Warp drive

Technical

Basic principles

• Officially known as a "gravimetric field displacement manifold", occasionally known as "hyperdrive" as late as the mid-23rd century
• Warp reactor generates high energy electroplasma
  • Immediate production includes various exotic particles that allow for manipulation of subspace when properly channeled
  • Production also includes dangerous byproducts such as delta and theta radiation, but such byproducts either lose energy quickly through inter-plasma interactions and are quickly rendered harmless (such as delta radiation) or are absorbed by radiometric converters to reduce risk to personnel (such as theta radiation)
  • Plasma most commonly the result of highly-focused matter/antimatter streams directed through dilithium crystals
    • In Federation ships, crystals are mounted in an articulation frame (ENT Novel: Uncertain Logic; TNG: "Booby Trap", "Relics")
    • Matter and antimatter streams require minimum temperature in order to have sufficient energy to penetrate dilithium matrix (ENT Novel: Uncertain Logic)
      • Without sufficient temperature, streams will scatter in reaction chamber, eroding mounted crystal and articulation frame
      • Eventually, when crystal or frame shatters, matter/antimatter streams meet directly, triggering annihilation pulse that ruptures the core, leading to core breach
      • Depending on temperature, could occur anywhere from seconds to hours
      • In theory, cold streams can be directed purely through carefully controlled magnetic containment manipulation, but calculations to allow for such are extremely elaborate (ENT Novel: Uncertain Logic; TOS: "The Naked Time")
• This plasma, also known as "warp plasma", is directed through subspace field emitter coils, often mounted in nacelle structures mounted away from the ship
  • Warp plasma mediated by coolant systems, internal baffle plates, flow regulators to ensure constant flow rate and moderate drive temperature
    • Malfunction of coolant systems or loss of plasma coolant can lead to total failure of warp drive
      • Without coolant systems, plasma temperatures rapidly increase, degrading internal warp drive mechanisms and eventually causing failure of M/AM injectors and loss of antimatter containment (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise"; Star Trek: Generations)
    • Malfunction of baffle plate can lead to delta radiation exposure within immediate vicinity of warp drive, and potential warp core breach (TOS: "Charlie X", "The Menagerie, Part I")
      • As baffle plate fails, plasma flow rate becomes uncontrollable
      • Malfunction of the baffle plate can lead to drastic reduction of plasma density within drive as flow increases, preventing internal absorption of delta radiation (TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I")
      • Total failure of baffle plate can quickly lead to plasma flashback into the drive, rapidly increasing internal drive temperature beyond the ability of coolant systems to cope and degrading M/AM injectors, leading to containment breach in seconds (TOS: "Charlie X")
  • Drive systems include plasma vents (ENT: "Minefield", "Precious Cargo", "Canamar"; TNG: "Force of Nature"; VOY: "One")
    • Plasma must be vented regularly as it loses energy, to clear system, maintain optimum drive functioning
      • Lack of plasma emissions a sign of inactive warp drive (TNG: "Force of Nature")
      • Because of need to regularly vent plasma, in matter-dense regions of space vents must be regularly cleared of contaminants or else warp drive will shut down or fail to engage (ENT: "Precious Cargo"; VOY: "One")
    • In emergency situations, all plasma can be vented to clear the system (ENT Novel: Uncertain Logic)
      • Warp plasma is highly energetic and explosive; plasma should not be vented in an enclosed environment, in an energetic region of space, or during combat (ENT Novel: Uncertain Logic; TNG: "The First Duty")
  • Subspace field emitter coils used in warp travel commonly known as "warp coils"
  • Nature of the exotic particles generated by the process functions within the subspace field emitter coils to generate a field which manipulates the configuration of subspace within a limited radius around the coils
    • Consumption and decay of these exotic particles means that drive plasma must continuously be vented and replenished during warp drive operation (see above)
• Warp coils pulse in a specifically-computed sequence to generate a field which displaces and reconfigures local subspace domains in order to distort the structure of local spacetime
  • Known as a "subspace displacement field", or more commonly a "subspace field" or "warp field"
  • Warp coils specifically designed to function in sequence to produce a propulsive effect; subspace fields used for non-propulsive effects created by other fixed devices more commonly known as "subspace field generators"
    • Warp coil operation involves constriction or or contraction ("chilling") of warp plasma magnatomic flux (ENT Novel: The Good That Men Do)
  • Generation of warp field can be supported by graviton emission (such as via tractor beam emitters) in situations of distorted or "damaged" underlying subspace strata due to the space-time manipulation effects of gravitons, though graviton emissions are insufficient themselves to generate a field (DS9 Novel: Gamma: Original Sin)
  • Ships traveling at warp leave a detectable "warp trail"
    • Combination of the after-effects of subspace distortion and ionized plasma exhaust (VOY: "Cathexis", "Warlord", "The Raven")
      • This ionized exhaust sometimes referred to as an "ion trail" (though different from the ion trail left by impulse drives), or as "warp particles" (VOY: "Parallax", "Critical Care")
    • Trails are particular to a specific drive configuration, meaning ships can potentially be identified by their warp trail (TNG: "Parallels"; VOY: "Initiations")
    • Such a trail can be obscured or erased through local or artificial conditions, including nebular gas, EM fields, stellar winds, and shield harmonics (ENT: "Anomaly"; DS9: "To the Death"; VOY: "Dreadnought", "The Raven", "Dark Frontier")
  • When traveling at warp, ships can generally only fire or be fired upon by beam weapons upon approaching near enough to overlap and synchronize warp fields (TNG Novel: The Buried Age)
    • Otherwise, beam disperses upon leaving warp field, falling back into normal space
    • Physical projectiles suffer similar effect
      • Torpedo-type weaponry or probes require warp sustainer coils to continue at warp upon leaving warp field
        • Can only maintain existing warp field, insufficient to generate one and enter warp from sublight velocity
