StarDestroyer.Net BBS

What we did.

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.