Introduction[]
Extravehicular transport to and from the ship is accomplished by a number of transporter systems, which allow personnel or equipment to be transported at ranges up to 40,000 kilometers. Transport for crew and guests is provided by Two personnel transporters located on Deck 2 of the Saucer Section.
Cargo transport is provided by a low-resolution transporter located in the Deck 3 cargo bay complex. These units are primarily designed for operation at molecular (nonlifeform) resolution for cargo use, but they can be set for quantum (lifeform) resolution transport if desired, although such usage would entail a significant reduction in payload mass capacity.
Emergency evacuation from the ship is provided by four emergency transporters, two of which are located in the Primary Hull, with two additional units in the Secondary Hull. These transporters are equipped with high-volume scan-only phase transition coils and are capable of transport from the ship only; they cannot be used for beam-up. These emergency transporters are designed to operate at reduced power levels compared to standard units, but have therefore reduced range and Doppler compensation capabilities. Typical range is about 15,000 km, depending on available power.
Each pair of transporters is designed to share a single pattern buffer tank, generally located on the deck directly below the actual transport chambers. The emergency transporters are designed to access the pattern buffers from the primary personnel transporters to supplement their own buffers. This doubling of hardware results in only a 31 % reduction in payload capacity of the shared pattern buffers, but yields nearly a 50% increase in system throughput in emergency situations.
The Solstice exterior hull incorporates a series of twelve transporter emitter array pads. These conformal emitters incorporate long-range virtual-focus molecular imaging scanners and phase transition coils, and are strategically located to provide 360-degree coverage in all axes. There is sufficient overlap of emitter coverage to provide adequate operation even in the event of 40% emitter failure.
Transporter System Operation[]
Transporter operations can be broken into five major stages. Because of the criticality of this system, normal operating rules require a transporter chief to supervise and monitor system operation. (Note: This section describes a beam-down sequence from the transport chamber to a remote destination. The beam-up sequence from a remote site to the transport chamber involves the same system elements in a somewhat different configuration.
- Target scan and coordinate lock. During this initial step, the destination coordinates are programmed into the transporter system. Targeting scanners verify range and relative motion, as well as confirming suitable environmental conditions for personnel transport. Also during this stage, a battery of automated diagnostic procedures assures that the transporter system is functioning within operational standards for personnel use.
- Energize and dematerialize. The molecular imaging scanners derive a realtime quantum-resolution pattern image of the transport subject while the primary energizing coils and the phase transition coils convert the subject into a subatomically debonded matter stream.
- Pattern buffer Doppler compensation. The matter stream is briefly held in the pattern buffer, which allows the system to compensate for the Doppler shift between the ship and the transport destination. The pattern buffer also acts as a safety device in case of system malfunction, permitting transport to be aborted to another chamber.
- Matter stream transmission. The actual point of departure from the ship is one of seventeen emitter pad arrays that transmit the matter stream within an annular confinement beam to the transport destination.
System Components[]
Major components for the transporter system include:
- Transport chamber
- Operator's console. This control station permits the Transporter Chief to monitor and control all transporter functions. It also permits manual override of autosequencer functions and other emergency abort options.
- Transporter controller. This dedicated computer subprocessor is located to one side of the chamber itself. It manages the operation of transporter systems, including autosequence control.
- Primary energizing coils
- Phase transition coils
- Molecular imaging scanners
- Pattern Buffer
- Biofilter
- Emitter pad array
- Targeting scanners
Limitations of Use[]
The personnel and cargo transport systems are enormously useful for starship operations, but are nevertheless subject to significant limitations. Some key limitations of operation include:
- Range. Normal operating range is approximately 40,000 km, depending on payload mass and relative velocity. Emergency evacuation transporters have more limited capabilities and are limited to approximately 15,000 km, again depending on available power.
- Interference from deflector shields. When deflector shields are raised to defensive configuration, it is impossible for the ACB to propagate normally across the required EM and subspace bandwidth. In addition, spatial distortion from the shields can seriously disrupt pattern integrity. For this reason, transport is not possible when shields are in place.
- Duty cycle. Although the transport autosequence lasts approximately five seconds, pattern buffer cooldown and reset takes an average of eighty-seven seconds, yielding an average duty cycle of just over ninety-two seconds. Since the transport beam conduits permit the matter stream to be routed to any pattern buffer, any given chamber can be reused immediately without waiting for cooldown by switching to another pattern buffer. Since there are only three pattern buffers normally used for personnel transport, this process can be repeated twice before waiting for pattern buffer reset. This translates into an average of about 1.9 six-person transports per minute, resulting in a total system capacity of about three hundred persons per hour.
- Transport while at warp. Warp fields produce severe spatial distortion in transporter beams, making it impossible to transport when the ship is traveling at warp speeds. The only exception is when both the ship and the target site are traveling at the same integral warp velocity.
- Replication limits. Personnel transport is accomplished at quantum-level resolution using analog image data. By contrast, food and hardware replication (which employs transporter technology) employs digital image data at the much more limited molecular-level resolution. Because of this crucial limitation, replication of living beings is not possible.