Hello All, Ric here with a video on the most common form of travel in the Star Trek universe!
Aside from impulse. And walking. Probably. That of Warp Drive! So this video will explore how warp
works in the show, followed by its limitations and shortcomings before settling on the issues
within the show itself. Warp drive is often the easiest
form of FTL travel that most cultures develop with Warp 1 being equal to the speed of light
and factors over this being even faster. It accomplishes this without breaking the laws
of general relativity that state that an object with any mass needs exponentially
more energy to propel the closer it gets to the speed of light. The journey to achieving warp is
different for every species. Humans discovered it after the experimentation from Zephram Cochrane,
the Klingons reputedly stole it from the Hur’q during the time of Kahless
and the Vulcans developed it soon after their falling out with the Romulans.
So, effectively warp is based on the principle of folding space-time and creating a localised warp
bubble around the ship. This condenses space before the vessel, before extending it behind it,
literally rippling the fabric of reality. Hence the name, “warp” and the strength of the field
is measured in “millicochranes”. This would not be achievable without the effect of subspace,
which is a layer of reality that exists beyond, or below, however you want to phrase it,
regular spacetime. In this realm, physics get a little squiffy and have their own ruleset,
which is used to explain away many of the issues that a real warp drive would potentially face. In
reality, the warp drive was created for Star Trek, based on the notion that space-time is malleable,
but had little development behind it until a physicist named Miguel Alcubierre created
the concept for a drive that would function as I just described, inspired by Star Trek. Star Trek
then adopted this theory as the model on which to base its own Warp Drive, a great example of
science fiction inspiring real developments, and vice versa. Development and theories continue to
explore and evolve this idea, and Star Trek will likely continue to adapt them into its
own science fiction as more discoveries are made, but for now, back to the in-universe warp drive.
The warp bubble itself can be generated by a number of technologies, but the most common by far
is the use of warp nacelles. These are lined with warp coils that produce a warp field in a
similar way as electro-magnets forming a magnetic field. The energy needed to create such a powerful
space-bending effect is not insubstantial, and the biggest hurdle for most societies to cross.
Again, the most common method of producing energy is from a Warp Core, where matter and
antimatter are annihilated to produce energy. The majority of technologies also rely on the
crystal dilithium to regulate this reaction because of its strange subspace properties.
Over the generations, warp travel has been refined constantly leading to a bit of confusion and a
complete overhaul of the Federation warp scale. From the invention of Warp Drive in 2063 up to
an unspecified date around the turn of the 24th century Starfleet was operating on a warp scale
without an identifiable limit. Basically, if a new speed was achieved, it was designed a new factor
of warp. While Warp 1 was the speed of light, subsequent factors were a little vaguer and these
increases were not at equal intervals, so warp 2 was not twice the speed of light, but designated
by some other limit. The fact that this warp scale had no upper limit was reflective of the
developing science of the time, the full potential of warp not been established, so none was set.
During the film era, around 2280s, the warp scale was altered with the ever increasing speeds being
achieved and warp factor 10 was designated instantaneous travel where a vessel could
arrive at any point in an instant, theoretically occupying every point in space-time at once.
With 10 being the new capstone, the existing warp scale was crammed into the new one,
but that meant the old warp factors had new values. So the old TOS era warp 7 is
slower than the newer TNG era warp 7. This revamp comes with its own shortcomings
however. While it identified an absolute limit for Warp speeds, infinite velocity,
it meant that between warp 9 and 10, there are an infinite number of exponential factors that could
be achieved, which is increasingly becoming reflected by things like warp 9.1, 9.6, 9.9,
9.975, and so on, inching ever close to warp 10, but never reaching the elusive infinity speed.
Except with that one episode of Voyager. Some suspect that the catalyst for this
change was the USS Excelsior NX-2000, as it was a transwarp prototype that was revolutionise warp
travel. We see it sabotaged in the film by Scotty, but what if it was eventually successful and lead
to a substantial increase in speeds, prompting Starfleet to redesign its entire warp scale?
With Starfleet developing higher and higher warp factors, they are soon to face an issue
of a ridiculous number of 9s after a decimal point, because they cannot say 10 without it
being effective teleportation. In order to get around this, I would propose that warp 9 through
to 9.9 remain as they are, but then introduce a new system of Transwarp that starts at Trasnwarp
1, and is one factor higher than 9.9. You clearly get the impression you have exceeded the previous
warp factor, but its more cohesive to say “transwarp 3” than warp 9.9999874.
This way too, regular ol’ warp 10 can still mean instant travel.
Aside from this imposed issue with warp speeds, there is another more notable side effect. That
is that repeated warp travel over a certain area can damage subspace, causing a breakdown between
subspace and regular space, forming an area of extreme turbulence. This was discovered in 2370
and the Federation imposed a warp speed limit on all its vessels until a work-around could
be discovered, breaking the limit only with authorisation. In apocrypha, this is one of
the reasons for the sleeker profiles of starship we started to see around this time, as it reduced
the subspace profile and therefore damage with a less brute-force approach to higher warp factors.
Other limiting factors on warp include the available energy source,
such as deuterium for a warp core, the quality of dilithium, subspace turbulence or drag,
and other environmental hurdles. Additionally, in an area where the is no subspace, such as
an area destroyed by Omega molecules, then a warp bubble cannot form, nor any FTL messages be sent.
Additionally, an improperly balanced warp system can lead to all sorts of errors, some of which
will simply result in the destruction of the vessel, but as you are literally bending space,
other mistakes can occurs such as forming a wormhole, or accelerating to a point that the
ship cannot handle. There are a number of other systems too that revolve around warp, such as the
deflector dish, which projects a field before the vessel, that pushes aside small debris and space
dust. Otherwise, a ship travelling at multiple times the speed of light hitting a speck of dust
would mostly likely blow apart that ship. And the speck of dust wouldn’t fare too well either.
Out of universe, the shows are deliberately vague as to the exact speeds and distances
covered with warp drive, so as to cover up any inconsistencies. It is for this reason too,
that we don’t see any canon maps with exacting measurements, because with this veil, writers
can say that it’s only “X days to Y, at warp 8” and there are no concrete figures to deny this
outright as inaccurate, which may otherwise get in the way of the narrative of the week.
So thank you for watching my breakdown of warp drive,
my nit-picks and its limitations, both in universe and out of. I’ve been Rick
and I’ll see you next time for another sci-fi video, until then, thanks again and “Engage!”