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Contents: tritanium duranium Bormanis' comments
TRITANIUM is an exotic metal alloy used in the construction of Federation spacecraft hulls, as noted in [TOS: The Menagerie] and in [#31 Threshold].
USS Voyager, fore view
the shuttlecraft Cochrane
[#31 Threshold] |
The hull of Voyager's shuttlecraft Cochrane is made from tritanium alloy (which also employed titanium, a real life element, atomic number 22, which should not be confused with tritanium), as noted in [#31 Threshold]. |
The tritanium decay on the tritanium alloy hull of the Federation ship Raven, crewed by Seven's parents during her childhood and whose remains Tuvok and Seven find in 2374, suggests that the ship has been there for nearly 20 years, [#74 The Raven].
the wrecked Hansens' ship, [#74 The Raven]
Janeway says farewell to Tuvok as she decides to remain on board the doomed Voyager
[#77 Year Of Hell, Part Two] |
In an eventually unrealised timeline, in [#76 and #77 Year Of Hell], with Voyager barely holding together, Janeway orders everyone off Voyager but elects to remain herself.
Tuvok: "Curious. I've never understood the human compulsion to emotionally bond with inanimate objects. This vessel has 'done' nothing. It's an assemblage of bulkheads, conduits, tritanium, nothing more."
Janeway replies: "Oh, you're wrong. It's much more than that. This ship has been our home, it's kept us together, it's been part of our family. As illogical as this might sound, I feel as close to Voyager as I do to any other member of the crew. It's carried us, Tuvok, even nurtured us, and right now it needs one of us." |
Tuvok shows Yediq the holding cells
[#159 Repentance] |
In 2377, in [#159 Repentance], Tuvok houses the death-row prisoners being escorted by Voyager on behalf of their Nygean warders in specially constructed holding cells.
Nygean chief warden, Yediq: "Are you sure these will hold them?"
Tuvok: "The forcefields are impenetrable, as are the tritanium bulkheads. In addition to your staff, two Voyager security officers will remain here at all times. Two more will be posted at the entrance to the cargo bay." |
In 2377, in [#164 Human Error], Seven takes action to render safe an alien missile that is approaching Voyager, by transporting out its detonator. She informs Janeway: "The detonator's protected by tritanium shielding. I can penetrate it but not at this distance. I'll have to wait until it's closer."
Seven has schematic and configuration details of the approaching missile displayed on the viewscreen of Voyager's astrometrics lab, [#164 Human Error]
Tritanium is also employed by some alien species as a material in the construction of their spacecraft: Voyager executes evasive maneuvers on detecting tritanium hull signatures when entering a nebula in 2377, in [#171 Endgame, Part One] - these turn out to be Borg vessels.
Plasticised tritanium mesh is a 26th century construction material, unknown in the 24th century. Professor Berlinghoff Rasmussen's time-travel pod has a hull composed of plasticised tritanium mesh, as noted in [TNG: A Matter of Time].
DURANIUM is an extremely strong metal alloy commonly used in spacecraft construction such as in the hulls of Starfleet shuttlecraft, as noted in [TOS: The Menagerie] and [#31 Threshold]. Voyager's hull is largely constructed from duranium alloy, as mentioned in [#96 Drone].
USS Voyager, aft view
Duranium composite is used in the skin of Starfleet runabouts, making them difficult to cut into, [DS9: Q-Less]. Possibly therefore the prototype USS Yellowstone, designed and stolen by Kim in the alternate reality he experiences in 2372, has duranium composite in its hull skin [Season 2: Non Sequitur].
schematics of the prototype runabout Yellowstone, displayed on a wall monitor at Starfleet Headquarters, [#22 Non Sequitur] |
USS Yellowstone heads for the space dock exit doors, [#22 Non Sequitur] |
USS Rio Grande, Danube-class runabout, registry number NCC-72452, one of three runabouts originally assigned to station Deep Space 9. It is first seen in [DS9: Emissary] and throughout [DS9]. Apart from its registry number, it could be USS Yellowstone because, for budgetary reasons, in production the runabout model and interior set were used in [#22 Non Sequitur] and, indeed, the spacedock doors closing as seen in that episode are footage from [TNG: Relics]
Klingon birds-of-prey are partially built of duranium, [DS9: Dramatis Personae].
