As for the Escape pod hatches, even if the electronics failed, there could have been a non-electrical backup, probably a set of chemical based explosive charge.
quote:Originally posted by Dat: The degaussing didn't hold true for the Yamato though. IIRC, what happened was the initial dumping of the antimatter (pods?) that was halted and immediate failure/sudden loss of power to magnetic containment which resulted in an immediate explosion.
Maybe the degaussing did work. The Iconian virus must have knocked out Yamato's containment monitoring system, otherwise her crew would have known about the containment failure way before the Ent-D did. It could have also knocked out her containment field power, and during the period before the explosion, the pods were running on reserved charge. Since the monitoring system was malfunctioning, no one knew that. All they knew was that containment was still up, they didn't know that it wasn't up the way it should be. When the Yamato blew up, it was the containment field power that failed, it was the degaussing finally running out.
Registered: Apr 2001
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No... it wasn't just the yamato's monitoring system because they lost containment quickly after the E-D detected it. I suspect that the Iconian virus did more than just deactivate the magnetic field, I think it switched the polarity on the field generator which quickly killed the magnetic field.
Look at what the TNG TM says about the gravity generators... which can be considered to be similar technology I think... If it doesn't receive power it will still produce a field for 4 hours.
But there are still circumstances which I think power loss doesn't mean eventual containment loss. I would think that they would have some type of permenant [or semi-permenant: meaning that it lasts long enough for you to be unconcerned about it.. like days] storage system. Probably something to where they can't access the antimatter inside unless an external power source is available. Something like a capacitence jar, which keeps it's static charge for a long time and that charge can store the antimatter.
-------------------- Later, J _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ The Last Person to post in the late Voyager Forum. Bashing both Voyager, Enterprise, and "The Bun" in one glorious post.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Yes, it would be one of the last things [I'm sure there is some type of maintence that would require you to empty the antimatter and degauss the pod], but even if it is one of the last things, if you switch the flow of the electrons through an electromagnetic you switch the fields polarity. It's not a hard thing to do, especially if we're talking about a really advanced computer virus that turns things topsy tervy for a living. So, you're right, but I still think that's the more likely scenario.
-------------------- Later, J _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ The Last Person to post in the late Voyager Forum. Bashing both Voyager, Enterprise, and "The Bun" in one glorious post.
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