, how did Geordie record faster than warp ten velocity over simply how did the Enterprise exceed warp 10.

Alternative High Speed Propulsion

Dr. Ja'dar of Bilana III developed a means for faster than light travel that would not require the use of a large warp drive. Planet based soliton wave generators were used to create a non-dispersing wave of subspace distortion. The concept involved the surfing of a space vessel on the distortion wave. The wave needed large planet based generators to generate and disperse the wave. The planet based generators allowed significantly higher propulsion efficiencies than those experienced by conventional warp drives. The first actual test was conducted on 45376.3 between Bilana III and Lemma II. The test was partially successful but there were considerable problems with the dispersion and control of the wave.

The Bajorans utilised lightships (Bajoran solar-sail vessel) to travel space. The ships lacked drive sections but instead deployed reflective sails that catch the tenuous solar winds. The ships were used 800 years ago to travel space. The lack of warp capabilities suggested that the ships could not travel interstellar distances. However, a test by Benjamin Sisko in 2371 of the practicality of the ship's transport potential showed that if the sails were struck by tachyon eddies the ship would be accelerated to very high sublight speeds allowing the travel across interstellar space. It is believed that early explorers from Bajor crossed the 5.25 light years to Cardassian space. Cardassian archaeologists reported after the test by Sisko that an ancient wreckage of a sail vessel existed on Cardassia Prime.

The Cytherian Probe encountered on stardate 44704.2 created no normal subspace distortions which are phenomena generally indicating a warp propulsion system. The probe used a system of propulsion that was far more efficient than Starfleet warp propulsion.

Alternative Low Speed Propulsion

A considerable problem for any space vehicle is that of fuel storage. To travel any distance massive fuel reserves would be required and the greater the fuel reserve proportionally the greater the mass of ship. The Bajoran light ship (Explorers, Accession), utilised a method whereby no fuel was required to be carried as momentum was derived from stellar winds. A similar method has been under development at JPL Pasadena since 1998, though the idea dates back to Robert L. Forward in 1984 though the concept dates back to the ideas of friedrich tsander in 1934. The acceleration from a G2 star would likely be small of the order of a few millimetres per second per second. However, this would be continous and thus over time the speed attained could become very high. Studies by JPL in Pasadena during the 1980’s determined that a sail eight hundred metres squared would be sufficient to propel a fifteen hundred-kilogram spacecraft to orbit Halley’s Comet. The method employs similar designed light sails but with a different propulsion method. It was argued that if the fuel requirements were high could the engine or fuel reserves be kept on Earth while propelling the vessel through space. This method is referred to as beamed energy. Of the major considerations for new high yield low storage fuels (fusion, antimatter, beamed energy) the theory of beamed energy was by far the most practical and well understood.

The method employed would be to use a laser to target the sail of a space vessel. The laser would be on Earth and would literally push the sail away. The reason for this is the coherent nature of the laser beam. Unlike normal light, lasers can project energy over vast distances with greater coherence. When this is combined with the large surface area and low mass of the sail material the space craft could be propelled to high speeds. When a photon interacts with the sail it can either be absorbed or reflected or transmitted. If the sail is optically opaque then either of the first two will occur. If the photon is absorbed which heats the sail ever so slightly and causes the sail to move away from the source. If however an elastic collision occurs whereby the photon is reflected by the electromagnetic force of the sail atoms, the energy imparted is greater and the sail is moved away from the source, similar to absorption but with a greater acceleration. Quantifiably reflection is twice as effective as absorption, it is therefore logical to make the sails of a reflective material.