• Local region of distorted space, also known as a "warp bubble", pushes against surrounding space to propel a ship, most commonly at faster-than-light velocities
  • Degree of distortion measured in "cochranes", where 1 cochrane = sufficient distortion for travel at c/Warp 1
    • Non-propulsive applications of subspace fields, including FTL computation, also measure distortions in cochranes or millicochranes
  • Power efficiency of warp bubble generation inversely proportional to vessel size (ENT Novel: Patterns of Interference)
  • Speed of travel dependent on multiple factors
    • Fundamental speed determined by degree of distortion, described by "warp factor"
      • Consisting of layered warp fields, each pushing against the next following (Reference: TNG Technical Manual; ENT Novel: The Good That Men Do)
        • Forward motion phenomenon technically known as "asymmetrical peristaltic field manipulation" (Reference: TNG Technical Manual; ENT Novel: The Good That Men Do)
      • Integral warp factors tend to be most efficient speeds for Cochrane-style warp engines; energy required to achieve a given speed increases as velocity increases, but drops suddenly at next integral warp factor, allowing integral speeds to be sustained more effectively
        • Presumably, each warp factor corresponds to a single warp field, thus meaning most efficient warp field projection accomplished when all are fully formed
      • Original warp scale used warp factors such that fundamental speed = WF^3
      • Scale recalibrated in early 24th century as a result of transwarp research from the Excelsior project, in addition to improved field control algorithms
        • Developments lead to increased fine control of warp fields, including shift from single-phase warp coil activation patterns to multiphasic, leading to automatic containment of warp field variability (TNG: "Relics")
      • New scale used warp factors such that fundamental speed = WF^(10/3) up to warp 9, asymptotic increase towards warp 10 (infinite velocity)
    • Fundamental speed can be generated through two methods
      • Safer is manipulating warp coil construction or engagement frequency to properly generate layered warp fields for travel at a given velocity
      • More dangerous is increasing reaction rate to maximize energy production within a warp drive, overdriving existing warp fields to push the vessel
        • Requires increasing plasma flow rate and chamber pressure (ENT Novel: Kobayashi Maru)
          • If pushed too far, can result in chamber rupture due to overpressure, causing warp core breach
        • Increases spaceframe strain, potentially resulting in structural damage
        • Can reduce warp field stability, risking vessel structural integrity upon leaving warp (ENT Novel: Kobayashi Maru)
    • True speed largely impacted by local subspace conditions, which provide multiplicative effects on fundamental speed
      • Subspace conditions generally globally stable (on a kiloyear timescale) but locally unstable, requiring regular charting of subspace to calculate most efficient geodesics for travel between two points
        • Usual duty for navigator (when role is divided) or conn officer (when it is not); improvement in sensor and computer technology in 24th century led to recombination of this role in Starfleet
      • Additionally, more accurate charting can often vastly reduce energy consumption or time to destination, leading to importance of preliminary exploration of uncharted space when expanding into new areas
    • Analogous in many ways to river or ocean currents, though impact on velocity not necessarily unidirectional
• Objects traveling at warp cause subspace distortion (also known as "subspace wake"), with strength of effect proportional to mass, inversely proportional to square of distance from object (ENT Novel: To Brave the Storm)
  • Can be used as an easy form of detection of starships traveling at warp in the vicinity
  • Extremely massive objects traveling at warp can cause sufficient distortion to disrupt subspace communication in their immediate vicinity (SCE Short Story: "Cold Fusion")
• Velocity vector can be rotated through alteration of field alignment in coils, though this can cause nacelles to exert stress on spaceframe (TNG Novel: The Buried Age)
• Warp travel largely non-Newtonian, as vessel is motionless with regard to immediately local space, and space itself carries the vessel
  • Entry into and out of warp speed does provide a potentially-deadly inertial effect to the vessel, and occasionally improper subspace field formation can lead to inertial effects during travel, both of which must be mediated by inertial dampeners
  • A vessel's Newtonian velocity persists before and after entry into FTL travel (ENT Novel: Live by the Code; S31 Novel: Abyss)
    • Proper asymmetric collapse of a vessel's warp field can impart a desired change to the vessel's Newtonian velocity as it falls back into normal space, but such maneuvers are difficult and potentially dangerous to perform properly (ENT Novel: Live by the Code)
  • Subspace manipulation resulting from high-energy warp fields, such as those used in warp travel, associated in the generation of virtual particles including certain high-mass baryons which can embed themselves in a ship's spaceframe over time (TNG: "Starship Mine")
    • Such particles can be removed via regular baryon sweeps, preventing accumulation from reaching dangerous levels (TNG: "Starship Mine")
• Repeated subspace manipulation at sufficiently high energies over long spans of time via warp fields was discovered to permanently modify the structure of subspace, potentially destabilizing normal space as a result via the impinging of subspace into space (TNG: "Force of Nature")
  • Such damage to space and subspace is minimized by travel at or below warp 5 (modern scale)
  • Later redesign of warp drive, initially including variable-geometry nacelles but later designed into fixed-nacelle structures, avoids this effect
  • The lack of such phenomena galaxy-wide suggests that such damage to subspace does naturally "heal" as it reconfigures itself over astronomical time scales, though this is potentially also a source of some known subspace anomalies
  • The effect of Omega molecules on subspace is likely similar to this effect
• If improperly formed, the spacetime distortion of a warp field can lead to any number of hazards for the ship in question
  • The formation of an unstable wormhole extending to a random location in nearby space; such wormholes are unpredictable, and often result in damage or destruction to the ship in question (ENT Novel: A Choice of Futures; Star Trek: The Motion Picture)

