Post by Captain Erys Murai on Jul 28, 2017 23:24:03 GMT -5
Since it came up in the shoutbox, I decided to make a thread rather than filling up the box with what could become a debate. The question posed was whether or not slipstream could be used indefinitely, and if so what the source of this information was.
There is a previous discussion on the Slipstream Drive
There are three layers that lead us to the present day.
Canon:
Voyager discovered the Dauntless in 2374, which was in reality a Species 116 designed ship. Voyager's crew copied the technical details of the ship, and used those schematics to a limited version of the slipstream drive. They were only able to maintain a slipstream for about an hour (during which they traveled about 300 lightyears, which is where the speed calculations come from), but could not create one once it collasped.
About a year later, they managed to recreate the drive in its entirety. During the text, they noticed instabilities in the corridor, which ultimately led to theship's destruction. corridor being destabilized. They shelved the technology until it could be developed safely.
Source: Memory Alpha
Soft-Canon:
In the Destiny series (not canon to STO), the problems of slipstream were solved in the 2380's, but its use was mostly limited to the Vesta class. (source)
In the STO universe, slipstream development took considerably longer, but by 2409 all ships were capable of limited slipstream velocity, although for most ships it was used only in the most extreme emergencies (source). Some ships, such as the Odyssey, Vesta, Avenger, Chimaera, the fleet's "Navigator" class, and a few Klingon and Romulan ships, are designed with slipstream in mind. These ships are considered to have an "advanced" drive when compared to other ships. The Dauntless itself is considered to have a "hyper-advanced" drive, although the only real difference is a higher turn rate in slipstream.
Fleet-Canon:
As mentioned in the previous thread, fleet canon has additional development of slipstream using the Navigator class. (source) In more recent years, newer ships have been built with slipstream capability in mind. The Pilgrim, current Adagio, current Sentinel, and the Protector are all slipstream-capable if necessary.
In game terms, the regular ability only lasts for 30 seconds, whereas the advanced and hyper-advanced versions last for 60 seconds. Working backwards from what we know from canon, the Dauntless was capable of indefinite slipstream velocity. If this ability holds true for the Federation's replica version (the Dauntless class, aka Experimental Science Vessel), then the other versions would have indefinite slipstream capability as well. Other, older designs would still be limited to an hour or so, based on Voyager's initial experiences.
Fleet canon also backs this up, as the USS Independence (Navigator class), Adagio-B (Solbianca class) and USS Pilgrim (Bellerophon class) have all used slipstream in their sessions, and in many cases those uses were far longer than a couple hours. The Sentinel, as an Avenger variant, is one of the "advanced" slipstream-capable ships by default, and the Protector is a Vigilant-class, which was originally intended to be slipstream-capable as well.
The Protector itself uses a hybrid warp/slipstream drive, which uses the standard dilithium-powered reaction rather than benamite, but is in turn limited to a maximum of 24 hours consecutive use due to the inherent inefficiency of the hybrid design. (source
(note that most of those wiki pages haven't been updated in a year or more, and thus may not include newer STO ships, or more recent fleet development)
There is a previous discussion on the Slipstream Drive
There are three layers that lead us to the present day.
Canon:
Voyager discovered the Dauntless in 2374, which was in reality a Species 116 designed ship. Voyager's crew copied the technical details of the ship, and used those schematics to a limited version of the slipstream drive. They were only able to maintain a slipstream for about an hour (during which they traveled about 300 lightyears, which is where the speed calculations come from), but could not create one once it collasped.
About a year later, they managed to recreate the drive in its entirety. During the text, they noticed instabilities in the corridor, which ultimately led to the
Source: Memory Alpha
Soft-Canon:
In the Destiny series (not canon to STO), the problems of slipstream were solved in the 2380's, but its use was mostly limited to the Vesta class. (source)
In the STO universe, slipstream development took considerably longer, but by 2409 all ships were capable of limited slipstream velocity, although for most ships it was used only in the most extreme emergencies (source). Some ships, such as the Odyssey, Vesta, Avenger, Chimaera, the fleet's "Navigator" class, and a few Klingon and Romulan ships, are designed with slipstream in mind. These ships are considered to have an "advanced" drive when compared to other ships. The Dauntless itself is considered to have a "hyper-advanced" drive, although the only real difference is a higher turn rate in slipstream.
Fleet-Canon:
As mentioned in the previous thread, fleet canon has additional development of slipstream using the Navigator class. (source) In more recent years, newer ships have been built with slipstream capability in mind. The Pilgrim, current Adagio, current Sentinel, and the Protector are all slipstream-capable if necessary.
In game terms, the regular ability only lasts for 30 seconds, whereas the advanced and hyper-advanced versions last for 60 seconds. Working backwards from what we know from canon, the Dauntless was capable of indefinite slipstream velocity. If this ability holds true for the Federation's replica version (the Dauntless class, aka Experimental Science Vessel), then the other versions would have indefinite slipstream capability as well. Other, older designs would still be limited to an hour or so, based on Voyager's initial experiences.
Fleet canon also backs this up, as the USS Independence (Navigator class), Adagio-B (Solbianca class) and USS Pilgrim (Bellerophon class) have all used slipstream in their sessions, and in many cases those uses were far longer than a couple hours. The Sentinel, as an Avenger variant, is one of the "advanced" slipstream-capable ships by default, and the Protector is a Vigilant-class, which was originally intended to be slipstream-capable as well.
The Protector itself uses a hybrid warp/slipstream drive, which uses the standard dilithium-powered reaction rather than benamite, but is in turn limited to a maximum of 24 hours consecutive use due to the inherent inefficiency of the hybrid design. (source
(note that most of those wiki pages haven't been updated in a year or more, and thus may not include newer STO ships, or more recent fleet development)