Transwarp Drive

Transwarp Drive Transwarp and the Transwarp drive were an experimental technology for increasing the efficiency and speed of starship propulsion systems. Though the project showed great promise and was extensively tested on the USS Excelsior, Federation scientists could not make it work successfully and abandoned the project.

The actual method or process of using Transwarp drive and Transwarp Conduits is unknown. However, a rare form of Dilithium, called "Trilithium" was used by the Voyager crew in an attempt to recreate the original Tranwarp experiments. Unfortunatly Voyagers tests ended in abject failure. The reason for this being the sudden and spontaneous occupation of every point in the universe when an object reached Warp 10, the theoretical barriar of warp drive.

There is speculation that the original Tranwarp drive was an attempt to create an opening via interphase and travel through another dimension. Since time flowedat a different rate in this other dimension a three week journey via interphase would only take three days in real space. However, this is only a stop gap measure and creates unpleasant scenarios akin to the Relativity problems of non-warp interstellar travel.

In 2270 it was realized that even this theoretical transwarp domain was only part of the whole structure. The theory allowed for an infinite number of such domains, each separated by a warp barrier. Throughout the early 2270's there was a huge effort to discover whether these transwarp domains where just theoretical constructs, or where actually real. In 2273 the Starfleet science vessel USS Wanderer conducted a subspace particle dissipation experiment which proved conclusively that not only did Transwarp domains actually exist, but that under certain circumstances it was possible for matter to circumvent the warp barrier and pass into the transwarp domain.

Theoretical and practical studies quickly established that at a point infinitesimally past Warp 10, the warp factor exponent fell from infinity to zero and then began to gradually rise again. By Warp 11 the exponent reached 13/3, after which it mirrors the behavior of the normal warp curve. A Warp 19 the exponent begins to climb, again reaching infinity at warp 20 to form the next warp barrier. The whole process is repeated again in the second Transwarp domain, and again in the third, and so on. In each domain the 'steady' central value of the exponent increases linearly - from 10/3 in the warp domain to 13/3 in the first Transwarp domain, 16/3 in the second, then 19/3, 22/3, and so on.