Flare Sci-Fi Forums: What is the point...

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Posted by JEM on :

....of ejecting the warp core?

Leaving aside the ridiculous reason in 'Insurrection' just what is the purpose of doing it?

Now before you all cry 'are you mad.. what about core breaches etc' I've been thinking about this for some time. Surely what needs to be avoided is uncontrollable antimatter release, so if it was a case of eject the storage pods I could understand it. At first I thought that maybe ejecting the warp core also included dumping the antimatter supply, but no. We've seen two cases of core ejection and in both its the MARA which gets thrown out and nothing else.

Now I can understand that a considerable amount of energy is being generated within the core and its sudden release could make life in engineering somewhat uncomfortable. But if things were going wrong why not just shut off the flow of fuel into it. After all isn't the core just a reaction chamber? it doesn't contain any significant quantities of antimatter other than what's in the process of undergoing reaction.

Does this make any sense at all or am I being particularly stupid and missing something obvious?

And while I'm on the subject has anyone noticed how pathetically small the explosions are when a ship is destroyed. With all that antimatter on board it should go up like a very small star. The only scene which ever looked realistic to me was the destruction of the 'Yamato', an intense white flash similar to a neuclear explosion.

And don't even start talking about photon torpedoes, 1.5kg of antimatter? I've seen fireworks which gave a more impressive explosion!

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Posted by bryce (Member # 42) on :

My thinking is that shutting the fuel supply off is a long process. I think they shut it off when the blue engine lights go off and that only happens ocassionly.
Ejecting the core, I believe, is the fastest way to get rid of problem.

Besides, there has to be some good reason to do it. Why have an ejection sequence if there hasn't been some accident before to show the need for it?

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It's all about the Pentiums, Baby!
"I'm down with Bill Gates, I call him Money for short
I phone him up at home and I make him do my tech support"

Posted by JEM on :

Nope it can't be a long process, the fuel supply must be shut off before the core is ejected. It wouldn't be a good idea to have antimatter 'dripping' out of the open supply line onto the engineering deck floor.

Posted by bryce (Member # 42) on :

Might have something to do with the Dilithium Crystals exploding?

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It's all about the Pentiums, Baby!
"I'm down with Bill Gates, I call him Money for short
I phone him up at home and I make him do my tech support"

Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

Well, the Odyessey had quite the impressive explosion, too, and it was very much like the Yamato's.

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Elim Garak: "Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak. Now, good day to you, Doctor. I'm so glad to have made such an... interesting new friend today." (DS9: "Past Prologue")

Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :

Maybe the antimatter stream can be shut down at its source, that is the antimatter pod outlet, while there is always some remaining antimatter inside the MARA. The question is why this antimatter cannot be simply drained. I think this could be because the antimatter stream is misguided and stray effects occur. So the "containment failure" might be as well a "mis-adjustment".

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"The best diplomat I know is a fully activated phaser bank!" (Scotty, TOS: "A Taste of Armageddon")
Ex Astris Scientia

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

I believe they eject the core to get rid of the antimatter that is still inside the acceleration chamber and the fuel injector. The pods aren't ejected because they aren't losing containment; it's the core itself that has the problem.

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Jackson: "This tastes like chicken..."
Carter: "What's wrong with that?"
Jackson: "It's macaroni and cheese."
-Stargate: SG-1, "The First Commandment"