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In science fiction, ultrawaves (or hyperwaves or subwaves) are transmissions or signals that may propagate faster than light through either normal space, or alternate space, such as hyperspace or subspace.
Ultrawaves are also sometimes a form of energy transmission or weapon such as a beam weapon or death-ray.
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Faster-than-light communications and travel are the conjectural propagation of information or matter faster than the speed of light.
The technology in Star Trek has borrowed many ideas from the scientific world. Episodes often contain technologies named after real-world scientific phenomena, such as tachyon beams, baryon sweeps, quantum slipstream drives, and photon torpedoes. Some of the technologies created for the Star Trek universe were done so out of financial necessity. For instance, the transporter was created because the limited budget of Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) in the 1960s did not allow expensive shots of spaceships landing on planets.
In the fictional Star Trek universe, the impulse drive is the method of propulsion that starships and other spacecraft use when they are travelling below the speed of light. Typically powered by deuterium fusion reactors, impulse engines let ships travel interplanetary distances readily. Unlike the warp engines, impulse engines work on principles used in today's rocketry, throwing mass out the back as fast as possible to drive the ship forward.
Superluminal communication is a hypothetical process in which information is sent at faster-than-light (FTL) speeds. The current scientific consensus is that faster-than-light communication is not possible, and to date it has not been achieved in any experiment.
A tachyon or tachyonic particle is a hypothetical particle that always travels faster than light. Most physicists believe that faster-than-light particles cannot exist because they are not consistent with the known laws of physics. If such particles did exist, and could send signals faster than light, then according to the theory of relativity they would violate causality, leading to logical paradoxes such as the grandfather paradox. Tachyons would also exhibit the unusual property of increasing in speed as their energy decreases, and would require infinite energy to slow down to the speed of light. No experimental evidence for the existence of such particles has been found.
The Alcubierre drive, Alcubierre warp drive, or Alcubierre metric is a speculative warp drive idea based on a solution of Einstein's field equations in general relativity as proposed by theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre during his PhD study at the University of Wales, Cardiff, by which a spacecraft could achieve apparent faster-than-light travel if a configurable energy-density field lower than that of vacuum could be created.
The Star Trek fictional universe contains a variety of weapons, ranging from missiles to melee. The Star Trek franchise consists primarily of several multi-season television shows and a dozen movies, as well as various video games and inspired merchandise. Many aspects of the fictional universe impact modern popular culture, especially the lingo and the idea of a spacecraft launching space torpedoes and firing lasers, and have had a wide influence in the late 20th to early 21st century. Star Trek is popular enough that its science fiction concepts have even been studied by real scientists, and NASA described its science in relation to the real world as "entertaining combination of real science, imaginary science gathered from lots of earlier stories, and stuff the writers make up week-by-week to give each new episode novelty." For example, NASA noted that the Star Trek "phasers" were a fictional extrapolation of real-life lasers, and compared them to real-life microwave based weapons that have a stunning effect.
A warp drive or a drive enabling space warp is a fictional superluminal spacecraft propulsion system in many science fiction works, most notably Star Trek, and a subject of ongoing physics research. The general concept of "warp drive" was introduced by John W. Campbell in his 1957 novel Islands of Space and was popularized by the Star Trek series.
In the Star Trek franchise, the Klingon Empire makes use of several classes of starships. As the Klingons are portrayed as a warrior culture, driven by the pursuit of honor and glory, the Empire is shown to use warships almost exclusively and even their support ships, such as troop transports and colony ships, are armed for battle. This contrasts with the exploration and research vessels used by Starfleet, the protagonists of the franchise. The first Klingon ship design used in The Original Series, the D7-class battlecruiser, was designed by Matt Jefferies to evoke a shape akin to that of a manta ray, providing a threatening and instantly recognizable form for viewers. The configuration of Jefferies's design featured a bulbous forward hull connected by a long boom to a wing-like main hull with the engine nacelles mounted on each wingtip. Though a variety of Klingon ships have appeared in Star Trek, their design generally conforms to this style. Most Klingon vessels were physically built as scale models, although later computer-generated imagery was used to create the models. In recent years, many of the original studio models have been sold at auctions.
The Star Fleet Universe (SFU) is the variant of the Star Trek fictional universe detailed in the series of Star Fleet Battles games from Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. and used as reference for the Star Trek: Starfleet Command series of computer games. Its source material stems from the original and animated series of Star Trek as well as from other fan sources, such as Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual. It also includes a substantial number of new races and technologies, such as the Hydran Kingdom, the Inter-Stellar Concordium, and the Andromedans.
The communicator is a fictional device used for voice communication in the fictional universe of Star Trek. As seen in at least two instances, the Original Series episodes "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" and "Day of the Dove," it can also serve as an emergency signaling device/beacon, similar to a transponder. The communicator allows direct contact between individuals or via a ship's communication system.
Hyperspace is a concept from science fiction and cutting-edge science relating to higher dimensions and a superluminal method of interstellar travel. It is related to the concept of four-dimensional space, first described in the 19th century.
An Einstein–Rosen bridge, or wormhole, is a postulated method, within the general theory of relativity, of moving from one point in space to another without crossing the space between. Wormholes are a popular feature of science fiction as they allow faster-than-light interstellar travel within human timescales.
The hypothetical particles tachyons have inspired many occurrences of in fiction. The use of the word in science fiction dates back at least to 1970 when James Blish's Star Trek novel Spock Must Die! incorporated tachyons into an ill-fated transporter experiment.
In the Star Trek fictional universe, dilithium is an invented material which serves as a controlling agent in the matter-antimatter reactors. In the original series, dilithium crystals were rare and could not be replicated, making the search for them a recurring plot element. According to a periodic table shown during a Next Generation episode, it has the atomic number 87, which in reality belongs to francium, and the chemical symbol Dt.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Star Trek:
IXS Enterprise is a conceptual interstellar spaceship designed by NASA scientist Dr. Harold G. White, revealed at SpaceVision 2013, designed for the goal of achieving warp travel. The conceptual spacecraft would make use of a modified version of the Alcubierre drive. Dr. White is currently running the White–Juday warp-field interferometer experiment in order to develop a proof of concept for Alcubierre-style warp travel, if possible. The Alcubierre drive uses exotic matter to travel faster than light.
In science fiction media, space folding is a method of faster-than-light whereby the space "folds" so that the start and end points of the trajectory are in the same location, resulting in instantaneous travel. In real physics, the concept is often synonymous with wormholes, since the usage of wormholes presupposes a folded space-time.
Space travel or space flight is a major classic theme in science fiction, one that has generally captured the attention of the public and is commonly associated with the typical image of a science fiction plot. Space travel, whether interplanetary or interstellar, is usually carried out through space ships, and methods of spacecraft propulsion described in various works range from scientifically plausible to totally fictitious. While some writers focus on the realistic, scientific and educational aspects of space travel, for others, that concept can be seen as a metaphor for freedom, one of whose aspects is to "free mankind from the prison of the solar system". Although the concept of a rocket, popularized by the science fiction works, has been described as one of the icons of the 20th century, according to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, "The means by which space flight has been achieved in sf – its many and various spaceships – have always been of secondary importance to the mythical impact of the theme".
