posted
I'm working on an article for the Museum. I'd like to know the highest quoted speeds for USS Enterprise under normal and abnormally juiced conditions (i.e., by Nomad or Kelvins).
Thanks
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Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
I believe the 'Nomad' reference was actually about the weapons it was using: equivelant of 90 photon torpedoes and they were travelling at a speed of warp 15, rather than actually being about the Enterprise, but im not totally sure about this.
"That Which Survives" states w/f 14.1 at which causes core meltdown....
On a quick websearch I found a site , one among many, that states some of the interesting speeds the old enterprise travelled...
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Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
I was actually watching 'The Changling' last night. Nomad was in engineering and bitching about how inefficient Enterprise was. He "effected repairs" to the antimatter intake valve or something and Enterprise went up to warp 11 (I think).
If we assume that power comes from antimatter annihilation in a reactor rather than in the nacelles, I wonder how much power/plasma the nacelles can handle and what kind of speeds are possible with enough power.
-------------------- When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
If you want to throw TAS into the mix, I seem to remember something from "The Counter-Clock Incident." It takes place after the Enterprise has thrown its tractor beam onto Karla Five's ship (which was cruising along at warp 36). I remember something about the Enterprise hitting warp 20 after being unable to disengage the beam. Unfortunately, I can only remember that from reading Alan Dean foster's novelization, and as it's been more than twenty years since I saw the show (or read the book), I can't be sure if I'm remembering it accurately. If someone has the episode on tape or dvd, maybe they can check to see if that speed (or something close to it) is actually mentioned.
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Registered: Aug 2001
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That Which Survives: Enterprise is knocked 990.7 light years away from the planet. An autopsy performed on the transporter operator by Dr. Sanchez reveals that death resulted from disruption of every cell in his body. Spock does not know what to make of this, but returns to the planet at Warp 8. (snip) Scotty saves the Enterprise from exploding by reversing polarity on the magnetic probe and returning the magnetic flow to normal. The Enterprise then begins decelerating from its peak speed of warp 15.2+ (although Rahda counts down warp 14.1, 14, 15.9, ...).
Arena: The Enterprise increases its speed to warp 8 in order to catch the alien.
Day of the Dove: The Enterprise spontaneously accelerates to Warp 9 and traps all but 38 crew members below deck.
The Deadly Years: Kirk immediately races out of the Neutral Zone and into Federation space at Warp 8.
The Enterprise Incident: Luckily, Scott is able to connect the cloaking device to the shields as the Enterprise speeds away at Warp 9.
I, Mudd: Mr. Norman then barges into Engineering, increases speed to Warp 7, and sets up a booby trap to prevent tampering.
Journey to Babel: Chekov subsequently detects a small ship of unknown origin paralleling the Enterprise just out of phaser range at Warp 10.
There's probably more in there but I have some drying paint to go watch...
posted
I assume that there must be a similar power (energy?) expenditure curve for TOS as for TNG. Warp 11 equals 1331c (not faster than a 24th century ship), and Warp 6 as the nominal top speed is Warp 6 = 216c, I estimate that the power consumption (and therefore the plasma flow rate) is roughly 6 times as high.
While this does not seem out of reach, I don't think that it's realistic though. If it were possible to achieve considerably higher speeds by simply increasing the M/AM flow, why can't Starfleet engineers acomplish that, and if only for a short time? Nomad should have rebuilt the complete engine realistically (just as it wanted to do with "the unit Scott").
-------------------- Bernd Schneider
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Excuse the crude analogy, but I suppose the warp drive is something like a car. Car engines are of different sizes with peak power levels. The power can be increased temporarily (say by using a more explosive fuel) but the engine might not be able to physically handle it for long periods of time. The wheels and transmission are able to handle this increased power more easily than can the engine (and can also accept larger engines) but also have their physical limits.
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Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
Maybe Starfleet redundancies that the Cardassian Engineer Woman from "Destiny" [DS9] was complaining about applies to the TOS era - and that they might have luckily compensated for the times the Enterprise ever went above TNG equivalent of Warp 9 or what ever... although you'd expect that seeing as 24th century ships found it difficult to sustain Warp 9 and that it wasn't the norm - that the top speed of a ship from a century earlier would be warp 7 or 8 maybe? (TNG-scale).
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
Andrew: What redundancies was she complaining about? (I haven't seen that ep). Was she suggesting that Starships had too many backup systems so were overly large or complicated?
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Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
I don't recall exactly what aspect of the project she was working on, but they never got near a starship. My guess, considering what they were working on, would be the comm system or the software thereof.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
O'Brien and what's-her-face(Captain Lochley) were in the Pit in Ops. She complained about something being removed that they could have used. O'Brien retorted that they had to get rid of it to make room for a SECOND back-up.
She was incredulous at the idea of them not only having the initial for example, EPS relay - but a back-up AND a second back-up.
O'Brien said such redundancies were Federation requirements. Or something.
Andrew
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