[net.startrek] Cold Antimatter and the Destruct Sequence

john@moncol.UUCP (John Ruschmeyer) (01/12/85)

At the risk of re-opening a nearly dead discussion, I'd like
to give my opinions on "non-explosive" destruction of the
Enterprise in STIII:TSFS.

A few evenings ago, our local station aired "The Naked Time".
In this episode, Reilly goes bezerk, locks himself in Engineering,
and shuts down the warp engines. Spock and Scotty must try 
an experimental fast restart of the engines before the ship
crashes into a planet.

Part of the problem with restarting the engines is that the
anti-matter is "cold". Hmm...

Could it be that there is type of "inert" state for anti-matter
where it does not readily combine with matter and go "VOOM"?
If so, then it is likely that the automation system Scotty
installed in STIII would shut the engines down, thus cooling
off the anti-matter, when the ship was damaged. (It would have
to, there'd be noone there to stop a runaway reaction.) 
Therefore, the destruct would have to proceed by more conve~tional means.

Well, does this sound plausible?
-- 
	John Ruschmeyer		...!vax135!petsd!moncol!john
	Monmouth College
	W. Long Branch, NJ 07764

Kirk:   You ought to sell a manual of instructions with these things.
Cyrano: If I did, Captain... what would happen to the search for knowledge?

cjn@calmasd.UUCP (Cheryl Nemeth) (01/13/85)

Summary:
Expires: 
References: <moncol.157>
Sender: 
Reply-To: cjn@calmasd.UUCP (Cheryl Nemeth)
Followup-To: 
Distribution: net
Organization: Calma Company, San Diego
Keywords: 

COLD Antimatter? What a horrible thought. Could they possibly have meant
that the support systems for the antimatter were cold?
-- 
Cheryl Nemeth
All opinions expressed in this article are my own, and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Calma Company or my cats.

"Life is a series of rude awakenings"
				R. V. Winkle

bsa@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery (the tame hacker on the North Coast)) (01/20/85)

> Article <243@calmasd.UUCP>, from cjn@calmasd.UUCP (Cheryl Nemeth)
+----------------
| COLD Antimatter? What a horrible thought. Could they possibly have meant
| that the support systems for the antimatter were cold?

No, the original message indicated that the person meant that antimatter
could be rendered "safe" -- a proposition ranking right up there with
the one that with enough shovels, we can survive a nuclear war.  Bleech.

--bsa
-- 
   Brandon Allbery @ decvax!cwruecmp!ncoast!bsa (..ncoast!tdi1!bsa business)
6504 Chestnut Road, Independence, Ohio 44131  +1 216 524 1416 (or what have you)
     Who said you had to be (a) a poor programmer or (b) a security hazard
			       to be a hacker?