Warp Speeds

When Zefram Cochrane breaks the light speed barrier with the invention of the warp drive in 2063, he revolutionizes interstellar space travel forever. This profound scientific discovery is merely the beginning of a whole new frontier being opened.

Warp factor is the unit of measurement used for calculating warp speeds, and this scale has been recalculated since the days of the original USS Enterprise NCC 1701. During the ship's epic missions it has a cruising speed of warp 6, with a maximum of warp 8, though encounters with alien life forms enable the ship to reach speeds of upto warp 14.1

 However, by the 24th century a new warp factor scale has been introduced which, while still making warp 1 the equivalent to the speed of light, makes warp 10 an infinite and theoretically unobtainable velocity which places the ship at all points in the universe at the same time. There has been only one instance of the warp 10 barrier being exceeded, by Lt. Tom Paris of the USS Voyager NCC 74656, but only with extraordinary consequences.

Following the new formula, the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-d, like all other Galaxy-Class ships, has a standard cruising speed of warp 6 - equivalent to about 7.3 on the old scale and 393 times the speed of light. Its maximum normal velocity is warp 9.2, though that speed can be exceeded. However, with unmodified warp engines, speeds in excess of warp 5 are now believed to cause damage to the space-time continuum.

In 1969, it took manned space vehicles three days to reach the Moon. At full impulse speeds the same journey takes a starship a mere 5.38 seconds. A journey to the nearest star system, Proxima Centauri, at Warp 7 (656 x light speed) now takes three days - the time it used to take to go to the moon! At warp 1, or light speed, it would take almost five years.

      Earth to Moon Across Sol Nearby star Across sector Across Fed Nearby Galaxy
Speed Km/h x light 400,000km 12m km 5lyrs 20lyrs 10,000lyrs 2,000,000lyrs Notes
Standard Orbit <0.00001 42hrs 142yrs 558,335yrs 2m yrs 1.12b yrs 223.33b yrs Synchronous orbit around Class-m planet
Full Impulse * 270m 0.25 5.38sec 44hrs 20yrs 80yrs 400,000yrs 8,000,000yrs Normal Maximum Impulse
Warp 1 1078m 1 1.34sec 11hrs 5yrs 20yrs 100,000yrs 2,000,000yrs  
Warp 2 11b 10 0.13sec 1hrs 6mth 3yrs 9,921yrs 198,425yrs  
Warp 3 42b 39 0.03sec 17min 2mth 1yr 2,568yrs 51,360yrs  
Warp 4 109b 102 0.013237sec 7min 18days 2mth 984yrs 19,686yrs  
Warp 5 230b 214 0.006291sec 3min 9days 1mth 468yrs 9,357yrs Old cruising speed
Warp 6 423b 392 0.003426sec 2min 5days 19days 255yrs 5,096yrs New cruising speed
Warp 7 707b 656 0.002049sec 1min 3days 11days 152yrs 2,048yrs  
Warp 8 1103t 1,024 0.001313sec 39sec 2days 7days 98yrs 1,952yrs  
Warp 9 1.63t 1,516 0.000886sec 26sec 1day 5days 66yrs 1,953yrs  
Warp 9.2 1.78t 1,649 0.000815sec 24sec 1day 4days 61yrs 1,213yrs Old normal max warp
Warp 9.6 2.06t 1,909 0.000704sec 21sec 23hrs 4days 52yrs 1,048yrs Max rated; maintained for 12 hrs
Warp 9.9 3.29t 3.053 0.000440sec 13sec 14hrs 2days 33yrs 656yrs Auto-shutdown after 10mins
Warp 9.99 8.53t 7,912 0.000169sec 5 sec 6hrs 22hrs 13yrs 263yrs Nearly infinite power needed
Warp 9.9999 215t 199,516 0.000006sec 0.2sec 12min 53min 6mth 10yrs Max subspace radio
Warp 10 infinite infinite 0 0 0 0 0 0 Theoretically unobtainable
* Full impulse is equal to one quarter light speed.
Warp Core Operation

The heart of a starship's warp drive system is the warp core, a power source which generates and controls energies equivalent to those inside a star. In this contained environment, matter and antimatter react to create the power that makes interstellar fast-than-light (FTL) travel a possibility.

The warp core powers propulsion systems and other major starship systems. It provides 1,000,000 times more energy than the standard fusion engines as used by the impulse propulsion system. Other names for the warp core include the warp reactor and the main engine core, but it is most accurately called the matter/antimatter reaction assembly (M/ARA). This consists of four subsystems:

 Reactant injectors
Magnetic constriction segments
The Matter/Antimatter reaction chamber
Power Transfer conduits

Warp core Subsystems
At the upper end of the M/ARA is the matter reactant injector, and at the lower end is the antimatter reactant injector. Through these the core receives prepared and controlled streams of reactant material.

Handling the antimatter requires special care. If it makes contact with matter (no matter how small), a catastrophic explosion will occur. However, such an explosion controlled by magnetic fields and focused by dilithium crystals provides enough energy to power the starship to velocities beyond the speed of light.

 The matter and antimatter streams are channeled through the magnetic constriction segments (MCS), where they are aligned and compressed by magnetic constrictor coils. This insures that the matter and antimatter streams will meet at the exact center of the matter/antimatter reaction chamber (M/ARC).

Inside the M/ARC is the dilithium crystal articulation frame (DCAF), the very heart of the warp core. Carefully positioned in the DCAF, the dilithium crystal allows the violent matter/antimatter reaction to be tuned and controlled. The dilithium crystal is the only material known to Federation science that does not react to antimatter.

The plasma streams generated inside the M/ARC are split into two, and sent along power transfer conduits (PTC) that are similar in structure and function to the MCS. The plasma streams flow through the PTC to the field coils in the warp engine nacelles.

In the case of an extreme emergency and if the safety of the ship is in jeopardy, the warp propulsion system can be shutdown or even jettisoned. If given a choice between assuring the safety of the crew and continuing the ship's mission, automatic systems always prioritize the crew.

Starship Facts
The USS Yamamoto NCC 71807 is destroyed by an antimatter containment failure in 2365 The USS Enterprise NCC 1701d is unable to contain a warp core breach in 2371, when the Duras sisters penetrate the ship's shields with a frequency-matched photon torpedo. The Enterprise has to evacuate the battle-section before it is blown to pieces The intermix formula of matter to antimatter in the warp core is 1 to 1.