Post by Fleet Captain Brock Dantara on Jan 19, 2008 18:29:30 GMT -5
The Prototype Starship, U.S.S. Nebula NX-61800, was commissioned in 2357. It was a great achievement for Starship technology. This prototype utilized many innovations of 24th Century technology. Probably, the most notable was Subspace Transporter technology.
Subspace Transporters could be operated at a range of 2.115 trillion kilometers. It would take a ship traveling at Warp 9.0, 1.29 hours to travel such a great distance. It cannot be emphasized enough how promising this technology was. A normal Starfleet transporter has an operational distance of only 40,000 kilometers. Subspace transporter technology offered an increase in transporter range by a factor of 52,875,000 times. This represented an immense advantage over the standard technology. Sadly, this technology was plagued by an enormous thirst for energy. A normal transporter cycle for a 60-kg payload at Quantum Resolution, was on average around 12.78 Megawatts. While a subspace transporter consumed upwards of 710.05 Megawatts, an increase in power consumption of 55 times. Not to mention all pattern buffers had to be rerouted through the Warp coils, to assist in the necessary transfer of electromagnetic energy into subspace energy.
At the end of these experimental trials, Subspace Transporter technology was dropped in favor of the Standard transporters. The only comparable technology was that of the Iconians; the aliens who abducted Captain Picard, Esoqq, and Kova Tholl in "Allegiance" TNG; and the Sekirians in the Delta Quadrant. The technology of the Iconians was not fully studied before Captain Picard destroyed the probe base on the Iconian Homeworld. Neither was the second technology studied by the crew of the Enterprise. The technology of the Sekirians was witnessed by the crew of the Voyager. Their technology utilized the tetrahedral quartz mantle of their Homeworld and a Folding Space concept. Which transported people and objects an outstanding 40,000 light years. This technology was proven incompatible with Federation technology. When a group of Voyager crew members, headed by Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres and Lt. Commander Tuvok, attempted to transport the entire Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant.
The Nebula Class also contained many other new technologies. These technologies included quadritronic computer technology, Isolinear Optical chips, and a Warp engine capable of Warp 9.2 compared with Warp 7.0 for the Ambassador Class. The Nebula class also has a much improved vehicle frame than that of the Ambassador Class.
Quadritronic cybernetics represented a geometric increase in processing speed over duotronic technology present in the previous Ambassador and New Orleans Classes. Along with the Isolinear Optical Chips made possible by this technology. One standard Optical chip formatted for 2.15 kiloquads could hold the equivalent of 42 billion 21st Century Library of Congresses.
The state-of-the-art Warp core and nacelles in the Nebula Class made possible the first Starship to break the Warp 9.0 barrier. The realization of this goal, was also due to the refined space-frame of the Nebula Class. This hull design was, in part, designed with a better understanding of Warp geometry.
The Nebula Class illustrates a long line of Federation achievement, so many advances were utilized by this class, that it seems that the differences between the Nebula and Ambassador Classes are separated by a century of innovation instead of only twenty years.
