Warp Drive: Difference between revisions

Have you ever wondered what a warp propulsion system actally looks like? Well here is your chance to find out, welcome to the tour through warp propulsion systems. Here you will learn everything that goes on in a standard warp core system. During the tour various images are displayed, to reduce the page load-time these images have been reduced in size. If you would like to examine the pictures a little more closely, save them to disk and enlarge them.  

==Matter/antimatter reaction assembly (M/ARA)==

As the warp propulsion system is the heart of the starship, the M/ARA is the heart of the warp propulsion system. The M/ARA is variously called the warp reactor, warp engine core, or main engine core. Energy produced within the core is shared between its propulsion and the raw power requirements of major ship functions. The M/ARA consist of four subsystems:  

==Reactant injectors==

[[Image:Injector.jpg|left]]

The reactant injectors prepare and feed precisely controlled streams of matter and antimatter into the core. The matter reactant injector(MRI) accepts supercold deuterium from the primary deuterium tankage (PDT) and partially preburns it in a continuous gas-fusion process. It then drives the resulting gases through a series of throttleable nozzles into the upper magnetic constriction segment. The MRI consists of a conical structural vessel 5.2 x 6.3 meters, constructed of dispersion-strengthened woznium carbmolydenide.  

Twenty-five shock attenuation cylinders connect it to the PDT and the major spacecraft framing members, maintaining 98% thermal isolation from the remainder of the Battle Section. In effect, the entire WPS "floats" within the hull in order to withstand 3x theoretical operational stresses. Within the MRI are six redundant cross-fed sets of injectors, each injector consisting of twin deuterium inlet manifolds, fuel conditioners, fusion preburner, magnetic quench block, transfer duct/gas combiner, nozzle head, and related control hardware. Slush deuterium enters the inlet manifolds at controlled flow rates and passes to the conditioners, where the heat is removed to bring the slush to just above the solid transition point. Micropellets are formed, preburned by magnetic pinch fusion, and sent down into the gas combiner, where the ionized gas products are now at 106K. The nozzle heads then focus, propel and align the gas streams into the constriction segments. Should any of the nozzels fail, the combiner would continue to supply the remaining nozzles, which would dilate to accommodate the increased supply. Each nozzle measures 102 x 175 cm and is constructed of frumium copper yttrium 2343.  

==Magnetic constriction segments==

[[Image:Constrictor.jpg|right]]

The upper and lower magnetic constriction segments (MCS) constitute the central mass of the core. These components work to structurally support the matter/antimatter reaction chamber, provide a pressure vessel to maintain the proper core operating environment, and align the incoming matter and antimatter streams for combining within the matter/antimatter reaction chamber (M/ARC). The upper MCS measures 18 meters in length, the lower unit 12 meters. Both are 2.5 meters in diameter. A typical segment comprises eight sets of tension frame members, a turoidal pressure vessel wall, twelve sets of magnetic constrictor coils, and related power feed and control hardware.  

==Matter/Antimatter reaction chamber==

[[Image:Reaction.jpg|left]]

The (M/ARC) consists of two matched bell-shaped cavities which contain and redirect the primary reaction. The chamber measures 2.3 by 2.5 meters in diameter. it is constructed from twelve layers of hafnium 6 excelion-infused crabonitrium, phase-transition welded under a pressure of 31,000 kilopascals. The three outer layers are armored with acros-senite arkenide for 10x overpressure protection, as are all interface joints to other pressure bearing and energy-carrying parts of the system.  

==Dilithium Crystal Reaction==

[[Image:Crystal.jpg|right]]

The key element in the efficient use of M/A reactions is the dilithium crystal. This is the only material know to federation science to be nonreactive with antimatter when subjected to a high frequency electromagnetic (EM) field in the megawatt range, rendering it "porous" to antihydrogen. Dilithium permits the antihydrogen to pass directly through its crystalline structure without actually touching it, owing to the field dynamo effect created in the added iron atoms.  

==Dilithium==

Crystalline substance used in warp propulsion systems aboard starships. Dilithium regulates the matter/antimatter reactions that provide the energy necessary to warp space and travel faster than light. Naturally occurring dilithium is extremely rare and is mined on only a few planets. Until the advent of recrystallization techniques that permitted the production of synthetic dylithium, the crystals were among the most valuable substances in the galaxy. This breakthrough occurred in 2286 when Spock devised a means whereby dilithium crystals could be recrystallized by exposure to gamma radiation (high energy photons) that were re-products of nuclear fission reactions. In later years, theta matrix compositing techniques permitted even more efficient recrystallization. By the late 2360s, recrystallization techniques had advanced to the point that crystals could be recomposited while still inside the articulation frame of the dilithium chamber, extending the useful life of the crystals even further.