Basic overcurrent protection? In my sci-fi?
Next you're gonna tell me you can't just "re-route power" by pressing buttons on a screen and not, you know, actually unhooking any wires!
this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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I don't know about you people, but personally, I always write programs at work by removing boards from my computer and plugging them in a different order.
That's why they are so fit and resourceful. Imagine carrying every IF statement by hand.
That not too far off how they used to program computers with punch cards
Well, it really wasn't. You'd program by punching the cards, and then insert them into the computer. If they brought the boards from a terminal (or replicator), and switched the old ones to the new ones, the entire thing would make sense.
It's a bit similar to how people programed analogical computers at the 50s. But it's actually a lot like programing old sewing machines. The thing those have in common is that their programs were always an order of magnitude smaller than this comment.
you can't just "re-route power" by pressing buttons on a screen and not, you know, actually unhooking any wires!
High-voltage switches might be a bit complicated. One I've seen requires you to tighten a spring and then have it released extremely fast to prevent sparking. Still, there should be a way to do it safely, without having to go near or touch the wiring.
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wait till they rediscover seatbelts
and start actually putting on space suits when they should.
But then they can't get infected by the secret bioengineered virus left behind by the extinct species!
That would of course be a missed opportunity to tell the millionth variation of a space horror story almost as old as the sci-fi genre itself.
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THEY DO HAVE THEM! Every once in a while a trek will show seatbelts and then proceed to forget about them later.
Isn't there a joke about that in Nemesis?
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Once again I remind you all that these consoles are not powered by a substance as boring as regular electricity. Oh no. It has to be highly energetic tuned plasma...straight to the user interface consoles...for, uh, reasons.
The reason is because the engines produce this material as a waste product. So instead of venting it into space it's processed and funneled back through the ship to power everything from lights to equipment.
Very efficient and very VERY dangerous. Many Vulcans retired from the VSA because Humans pulled shit like this.
Wouldn't it be easier and safer to just use it to generate boring old electricity and send that through the ship? Maybe the danger is there to keep the crew excited and working at maximum efficiency...
You have dangerous ideas.
I like the theory that it's sent to the bridge to uplift the morale of the regular crew. They knew the officers will be the first to get blown up in any hostile encounter.
It keeps the captain in check if he knows he's going to get a blown up console to the face instead of a lower deck red shirt dying .
When those protocols can't be used like in landing parties, it's the red shirts who die first.
All I'm saying is, there's no way this would pass a MIL-STD-882 safety assessment in the twenty first century. So I have no idea how they got their spaceworthiness certificate.
Battle shorting the practice of negating the fuses in a ship or other war machine because a blown fuse disabling a key system could lead to the loss of the whole ship in battle, and the equipment can maybe work over its rated limit for a time when necessary. Cathode Ray Dude did a video about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpJ_6LCly4A
"In a battle or emergency, where the survival of the vessel (or other protected asset) is dependent upon the continued operation of the equipment, it is sometimes wiser to risk equipment damage than have the equipment shut down when it is needed. For example, the electrical drives to elevate and traverse the guns of a combat warship may have "battleshort" fuses, which are simply copper bars of the correct size to fit the fuse holders, as failure to return fire in a combat situation is a greater threat to the ship and crew than damaging or overheating the electrical motors."
Huh. Learn something all the time.
So sticking a penny in the fuse slot in my car is actually a galaxy brain move.
when your car is under fire, yes.
If it's not under fire, it'll be on fire.
Since fire rises(in atmosphere) anything on fire is technically under fire
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If only they had Space OSHA.
That would be so cool a sci-fi adaption of forklift-driver Klaus (warning, a bit gory but hilarious):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJYOkZz6Dck
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Another problem is about where to redirect the overcharge. In space there is no ground where the current can go. Yet you need to dissipate the energy somewhere.
Back at the attacking ship, obviously!
Let me just pull a grounding wire to there.
Grounding HARPOON YAAAAAAR
I mean, the NX-01 did have a harpoon.
It's probably grounded to the hull somewhere, put in a couple electric gizmos and feed the power back into your batteries. Now the enemy is charging your ship while they blow it up because you didn't turn on your sheild.
Oh great, now what am I supposed to do with all these extra damage-accentuation rocks?!?
Do we have fuses that can safely dissipate like 350Megajoules? I don't remember which specific episode it was, but I remember on DS9 they were going to overload the warpcore to stop something and someone said the only system on the station capable of absorbing that much raw electrical energy was the shield system, since that's literally what it is; a giant fuse.
Hum... I have a 75MJ varistor on each phase of the main wiring of my house. Those are not fuses (because fuses don't have a total energy specification) but I can certainly get a few more for the Enterprise it they want.
That's 21 kilowatt hours worth of energy, are you sure about that?
Yes, I'm sure. I used to have 5MJ ones, but one burned down once. So I got the large ones. AFAIK, they are the largest that will fit 1 unity in a DIM panel. It's supposed to change phases more than once if it receives that kind of abuse, but keep safely conducting electricity all the way.
It's a common component around lightning protection. You'd want something better to actually deal with the lightning if your network is unprotected (there are plenty of options), but mine is protected.
Maybe don't put so many things that can catch fire on the bridge too.
In the 24th Century they discovered that liquid napalm was a highly efficient electrical conductor ... so they used it to wire their ships.
When you consider that the bridge is on the top and center of the saucer section and a very enticing target the constant explosions make a bit of sense. It's not that the enterprise got shot in the ass and it sent a current up to the computer that monitors shift rotations, no the high powered energy weaponry is aimed right on the other side of the wall. Structural integrity fields, shields, ablative armor, and other technobabble keep the the whole bridge from popping like a balloon when something bad happens.
It's like if your tv is plugged into a house with breakers and safely on a surge protector it's not going to keep your tv from getting fried if zeus decides to target that outlet specifically and strike it.
Why not put the bridge somewhere internal, then? It's not like it needs windows.
The enterprise c did have a battle bridge that they used mostly for saucer separations, but there were times when they used it saucer in place and there are some ships which have more protected configurations.
Disregarding the IRL reasons of that's just where it always goes, I believe the in universe reason is that starfleet at its core does not like to identify as a true military organization. It's why the enterprise C is built like a cruise ship and why despite being a swift science vessel voyager is also very spacious and sleek and elegant on the inside. They do make plenty of starships that are top in class and capable of holding their own against anything else out there, but starfleet is not in the business of making warships. They overtly mention this in DS9 when it is mentioned that the Defiant is officially an "escort vessel" even though it is a very no frills combat vessel.
Of course they can get away with this concession because generally the shields do most of the work when it comes to absorbing hits anyway. Once shields are down if another vessel wants to go for the kill it wont take long for it to tear through the hull. In theory the centralized location also means that the bridge can get additional protection by tilting the saucer away from the enemy(sorry lower decks).
You mean the Enterprise D?
that what*
Resettable fuses and circuit breakers!
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