Unfortunately the ability of a sail to act as a reflector is related to the thermal properties of the sail material. As an object gets hotter, its ability to reflect decreases and as such the acceleration becomes less effective. To facilitate the continued acceleration needed to reach high velocities it would be possible to coat the far side in materials that radiate heat. Unfortunately this would result in a deceleration according to Newton’s third law (see Gravity, space craft retardation) What would be more effective would be to try and introduce heat sinks that could radiate energy back to Earth. As well as insuring the sail does not become too hot there is also the consideration that to continue acceleration the sail must be supplied with almost continuous radiation. Up to a critical value known as the diffraction distance laser light is coherent and the energy it can impart is undiminished. However beyond this distance the power delivered becomes negligible, very rapidly. The diffraction distance is a function of a laser’s aperture. Fortunately, the aperture can be considered the combined size of many smaller apertures meaning that arrays can be employed. This method would be far more cost effective and practical than the construction of a single large aperture. JPL have recently developed a tessellated aperture that approaches 100% packing density. Even so the aperture for an interstellar mission would need to be some 1000 km in diameter. For planetary missions a 15 metre 46-gigawatt laser would suffice to send a 50 metre gold-plated sail to Mars in 10 days or to the ISM in three to four years which contrasts with the 7 months Mars Pathfinder and 10 month Global Surveyor missions to Mars.

JPL has suggested that a probe could be returned if the outer layer were detached and continued to reflect light onto the inner layer propelling it back to earth. This method has inherent problems. First, a method for shielding the inner section from incoming radiation would have to be developed otherwise it would retain a near constant velocity as the outer sail provided an equal and opposite force to the laser. Also the sail on the inner section would need to be reversed otherwise the reflected radiation would be incident on a radiative surface not the reflective one. Also one must consider the fact that the original sail would continue to move away from Earth and might move beyond the diffraction distance even though the inner part was within the limit. This would mean the reflected light was no longer enough to accelerate the inner part of the craft. If enough photons had interacted with the sail it may continue to move to Earth albeit very slowly or continue away from Earth just in a retarded motion.

Henry M. Harris 1999 Scientific American February 1999

Dr. Robert Forward, , vice president of Tethers Unlimited in Seattle Starwisp concept would have used a mesh of superconducting aluminum wires to receive its impulse from microwave photons, and then reflect to produce an equal magnitude thrust. This would propel the craft from Earth orbit past Neptune, at 1/20th the speed of light, in just a week.

"My major message is, that's wrong, don't use it" 

said Forward as he pointed at the equation he used in his initial studies. Since 1984, he has determined that the sail material would absorb a significant amount of the energy, weakening the structure and possibly letting it collapse. Forward now proposes putting that absorption to work in a "gray sail" made of carbon. The sail would absorb the light, getting a push from it, and reradiate it as infrared energy. With the sail oriented properly to the source, this would generate a significant amount of thrust in the desired direction. A mission to interstellar space could be accomplished with a combination sail. An aluminum coating - just 70 atoms thick - would serve as a traditional reflective solar sail to boost the spacecraft out of Earth orbit, then cancel its solar orbital velocity so it plunges on a near-miss trajectory towards the sun. As it passes just 3 solar diameters from the sun's visible surface, the aluminum would evaporate, exposing the carbon structure underneath. The carbon would absorb sunlight and heat to 2,000 K (almost 3,600 deg. F). Radiating infrared light would accelerate the craft at 14 times Earth's gravity (the Space Shuttle reaches a maximum of 3 G during launch).

Setting Sail for the Stars  NASA 1999

Alternative to the photon method include both the use of microwaves or even the transmission of charged particles. The particles on reaching the craft would pass through a superconducting magnetic loop, thereby creating a Lorentz force. That is that any charged particle moving in a magnetic field, experiences a force proportional to its charge, velocity and the magnetic field. The force is directed at right angles to the particle velocity and the magnetic field. This would drive the ship forwards.

NASA are looking to implement a form of solar propelled craft within a ten year time frame (New Scientist Aug 19 1999). 

The University of Washington will be developing the M2P2, a mini-magnetospheric plasma propulsion system for use in NASA space missions, with a view to increasing speeds by an order of magnitude. The central component of the M2P2 is a small plasma chamber around 250 mm in diameter. Solar cells and solenoid coils around it create a dense magnetized plasma, or a halo of ionised gas. This in turn creates a huge magnetic field about 10 miles in radius surrounding the spacecraft. It is this field that is used as a sail to catch the solar wind. It is hoped that in a similar manner to the actual deployment of a sail the charged particles from the sun will impart energy to move the central core.

The current work on the plasma-sail is producing figures for the space craft speed at around 4.3 million miles a day. By contrast the most advanced chemical engine in the world can propel the Space Shuttle plods to just 18,000 mh^-1 or some 430,000 miles a day.

