Changes: Transporter

Revision as of 23:05, 11 May 2005

The Transporter platform of an Intrepid class vessel.

The transporter was a device capable of almost-instantaneously moving an object from one location to another. Transporters were able to dematerialize, transmit and reassemble an object. The act of transporting was often referred to as "beaming."

History

Transporters were being used by most spacefaring civilizations for short-range transport of personnel or equipment. The main advantages of this form of transport were twofold, on a planetary scale small vehicles or spacecrafts where no longer needed to go from one place to another, someone who lived in San Francisco could beam to Paris in the morning and be home for dinner at the end of the day. Traveling by transporter was almost instantaneous, when beaming from Paris at 16:30 hours one would be home in San Francisco at 16:31 hours so traveling time was almost non-existent. Compare this to 21st century traveling when it took roughly 10 to 12 hours to travel from Paris to San Francisco by airplane. Harry Kim transported frequently from Starfleet Academy to his parents in South Carolina.

When Starfleet begun space exploration, away missions had to be performed via shuttlecrafts. This meant that a considerable amount of time was needed to prepare a shuttle for its mission and added extra traveling time to and from the aways mission object. In case of emergencies, medical of otherwise, this extra traveling time could be the difference between live and death. The arrival of the transporter gave Starfleet the ability to respond more quickly to emergencies and made away missions much easier.

The first transporters were not that reliable and were only cleared for non-biological transports. Although biological transport could be performed, it was not done that often. When transporters were more used for biological transports the first transporter related diseases appeared. The best known disease was Transporter psychosis which was diagnosed in 2209. Despite the transporter problems which occured during its lifetime it became the most reliable form of short-range transport in the 24th century. Federation transporters do not differ much from other species transporters. This has to do with the laws of physics, transporters disassemble and reassemble lifeforms or objects and no species, besides the Q, can change those laws. So although the basic scientific principles are the same the way transporters are build and designed differ from species to species.

24th century Federation transporters show a distinct blue sparkle when used, while Klingon transporters show a red/orange sparkle. Another difference is the speed by which a transporter operate. When compared to the Hunters, a Gamma Quadrant species, transporter device the Federations transporter is slow. The maximum range of a transporter differs per species, it all depends what kind of technologies they used to build it. The transporter with the longest range known is the one the Sikaris build. It has a range of about forty thousand light-years but this is only due to their planets large quartz mantle which amplifies their transporter signal. Because of this their transporter technology only functions on their planet, nowhere else.

First use

Following its invention by Emory Erickson, the Enterprise NX-01 was one of the first Starfleet starships to be equipped with a transporter authorized for transporting biological objects, though it was rarely utilized. However, its use became common during Enterprise's search of the Delphic Expanse, mainly due to its usefulness in a dangerous sector of space.

A typical transport sequence for the beam-down of a person begun with a coordinate lock during which the destination was verified and programmed, via the targeting scanners. Next, the lifeform to be beamed was scanned on the quantum level and simultaneously converted to a matter stream. This process was determined by an annular confinement beam (ACB). The matter stream was briefly stored in the pattern buffer tank and then transmitted through an emitter pad. Finally, the person was reassembled at the destination.

Safety protocols

As with other Starfleet operations the transporter had its own safety protocols to ensure a safe usage. In case of emergency most of these protocols could be turned off or cirumvented. As of the 24th century the following transporter safety protocols were in place.

A biofilter was always functional to prevent the boarding of strange biological entities.
Beaming while traveling at warp speed was not allowed.
Security scans were used to detect weapons or remat detonators.

Transporter types

Almost all Starfleet facilities and starships were equipped with transporter devices. The number of transporter devices differ. Certain types of shuttlecraft had one transporter while Galaxy class starships had at least four. When cargo bays were present these would contain a cargo transporter.

Personnel

Personnel transporter rooms usually consisted of an operation console, a transporter platform with an overhead molecular imaging scanner, primary energizing coils and phase transition coils. A pattern buffer with a biofilter is located on the deck below the room. The outer hull of a starship incorporated a number of emitter pads for the transporter beam. Personnel transporters work on the quantum level and employed Heisenberg compensators to enable secure transport of lifeforms. Biofilters that were built into the the transporter systems prevent dangerous microorganisms to board the ship.

Cargo

Cargo transporters were larger scale versions of Personnel transporters and were optimized for the transport of inanimate objects, in case of an emergency cargo transporters could be reset to quantum level modus, making lifeform transport possible.

Emergency

Emergency transporters were a special form of transporter, they could only beam someone from a ship or spacestation, not the otherway around. Another advantage was their low power requirement, in case of a ship wide power failure its crew could be evacuated in case of emergency. (TNG Technical Manual)

Limitations

Shields

In general, Transporters could not be used while the deflector shield system of a ship was active, or a deflector shield was in place over the destination. However, it was possible to take advantage of EM "windows" that were created by the normal rotation of shield frequencies. During these peroids, a hole was opened were a transporter beam could punch through. This timing must be absolute and usually requires substantial computer assistance. This technique was theorized and first practiced in 2367 by USS Enterprise Transporter chief Miles O'Brien. (TNG: "The Wounded")

Warp speed

Transporters were not allowed to be used while a ship was at warp speed because of the severe spatial distortions caused by its warp field. (TNG: "The Schizoid Man") Transport at warp was highly dangerous and had been attempted safely only a handful of times. (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I", TNG: "The Emissary") There were however ways to circumvent this limitation.

