In the fictional universe of Star Trek, the warp drive is a form of faster-than-light (FTL) propulsion. It is generally portrayed as being capable of propelling spacecraft or other objects to many multiples of the speed of light, while avoiding the problems associated with time dilation. It is also featured in the Stars! computer game, and in the Starship Troopers universe, as well as the computer games StarCraft, Eve Online, Darkspace, and numerous television programs including Red Dwarf. It is not generally capable of instantaneous travel between points at infinite speed, as has been suggested in other science fiction using theoretical technologies such as hyperdrives, jump drives, and Infinite Improbability Drives. It is called FTL in the Titan novels. One difference between warp drive and hyperspace is that unlike hyperspace, the ship does not enter a different universe or a different dimension, it merely creates a small "bubble" of normal space time. Ships in warp can interact with objects in normal space.

The concept of using spatial warping as a means of propulsion has been the subject of theoretical treatment by some physicists (such as Miguel Alcubierre, see Alcubierre drive), although no concrete technological approach has ever been proposed, nor is there any known way of inducing the effect described by Alcubierre.

Development of the backstory

Warp drive has been a feature of Star Trek since it started. The first pilot episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Cage", calls it "time warp" drive, and notes that the "time barrier" had been broken, allowing a group of stranded interstellar travellers to get back to Earth much more quickly than they had been previously able to.

The episode "Metamorphosis", from the original series, establishes a backstory for the invention of warp drive, stating that it was invented by Zefram Cochrane of Alpha Centauri. Cochrane is repeatedly referred to afterwards, but the exact details of the first warp trials were not shown until the second Star Trek: The Next Generation movie, Star Trek: First Contact. The movie depicts Cochrane as inventing warp drive on Earth in 2063 (two years after the date speculated by the first edition of the Star Trek Chronology). He used a fission reactor to heat plasma to send through the warp coils to make a warp bubble, which he could used to move the ship into subspace to go faster than the speed of light. This directly led to the first contact with the Vulcans.

The later prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise firmly establishes that many other civilizations had warp drive before humans, notably the Vulcans, who had more advanced warp drive technology than humans even in the 22nd century. Enterprise, set in 2151 onwards, shows the voyages of the first Earth ship to be capable of going at warp factor 5.1 which under the old warp table formula was taken as one hundred twenty-five times the speed of light. Using that formula the velocity was the warp factor cubed times the speed of light or 5³ × 186,000 miles/sec or 5³c, which is 23,250,000 miles per second. This velocity would allow a Federation Starship traveling from Earth at a constant warp 5 to reach Proxima Centauri, Earth's closest extrasolar stellar body, at 4.25 light years (ly) (4.25 × 6 trillion miles) distance (Alpha Centauri, of the same trinary star system, is 4.36 ly away) in approximately 12.41 days. By the time of Captain Kirk's era in mid 23rd century, Warp factor 8 was within the capabilities of Starships (which was not exceeded often due to the strain placed on the engines). Warp 8 was 8³c (512c) or 95,232,000 miles/sec. This would allow travel from Earth to Proxima Centauri in only 3.029 days, approximately the same amount of time it took Apollo 11 to travel from the Earth to its Moon in July, 1969.

It should be noted, however, that exact speeds for warp factors in terms of real-world measurements were never given in any Star Trek movie or any episode of any Star Trek television series. The tables referred to in this article are found in various technical manuals and other print media published, in at least the vast majority of cases, with the consent of the Star Trek copyright holders. The information in these technical manuals, though authoritative in terms of Star Trek canon, can be superseded by directly contradictory information presented in a movie or TV episode, and are frequently indirectly contradicted by events in movies and TV episodes (inasmuch as what is shown on screen cannot be reconciled with the technical-manual information without stretching suspension of disbelief beyond its breaking point).

The Next Generation era

Plots involving the Enterprise going far too fast were a frequent feature in the original series (such as warp 14.1 in That Which Survives), and for The Next Generation, it was decided that these would no longer be featured. A new warp scale was drawn up, with warp 10 set as an unattainable maximum. This is described in some technical manuals as Eugene's Limit, in homage to creator/producer Gene Roddenberry.

The warp factors above warp 10 in the TOS, such as the one above, were slower than warp 10 on the new scale. According to The Star Trek Encyclopedia, warp 6 (new scale) is equal to 392c (392 times the speed of light, c) and about warp 7.3 on the old scale, whereas warp 9.2 new, to about 1649c and warp 11.8 on the old scale. Under this new definition warp 9.2 translates to 306,714,000 miles/sec. Travel to Proxima Centuri from Earth would only take 22.58 hours.

