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During its ongoing exploration of the Universe, the Federation developed
vessels that were dedicated to long, hazardous, interstellar voyages.
The biggest ships, cruisers from the Galaxy or Constitution Classes, were
built for this purpose. One of these, the now famous USS Enterprise NCC-1701
from the Constitution Class, began operating under the command of Captain
James T. Kirk during the late 2260's. This ship had a maximum velocity
of WARP 8, a speed that was limited by the ship's antimatter fuel
capacity. This speed limitation posed a threat during the ship's
occasional hostile interactions with alien vessels, some of which could
easily exceed this limit.
Light shock on the dome
To ensure their continued safekeeping, scientists aboard the Enterprise
began using the commercial code FLUENT-CCD (Computational Continuum Dynamics)
to help them understand the ship's performance at speeds in excess
of WARP 8. Using the coupled implicit solver for the compressible, low-density
conditions of deep space and the state-of-the-art astrodynamics models
that are standard with FLUENT-CCD, the scientists were able to simulate
the WARP 9 and WARP 10 behavior of their ship.
Distortion of the continuum field
The WARP 9 results showed an unexpected light shock on the pilot's
dome that could potentially cause critical damage to the ship's structure,
as well as a severe distortion of the continuum field used for displacement.
The WARP 10 analysis demonstrated for the first time the existence of
the predicted (but never observed) Second Chromatic Detonation, the first
of which occurs when the vessel crosses the speed of light barrier in
its transition to WARP 1. The success of the project has paved the way
for further research on the next generation of interstellar vessels.
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