WARP SPEEDS
When Zefram Cochrane broke the light speed barrier
with the invention of the warp drive in 2061, he revolutionized interstellar
space travel forever. This profound scientific discovery was merely
the beginning of a whole new frontier being opened for the human race.
Warp factor is the unit of measurement used for
calculating warp speeds, and this scale has been recalculated since the
days of the original USS Enterprise NCC-1701. During the ships epic
missions it had a cruising speed of warp 6, with a maximum of warp 8, though
encounters with alien life forms enable the ship to reach speeds of up
to warp 14.1. However, by the 24th century a new warp factor scale
had been introduced which while still making warp 1 equivalent to the speed
of light, makes warp 10 an infinite and theoretically unobtainable velocity
which places the ship at all points of the universe at the same time.
There has been one instance of the warp 10 barrier being exceeded, by Lt.
Tom Paris of the USS Voyager NCC-74656, but only with extraordinary consequences.
Following the new formula the USS Enterprise NCC-1701D, like all other
Galaxy Class ships, has a standard cruising speed of warp 6 - equivalent
to about 7.3 on the old scale and 392 times the speed of light. Its
maximum normal velocity is warp 9.2, though that speed can exceeded.
Although it is now believed that speeds greater than warp 5 will cause
damage to space-time continuum. In 1969 it took a manned space ship
three days to reach the moon. At full impulse speed this same journey
take 5.38 seconds. A journey to Proxima Centauri at warp 7 takes
three days. At warp 1, or the speed of light it would take 5 years.
