Anna ♥'s List: Star Trek TOS-era technology

• In service during the mid-2260s, the standard Starfleet tricorder incorporated a segmented design. This tricorder, a generally square-shaped device, utilized three sections: a pivoting upper portion containing the display readout and controls; a compartmented mid-section containing data chips; and an adaptable lower portion, sometimes containing a hand-held sensor as with the medical tricorder. The tricorder of the 2260s was mostly black with silver trim and featured a leather-like strap, allowing one to sling the tricorder over the shoulder when not in use. (TOS: "The Naked Time")  

  Yeomen serving aboard Starfleet starships (such as Janice Rand aboard the USS Enterprise) often carried tricorders in order to record and retrieve information for the starship captain. More often however, the tricorder was standard equipment included on away missions. (TOS: "The Man Trap", "Charlie X") 

  These devices could also be set to transmit an automatic distress call. (TOS: "That Which Survives") 

• With the widespread redesign of many facets of Starfleet and Federation technology in the early 2270s, so too did the tricorder advance toward a new design. 

  Smaller than that of the 2260s, the new hand-held Starfleet tricorder was blue-gray in color and featured two grips on either side of the body. Controls and readout displays were located beneath a lid at the top of the device. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) 

  This type of tricorder was still in use in the 2280s. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) 

• Disruptors are employed by several alien species in this series, including Romulans, Klingons, Breen, Cardassians, Iridians and Orions in their personal and military small arms as well as being mounted as cannon, emitters, turrets, and banks. Only the first three are known to have type-3 disruptors, the most advanced developed so far, by the 24th century. Disruptors cause damage by exciting the molecular bonds of targets. According to Last Unicorn's Star Trek: The Next Generation Roleplaying Game, disruptors are considered less 'elegant' than phaser-based weapons; their effects there are described as thermal shock and blunt force, as opposed to the 'rapid nadion effect' from a phaser.

• Phasers come in a wide range of sizes, ranging from hand-held versions to starship-mounted ones. Personal phasers can be made small enough to fit in the user's palm and still be deadly. Larger and more powerful phaser rifles are commonly issued to security personnel. Phaser beams can be adjusted in both width and output. A typical hand phaser can merely stun a target or completely disintegrate it, and the beam can be adjusted to strike multiple targets at once or evenly destroy large portions of material. A starship's phasers can be used as an 'anti-missile' defense, using multi-aim to destroy incoming projectiles.^[8] They can be used as welding torches or cutting tools, and can create heat sources by firing at a large, solid object (like a rock). Phasers can be set to overload, whereby they build up a force-chamber explosion by continuously generating energy without releasing it; the resulting blast can destroy most natural objects within a 50-yard radius. This process is marked by a distinctive sound that increases in volume and frequency until it is deactivated or it detonates. Ship-mounted phasers have a similar range of functions on a larger scale: The phasers on the USS Enterprise could stun entire city blocks full of people^[9] and even destroy entire asteroids up to a given size.

   
• Photon torpedoes are a standard ship-based weapon armed with an antimatter warhead. They are present in every version of the Star Trek series and are a standard weapon on almost every Federation ship
• When fired, photon torpedoes usually appear as a spiky ball of energy of varying colors, such as red,^[19] orange,^[20] yellow, blue, or green.^[21] The energy output of a photon torpedo, according to the Technical Manuals is a maximum theoretical yield of 25 Isotons and a maximum rated yield of 18.5 Isotons. According to the TNG Technical Manual, photon torpedoes use 1.5 kg of matter and 1.5 kg of antimatter.

