Star Trek Technology
C
Captain's yacht
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Large shuttle docked at the ventral side of the saucer
hulls of Galaxy-class and Sovereign-class starships, usually employed
for diplomatic missions.
The captain's yacht was never shown in 178 TNG episodes, however, it
is depicted in the STTNG Technical Manual. According to Patrick Stewart,
the captain's yacht of the Enterprise-D is named "Calypso".
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Cardiostimulator
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Medical device to support heart activity.
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Cargo bay
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Section of a starship which is used for storage of various cargo. Cargo bays can be accessed through docking ports or by cargo transporters.
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Cargo transporter
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Low-resolution high-volume transporter system for non-biological objects.
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Causality loop
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Sequence of events in which cause and effect cannot be
distinguished. A causality loop is possible if a time travel is involved.
This phenomenon is extensively discussed on my time travel pages.
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Central plexus
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Part of a Borg ship whose purpose is to control and link
together the drones.
The difference between the central plexus (VOY: "Unimatrix Zero")
and the vinculum (VOY: "Infinite Regress") never becomes clear.
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Chroniton torpedo
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Krenim weapon that employs a temporal invariance of typically
1.47µs to penetrate shields.
Chroniton torpedoes are featured in VOY: "Before and After"
and "The Year of Hell". This weapon is obviously related to
temporal incursion. It is not evident how the small temporal shift allows
to pass through Voyager's shields as if the latter had not been there
1.47µs before. Maybe they are out of phase. Chroniton torpedoes
only exist in the timeline when the Krenim Imperium is powerful, and
it is not clear whether this is the case at the end of the episode "The
Year of Hell II".
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Class M
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Classification for a planet with a nitrogen-hydrogen
atmosphere. Class-M planets provide comfortable living conditions for
a longer time, and the are suited for permanent accommodation of humanoids.
A precise definition of planet classes can only be found in non-canon
sources, e.g. in the UFP Info Terminal (external link). At least, K
and L planet classes that also provide breathable air, but seem to designate
desert planets, are mentioned in a couple of episodes. Star Trek inherently
focuses on Earth-like planets for dramaturgical reasons, since no spacesuits
are necessary and suitable sets are easy to find. Still, inhabitable
planets seem to ubiquitous, and every time a shuttle is about to crash,
there is "occasionally" a Class-M or at least Class-K or L
planet in the vicinity. ENT: "Strange New World" establishes
that the term "Class M" is obviously derived from Vulcan "Minshara-Class".
See more about canon planet classes: Planet Classification.
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Cloaking device
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Technology of Romulan origin used to render a starship
invisible to the eye and to sensors, also used by the Klingons and on
the U.S.S. Defiant. The cloaking device generates a space distortion
which causes light and sensor rays to travel around the ship, so nothing
is reflected from its surface. Cloaking the ship consumes large amounts
of power, therefore the simultaneous use of the warp drive was not possible
with the early cloaking devices in the 23rd century. Furthermore, the
use of weapons is usually not possible while the cloaking device is
activated.
The space distortion necessary to bend light rays is equivalent to an
enormous mass concentration and would certainly crush the ship and crew,
so additional measures must be taken to compensate the effect inside
the distortion.
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Cloning
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Technique to grow a new body that is genetically identical
to an existing lifeform.
Cmdr. Riker and Dr. Pulaski were cloned without their consent in TNG:
"Up the Long Ladder". Still, shooting at their clones with
phasers was ethically highly questionable. The Vorta are a complete
race of cloned individuals, and a Vorta like Weyoun can simply be recreated
by the Founders if their predecessor is dead or regarded as unreliable.
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Coaxial warp drive
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
An FTL propulsion technology which is described as bending
space, not subspace, as opposed to conventional warp drive.
The description of the coaxial warp drive of "folding the fabric
of space" (VOY: "Vis-à-Vis") sounds much like
what several people, including author Lawrence Krauss (The Physics of
Star Trek), claim how normal warp drive could work. I only have a problem
with the term "coaxial" for which there is no clue.
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Cochrane (unit)
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Measure for the subspace field stress. The unit cochrane
is employed to measure the power of a warp drive as well as of other
devices which create a subspace field, such as the impulse drive and
the FTL computer core. The cochrane value equals the velocity ratio
v/c for the given warp factor. Warp 1 and v/c=1 is achieved for a subspace
distortion of 1 cochrane. Values smaller than 1 cochrane correspond
to sublight speed. At Warp 10, finally, the cochrane value becomes infinite
because of Eugene's limit, and so does the apparent velocity.
The unit was named in honor of Zefram Cochrane who built the first Terran
vessel to achieve warp speed.
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Communicator
Canon - Official Star Trek concept
Non-Canon - Original Borderlands Trek PBEM RPG badge design
Personnel subspace communication device, originally hand-held,
later in the 24th century integrated in the Starfleet badge; the latter
is also referred to as comm badge. The communicator serves to establish
a voice contact to another person or computer and provides lock-on contact
for the transporter. The comm badge is usually programmed with a crew
member's individual bioelectric data, which is verified through a dermal
sensor. The communicator will fail when used by an unauthorized person.
Recent cellular phones are smaller than the original communicator, which
is a clear indication for the progress in electronics since the 1960's
and could possibly render TOS ridiculous. Still, it has to be taken
into account that subspace communication is far beyond our time.
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Computer system
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Data processing, transfer and storage system utilized
for a wide variety of control purposes, for scientific analysis and
as a library computer. In 24th Federation starships the computer cores
are equipped with subspace field generators which enable FTL data processing
and transmission. All components of the computer system are connected
with each other and with the main computer core by the ODN. A number
of subprocessors is distributed throughout the ship to supply additional
computing capacity, improve speed and provide redundancy.
As the data volumes as well as the clock frequencies of computers rise,
light speed becomes the main limiting speed factor. Moreover, distances
of several hundred meters have to be covered within starships. Hence,
FTL data processing is inevitable in 24th century computers.
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Containment field
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Generic term for a forcefield used to isolate antimatter in their storage pods or hazardous biological or chemical specimens in a science lab.
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Cortical stimulator
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Medical device that stimulates brain activity in case of severe injuries.
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Cryostasis
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
State of low biological activity in a human body, achieved
by preserving the body in a cooling chamber.
Cryostasis was featured in a number of episodes, usually as a technology
for long-range space travel (TOS: "Space Seed", TNG: "The
Emissary", VOY: "11:59") or to preserve a genetic pool
(VOY: "The 37's"). Another method is cryonics, meaning that
the bodies of patients with incurable diseases are frozen after their
deaths (TNG: "The Neutral Zone"), hoping they might be revived
in the future.
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