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Defiant also clearly has bussard collectors
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posted
Bussard ramscoops are, as someone correctly stated, used to collect minute amounts of hydrogen for emergency use in the warp and/or impulse system (I assume). From the description given in the Next Generation Technical Manual, although I've learned not to trust that about some things, it appears that the ramscoops work in close concert with the warp fields and the navigational deflector, both of which help to "channel" the hydrogen ions into the actual collection apparatus. The hydrogen is not generally channeled through the nacelles, however the DS9 Tech Manual seems to hint that at least some of it is, using a new and "experimental" accelerator coil in the aft endcap of the Defiant's nacelles. Usually, the collected material is directly processed and sihponed off into the vessel's deuterium slush tanks. In anycase, it seems that the most logical place to put them is on the fwd endcap of the nacelle. It might be placed on the fwd portion of the primary or secondary hull, (like Voyager's auxiliary deflector dish), but that position probably covers less open area than it's accepted place on the nacelles. Also, the Enterprise-A, -B, Reliant, Oberth, etc. may have Bussard ramscoops as well. I remember reading some of the non-canon sources as saying these vessels had "matter acquisition sinks" in the forward portion of the nacelle. It might just be another name for the ramscoops. After all, isn't the "matter/antimatter integrator" of the original E the same as the "main energizers", "intermix shaft" and "warp core" of later Enterprises?
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
The TMP Enterprise-nil indeed had "matter sinks", because Shane Johnson (and possibly Andy Probert himself) wanted to honor the earlier labeling of the TOS ship in the original Star Fleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph.
However, FJ apparently wanted to depict the nacelles as some sort of huge "through-flow" jet engines. Not only are the front hemispheres labeled "space/matter sink/acquisition", but the aft hemispheres are correspondingly labeled something like "space/matter source".
This doesn't sound very convincing, since the aft hemispheres were not present in all the versions of the TOS ship. It's unknown if Matt Jeffries thought of the engines as having two "poles" or if FJ invented this himself, but later generations have moved away from that idea and have invented another interpretation to the wording "space/matter sink/acquisition". They (and I) think that this is simply older wording for ramscoops.
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Or..less "older wording" than a resurgence of BureaucratiSpeak that was thankfully killed off as a fad sometime in the 2290s. They called them ramscoops before, then thought of a neater-sounding name, but by the turn of the century, hey said, "Fuck it...use 'ramscoops' again."
This is akin to a serving lady in a cafeteria being redubbed a "sustenance provision engineer"...& people with common sense saying, "Look, she's just a damn lunch lady..."
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