Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Dilithium Queries

This is topic Dilithium Queries in forum Starships & Technology at Flare Sci-Fi Forums.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://flare.solareclipse.net/ultimatebb.php/topic/6/509.html

Posted by Starbuck (Member # 153) on :

Okay, here's another poser for you.

What is the function of dilithium crystals? I have read the explanation in the ST:TNG Tech Manual, but I think it's pretty implausible.
I remember someone said there was another explanation once but I can't locate it anywhere.
If, as the manual states, the crystal modulates the matter/antimatter reaction, why were the crystals not located in the warp core in The Wrath Of Khan?
Or did Probert goof? Was that "dilithium reactor room" (as labelled in Mr Scott's Guide) actually something else?

------------------
WARNING: Storing semtex in the microwave
may be hazardous to your health!

Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

I think one might well say that the "dilithium room" had a conveyor or other robotic manipulator system for taking the crystals into the engine core. Only the modern TNG-era reactor cores are so advanced that one can directly insert the crystals into them by hand.

Note that there was a dilithium insertion device on the old Enterprise as well, on the center of the Engineering floor. I doubt this was where the actual warp core of that ship was - rather, this was another robotic system for inserting the crystals into the actual, hidden core.

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :

Yes, definitely not the actual core, since it was not there until the mid-2nd season.

------------------
"When diplomacy fails, there's only one alternative - violence. Force must be applied without apology. It's the Starfleet way."
A somewhat different Janeway in VOY: "Living Witness"
Ex Astris Scientia

Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :

You forgot "Yours Sincerely", Timo!

------------------
-You're crazy!!!
-I thought I was pisces!

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

In "Elaan of Troyius", they seemed to have to arrange the crystals on the articulation frame before they would work. If this was just a place where they stuck the crystals to be taken by robotics to the real core, it doesn't make much sense for them to go to the trouble of aligning them...

------------------
"Alright, so it's impossible. How long will it take?"
-Commander Adams, Forbidden Planet

Posted by Dax (Member # 191) on :

Getting cheeky again, Nimrod?

------------------
"Forgive me if I don't share your euphoria!" (Weyoun to Dukat, Tears of the Prophets)
Dax's Ships of STAR TREK

[This message has been edited by Dax (edited November 17, 1999).]

Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

"Elaan of Troyius" could be interpreted as showing that the articulation frame itself, the whole kit'n kaboodie (save for the top that remains visible, of course), gets moved into the reactor core in one piece. So pre-aligning the crystals inside the frame would be a worthwhile hobby.

Yours sincerely,

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by TerraZ on :

Well, in relation to the refit Enterprise, if the Dilithium crystals are moved with a robotic arm from the core to the chamber, wouldn't there be a sort of "tunnel" linking the core to the floor under the chamber? Because in ST:TMP we clearly see that the core in floating and doesn't touch any deck so it doesn't really seem possible.

By the way, anyone knows how the warp core of the Consitution works? There doesn't seem to be any dilithium chamber INSIDE the core, there's some sort of venting port on top where the matter injectors should be. Of course, the refit was designed before any define terminology was made regarding warp drive.

I read on a non-canon site (which might be making reference to an earlier book of unofficial publication) that the core worked by beaming (yes, beaming!) neutronium fuel pellet directly inside the core. Antimatter was injected from below and reacted with the pellets and created a lot of energy which was sent to the nacelles. Excess energy was sent to the impulse engines. Ok, so it's laughable but tell me how you really think it works.

------------------
-If you ask me, I think continuity is highly overrated...
*Brannon Braga*

-Give me Good Trek or give me Death!
*Me*

-Where were you when the brains were handed out?
*Sonic the Hedgehog*

Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :

And they probably beam the plasma to the nacelles as well

I think that the alignment problem of the dilithium crystals is unsettling, no matter how the warp core is constructed. The slightest angle movement of the crystal could lead to significant deflection of the plasma beam, let alone a containment failure.

Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :

On the quantrary, Dax! It looked so nice and neat like a real letter! And Timo catched my drift too! C'mon!

What I want to know is, how does dilithium get drained, and what's the average lifespan of one, uh, standard dose of crystals?

------------------
-You are crazy.
-I thought I was pisces.

