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It is stated as a matter of Canon (by Picard to Moriarty) that the basis of transporters...and logically, replicators...is the interchangeability of matter and energy.

Is it possible to directly tap into this energy as a power source?
Should be right on par with that of M/AM and Quantum Singularity Cores.

You mean, use the replicators/transporters to break a quantity of matter down into energy, and then use that energy to power something?

In "The Slaver Weapon," Spock was suprised when he saw a device that could accomplish complete conversion of matter into energy, despite the fact that they'd been using transporters for over a century at that point. It was an animated episode, so it's not officially canon, but it still gives you something to think about.

Agent R wrote:You mean, use the replicators/transporters to break a quantity of matter down into energy, and then use that energy to power something?

Yes, exactly. Not just in discrete batches, but continuously.

The fact that they don't use transporter technology that way is ample proof that it isn't possible. If they could, they wouldn't need to tote around those pods full of dangerous anti-matter.

Transporters obviously don't literally convert matter into energy and then back again. They apparently convert matter into another form (like a particle stream or something) that can be moved around, but they don't convert it into energy.

doesn't warp drive effectively accomplish the same thing? it uses matter and anti-matter, converts the two into energy and then uses that energy to power various parts of the ship. course i'd imagine the power gleaned from using a transporter or replicator would be miniscule in comparison to using a warp drive, so it doesn't seem as though it would be a very practical power source if they could.

Darth_Zod wrote:doesn't warp drive effectively accomplish the same thing? it uses matter and anti-matter, converts the two into energy and then uses that energy to power various parts of the ship. course i'd imagine the power gleaned from using a transporter or replicator would be miniscule in comparison to using a warp drive, so it doesn't seem as though it would be a very practical power source if they could.

It is the nature of matter and anti-matter to annihilate into energy when they meet, and it is even possible to make small amounts of anti-matter in a laboratory today. Making anti-matter, however, consumes a considerable amount of energy, and you make an equal amount of matter at the same time.

A transporter moves matter around, but the same mass of matter exists before and after the process. Furthermore, we've seen that the transporter effect works on some kinds of energy, as well (in "Datalore", we saw Lore's phaser shot disappear with him when Wesley engaged the cargo bay transporter).

What we've seen transporters do and the general limits we've seen on them is inconsistent with the ability to really convert matter into energy and especially inconsistent with the need to carry large quantities of anti-matter fuel on the ship.

Their description of the process as converting matter into energy and back is obviously some colloquial terminology comparable to the term "phaser rifle", even though the weapon has neither a rifled barrel nor any need for one.

it could have simply deactivated the phaser when the phaser was set off. iirc there's been incidencees of hostile parties beaming over and their weapons being disabled by the computers during transport.

Darth_Zod wrote:it could have simply deactivated the phaser when the phaser was set off. iirc there's been incidencees of hostile parties beaming over and their weapons being disabled by the computers during transport.

There was another episode, I forget the name, where Data had been kidnapped by a collector. Just as Data comes to the decision that the collector does indeed need shot, the Enterprise finds him and beams him up. The transporter chief exclaims that the phaser had been fired, and Riker(?) orders him to disable it before materializing.

Drat! I've accidentally started a tangent.

The key point is that if transporter technology were useful as an energy source, they would use it instead of carrying around enough antimatter to easily destroy the ship in the event of a containment failure. An ordinary chunk of lead would be a dense, safe power source if you could just convert it into energy at will with transporter technology.