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Quantite Fusion Warp Core
| Technology Data | |
| |
| Name | Quantite Fusion Warp Core |
| Type | Warp Core |
| Introduced | 2390 |
| Affiliation | Federation |
| TechStatus | UCIP Canon |
| Contributor | Czarr Rom |
| Table of contents |
Background
Quantite is a quantum-stressed material, meaning that whatever catastrophe formed it imparted a massive potential energy dosage to the superstrings that make up every particle of that substance. Unstable quantum materials such as quantite have several unique properties. For example, the electrons and protons that make up quantite can not be exchanged with those of another object, as one might experience with static electricity. The physical state of quantite can not be altered easily and, due to the fundamental binding forces of the atoms being unstable on a multidimensional plane, any massive alteration of the movement of quantite molecules will result in a massive detonation.
Upon the discovery of Quantite, scientists found that by radically altering the atomic movement within Quantite atoms, specifically via the use of heat, they could produce a massive energy release. An increase in temperature would cause the molecules of Quantite to move about more quickly, just like heated air in a balloon and when the molecules reached a specific state of excited movement the superstrings binding the atom together at the quantum level would completely destabilize and a detonation would occur.
Application
By combining fusion technology with Quantite, Starfleet has been able to abandon matter/anti-matter and nuclear fusion as their primary means of power generation for the following reason:
Unlike matter/anti-matter reactors, Quantite does not require complex electromagnetic fields, or expensive methods of containment that can easily be breached. Refined Quantite is stable at temperatures as low as -500° C and as high as 11000° C, which means it can be stored at room temperature with practically no extraneous containment system, while matter/anti-matter requires a massive cryogenic super-cooling system to maintain safe storage.
Quantite can be mined off of a planet, while production of matter/anti-matter is a negative-result venture, as it required more power to produce an given amount of anti-matter, then the potential energy the produced anti-matter was capable of generating. Quantite can be used to produce a massive amount of energy with a minimal amount of resources. Matter/anti-matter requires an extremely complex and unreliable M/AM injector system prone to catastrophic system failure.
One of the key problems in using Quantite was the fact that not all Quantite reached detonation at the same temperatures. Quantite from one planet could be ignited at temperatures as low as 2000° C, while Quantite from another planet would require temperatures as high as 20,000° C... it all depended on how close the planetoid was to whatever catastrophic event that created it. Consequently fusion power is often used in conjunction with Quantite. Fusion reactor plasma has a temperature of 5*10^7° K, several thousand degrees above the maximum ignition point of any known grade of Quantite, thus negating this problem.
The warp engines are fuelled by plasmas, energised from energy created in quantite\fusion reactions in the warp core. The fuel for these reactions is stored in the primary deuterium tank in the ship’s stardrive section. The tanks are loaded with deuterium at 140,000 PSI. The supply is held in compartmentalised tanks within the main body tank to prevent loss due to damage. The total internal volume is some 120,200 m3 but is more normally loaded to a volume of 118,500 m3. These tanks have a rated loss below 0.0000002 kg/day.
For the creation of energies the matter reactant is forced in to a side fusion reaction through an injector from the primary deuterium tank to meet in the reaction chamber with helium-3 from the primary he3 tank in the stardrive section. Here they are fused in a gravimagnetic tokamak, with muon-beam enhancement, to produce a high-energy plasma with a temperature on the order of 10^8 degrees celcius.
In the core injectors bring in pellets of pure quantite ore and the plasma inside of a pinched-spheroid gravitic field to create a maximised reaction. When bringing the reaction chamber up to levels for warp flight a ratio of reactant (plasma)to reactant (quantite) is about 5:1. Though one would expect the annihilation ratio to be 1:1 it there is some degree of plasma loss that is not involved in the reaction. When breaking the warp one limit this loss drops to 3.2:1. the plasma-quantite ratio changes to increasingly more efficient values up to warp 5 where the ratio stabilises at 1:1 and remains at this level for all speeds above warp 5. Engine efficiency of the starship and the resultant energies from quantite annihilation is very high of the order of 97%.
Technical Specifications
A Quantite/Fusion reactor consists of the following three parts and works like this:
Fusion: A nuclear fusion reactor creates power by forcing two separate atomic nuclei to unite into a larger more powerful atomic mass. Resultant energy release created by fusion results in plasma.
Quantite: Purified Quantite ore, which is produced by passing the ore through an intense Electromagnetic field, breaking the Quantite ore down into its base components, effectively removing the impurities and leaving only the Quantite. Concluding purification, the bulk of the remaining compound is pure Quantite. Refined Quantite, which is now in a dense, metallic powder form, is then stored within armored, incredibly heat resistant storage tanks.
Main Energizer: This is the reactor housing in which plasma and Quantite are introduced. Charged plasma and purified Quantite are pumped into the ship's main energizer. Once injected into the energizer the two compounds come into contact and the hot plasma ignites the Quantite. A magneto/gravitational matrix, which is essentially a powerful gravitic force field, contains the resulting explosion and the energy released by the explosion is then forced out the Energizer's power distrubition node. Small bits of these two compounds, on the scale of grams, produce the massive amount of energy a ship needs to power the vessel and allow it to create artificial gravity, travel at speeds near that of light and warp from one star to another.
Power Production
Standard Class fuel storage for eight year missions disregarding refueling, bussard collector usage or quantite mining:
mass=volume/density
15000 m (469,500,000 kg, 469,500 tons) of quantite
118,500 m3 of deuterium
118,500 m3 of helium-3
Given a loss rate of 0.0000002 kg/day of deuterium over the 8 year mission
365.256*8 = 2922
2922 * 0.0000002 = 0.0005844 kg
Quantite`s energy release is approximately 150 times more than total matter conversion, as the superstrings act
as 'springs', storing vast amounts of energy in their multidimensional coiling. The ratio for plasma to quantite is 2:1.
Matter reacting is: 10 + 5 = 15 Kg
(Assuming 1 part matter 1 part helium-3 for the fusion reaction, that cuts down deuterium use in half. Also, there will be deuterium waste, in the form of fusion plasma that does not react with quantite. However, given that we started with such an excess of deuterium and that the level of reactants can run higher than the ratio 1:1, we can ignore the imbalance, also as discussed below should deuterium run low, there exists a supply of liquid deuterium approximating, 297,600 Kg [9,300*32] of liquid fuel that can be fed into the reactor)
Using the Matter from the Primary fuel supply only we can calculate the energy output of the warp core.
By E=mc2, factoring in 15
E(joules) = 15 (kg) * (299 792 500 )2 (ms-1) * 15000
E(joules) = 20,221,997,187,656,250
20.221 petajoules per second
20.221 petawatts (3 decimal places)
Given the loss of energy of 2% (100-98% efficiency) this gives:
A loss of .4 petawatts.
19.8 petawatts (3 d.p.) Total useable power created in the Quantite\fusion reactor.
Additional Information
It could be argued that an integral is required to take account of the effect reduced mass has on the ship, in that as the mission continues the ship will become lighter and more easily propelled. The mass of fuel is negligible compared to the overall space frame and the vectored impulse field reduces apparent starship mass to avoid relativistic effects.
In order for a Quantite reactor to work, any given race attempting to create such a device would need comprehensive
knowledge of zero-point energy fields and gravimetric technology. Less advanced races first exploring the use of such
a reactor, might be able to make do with an electromagnetic containment matrix. Unlike races using gravimetric technology,
races using an electromagnetic containment system would only be able to achieve a reactor efficiency of approximately 24%