The previously discussed sails would have to be deployed mechanically and would need to be very much larger than the craft they propel if they are to give any appreciable thrust. In contrast the M2P2 plasma chamber is far lighter and less bulky, and can give a much larger sail for just a few kilowatts of power.

When considering space flight one must consider the enormous quantities of fuel required to maintain acceleration. One method around this is to use fuels, whose energy return is very high proportional to the mass of fuel taken. Two of the most efficient fuels are fusion based propellant and antimatter based reactions (both of which are employed aboard Federation starships). A craft using fusion based mechanics could return 100 trillion joules of energy per kilogram of fuel taken aboard. This is over 10 million times greater than the energy density used in today’s most efficient chemical propellants. Matter-antimatter reactions are even more efficient returning 20 quadrillion joules for each kilogram of fuel. A single kilogram would supply the world’s energy budget for approximately 26 minutes.

Fusion is very effective but is difficult to control and contain. Fusion occurs in very hot electrically charged plasmas. These have to contained in magnetic torus’. In November 1997 researchers in England at the Joint European Torus produced a reaction delivering 65% of the energy put into the reaction.

In fusion reactions the most desirable particles to use are the isotopes of hydrogen, (deuterium and tritium). The reaction creates a helium nucleus and neutrons. The helium nucleus or alpha particle is the particle responsible for thrust. The neutrons are not directable by the magnetic fields and therefore are difficult to harness and use. Besides neutron radiation being very hazardous to the crew. Therefore eliminating the neutrons by using deuterium and helium 3 to produce alpha particles and a proton may be preferable. Unfortunately helium 3 is very rare on earth also the reaction is far harder to ignite than the deuterium-tritium reaction. The major obstacle to the implementation of fusion reactions is whether they will ever pass the break even point where more energy can be released than needs to be fed into the reaction. The National Ignition Facility under construction at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory expected to begin operation in 2001 hopes to liberate ten fold the energy supplied to begin the reaction. (Leifer Scientific American February 1999) 

Figure Showing The Valley of Stability.

Fusion releases large quantities of energy due to the consequence of matter trying to find a stable point. Only iron is considered stable from a nucleo-synthesis perspective with all other elements attempting to alter their internal structure to reach this configuration. It is the re-arranging of this structure that gives the release of energy. Even though the fusion process is still hard to start, traditional approaches resting on the use of overcoming repulsion through the use of the energy of massive lasers. Devices that cost hundreds of millions of dollars; or relying on even more expensive options such as uncontrolled nuclear fission or reactors using superhot gas confined within magnetic fields. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have already (March 1999) triggered fusion with a small laser costing less than $1 million. Each infrared laser pulse has less energy than a Christmas tree light emits in a second but because the laser pulse lasts just 35 femtoseconds (35 x 10^-15 seconds), its energy is highly concentrated. It is currently the world's most powerful laser, with pulses of 1.3 quadrillion (peta) watts for half a trillionth of a second, more than 1300 times the entire electrical generating capacity of the US, if only for a short time.  Todd Ditmire and his colleagues injected deuterium gas into a vacuum, in which the atoms clustered together. Then they fired the laser at the deuterium clusters. When a laser pulse struck the clusters, the heat made them explode. Many of the deuterium nuclei hit others with enough speed to make them fuse, creating helium and neutrons.

"We looked to see if we were producing fusion neutrons--lo and behold, we were," said Ditmire.

The fusion reaction also released energy, but only 10 millionths of the energy consumed by the laser.

"This is not, in the present guise, a path to fusion energy production," admits Ditmire. "But it may potentially lead to a compact neutron source."

A steady, cheap stream of neutrons could be slammed into materials to test their susceptibility to damage by energetic particles in space, for instance. Martin Schmidt, a nuclear physicist at the Commission for Atomic Energy in Gif-sur-Yvette, France, agrees. But he thinks the best reason to celebrate is that fusion reactions can now be studied without expensive equipment. "You don't need $1.2 billion to produce fusion." From New Scientist, 3 April 1999 Charles Seife.