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"Warp works by <insert idea here>!"
Some favorites include:
Further, without any additional effects, each of these can lead to a violation of causality, meaning every time you go into warp you time travel, from a certain frame of reference. This is addressed in great detail in Jason Hinson's "Relativity and FTL" FAQ.
Ships in warp interact with things in normal space, one of the reasons for the navigational deflector. Things in warp require a subspace field to enter and stay in warp, and it takes an enormous amount of power to generate this. When the subspace field decays, a ship drops out of warp returning to some STL velocity.
* The point has been made that by constructing a space with a hyperbolic geometry between the source and destination of two points, you can get away with FTL travel without the nasty causality violation effects pointed out by Jason's FAQ. However, this involves making changes to spacetime along your entire flight path before you travel, and it does not appear possible to construct this path faster than c, so you'd have to set up a travel network beforehand. This obviously isn't what is used in Star Trek.
** A subspace field does reduce the inertial mass of an object within it, i.e. it appears lighter. But it does not lower the mass to zero, nor on its own would this effect allow FTL travel, as massless particles in our universe are still restricted to light speed. It turns out that this effect isn't even considered for warp travel, although it is used for impulse engines - less mass to push around.
....
"Well, so how *does* warp work?"
A powerful, asymmetric subspace field is established around the ship by the warp nacelles. The field is composed of nested layers, each pushing against the one beyond it. This drives the ship forward, at a super-luminal velocity.
The nacelles are powered by a tuned plasma stream from the warp core Matter/Antimatter Reactor (M/AMR). Injectors feed the plasma into warp field coil segments at specific times, causing pulses to run the length of the nacelle, front to back. This peristaltic flow causes the push of the nested warp fields, and moves the ship forward.
The warp field wraps around the ship in a two-lobed bubble, with the locus at Main Engineering (by design). The shape of the ship determines the efficiency of the field, and this explains why the Enterprise has such a sleek design.
Meanwhile, the subspace field reduces the inertial mass of the ship, aiding in maneuvering. In fact, a small subspace field is kept around the ship at Impulse speeds, so the Impulse drives have less mass to push around. However, this is only a side effect and is NOT the mechanism used to allow FTL travel.
....
"But, but... that's just what it does! How does it work!!!"
Alas, there is no canonical answer. The "Relativity and FTL" FAQ offers a possibility, that the subspace field forces the ship to take on the reference frame of subspace itself, which is a special reference frame, circumventing the limits of Special Relativity.
Unfortunately, this still isn't an explanation of how it works. The Tech Manual offers that each of the nested fields couple and decouple from each other at velocities near (but less than) c. It could be that the interaction of these fields, combined with the special frame subspace provides, causes the ship as a whole to travel at FTL speeds.
If two nested fields have their outer edges "locked" into the special frame, while the inner edges travel at near-c relative to one another, this might cause the FTL effect, as an artifact of the special frame trick. This has the added support of being almost exactly what the Tech Manual describes, but it doesn't mention the special frame.
Since this makes for boring drama, it's unlikely we'll ever "really know" how warp works in Star Trek.
....
"So what stops the ship from accelerating and getting faster and faster?"
Warp travel is non-Newtonian. Without a constant influx of energy, the subspace field will decay, and the ship will drop out of warp. In other words, you *must* continue to provide energy to maintain your warp velocity.
Anything which travels at FTL speeds must use a warp field (or some other technology) to keep moving at those speeds.
....
"What about 'continuum drag' ?"
This was an idea proposed in the forgotten past to explain the above problem. To me, however, it seem that there is no need for such a force, since we are not dealing with Newtonian action/reaction drives, or force/acceleration systems.
....
"So how'd the Saucer travel at warp speeds (in
) ?"
The Tech Manual states that the subspace field generators coupled
to the Impulse drive can be used to maintain a decaying subspace
field for brief periods of time. The decay is inevitable, but it
can be drawn out, to allow the saucer section to get out of
danger.
By field-saturating the nacelles (according to
This is similar to how photon torpedos can be used at warp
speeds. They have small "warp sustainer" engines that allow them
to cruise at their launch velocity (if launched while in warp)
for brief periods.
....
"This new Warp 5 speed limit - whats up with that?"
In it is discovered that within the Hekaras
Corridor, a region of space where warp travel is hindered except
for a narrow path, the intense use of warp drives in an
already sensitive area can, over time, cause subspace rifts to
form, where subspace manifests itself in real space on a
macroscopic scale. This is not a good thing.
According to the Encyclopedia, it is a continuum with different laws than our own. That doesn't help much, considering you can makes fields of it in our universe.