Posted by Dax (Member # 191) on :

Don't sweat it, Nimrod. I was just kidding.

Here's a cutaway of the Refit Ent from "Mr Scott's...". It seems accurate for what we've seen of the ship. What this actually proves, I don't know...
Refit Profile

------------------
"Forgive me if I don't share your euphoria!" (Weyoun to Dukat, Tears of the Prophets)
Dax's Ships of STAR TREK

Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

Perhaps the whole length of the "warp core" in the E-refit would be one long plasma conduit with only matter and energy inside? The antimatter would react right after leaving the tanks at the bottom of the vertical shaft, and the dilithium chamber would be somewhere down there. Plasma would then convey the energy up to the impulse engines (thus the need for the vertical shaft) and to the nacelles (thus, the horizontal and angled shafts). In addition, the plasma itself would be slowly drained into the impulse unit for use as propellant. New plasma would form from fusion of excess deuterium.

So the crystals would be at the bottom of the shaft, and at some point, the engineers got fed up with having to go all the way down there in rad suits. Instead, they installed a "radlock" airlock around the end of a "tube-mail" system that whisks the crystal frame down to the chamber automatically. When one opens the tubemail end cap, one still has to wear a radsuit, but one has much more elbow room now.

Standard procedure would probably be to move the articulation frame along the tubemail to the upper room, then use mini-waldoes to align the crystals while the frame sits inside that pedestal. What Spock did with his bare (okay, gloved) hands was probably necessary because the wee waldoes were broken.

Incidentally, this also helps with the problem of where the heck the fuel tanks of the E-refit are. Now they can be moved to the very bottom of the ship. Perhaps the water in that Shane Johnson swimming pool is all heavy water?

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by TerraZ on :

Timo: I am very pleased to have been blessed by such wisdom and knowledge. The master has spoken! Hail to the king baby!

------------------
-If you ask me, I think continuity is highly overrated...
*Brannon Braga*

-Give me Good Trek or give me Death!
*Me*

-Where were you when the brains were handed out?
*Sonic the Hedgehog*

Posted by Starbuck (Member # 153) on :

Thanks guys...
But the question still remains: what is the role of dilithium? From what I recall, the TNGTM explanation was taken from a FASA product - what is/are the other versions?

------------------
WARNING: Storing semtex in the microwave may be hazardous to your health!

Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :

The role of dilithium is as much defined as it can be in the TNGTM. Neither in TOS nor in TNG it did become clear that the dilithium is used to guide and combine the matter and antimatter streams. Focus a matter and an antimatter stream on each other without dilithium: boom! I remember that it sounded a bit like the dilithium crystals themselves were supposedly the energy source of TOS ships. This is impossible, of course, unless it was anti-dilithium, and it couldn't have been handled as shown.

The material properties are nebulous, but from my knowledge of solid-state physics I know that it would be possible for the deuterium ions to "channel" through the crystral, provided it is very pure and exactly aligned. The antideuterium is the problem, since it is supposed to have the opposite charge (negative). This would mean the ions would not behave like deuterium and would (under the same conditions) possibly collide with the dilithium nuclei: boom! This is where the TNGTM makes a nice suggestion to create a condition (high frequency excitation) to make the material porous also for antimatter. Another possibility is to accelerate them to a high speed, so that the deflection in the crystal is minimized.

------------------
"Naomi Wildman, sub-unit of Ensign Samantha Wildman, state your intentions." (VOY: "Infinite Regress")
Ex Astris Scientia

Posted by Alshrim Dax (Member # 258) on :

Yup Bernd.. You are correct..

Dilithium is the only substance that can safely combine matter and anti-matter into a stable stream.

The Crystal becomes the focal point where the matter/anti-matter injectors fire. The crystals then combine and refract the beam in to the Warp Core. Kinda like the reverse of a light prism. Instead of only one beam of light hitting the prism and refracting into mutiple beams of light.. it does the exact opposite. Takes 2 beams of in-compatable energy, combines them to make a single stable beam of energy and fires into the warp core chamber... and voila, you have warp power!!

------------------
Alshrim Dax

[This message has been edited by Alshrim Dax (edited November 26, 1999).]