Air-conditioning is pretty power intensive and The Enterprise is a big ass ship. That's not even counting the other things life support does (like heat and CO2 scrubbing), just the air circulation.
But even on the show, there's been a couple times where they mention the power from life support is nearly negligible. 🤷♂️
Inertial dampeners probably not; that just stops the ship when not giving any thust because there's nothing to slow the ship down in space once it has momentum. The fake gravity on board tho, may be part of it. Not sure how the gravity plating is supposed to work; but I would be willing to bet there is technical documentation about it somewhere. Unless they just, like... Constantly barrel roll to create "gravity" that way 🤔 (gravity in quotes as it would actually be centripital force).
Inertial dampers are how the crew can survive high-g maneuvers, they'd be pinned to the back wall and have their skulls crushed by their own faces if they suddenly went to full impulse or warp without them active.
I'm pretty well convinced that gravity plating has to be negligible power draw or possibly even passive technology, since they've boarded centuries-old derelict ships that still have artificial gravity. Maybe the gravity plating contains some exotic space-warping material that generates a gravity field. That could also explain the times when someone becomes intangible and can walk through walls, but don't fall through the floor.
This guy treks
Air-conditioning is pretty power intensive
Even that should still be minuscle compared to getting rid of the waste heat from a huge antimatter reactor.
Feels like trying to get your Ferrari faster by switching of the cockpit instrument illumination. Not even worth giving the command.
How does transferring heat out of a ship work? On the one hand, it's really cold in space, but on the other, there's no substrate to absorb and transfer the heat.
From a thermodynamical standpoint, the whole Enterprise is something of a mess.
But, hey, if you already have a "Heisenberg-Compensator", also having a "Boltzmann-Compensator" is probably not that implausible... ;-)
IIRC, they use the plasma manifold for the warp nacells to heat the ship like a radiator. I know they use that plasma for more than just the engines, but not 100% on how.
Thermal Radiation, you send it somewhere else. It’s how the sun heats our planet.
They use AI everywhere. That’s power hungry stuff (and people will deny it is).
Do they ever say how big the computer is in the show?
the Enterprise-D computer? A computer core was the size of a seven-story apartment block, and there were three cores.
There is an episode where Voyager is looking for a fuel source because they are dangerously low.
They cram all the staff into two decks and pull all life support from the other thirteen. It only gets them an hour of propulsion at one-quarter impulse thrust.
It only gets them an hour of propulsion at one-quarter impulse thrust.
Which is basically classical atomic sublight rocket tech.
So some additional ability to just coast between planets when you are already in a star system.
It’s just written in to add weight to a tense moment.
I know the reason why they did it.
Still annoys me slightly. Actually even more than the techno-babble that is mentioned by most as a somewhat annoying thing written in.
But I don't watch Star Trek for its scientific accuracy, so it's ok.
As already said: It is still manageable by suspension of disbelief to enjoy the strong aspects of the show, which mostly are not the specifics of the science-based things being shown (in contrast to the underlying ideas - those are often great!)
I realize now I should have answered the question differently. The life support uses power by a reverse band of takiyons to a flow emitter. This then spread across the ship via a neutrino wave to a tungsten pulse generator.
That's why it uses so much power they have to divert it at times.
My own head-canon that I subconsciously develop while watching those parts of the show, is actually strikingly similar to what you just said! ;-)
Exactly.
Not only is the power requirement pretty low in comparison, but the system should also show a really sluggish response, especially when considering the sheer air volume of the Enterprise.
Biggest issue would probably be heat buildup after some time
FTL moment.
"I don't need oxygen, just enough power for the lasers... Oh."
If you have a shitbox, it can.
I wouldn't know. I've never owned or drove regularly anything that was made after 99.
That bridge is huge it would take hours or days for them to suffocate, also, how power hungry is that life support system that often is enough to make a difference? Do they use replicators instead of fans?
I assume since they are on a ship for several years that life support also handles bio waste, CO2 scrubbing, and anything else to keep the ship habitable. It would probably still be negligible but maybe rearranging molecules takes a fuckload of power, idk.
Related: I passed out after sex once. lol
"Why can't we route power from gravitational engines?"
"The show's budget cannae afford such excess, Cap'n"
"What's that, Scotty?"
"The- uh- the dilithium core only works properly in a gravity field, Cap'n. We'd lose more power than we'd save."
"Ah yes, that makes sense"
They could, because grav plating holds a residual charge so they'll be able to maintain gravity for a period of time before people start floating
A bold maneuver but also wise
Divert all power from inertial dampers to evasive manevers!
splat
How did Picard get all the way over there?
He did his bridge shake hula with EXTRA pizzazz!
The Picard Last Resort
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/c/TenForward: Your home-away-from-home for all things Star Trek!
Re-route power to the shields, emit a tachyon pulse through the deflector, and post all the nonsense you want. Within reason of course.
~ 1. No bigotry. This is a Star Trek community. Remember that diversity and coexistence are Star Trek values. Any post/comments that are racist, anti-LGBT, or generally "othering" of a group will result in removal/ban.
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Use spoiler tags in comments, and NSFW checkbox for posts.
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~ 4. Keep it Trek related. This one is kind of a gimme but keep as on topic as possible.
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I never understood the "divert power from life support" trope of Star Trek.
I mean, how much power could that possibly be?
We essentially already sustained prolonged life support by using a tiny batch of primitive batteries and fuels cells during multi-day trips to reach the moon in the sixties.
With efficient 23th century tech, life support should be almost self-sustaining using ambient waste heat or something.
Always has been one of the major suspension-of-disbelief efforts for me...
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