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• On Federation starships, the warp core usually consists of a matter/antimatter reaction assembly (M/ARA) utilizing deuterium and antideuterium reacting in a dilithium crystal matrix which produces a maximum output of 4,000 teradynes per second. (VOY: "Drone")
• In the 23rd century, the main warp reaction occurred in a dilithium crystal converter assembly which consisted of two flattened rounded nodules situated directly in front of the warp plasma conduits to the warp engines, which were behind a large metal grate. By 2270, most Federation warp cores were redesigned to consist of a large warp core unit in the secondary hull with matter and anti-matter channeling into the core through vertical conduits, with the resulting energy directed to the nacelles through a horizontal conduit leading out from the rear of the core. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
• As a safety precaution, the core can be physically ejected from the ship should an event such as the catastrophic failure of the containment of the matter-antimatter reaction occur and the crew decides it cannot be corrected.
• Antimatter containment is achieved through the use of magnetic fields, which guide and direct the antimatter through the antimatter engine to injector coils, which precisely compresses and streams the antimatter into the form which enters the dilithium articulation frame. Deuterium, stored in the ship or attracted by the Bussard collectors, is funneled in a stream from the opposite deuterium injector. The molecules enter the lattice matrix of the crystallized dilithium, reacting within it and releasing a tuned energy stream in the form of electro-plasma, a highly energetic form of plasma. The electro-plasma is carried by magnetic plasma conduits throughout the power transfer system. In the Federation power transfer grid, this is the electro-plasma distribution network, comprised of EPS conduits and EPS taps. The most energized stream created is the warp plasma, which exits in twin power transfer conduits connected to the warp nacelles.
• During the 23rd century, dilithium crystals were also used in Klingon warp reactions to generate energy at sufficient levels to enable warp flight.
• Warp cores on starships leave resonance traces, allowing for the ability to track vessels.

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• A matter-antimatter reaction is the reaction of matter and antimatter which results in the most exothermal reaction known.  

  The primary source of power utilized in Federation starships was provided by the enormous amount of output energy produced by a controlled matter-antimatter reaction. This reaction typically occured within the intermix chamber of a warp core, and was contained by a magnetic containment field. This reaction produced a considerable amount of heat energy in addition to the kinetic energy that was used by the vessel's propulsion system. This heat was supplanted by a plasma coolant system that was situated adjacent to the intermix chamber. The loss of coolant would inevitably result in the overheating and destruction of the intermix chamber, causing a warp core breach.

• Antimatter pods (specialized forms of magnetic confinement pods) were magnetized self-contained storage units which contained un-reacted antimatter fuel for a starship. Antimatter pods used an antimatter containment field to isolate the fuel within from contact with normal matter, thereby prohibiting catastrophic reaction.
• We can assume that antimatter pods are self-contained and survive some sorts of disasters aboard starships, such as the destruction of the starship, uncontrolled entry into an atmosphere, etc. This is because vehicles in the Star Trek universe do not consistently explode on every single occasion a vessel is catastrophically damaged. It is probably safe to assume that each pod has its own battery, or other power source to maintain the containment field, or some kind of post-exhaustion flush method. This way, it is believable that a free floating antimatter pod from a destroyed starship, or a pod remaining in a derelict hulk, could remain intact until such a time as all of the antimatter within was expended.

• The magnetic containment field is a field that prevents the contact of antimatter with normal matter in a warp core. The magnetic containment field is produced by the magnetic constrictor coils in the core and concentrates the antimatter to the center of the reaction chamber. It is also produced by the power transfer conduits and near the antimatter pods. The field is also utilized to propel antimatter up to the reaction chamber.  

  If the field were to collapse or fall below 15% of its maximum integrity, the starship would be destroyed. Additionally, the magnetic field is vulnerable to quantum filaments, as they charge the vessel like a live electric wire, thus weakening the field by the inherent electromagnetic field that electricity produces.

• Antimatter for the ship's engines is created using a quantum charge-reversal device, which processes deuterium into antideuterium at a net energy loss. The ship's fusion reactors, reserves and so forth power the antimatter generator. It is not more efficient to *only* equip ships with fusion reactors because the released energy per unit time is much less than with a matter/antimatter reaction; there may have been an earlier era of fusion-powered warp ships, but a M/ARA is needed to enable high warp for our hero ships.
• The quantum charge reversal device being used to create antimatter is from the TNG Technical Manual, based on internal documents prepared for the writing staff by technical advisors and art department tech-heads. The information about energy release is scientific fact.