Klingon bird-of-prey
a Klingon bird-of-prey barely escapes the destruction of the Genesis planet, [Star Trek III: The Search For Spock]; the Genesis project is alluded to by Janeway in her personal log in [#89 The Omega Directive]
Duranium is also used in the structure of some Kazon vessels, [#21 Initiations].
The outer shielding of the warp core is made of duranium, [#17 Projections]. Kim suggests using a duranium alloy to reinforce the nacelle of the test-flight shuttlecraft to prevent it from being ripped off the shuttlecraft during transwarp. Torres says that this will be too brittle, [#31 Threshold].
Voyager detects traces of duranium in the floating debris they find at Chakotay's last known co-ordinates, indicating that his shuttlecraft has been destroyed, [#21 Initiations].
Paris: "We're approaching Chakotay's last known co-ordinates, Captain."
Janeway: "All stop. Full sensor scan, Mr Kim."
Kim: "I'm picking up floating debris, composed of duranium, magnesite and electro-ceramics, also heavy traces of carbon residue."
[#21 Initiations] | Kim: "I'm picking up debris again: more duranium, magnesite, carbon residue. It's the remnants of another ship."
Janeway, via comms: "Bridge to engineering. Lieutenant Torres, prepare to receive another debris sample."
Torres, via comms: "Acknowledged."
Kim: "Transport under way."
Torres, via comms: "Torres to bridge. Sample received."
Janeway, via comms: "Let me know when you've got something, B'Elanna."
Torres, via comms: "I've got something right now. It's a piece of Chakotay's shuttle."
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Hologram Leonardo da Vinci's new flying machine is made of a duranium alloy, which makes Janeway think that this will make it light enough to fly, [#79 Concerning Flight]. Duranium is also used in the construction of the Delta Flyer, as mentioned in [#99 Once Upon A Time].
Voyager's crew use two types of tricorder, one an upgrade of the other, the TR-590 mark X. This is contructed of gamma-strengthened polyduranide and is believed to be more durable than the predecessor which was constructed of micromilled duranium foam; this information is not given in [Voyager] but in canon sources such as TOSTFF.
The problems involved in engineering a hull for an Enterprise-like or Voyager-like starship are considerable. A Federation starship must be able to withstand accelerations of thousands of g's
when it goes to warp. It must maintain its configuration and
tensile strength through temperatures that range from absolute
zero to thousands of kelvins. ideally, structural materials for
spacecraft would also be relatively lightweight; the more massive the spacecraft, the more power required to accelerate it.
And our starships must be able to hold up without major cracks
or other serious structural damage for at least the duration of a nominal five-year mission (as conducted by the Enterprise).
In [TOS], the term tritanium was coined to describe the principal material used in the construction of the hull of the Enterprise. Duranium was added to the lexicon of advanced structural materials in [TNG]. Materials strong enough to meet the needs of
Federation starship designers don't exist today, but there are some remarkable new composite materials that may some day
be up to the task.
USS Voyager; star background and Class-M planet by Janet
Scientists are often inspired by designs in nature when
they attempt to create new materials. Biological evolution has
produced a number of remarkably strong but lightweight materials in the plant world. Bamboo is one such material (the people of Korea have a saying that the ideal man is like bamboo:
strong but flexible). Bamboo achieves its combination of
strength and flexibility with bundles of long, thin organic fibres
stretched throughout its length.
Composites are materials made up of two or more separate
materials, combined in a way that makes a new material
stronger than either of the component materials alone. One of
the strongest classes of materials available today is metal-matrix composites. In a metal-matrix composite, thin fibres or
"whiskers" of a material such as silicon carbide are embedded
in matrices of aluminium and magnesium alloys. The fibres
increase the strength and high-temperature stability of the
alloys. Metal-matrix composite materials are currently used in
missile guidance systems and other applications.
The hardest substance known to materials science is, of
course, diamond. It seems likely that someday soon diamond
fibres will be synthesised and embedded in metal matrices.
Perhaps Star Trek's tritanium could be created by embedding
diamond fibres in a matrix comprised of a titanium alloy. Such
a composite would almost certainly have exceptionally robust
mechanical and thermal properties, and conceivably even meet
the demands of twenty-fourth-century spacecraft designers.
Just to be safe, USS Voyager and other starships feature a "structural integrity field" (often abbreviated to SIF) that maintains the hull's rigidity under extreme stress. An inertial damping field protects the crew against the extreme accelerations required to reach warp speeds.
This page: non-[Voyager] and non-USS Voyager pictures are from TOSTW.
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