The best explanation I can come up with is that subspace is the "substrate" within which our universe exists. A subspace field is either a forced or natural intrusion of this domain into our own space, altering the behavior of things within our spacetime. The "subspace barrier" is the albeit flimsy dividing line between the two continuums.
Many things support this: in creatures exist within
a tertiary subspace manifold, a manifold being a term used to
describe the form our own universe takes when viewed from a
higher (theoretical) dimension. This is also called a deeper
level of subspace; another universe which is connected to ours by
subspace. In an entirely new universe was
"spawned off" by a static warp bubble, and it was only accessible
through subspace. The protouniverse in "Playing God" [DS9] was an
intense subspace manifestation as well.
Protrusions of subspace, such as in
Whenever our spacetime is distorted or torn, or
large amounts of energy released (explosions) there are subspace
effects; wormholes and Transwarp Conduits are good examples where
subspace plays a part in the effect, and the presumably
material-based explosion of Praxis in Star Trek VI generated the
subspace shockwave. Also, in "Caretaker" [VOY] Captain Janeway mentioned that
the warp core of a starship would leave behind a resonance trace
signature even if the ship was destroyed - this indicates that the
constant matter/antimatter reaction in a starship's warp core
generates subspace fields as well.
Subspace fields (the kind that move starships around)
are intentional manifestations of subspace in our
spacetime, caused by the controlled release of energy in a warp
field coil. These fields have many effects, often depending on
the intensity.
Subspace is not in an alternate reality, or "place", or spacetime
where things go - or at least, they don't go in the world of Star
Trek. It is not entered by a starship at warp. A ship creates a
subspace field which acts like another universe very tightly
coupled to our own. If I was inside such a field and you were
outside, we could conduct a conversation, shake hands, etc. But
when the field is powerful enough (1000 millicochranes or more)
and asymetric, it is propulsive. Nested, decoupling fields
magnify the effect considerably. But the ship still interacts
with everything in our universe, and vice versa, as the level of
subspace in which the field exists is so tightly coupled to our
own that it appears no "fancier" than, say, a magnetic field, if
you're looking closely at it.
The weakest subspace fields do appear very similar to traditional
fields, like magnetic fields. They have associated particles (see
below), can be bound to objects (
To keep Jason Hinson and Special Relativity happy, subspace
doesn't need to follow the rules of relativity. Subspace might
have a unique reference frame, and everything enclosed in a
subspace field has the reference frame of subspace.
....
"What are Tetryons and Verterons?"
Subatomic particles mentioned in
A verteron mine is used to disable the Flemming, a Ferengi ship,
and the Enterprise in
Picard suggests using them to mask a subspace resonance
signature in
In
"Caretaker" [VOY]
, Voyager is scanned by a coherent
tetryon beam before being transported across the galaxy.
Verterons also infest the Wormhole near Bajor. In "Playing God" [DS9],
a protouniverse intruding into our own c/o subspace was
kept contained by an energy field, but verteron pockets in the
Wormhole threatened to release it, destroying a Runabout and
perhaps even the Wormhole. Verterons and subspace do not mix
well.
They also allow vessels to travel through the wormhole under
impulse power ("In the Hands of the Prophets" [DS9]), and they
appear in a display in Keiko's classroom on DS9 as the verteron
membrane at the outer boundary of one side of the wormhole.
Tetryons are particles which are stable in subspace but unstable
in normal space. They appear to be the main mediating particles
of subspace interactions with normal space. They were introduced
in
....
"What are 'warp particles'?"
These were mentioned in
"Parallax" [VOY], and used to open a
subspace breach in an event horizon.
The objection has been raised that warp particles have
never been mentioned before. However, fields and particles are
different ways of looking at the same
thing. You can even consider soliton waves (cohesive waves which
don't disperse) as being made up of a special soliton particle,
or sound to be carried by a "phonon" particle, and it makes some
calculations much easier than considering the
wave or field classically.
Quantum mechanics says that for things like photons, electrons,
Higgs bosons, etc, the particle/wave/field distinction is pretty
much meaningless. So "warp particles" could refer to the specific
particles making up a warp field, or the entire class of
particles which partake in subspace reactions (tetryons,
verterons, etc).
....
"What is subspace radio?"
A means of sending a signal through subspace, so that it is not
limited by the speed of light. This is done by creating a
subspace distortion which propagates in much the same way as an
electromagnetic field. A large amount of energy is needed to send
a signal any large distance, and the more energy that is
available, the deeper the signal can be forced into subspace.
However, the signal dissipates over time, eventually releasing
the energy that is left as an electromagnetic field. A more
powerful initial signal can travel farther before this happens,
but there is a limit; too much energy and the level of subspace
that is used won't be tightly coupled to our own spacetime any
more, and the signal will probably go awry.
