Star Trek Technology
E
EM weapon
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Common type of weapon in the 22nd century, firing short
light bolts.
"EM weapons" may be an alternative name for the plasma weapons
which are visually identical.
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Emergency transporter armband
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Device used to keep a lock on a Starfleet away team for immediate beam-up in case of a dangerous situation.
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EMH
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Acronym for Emergency Medical Hologram, a holographic
replacement for a starship's medical officer. The EMH is a combination
of a projection and forcefields, like most objects created on the holodeck.
Being only a projection, the EMH seems to be inferior to replicated
holocharacters. However, this way he is able to change between an opaque
and a transparent state whenever required.
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Emotion chip
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Extension to Data's programming devised by Dr. Soong. The emotion chip is supposed to compensate for the android's originally intentional lack of emotions.
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Engineering section
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Also referred to as engineering hull, secondary hull or stardrive section, typically a distinct section of a Federation vessel in which the main power source and control (main engineering) is located.
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Engram
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Isolated and recorded specific memory.
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Environmental systems
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
See life support.
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EPS
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Acronym for ElectroPlasma System, the power distribution network used aboard Federation starships. Plasma is diverted throughout the ship to supply the warp drive and other systems such as SIF, life support, computers, shields or weapons.
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Escape pod
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Small vessel that is released from a starship in case
of an extreme emergency, also referred to as lifeboat. All recent Federation
starships are equipped with escape pods, a Galaxy-class vessel has about
400 of them. Escape pods are equipped with RCS propulsion only.
The escape pods can evidently be reintegrated into the ship, as it was
shown for the Sovereign class (see image on the right) in "Star
Trek: First Contact" and the Intrepid class in VOY: "Dreadnought".
It is obvious that the escape pods do not offer a good chance of survival,
in particular during a battle (DS9: "Valiant"). So evacuation
is the last option in case the ship is out of control. Yet, this applies
in the same manner to sea ships. The TNG Technical Manual uses the term
autonomous survival and recovery vehicle (ASRV) for the Galaxy-class
escape pods. If "escape pod" or "lifeboat" are just
generic terms, an ASRV might be a specific, more advanced type. This
would explain that ASRVs were first used as late as 2337, although previous
starships already did have lifeboats, such as the Constitution refit
(lifeboat sign in the cargo bay in "Star Trek I", mentioned
in Kobayashi Maru simulation in "Star Trek II") and Constellation
(mentioned in TNG: "The Battle"). Read more about lifeboats
on early ships in the Starship Class Inconsistencies.
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Eugene's limit
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Theoretical limit imposed on warp propulsion systems.
According to Eugene's limit, warp factor 10 cannot be achieved, since
the energy expenditure as well as the speed would be infinite.
Eugene's limit is named after Gene Roddenberry who introduced the Warp
10 limit for TNG. It was never mentioned on screen and is therefore
not strictly canon. Although it was an arbitrary definition at first,
Eugene's limit can fortunately be explained along with the peak transitional
threshold in a way that a 10th layer of the warp field is not efficient
and the complete remaining velocity range is compressed between Warp
9 (9 layers) and Warp 10 (infinite speed). Any mentioned warp factor
of 10 or more that seems to break this rule is actually attributed to
a different definition of warp factors (either the old TOS scale or
the future scale in TNG: "All Good Things"), where the latter
might be connected with a new propulsion technology (transwarp). In
essence, Eugene's limit expresses the impossibility of achieving infinite
speed, and this fundamental principle has been violated only in VOY:
"Threshold". Infinite speed is impossible, irrespective of
the employed propulsion system and probably also for Q-like beings.
Considering that there is nothing beyond infinite speed and therefore
no threshold to cross at Warp 10, even the title of this episode is
wrong. This is what Rick Sternbach says about "Threshold"
in his newsgroup (posted 17.03.99): "I think what may have happened
with the silly Warp 10 episode was that there was a coupling of the
energy from the shuttle to all of the energy *and* matter of the universe
(which might be possible if we're looking at a finite system), and the
shuttle was able to access any point anywhere by some amazing tunneling
phenomenon which shrank the normal 3D distances to points, much like
all the universe being squished into a pinpoint at the big bang because
it was all energy with no need for elbow room. Whew."
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Evasive pattern
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Tactical starship maneuver to escape an attack.
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Event horizon
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Spherical boundary around a black hole inside which any
form of mass or energy is inevitably trapped, unless it can move faster
than light.
A hypothetical event horizon can be assumed and calculated for any mass
value. It is possible to survive within the event horizon at least for
a few seconds, provided that it is a huge black hole with around a million
sun masses. A person crossing the event horizon in a starship would
notice nothing but a distorted view of the outside world at first. However,
while falling towards the center, the starship and its passenger would
be virtually stretched and finally torn apart because of the strong
gravitational force gradient. An external observer outside the event
horizon would perceive the starship and its passenger move slower the
closer they get to the event horizon, corresponding to a time dilation.
Eventually, they would virtually seem to stand still exactly on the
edge of the event horizon. Anyway, the starship would become invisible
to the observer because of the red shift of outgoing radiation. More
can be found here. The description of the real-world phenomenon is not
consistent with the effects shown in VOY: "The Parallax",
where a lot of silly technobabble, but hardly any serious science was
involved.
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Exobiology
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Science of alien life.
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Exocomp
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Small robot designed for multi-purpose tasks in hazardous environments. Exocomps are equipped with microreplicators for generating whatever tool is currently needed and an extensive neural system to allow independent decisions. In 2369 Lt. Cmdr. Data proved that Exocomps, due to this intelligence, had to be regarded as sentient lifeforms.
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Exoskeleton
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Body covering of Borg drones. The exoskeleton serves as armor and is directly connected to the organic body.
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