Transporters

[maverick]

i was discussing with a friend today how the transporters work on trek.

 

how is the matter projected to another point?

 

any help here? im a trek fan and felt botally tuggered when asked

[ceedj]

Short, easy answer: Magic.

 

Short, realistic answer: Gene Roddenbery couldn't figure out how to land the Enterprise in season 1 of TOS, so he came up with the idea of Transporters to get the crew from the ship to the planet/colony/other ship, etc.

 

Long Para-Borg answer from the ST:TNG Tech Manual:

TRANSPORTER SYSTEMS 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 four personnel transporters located on Deck 6 of the Saucer Section. Two additional personnel transporters are located on Deck 14 in the Engineering Section. Cargo transport is provided by four low-resolution transporters located in the Deck 4 cargo bay complex, and four more located in the Deck 38/39 cargo bay complex. These units are primarily designed for operation at molecular (non-lifeform) 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 evaluation from the ship is provided by six emergency transporters, four 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 Enterprise exterior hull incorporates a series of seventeen 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 SYSTEMS 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.

 

Conclusion: I'd go with answer one or two. :)

[Tenebrae]

A lot of contradictory stuff has been demnostrated.

 

Basically I think it amounts to people being converted from matter to energy "patterns". That are then transmitted to another area and reassembled.

 

Somehow though, people are entirely conscious throughout the entire experience.

 

Additionally, it's not quite obvious how site-to-site works...

[ceedj]

Since you asked...

 

Site-to-site transport. This refers to a double-beaming procedure in which a subject is dematerialized at a remote site and routed to a transporter chamber. Instead of being materialized in the normal beam-up process, however, the matter stream is then shunted to a second pattern buffer and then to a second emitter array, which directs the subject to the final destination. Such direct transport consumes nearly twice the energy of normal transport and is not generally employed except during emergency situations. Site-to-site transport is not employed during emergency situations that require the transport of large numbers of individuals because this procedure effectively halves the total system capacity due to minimum duty cycle requirements.