If only they had Space OSHA.
That would be so cool a sci-fi adaption of forklift-driver Klaus (warning, a bit gory but hilarious):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJYOkZz6Dck
Basic overcurrent protection? In my sci-fi?
Next you’re gonna tell me you can’t just “re-route power” by pressing buttons on a screen and not, you know, actually unhooking any wires!
one of my favorite jokes about this is on TNG. i think it’s the episode where the bridge gets cut off from the rest of the ship, and Troi is in charge of running the ship. O’Brian makes a comment to Ro about how you can’t ‘just reroute power from things’.
it’s a funny little nod from the writers.
How do you know the buttons don’t trigger relais or the like which then actually unhook the wires?
Judging from what things look like when they open up the walls, they could just be telling the system to use a specific circuit path. It looks like everything is just a bunch of blocks or cards with super dense computer chips on them and half the repairs we ever see are just these being unslotted and replaced. The other half being waving fake tools around.
Some real dense, high-tech circuitry going on in there…
…is that an isolinear rod next to Uhura’s head?
Building everything to be able to re-route to everything is WHY all the consoles are constantly exploding.
What do you mean you dont want to reroute all the power for the warp engines into the navigation console?
I don’t know about you people, but personally, I always write programs at work by removing boards from my computer and plugging them in a different order.
Well, it really wasn’t. You’d program by punching the cards, and then insert them into the computer. If they brought the boards from a terminal (or replicator), and switched the old ones to the new ones, the entire thing would make sense.
It’s a bit similar to how people programed analogical computers at the 50s. But it’s actually a lot like programing old sewing machines. The thing those have in common is that their programs were always an order of magnitude smaller than this comment.
you can’t just “re-route power” by pressing buttons on a screen and not, you know, actually unhooking any wires!
High-voltage switches might be a bit complicated. One I’ve seen requires you to tighten a spring and then have it released extremely fast to prevent sparking. Still, there should be a way to do it safely, without having to go near or touch the wiring.
that what*
wait till they rediscover seatbelts
If bracing for impact is good enough for the Enterprise, it’s good enough for my Hyundai.
Everyone else in the minivan:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4d/b2/ee/4db2eedb2235018f827398503423a9ec.jpg
“Inertial dampeners have failed.”
Many times someone will say this while the ships is performing combat maneuvers at several hundred kilometers per second.
If that were true, everyone onboard would instantly become “chunky salsa.” (Obscure Trek-related quote, for anyone that can place it.)
But then they can’t get infected by the secret bioengineered virus left behind by the extinct species!
Then gatekeeping fans will say it breaks canon, has to be an alternate timeline/universe because they didn’t need those in TOS/TNG.
Oh, wait, that’s one of the criticisms of the environmental suits in Discovery and SNW…
Do we have fuses that can safely dissipate like 350Megajoules? I don’t remember which specific episode it was, but I remember on DS9 they were going to overload the warpcore to stop something and someone said the only system on the station capable of absorbing that much raw electrical energy was the shield system, since that’s literally what it is; a giant fuse.
Fuses don’t dissipate electricity. They pass electricity and then blow when exceeded. Blowing is either flipping off (like your breaker) or breaking (like replaceable fuses). The point of a fuse is to be the weakest link so if a surge occurs it doesn’t damage equipment or wiring.
In the case you described, they were looking for a load (where energy is used or dissipated to do work) to absorb that much energy at once. There might be a fuse that could withstand that kind of load; there was wiring that could afterall. But if the shield system could absorb the full power of an overloaded warp core, it might not have needed one if there was no downside to overcharging it.
Hum… I have a 75MJ varistor on each phase of the main wiring of my house. Those are not fuses (because fuses don’t have a total energy specification) but I can certainly get a few more for the Enterprise it they want.
Yes, I’m sure. I used to have 5MJ ones, but one burned down once. So I got the large ones. AFAIK, they are the largest that will fit 1 unity in a DIM panel. It’s supposed to change phases more than once if it receives that kind of abuse, but keep safely conducting electricity all the way.
It’s a common component around lightning protection. You’d want something better to actually deal with the lightning if your network is unprotected (there are plenty of options), but mine is protected.
