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I seem to remember somewhere (possibly in the RPG, possibly in one of the tech manuals), that there was a transwarp probe (unmanned, i believe) that got sent out towards the Andromeda Galaxy sometime areound Star Trek III or IV. Does anyone remember this? If so, what was the name of the probe? I't's been driving me higgeldy-piggeldy.

john

Have no idea. Since I don't know if they mentioned it from either the movies or TV series, I doubt it is canon.

I know the ST3 novelization mentioned an expedition to the Andromeda galaxy, but it wasn't transwarp.

Uraniun235 wrote:I know the ST3 novelization mentioned an expedition to the Andromeda galaxy, but it wasn't transwarp.

yep.. that was the refernce. well, considering I haven't read the novelization id about fifteen years, I'm not surprised I got it mixed up. Thanks.

The ship was called the USS Magellan, commanded by Captain Mandala Flynn. They list it as Galaxy-Class, obviously galaxy-class means something different here. Here's the relevant bit (pp. 36-37):

"The galaxy ships are already paying off", Esteban said. "Have you heard?"
"We've been out of touch", Jim said dryly.
"Of course. but a subspace transmission just came through - it made all the news services. Magellan is in Andromeda. It just completed the first close-range observation of a supernova."...

"... Magellan is a bit of a technological trick. It's too small to do anything but quick and dirty scouting missions. And if they encounter hostiles, what can they do but turn tail and run?"
"No doubt you're right", Jim said.
"No, it's Excelsior that's the wave of the future."

so whether it's a protoype of the transwarp that's been seriously stripped down, something parallel to it that they just couldn't scale-up or something completely different that was a one-shot deal is uncelar.

John

hewhocaves wrote:snip

It just sounds like an unmanned ship sized probe that would travel at normal warp speeds. It would probably be mostly deuterium as well since there isn't much hydrogen between galaxies.

Actualy the probe would probobly be powered by anti-matter like all starfleet ships.

How would it have enough fuel to go millions of light years? Not to mention it would take an extremely long time...

Natorgator wrote:How would it have enough fuel to go millions of light years? Not to mention it would take an extremely long time...

See, this is why novelizations tend not to be canon...

Uraniun235 wrote:

Natorgator wrote:How would it have enough fuel to go millions of light years? Not to mention it would take an extremely long time...

See, this is why novelizations tend not to be canon...

lol.. exactly. I'm putting together a story where the probe actually goes to the Large Magellenic Cloud (which is something like 160+ KLY compared to Andromeda which is between 2-3 million LY) I have the very first page up at http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?t=40664

right now the story has very little meat to it. when i get more time, I'll add

john

Natorgator wrote:How would it have enough fuel to go millions of light years? Not to mention it would take an extremely long time...

It also sounds like it was manned when they say "if they encounter hostiles"

First, the quotation about the Magellan refers to it as a "galaxy ship," which sounds like its role rather than its class, similar to how the Enterprise Kirk commanded was Constitution-class, rather than Heavy Cruiser-class. Second, I would assume a probe or ship sent to Andromeda would be mostly fuel tank, and/or perhaps a combination of time and space travel, to overcome the problem of the massively long travel time there. I was almost tempted to ask why so much fuel was needed, then I remembered that warp travel doesn't have any inertia.

CDiehl wrote:First, the quotation about the Magellan refers to it as a "galaxy ship," which sounds like its role rather than its class, similar to how the Enterprise Kirk commanded was Constitution-class, rather than Heavy Cruiser-class. Second, I would assume a probe or ship sent to Andromeda would be mostly fuel tank, and/or perhaps a combination of time and space travel, to overcome the problem of the massively long travel time there. I was almost tempted to ask why so much fuel was needed, then I remembered that warp travel doesn't have any inertia.

Inertia doesn't exist in Trek.