1

Zachary Spier
PHYS-1040
William Hatchett
4/26/2019
Exploring the fact and fiction of Star Trek
Through the years I have accumulated a great love for Star Trek. Boldly going since
1964, Star Trek is a franchise that has captured the hearts and imagination of generations over
the years, offering a very interesting and romantic view of exploring the cosmos in the late 23rd
century of our Earth. However, with increasing knowledge with the science of the cosmos, I’ve
had many questions concerning the scientific accuracy of Star Trek: can sound travel through
space with no air? Can we really transport people by dematerializing them and putting them back
together? How much of the science-fiction in the Star Trek franchise is just fiction? These
questions lead me to do a critique of the science in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, too
see just how close the writers are to real-life science.
Warp Drive/Faster-than-light Travel
In the film, as well as the entirety of the Star Trek franchise, the ships use a, “warp core,”
fueled by dilithium crystals to facilitate in interstellar travel. In the core, matter is fused with
antimatter to create propulsion for faster-than-light travel (Warp Core). This is would actually be
a very efficient source of power for the ship to run on, since antimatter generation is possible and
creates large amounts of energy. However, only miniscule amounts of antimatter have ever been
created, and dilithium crystals are a fictional element created for the show (Batchelor).
While antimatter fusion may be possible to produce enough power for a starship, using
that power to move beyond the speed of light is can be problematic with our current
understanding. Elizabeth Howell (Engage Warp Drive!) explains some of these problems one
might run into attempting to travel at the speed of light, “…you would eventually run into a
speed limit. According to physics laid down by Albert Einstein's general theory…as an object
approaches the speed of light, its mass reaches infinity. So, in other words, a spacecraft couldn't
physically go as fast as light.” She also explains issues we should expect if wormhole travel is to
be considered in moving interstellar distances, such as time dilation - the slowing of time as one
approaches light-speed – and that we have no idea how gather the mass to create our own
wormholes.
Transporters
In the Star Trek universe, a major component of space travel is the use of transporters.
Since the ships are of such large size in the Star Trek universe, this makes docking them on a
planet’s surface very impractical, if not, impossible. So how do the members of Starfleet take
shore-leave when they cannot land on the planet? The creators of Star Trek imagined a,
“subspace device capable of… transporting an object from one location to another, by using
matter-energy conversion to transform matter into energy, then beaming it to or from a chamber
 2

where it is reconverted back into its original pattern (Transporter).” These are used as the
primary method of boarding and debarking the ships in The Undiscovered Country, and are plot
integral, as two mystery characters are, “beamed,” aboard a Klingon vessel to assassinate an
ambassador.
While scientists have been able to successfully transport information from one atom to
another, but no tests have been conducted beyond this level (Brenner). The problem with
transporting more-complex structures, such as living organisms, is the amount of precision it
would take to redeliver an exact copy of the original at the atomic level and having them all re-
adhere (Batchelor). With our current understanding and technology, it would still be, “impossible
to create a precise quantum copy of the original object or person without destroying the original
(Brenner).”
Sound in Space
Probably one of the most blatant misrepresentations of our cosmos displayed in many
pieces of the science-fiction genre is the presence of sound portrayed in space. In many scenes
from the movie, engine thrusters, phasers and photon torpedo blasts, and explosions coming from
the ships can all appear to be heard despite being in a vacuum. In space, because the amount of
gaseous and particular matter has such little density, any sound waves emitted by any source in
space cannot be heard by human ears. There is a slight possibility for these vibrations to be
heard, but it requires either very strong amplification, or being very close to the source of the
emitted sound. Either way, it would remain almost inaudible to our ears (Kornreich, Carter).
Communicators
All the Trek-tech I’ve discussed has appeared to be either impossible according to
physics, or too difficult for current technology to even come close to replicating. Nevertheless,
there is one gadget used by the crew of the Enterprise that has instead been long invented and
declared obsolete by the masses. In the film, there are depictions of instant communication back-
and-forth on small, handheld devices known as, “Communicators.” These devices, debuting in
1967 during episode 2 of The Original Series (Mirror, Mirror), are one of the primary modes of
contact between personnel in Starfleet. They also happen to bear an uncanny resemblance the
Startac: the earliest clamshell cell-phones created by Motorola in 1996 (The Evolution of the
Cell Phone). While a flip-phone may be seen as a relic by today’s standards, fifty years ago, it
was space-age technology of the far-off future.
This research has provided me with a new understanding on the science, and fiction, of
the technology seen in the the Star Trek franchise. While it can be entertaining to poke holes in
the science depicted in the film, I found it more interesting to see their incorporation of real ideas
and where they got it right. While faster-than-light travel is a physical impossibility antimatter
generation is still a probable fuel source, and while we may not have the technology to
completely replicate a human at the atomic level, we have proven on a small-scale level that
teleportation technology is possible (Batchelor; Brenner; Howell). Making the decision to
incorporate elements of actual science in sci-fi works for the film’s benefit, creating a world that
 3

feels similar, yet perhaps more developed, and more technologically advanced… except for the
outdated cell-phones.
 4

Works Cited
Batchelor, David Allen. “The Science of Star Trek.” NASA, NASA, 18 July 2016,
www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/star_trek.html.
Brenner, Laurie. “Is Teleportation Possible in Real Life?” Sciencing, Sciencing, 25 Apr. 2018,
sciencing.com/is-teleportation-possible-in-real-life-13711526.html.
Howell, Elizabeth. “Engage Warp Drive! Why Interstellar Travel's Harder Than It Looks.”
Space.com, Space Created with Sketch. Space, 7 May 2018, www.space.com/40507-
interstellar-space-travel-and-science-fiction.html.
Kornreich, Dave, and Lynn Carter. “Can You Hear Sounds in Space? (Beginner).” Home -
Curious About Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer, Ask An Astronomer, 22 June 2015,
curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/150-people-in-astronomy/space-exploration-and-
astronauts/general-questions/918-can-you-hear-sounds-in-space-beginner.
“Mirror, Mirror (Episode).” Memory Alpha, Fandom, memory-
alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Mirror,_Mirror_(episode).
“The Evolution of Cell Phone Design Between 1983-2009.” Webdesigner Depot, 7 Feb. 2018,
www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/the-evolution-of-cell-phone-design-between-1983-
2009/.
“Transporter.” Memory Alpha, Fandom, memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Transporter.
“Warp Core.” Memory Alpha, Fandom, memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Warp_core.