RE: I spent the evening with my Son...and Captain Kirk, fun visit for all!
If I designed the Enterprise, I would include more physical weapons beyond the photon torpedoes (with energy yield only). I would include a rail gun and a large bore cannon, as well as missiles. Mixing ordinance preserves options of graduation of scale with weaker ships. I would also fire missiles with anti-matter warheads.
The advantage of energy weapons is that they do not have to be restocked at a resupply point, They already have a pressor (Deflector) beam. Combine that with a tractor beam, and you can shear ships into pieces....
The transporter is an interesting device. We have a quantum entanglement transporter working on single atoms. It may be used to refill fuel tanks in flight. This would allow smaller fuel tanks which are easier to accelerate initially, refueled in flight would still allow deceleration at the end of flight.
The trek transporter supposedly converts matter to energy, then reassembles that energy back to matter. If it worked, I would send a ship with minimal crew quarters, and beam needed crew members into the ship upon arrival. A dozen or so stored crew options would allow you to crew a full starship. You could beam multiple identical crew members as needed, with no logistic loading in transit. The stored crew, could travel in multiple ships. They do the same thing for objects with their replicators....
This would place the crew inside a computer, in storage, interestingly enough.
That's right, they're called proton torpedoes. I forgot what they were called. Can people make proton torpedoes in the real world? I love the gradual approach. Options. Anti-matter warheads, brilliant. The philosophy of turning matter into energy and back into matter again might be as vague as the force in Star Wars. Why don't the doctors in sick bay teleport the sick people out and then back in and simply edit out the germs and sickness out like photoshop?
Their yield is energy in the form of Photons. In Lithotripsy, the sound power is so high that the water changes states, and emits photons. When they pulse it, the transducer faces actually light up. Just a matter of concentrating enough energy in a small space....
The did a transporter filter to remove a contagion in one of the shows, so you are spot on, LOL!
NASA has moved single atoms (Hydrogen) from a to b with matter that is entangled. They really think they can refuel in flight with this process.
If they used Ion drive, they could fuel the engine directly, keeping the onboard tank for maneuvering where large volumes are needed.
I like a rail gun myself, in space there is no 'drop', and the velocity is not bled off by air resistance.
:)>
Yeah, I think I saw at least one episode like you said where they used the teleporter to filter out a contagion, and there may have been other episodes with related things, and that just makes me wonder why they wouldn't do it more often. I also wonder if energy is matter and that matter is energy. Like, isn't an electron kind of like electricity which is kind of like energy and isn't light kind of like energy?
Seems like a good option to me too, I'd use it!
Energy and matter are tied, per Einstein. That led to the atom bomb, which is the least efficient machine made by men.
A free electron, traveling in a wire is electricity. Light is a specific frequency of an electromagnetic wave, and comtains energy.
;)>
exactly
They have some ion engines running, just needs more efficiency. It could cut the travel time in half, or even better with the quantum entanglement fuel.
:)>
What might happen first in our real world, the ability to travel at the speed of light or a star gate? What is easier to do, theoretically? Or what is more dangerous?
High speed flight first, the gates have to be seeded Manually first....
Gate travel will require a controlled wormhole, we don't have the power source fof that yet.
:'(