The scale reaches an asymptote at warp 10 which represents infinite speed in accordance with the speed limit imposed by the producers. The Star Trek: Voyager episode "Threshold" agreed with this, in that the characters said attaining the velocity of warp 10 was impossible — but then they achieved it anyway, with the side effect that they hyper-evolved (reversibly) into anthropomorphic newts. In this episode, Tom Paris describes that, while travelling at warp 10, he is concurrently in every part of the universe. At this speed, the Shuttlecraft Cochrane's sensors are able to process enormous amounts of telemetry such that the data storage of the shuttle is completely filled.

The limit of 10 did not entirely stop warp inflation. By the mid-24th century, the Enterprise-D could travel at warp 9.8 at extreme risk, while normal maximum operating speed was warp 9.6 and maximum rated cruise was warp 9.2. The Intrepid-class starship Voyager with a maximum sustainable cruising speed of warp 9.975.

The alternate future depicted in the Next Generation episode "All Good Things..." shows Federation vessels capable of going warp 13 when Admiral Riker, commanding the Future Enterprise-D, uses this extra turn of speed to rescue the crew of the USS Pasteur. However, this episode was produced before the Enterprise-D was destroyed in Star Trek Generations, so the two universes may diverge further than previously expected, and warp 13 may not be possible in the "real" Star Trek universe. It is unclear whether the warp 13 achieved in the possible future shown in "All Good Things..." represents a new recalibration of the warp curve, an alternate future that never adopted the "new" Warp 10 scale, or some form of transwarp. This particular future was a creation of Q and, given the destruction of the Enterprise-D in Star Trek Generations, can no longer occur in the "real" Star Trek timeline.

Transwarp

The term transwarp has been used a number of times, referring to an advanced form of warp drive most commonly used by the Borg, but also the subject of a Starfleet development project in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

Episodes of TNG and Voyager seem to indicate that transwarp is best described as a wormhole-style conduit through subspace: this suggests a subsuming into subspace, rather than warping normal space via subspace.

However, in the Voyager episode "Distant Origin", a species known as the Voth used a transwarp technology that didn't appear to be similar to Borg transwarp, but rather an enhanced warp technology.

Federation experiments

The USS Excelsior (NX-2000) under command of Captain Styles was a Federation testbed for transwarp technology. Though not explained on-screen in Star Trek III, it is assumed that transwarp was a faster version of the conventional warp drive. Excelsior's first operational test failed due to sabotage by Scotty, thus preventing Excelsior from pursuing the Enterprise.

The actual command bridge readouts of Enterprise-A at the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home illustrated in the spin-off reference work, Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise published in 1987, suggests the project ultimately succeeded and the USS Enterprise was indeed fitted with transwarp.

Susan Sackett's memoirs attribute the lack of transwarp in Star Trek: The Next Generation to Gene Roddenberry's dislike of the concept.

Borg conduits

The Borg (in the The Next Generation two-part episode "Descent" and in the Voyager finale Endgame) have discovered the existence of transwarp conduits—regions in subspace that facilitate transwarp travel at up to 20 times faster than conventional warp drives. These episodes established that the Borg set up networks of these conduits between important areas in the galaxy. Borg transwarp conduits are activated by an encoded tachyon pulse. When a Borg vessel enters a transwarp conduit, it is subject to extreme gravimetric shear. To compensate, the Borg project a structural integrity field ahead of the vessel. Artificial conduits are linked together with transwarp hubs. Six hubs were known to exist, but in "'Endgame" one was destroyed, along with the Unicomplex due to the neurolytic pathogen with which Admiral Janeway infected herself.

Quantum slipstreem

Quantum Slipstream Technology is presumed to be the standard interstellar propulsion method used by Species 116 (of which Arturis was a member) prior to their assimilation by the Borg. In the Voyager episode "Hope and Fear", Seven of Nine remarks that the technology involved is not dissimilar to Borg transwarp technology.

Warp Core

The primary form of propulsion in the Star Trek universe is the "gravimetric field displacement manifold", more commonly referred to as a "warp core". It is a fictional power plant based on a matter-antimatter reaction, providing sufficient energy to power a starship's warp drive and allow faster than light velocities. On starships, warp cores also serve as the source of energy for other primary systems.

In nature, when matter and antimatter come into contact, they annihilate each other and release large amounts of energy. In the Star Trek universe, fictional "dilithium crystals" are used to regulate this reaction. These crystals are described as being non-reactive to anti-matter when bombarded with high levels of radiation. The matter used in the reaction is usually deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, and the antimatter is usually antideuterium, the corresponding antimatter to deuterium. The reaction chamber is surrounded by a magnetic field to contain the anti-matter.

The energy released in the reaction process is used to create a field called a "warp bubble". This field distorts space around the vessel, while acting as a barrier between the distortions. The bubble is accelerated while the space inside the bubble does not technically move, so the vessel does not experience time dilation, and time passes inside the bubble at the same rate as time in the other parts of the galaxy. Within the warp field, the starship does not exceed the local speed of light, and therefore does not violate the principal tenet of special relativity.