If both ships maintained exact velocity (i.e. the warp field on both vessels must have the same integral value/factor) transport at warp speed was possible. Failure to maintain the same velocities would result in severe loss of the ACB and pattern integrity.
If the ship was traveling at warp speed and the object to be beamed was stationary, transport was possible by synchronizing the ACB with the warp core frequency. The most difficult part was to get a good pattern lock. The Maquis used this method before. (VOY:"Maneuvers")

Near-warp transport was also possible, but required extensive adjustments to the transport procedure. Persons who had experienced this form of transport remarked that there was a sensation of being merged with an inanimate object briefly before the transporter beam reassembled them. (TNG: "The Schizoid Man")

Range

The 24th century transporter maximum range was about 40,000 km., though a special type of transport, called subspace transport could beam over several lightyears. Many 24th century starships were equipped with an emergency transporter system, but these only had a range of at best ten kilometers. (VOY: "Future's End, Part I").

Radiation and Substances

Some forms of radiation and substances prevent transporters from working or from transports to occur. Examples of radiation and substance limitations are:

Devices

There were even devices that were specifically designed to block transporter signals or to interfere with them. Thus making use of a transporter impossible or very dangerous. Some of these devices were:

Special Operations

Disabling Active Weapons

To prevent accidental injury to personell or damage to equipment, the transporter had the capability to disable any weapon active during transport. This could be accomplished by removing the discharged energy from the transporter signal. (TNG:"The Most Toys")

Connecting two transporters

When necessary transporters could be bridged. This meant that two transporters could be connected to each other in the event beaming was not possible due to ionic or some other type of interference. The transport duration was twice as long and the sequence differed from a normal transport. First a remote link to the other transporter had to be established, then the system interlock needed to be engaged and the pattern buffers of both transporters were synchronized. When the phase transition coils were in stand-by modus energizing could commence. A side-effect of this form of transport might be that the person who was beamed might feel a slight tingling due to static. (TNG:"Realm of Fear")

Removing microbes who exists as energy and matter

Theory: Suspend the person in mid-transport at the point where matter will loose its cohesion at this time molecules will begin to emit nucleonic particles and the biofilter can be used to scan for the microbe pattern. This procedure needs to be performed within thirty to fourty seconds upon energizing. After fifteen seconds into the procedure the person might feel light-headed.
Transporter sequence: Initialize pattern buffer, when stand-by energize and at sixty percent molecular resolution engage static mode. Start the biofilter scan and keep the molecular resolution above fifty percent, if this is not the case abort procedure or the persons pattern is lost. When there is difficulty in identifing the microbe pattern increase the phase-transition frequency. When pattern found program the biofilter, execute and re-materialize the person. (TNG:"Realm of Fear")

"Site-To-Site" Transport

By 2364, limitations in pattern buffer and targeting scanner technology had been sufficiently overcome that it was now possible to transport from one location directly to another without the need to re-materialize the subject in between. This operation was enabled and controlled by the Site-To-Site Transporter Interlock. (TNG:"Brothers") Site to site transport holds the matter stream in the pattern buffer while the ACB was re-targeted. Afterwards, the matter stream was redirected to the new location and normal re-materialzation was carried out. This procedure was particularly useful in emergency medical situations where time is of the essence. Subjects could be beamed directly to sickbay where treatment could be carried out quickly. (Star Trek: First Contact) Using this technique, any computer terminal with acces to the main transporter sub-systems or any applicable sub-routine could be used to control transporter operations, including bridge terminals. (Star Trek: Nemesis) This technique could only be utilised when sufficient source energy is available to the transporters, all normal transporter limitations would still apply. Even given this technique, the transporter rooms were still an important staging and reception area with the greatest amount of override and emergency operations available. Transporter rooms were maintained and manned during all normal duty cycles.

Transporter Trace

A transporter trace was a stored copy of a subject's molecular pattern as scanned during a normal transporter cycle. While it is usually stored for security purposes, in extreme situations the transporter could be modified to use an older trace pattern in place of the latest scan for the purpose of re-configuring the matter stream during molecular conversion, effectively replacing a subject with an younger version of itself during matter re-construction. This technique was devised by Chief Miles O'Brien and Lieutenant Geordi La Forge during a mission to the Darwin Genetic Research Station in 2365. The transporter trace itself would be stored for the duration of the persons tour of duty, when reassigned the trace would be deleted. (TNG:"Unnatural Selection")

Transporter accidents

Though transporters were a quite safe way to get from one point to another there are still cases of transporter accidents:

Because of these accidents, some people were suffering from transporter phobia.

@@ Line 75: / Line 75: @@
 ===Transporter Trace===
-A transporter trace was a stored copy of a subjects molecular pattern as scanned during a normal transporter cycle.  While it is usually stored for security purposes, in extreme situations the transporter could be modified to use an older trace pattern in place of the latest scan for the purpose of re-configuring the matter stream during molecular conversion, effectively replacing a subject with an younger version of itself during matter re-construction.  This technique was devised by [[Chief]] [[Miles O'Brien]] and [[Lieutenant]] [[Geordi La Forge]] during a mission to the [[Darwin Genetic Research Station]] in [[2365]]. The transporter trace itself would be stored for the duration of the persons tour of duty, when reassigned the trace would be deleted. ([[TNG]]:"[[Unnatural Selection]]")
+A transporter trace was a stored copy of a subject's molecular pattern as scanned during a normal transporter cycle.  While it is usually stored for security purposes, in extreme situations the transporter could be modified to use an older trace pattern in place of the latest scan for the purpose of re-configuring the matter stream during molecular conversion, effectively replacing a subject with an younger version of itself during matter re-construction.  This technique was devised by [[Chief]] [[Miles O'Brien]] and [[Lieutenant]] [[Geordi La Forge]] during a mission to the [[Darwin Genetic Research Station]] in [[2365]]. The transporter trace itself would be stored for the duration of the persons tour of duty, when reassigned the trace would be deleted. ([[TNG]]:"[[Unnatural Selection]]")
 ==Transporter accidents==