Alternate warp drive configurations

• Vulcan 22nd century coleopteric drive
  • Massive rear-mounted ring structure holding warp coils; single structure means greater efficiency at higher speeds, but less ability to modify course
• Romulan quantum singularity drive
  • Uses the strong gravitational fields of a small quantum singularity (coupled with its output of chronitons and other exotic particles naturally) as a natural particle accelerator to generate the necessary warp plasma and exotic particles rather than dilithium-mediated M/AM reaction (ENT Novel: The Good That Men Do)
• Black hole drive
  • Involves rapidly pushing an array of black holes in containment into subspace in such a manner that they quickly return to real space a small distance away, pulling the vessel in a given direction (SCE Short Story: "The Belly of the Beast")
  • Extremely difficult to engineer, but at sufficiently high frequencies can result in high sustainable warp travel at very low fuel cost (SCE Short Story: "The Belly of the Beast")
  • Many failed implementations known, but only known successful implementation found in ship known colloquially as The Beast, February 2376 (SCE Short Story: "The Belly of the Beast")

Byproducts of warp drive reactors

• Early warp drive designs generate theta radiation (VOY: "Night")
  • Corrected in most Alpha and Beta Quadrant drive designs by transkinetic chamber to break down residual antimatter from M/AM interaction, radiometric converters to absorb theta radiation
• Trilithium resin

History

Historical achievement of warp drive

• Andorian: mid-20th century (ENT Novel: Uncertain Logic)
• Human: 2063 ("First Contact")
• Klingon: after 9th century
  • After the death of Kahless (TNG: "Rightful Heir")
• Romulan: 7th century (Reference: The Way of D'era: The Romulan Star Empire)
• Vissian: 12th century (ENT: "Cogenitor")
• Vulcan: mid-19th century
  • 1,500 years after time of Surak (ENT: "The Forge")

Stages

• First-generation drives short-ranged, tend to be powered via antimatter-spiked fusion reactors (ENT Novel: Patterns of Interference)
• Second-generation drives use dilithium crystals to mediate matter/antimatter reaction for greater efficiency (ENT Novel: Patterns of Interference; Reference: TNG Technical Manual)
• Prevention of antimatter waste (VOY: "Night")
  • Possibly reduces engine efficiency if this is why mirror-Enterprise's warp reactor was so dangerous
• Warp three barrier (ENT)
  • Goal of warp 5 project was to achieve warp 5, obviously, but apparently no ship could surpass warp 3 until Enterprise judging by NX prototype vessels; possibly technology to achieve warp 3 applies across the scale up to warp 5?
• Warp seven barrier (ENT relaunch)
• Multiphasic auto-contained warp fields (TNG: "Relics")
• Variable geometry warp fields to prevent subspace damage (i.e., Intrepid-class vessels)

Known components

• Theta-matrix compositor (DS9 Novel: Gamma: Original Sin)
  • Reconstructing dilithium crystals?