Star Trek Technology
I
IDF
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Acronym for Inertial Damping Field, a forcefield that
is especially designed to compensate for acceleration forces within
a starship. Several IDF generators are distributed throughout a Federation
starship.
Although the purpose and principle is similar, the IDF works independently
of the SIF. Without the IDF, the crew would virtually be crushed when
the ship accelerates. The STTNG Technical Manual introduces a response
delay, justifying "why our crew is occasionally knocked out of
their chairs during battle or other drastic maneuvers despite the IDF."
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Iconian gateway
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Highly advanced transporting device through which it is
possible to cross vast distances in an instant, built by the Iconian
civilization 200,000 years ago.
The technology may be related to the space-folding transporter.
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Impulse drive
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Propulsion system for sublight speeds. In Federation starships,
the impulse drive usually consists of a fusion reactor, an accelerator,
a driver coil assembly and an exhaust director. The fusion reaction
generates a highly excited plasma. This plasma can be employed for propulsion,
or can be diverted through the EPS so as to supply other systems. The
accelerated plasma is passed through the driver coils, thereby a subspace
field is generated that improves the propulsive effect.
In The Physics of Star Trek (external link) Lawrence Krauss discusses
the amount of fuel required for impulse speed, based on the energy gained
by the fusion reaction, and considering that mass significantly increases
at relativistic speeds. His result is that much more fuel than the ship's
mass is required to accelerate the ship to high sublight speed. Krauss
did not take into account that the subspace field generated in the driver
coils lowers the apparent mass. The STTNG Technical Manual, however,
states that the subspace driver coil was introduced as late as in the
Ambassador class, although it must have existed earlier according to
Krauss's calculations. One could suggest that the warp coils could generate
a subspace field below 1 cochrane in order to achieve sublight propulsion
or at least facilitate impulse propulsion. However, according to the
STTNG Technical Manual, the efficiency of the warp coils is reduced
drastically below Warp 1 and therefore the warp drive would not be "wasted"
for this purpose.
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Impulse speed
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Sublight speed which is achieved with the impulse drive, usually measured in fractions of c, the speed of light. For impulse speeds above approx. 0.25c, relativistic considerations are inevitable.
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Interphase generator
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Special cloaking device that manipulates the molecular
structure of matter in a way that it is transferred ("phased")
into a parallel space. Matter cloaked with an interphase generator is
not only invisible to conventional natural and artificial sensors, it
is also able to penetrate normal matter.
An interphase generator was installed in the U.S.S. Pegasus in 2358,
although cloaking devices are prohibited in the Federation according
to the Algeron Treaty (TNG: "The Pegasus"). The Romulans tested
such a cloaking device in 2368. When the experiment failed and the Enterprise
arrived to assist the Romulan ship, Geordi and Laren were affected by
this device and disappeared. However, while being in phase, they were
still able to stand on the floor and breathe normal air (TNG: "The
Next Phase"). The shown effects are much too inconsistent to determine
whether the cloaked object disappears to a parallel dimension or to
subspace or anywhere else.
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Isolinear
chip Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Nanotechnical device that serves for data and software
storage in 24th Federation computer systems. Optical signal processing
is employed in isolinear chips, and FTL signal transfer is enabled when
installed in a starship's computer core. Isolinear chips also serve
as portable storage devices.
It is unknown why these chips are called "isolinear", maybe
this refers to the single (iso-) crystalline structure of the optical
layers.
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Isolinear rod
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Cardassian equivalent to Federation isolinear chips.
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Isolytic weapon
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
See subspace weapon.
Content thanks to "www.ex-astris-scientia.org"
Isomagnetic disintegrator
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Large portable energy beam weapon. Such a weapon was used by Picard's crew to defend the Ba'ku in 2375.
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Isoton (unit)
Canon - Official Star Trek Technology
Unit for the measurement of the explosive force of a
photon torpedo or quantum torpedo.
This unit might be useful, yet it is not very precise. Since "iso-"
means "equal", it could represent an equivalent mass of explosives,
given in tons. It is very improbable that the (metric?) tons refer to
TNT, because present day fission bombs are already in the range of hundreds
of kilotons of TNT. The unit probably does not apply to antimatter,
either, since a photon torpedo contains only a few kilograms of it and
in VOY: "Scorpion II", Seven of Nine lists "Voyager's
weapons inventory: Photon torpedo complement 32, Class-6 warheads. Explosive
yield 200 isotons." Isotons are also mentioned in VOY: "The
Omega Directive", where a single photon torpedo casing can be armed
to 80 isotons. Subsequently, there are mentions of still higher yields
each time. Isotons seem to share the fate of the quads...
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