....
"How fast is subspace radio?"
Under ideal conditions, Warp 9.9997. (TNG TM, page 99) This is
"sixty times faster than the fastest starship, either existing or
predicted" - assuming traditional warp technology.
The Encyclopedia says that with boosters and relays, Warp 9.9999
is the speed.
"What is a cochrane?"
According to the Tech Manual, it's a measure of subspace distortion
named after Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive. 1 cochrane is the
distortion required to propel a ship at Warp 1, so field strengths
are typically measured in millicochranes. It's shown up on TNG
a couple of times amidst Geordi's technobabble.
,
"The Maquis" [DS9]) even when they're gone.
"What's TransWarp?"
According to the Star Trek Chronology, the Excelsior was commissioned as NX-2000 in 2284 as a test bed for the new TransWarp technology. By 2287, the TransWarp Development Project was deemed unsuccessful by Starfleet Command, and experiments were halted. "...The attempt to surpass the primary warp field efficiency barrier with the TransWarp Development Project in the early 2280s proved unsuccessful...." [TNG Tech Manual, p14]
It seems as though the designers were trying to get around the energy limits traditional warp entailed, after passing Warp 9. But what what is it? Is Transwarp just any "faster than warp travel" or is it a specific technology or natural occurance?
In an IRC discussion with Boris Skrbic, Michael Okuda had this to say:
We were never clear on transwarp as seen in ST:III, but "Threshold" makes it clear that transwarp is the mysterious Warp 10 alluded to in earlier episodes. We assume that it is some kind of "deeper subspace domain" just as subspace presumably coexists with our own time-space conintuum. In other words, we're not really sure.If X is to transwarp as subspace is to warp, then perhaps X has the same relationship to subspace that subspace has to normal space? Trans-subspace? Is it turtles all the way down?
"What are Transwarp Conduits?"
Chris Franklin points out:
[When] they followed Data's shuttle into the Conduit, Riker stated that they had covered 65 light years. I timed the trip with my stop watch and came up with about 9 seconds for their stay in the Conduit. This coresponds to about 227911132.04 times the speed of light.That's a heck of a lot faster than speeds quoted above for Warp 9.9, even, far more than 20 times, so something is awry.
Transwarp conduits appear to be tunnels through subspace (analogous to wormholes being tunnels through normal space?), bypassing the limitations of warp entirely.
And then there's "Threshold" [VOY] in which Voyager - a ship running low on supplies, with half its crew dead, stranded away from repair or research facilities, on the other side of the Galaxy from the Federation - manages to upgrade one of its never-ending supply of shuttles to make a Transwarp flight, something that has defied the best minds in the Federation for a century. And then Paris (killed by the trip) turns into a frog, mates with Janeway, and alters the future of humanity.
The [TECH] isn't too bad, however. Warp 10 is identified clearly as infinite speed, but the pesky Warp 10 barrier is mentioned. Presumably, this is meant as the barrier to going at an arbitrarily large speed without draining the antimatter tanks and/or dilithium crystals and/or other ship components. When the shuttle does achieve Transwarp, it registers as Warp 10 and is everywhere at once for a brief time. Now that is the way to travel! Sensors also lose track of the shuttle, indicating that things in Transwarp do not interact with things in normal space, unlike warp travel. (Thanks to Vikash R. Goel for pointing that out.)
You can probably just ignore any parts of that episode that don't make any sense - various members of the Star Trek production crew have indicated that they plan to.
....
"What about Transwarp drive?"Okay, now that the Star Trek writers are back to using this [TECH] buzzword there's no stopping them. Apparently, Transwarp can be used as a drive, just like warp drive. Given the way the name is used in various episodes, it appears to be a coherent technology exploiting a feature of the universe (a la warp) not just anything faster than warp. Civilizations a step above the Federation use it, and the basics are understood - at least by the Voyager crew - enough to detect its use and follow ships in Transwarp with their sensors.
The Voth in "Distant Origin" [VOY] use Transwarp drives (not to mention cloaks) even on small ships. This portrayal of Transwarp looks much more like just "really fast warp" than the condiuts. Visually, the star streaks around the ship look fatter and longer than in warp, but it's otherwise just the same, only better.
And in "Scorpion" [VOY] Janeway refers multiple times to the Borg using Transwarp - which doesn't look at all conduitish.
"FASA says the Enterprise-D uses UltraWarp,
According to the TNG Tech Manual and Star Trek Chronology, the Enterprise-D uses the same old warp technology seen in TOS... just a much more advanced version.
