For StarTrek fans we tested the USS Enterprise in our super-orbital expansion tube - X2. A scale model was placed in the test section and the facility used to generate a high speed gas flow of around 6.6 km/s. This was passed over the Enterprise for a duration of approximately 100 microseconds. We perform similar tests on other models investigating dissociation and ionisation processes which occur during atmospheric re-entry.
But the Enterprise isn't designed to enter an atmosphere??
Very true! However one could argue that this test was a simulation of the flight of the Enterprise where the Mach number of the flow is analogous to the Warp speed of the vehicle. Our test had a Mach number of around 5, or about half the full capabilities of the Enterprise. An image that we recorded at this speed can be seen below. This was taken with a digital camera open to luminosity from the flow throughout the test. Note the highly intense regions in front of the blunt sections of the vehicle.
[img=right]http://hem.bredband.net/b217293/warsaban.gif[/img] "Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. ... If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. ... If, as they say, God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?" -Epicurus
Fear is the mother of all gods.
Nature does all things spontaneously, by herself, without the meddling of the gods. -Lucretius
Interesting, but then also so very meaningless. I mean, they don't even know that warp factors don't give you the linear increase in speed that mache factor does. The FOOLS!
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
And it is meaningless, it ignores this little thing called a navigational deflector. Also ignores the fact that the air in in the wind tunnel is putting far more stress on the model than would be found in space
Everyday I beat my own previous record for number of consecutive days I've stayed alive.
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused.
I thought it was the impulse engine "manifolds", which is even more bizarre because they would be in the back and not encountering all the crazy space dust.