The only hint that TOS, TFS and TNG warp drives might be different is in their visual appearance on screen - only the TFS Enterprise "blurs" while in warp. We *have* seen the TNG Enterprise do this, when it field- saturated its nacelles and ran at high warp for 6 seconds. Perhaps the TFS era warp drives used this field saturation to generate higher speeds at lower energy, an effect which was surpassed by later developments and obselete by TNG?
....
"Some Starfleet ships use 3 nacelles!"
In 2269, Starfleet attempted ships with 1 and 3 or more warp nacelles (TNG TM p65). As previously thought, 2 is the most efficient, but 4 is apparently useful in some cases (Constellation Class, Cheyenne Class).
You need one nacelle to get anywhere, minimum. However, to yaw you need the nacelle to be split vertically (left and right halves) and to pitch you need the nacelle to be split horizontally (top and bottom halves). By using a split nacelle, you can induce slight timing differences, and cause the desired rotational effect (TM p65). This is a bit of a problem with one nacelle, since you end up with each warp coil divided into four segments. The TM indicates that matching *pairs* is difficult and very sensitive. Matching four, and providing four plasma injectors for each coil segment is probably difficult.
Having more than two nacelles (either 3 or 4) allows you to use only a single segment per coil. But the warp field itself requires a gap to be released!
So you need to have the warp coils split in two anyway; if you use the top/bottom split to provide pitch control, and two nacelles to provide yaw control, you're set.
On some designs, four nacelles may be the way to go; even with the required split, being able to tune the warp field discreetly may be enough of an advantange to warrant using four nacelles.
Note that a number of things have changed by the time we see the USS Enterprise zipping around with three nacelles in that episode:
So as far as strictly TNG-era ships are concerned, three nacelles are still worse than useless.
....
"But the Ferengi/Borg/Klingon Bird of Prey don't have nacelles!"
The Borg probably have subspace field generators (redundantly) scattered throughout their cube; they can then pulse them to generate *massive* overlapping, pulsating subspace fields in any direction. Same technique, more power, more flexibility.
As for Ferengi, perhaps they use shielding. One thing is certain; the design of Ferengi ships allows for the ship to be contained in a single lobed warp field. The Enterprise requires a double lobe. Having "inboard" warp drives (like the Bird of Prey) gets you a fast ship for less power; likely, shielding can prevent the fields from frying the crew.
A display screen in "Blood Oath" [DS9] may show the warp field of the Bird of Prey - again, a single lobe.
Something to consider; most of the small ships (picture the
raiding ship from ) don't have outboard drives. They
probably make the single-lobe/shielding tradeoff to keep their
ships small, fast and cheap. Ditto for shuttles with warp.
....
"Why do ships always meet the same way up?"
I know it's been proposed as a joke, but the idea that warp
travel requires a universal "up" isn't as silly as you might
think. We know that things in normal space affect subspace. What
if the mass and orientation of the entire galaxy, which is
nothing to sneeze at, affect subspace in such a way as to make
travel more efficient if your warp fields are generated parallel
to the plane of the galaxy?
It's then more efficient for ships to align their warp drives
with the plane of the galaxy, so flying "up" and "down" in the
galactic plane (which is relatively thin, about 1/10th to 1/40th
the diameter of the galaxy) would take more energy. This also
explains the banking into turns and such.
If you have galactic-up and galactic-down to choose from, why
always the same way up? Probably a matter of protocol. Only
"loser" races don't adhere to the standard. You'll also note
that many small ships are vertically symmetrical, perhaps as
their designers aren't quite up to snuff when it comes to
designing warp drives.
More support for this hypothesis: warp does
really weird things at the edge and at the center of the
galaxy. The Great Barrier of TOS fame
("Where No Man Has Gone Before" [TOS]
and "By Any Other Name" [TOS]) at the edge of the galaxy and
the one near the center of the galaxy (if you
believe in Star Trek V) were each considered impassable
and gave the Enterprise a rough ride.
Kirk made a number of references in "By Any Other Name" [TOS] about
warp drive not working outside the galaxy, or something to that
effect. While the Kelvans of Andromeda had got that licked, this
does give the theory a little bit of support.
Another note: the subspace shockwave seen in Star Trek VI was
both planar and aligned with the direction of the Excelsior's
vertical axis, and shockwaves within the subspace rift of
Pete Carr points out the following bit of dialog from
Picard: Adjust the axial stabalizers (of the shuttle) to
match the attitude and rotation rate of the Enterprise.
A "universal up" would explain why this sort of thing doesn't happen
all the time; only drifting ships like the Enterprise need help.
5. Glossary:
