Spoilers So it's solar powered, then?

[F. King Daniel]

(Disclaimer: I'm going by gifs and tweets)

The Protostar has a mini protostar in engineering along with it's two warp cores, and they somehow activate this protostar to go to plaid.

A miniature star.

So it's a solar powered ultrawarp drive.

Is this another instance of writers having no sense of scale (it is after all a kids' show), or would a cupboard-sized star release more energy than antimatter annihilation?

 

[Deks]

(Disclaimer: I'm going by gifs and tweets)

The Protostar has a mini protostar in engineering along with it's two warp cores, and they somehow activate this protostar to go to plaid.

A miniature star.

So it's a solar powered ultrawarp drive.

Is this another instance of writers having no sense of scale (it is after all a kids' show), or would a cupboard-sized star release more energy than antimatter annihilation?

A main sequence type star like our own emits 384.6 Yottawats of energy every second (that's 384.6 MILLION Exawatts per second).
Ent-D Warp core was rated at 12.7 Exawatts per unspecified time frame - but the script indicated that Data was supposed to say ' per second' in 'True Q' (so, yeah, the Enterrprise - D M/AM power source doesn't even come close to a main sequence star in terms of energy production... and even if a 'baby star' was a more accurate term and if it emitted just about 10 000 exawatts per second or, 100 000 or even 1 million exawatts per second, that would still vastly surpass Ent-D Warp core power generation while considered a 'baby star' - at least in power generation terms).

Also, the ENT-D Warp engines were capable of reaching and sustaining Warp 9.6 mostly (Voyager was only able to sustain Warp 9.75 for 12 hours - not 9.975).

Jankom Pog indicated that a single Warp core on the Protostar could take them to Warp 9... suggesting a slightly less powerful or equally powerful Warp core as on the Ent-D... times two of course.

As for whether we are looking at ignorance of scale... well, it depends.
A protostar is massive (to say its 'much' larger than a star would be an understatement actually), but in terms of energy output doesn't come close to a main sequence star at all (but it DOES produce energy and radiation).

Fusion can still occur in a Protostar when it reaches a certain point in its transition to becoming a main sequence star... so its possible that SF found a way to create or harness a Protostar, then shrink it using a tech they made from encountering that shrinking anomaly from 'one small ship' in Ds9 without compromizing on its energy/radiation production (which could be potentially enhanced with subspace properties) or some other technology or techniques they developed (maybe creating an artiticial universe... and instead of doing that, they created a Protostar), and trapped it in a specific state so they can use it (or just its specific radiation) for jumping to Transwarp - it could be in a stage of becoming an actual star, which would mean that its still technically a Protostar, but with an energy output vastly surpassing that what you can get from matter/antimatter reactions that are enhanced with subspace technology.

The containment field which keeps the Protostar in place is a massive power drain... and given the gravimetric distortions emitted by black holes and stars (Protostars included), you'd have to be able to contain massive amounts of gravity (which is probably why its called a 'Protostar gravimetric containment').

This also begs a question: what keeps the Protostar in place when the ship is powered off?
Aka, what happens to it and/or where does it go when there is no power through the ship?

The most likely 'Trek' explanation would be that if you don't 'feed' it, then it won't produce energy, meaning it goes dormant until you feed it matter [much like a black hole]... or it just vanishes into subpspace and re-emerges when the ship is active (which seems conveniently unlikely).

Containing a stellar phenomenon like that... it shouldn't be possible for a ship to be 'switched off' at any time if you wanted to keep it onboard.
It would have to be similar to a Forced Quantum Singularity used by the Romulans. Meaning, once its switched on, it can't be turned off... same principles would apply to a Protostar or even a Main sequence star... unless the Protostar is created and snuffed out every single time a ship is powered on or off (which doesn't seem like it would be possible - it just seems more likely the Protostar goes out of phase or something to that effect and just 'appears' inside the containment when the ship is switched on).

Although fusion reactors are basically like mini suns... its a matter of INITIATING fusion reaction (so, emulating what happens inside a star in a controlled fashion).

So, its possible they don't have an actual protostar but are tapping into 'baby star' energy generation potential by triggering a protostar reaction for generating energy and radiation far surpassing what can be produced with 24th century fusion reactors and antimatter.

Its a cool concept, but we're still in early days and we have no detailed explanation behind how the UFP managed to do all of this or if the classification for a 'Protostar' is technically accurate.

But to say its 'solar powered'... eh... since a Protostar is NOT technically a main sequence star, then no?
Its somewhere before that.

 

[Danja]

Maybe we're taking this too literally?

Perhaps this is supposed to be a kick-a$# engine that kinda sorta works like a protostar without actually BEING a protostar?

 

[Deks]

Maybe we're taking this too literally?

Perhaps this is supposed to be a kick-a$# engine that kinda sorta works like a protostar without actually BEING a protostar?

Pretty much what I was saying.
A Fusion Generator is like a mini star... so they don't actually have a star in there, but are triggering a fusion reaction that behaves like a star for energy production... only on a much smaller scale.
I guess that in the case of a protostar core, they are triggering similar heavy gravity conditions/reactions which suck up matter and produce energy/radiation which is viable enough for powering Transwarp.

It does seem like a step back though because a Protostar has nothing on a main sequence star.... but maybe its a step 'forward' in a weird Trek sense since the device is obviously is producing a heck of a lot more energy than fusion and antimatter (or at least that's what the dialogue indicates).
I just hope the thing can recharge the Protostar energy reserves which were initially spent.

We're trying to explain fictional technology along with 'subspace' (which doesn't exist in real life - at least, nothing in science confirms its existence).
Being too literal is a bit of prerequisite since we're trying to put this in terms that we'd understand... or at least those of us who are interested in the inner workings of Trek technology.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

A main sequence type star like our own emits 384.6 Yottawats of energy every second (that's 384.6 MILLION Exawatts per second).
Ent-D Warp core was rated at 12.7 Exawatts per unspecified time frame - but the script indicated that Data was supposed to say ' per second' in 'True Q' (so, yeah, the Enterrprise - D M/AM power source doesn't even come close to a main sequence star in terms of energy production... and even if a 'baby star' was a more accurate term and if it emitted just about 10 000 exawatts per second or, 100 000 or even 1 million exawatts per second, that would still vastly surpass Ent-D Warp core power generation while considered a 'baby star' - at least in power generation terms).

Also, the ENT-D Warp engines were capable of reaching and sustaining Warp 9.6 mostly (Voyager was only able to sustain Warp 9.75 for 12 hours - not 9.975).

Jankom Pog indicated that a single Warp core on the Protostar could take them to Warp 9... suggesting a slightly less powerful or equally powerful Warp core as on the Ent-D... times two of course.

As for whether we are looking at ignorance of scale... well, it depends.
A protostar is massive (to say its 'much' larger than a star would be an understatement actually), but in terms of energy output doesn't come close to a main sequence star at all (but it DOES produce energy and radiation).

Fusion can still occur in a Protostar when it reaches a certain point in its transition to becoming a main sequence star... so its possible that SF found a way to create or harness a Protostar, then shrink it using a tech they made from encountering that shrinking anomaly from 'one small ship' in Ds9 without compromizing on its energy/radiation production (which could be potentially enhanced with subspace properties) or some other technology or techniques they developed (maybe creating an artiticial universe... and instead of doing that, they created a Protostar), and trapped it in a specific state so they can use it (or just its specific radiation) for jumping to Transwarp - it could be in a stage of becoming an actual star, which would mean that its still technically a Protostar, but with an energy output vastly surpassing that what you can get from matter/antimatter reactions that are enhanced with subspace technology.

The containment field which keeps the Protostar in place is a massive power drain... and given the gravimetric distortions emitted by black holes and stars (Protostars included), you'd have to be able to contain massive amounts of gravity (which is probably why its called a 'Protostar gravimetric containment').

This also begs a question: what keeps the Protostar in place when the ship is powered off?
Aka, what happens to it and/or where does it go when there is no power through the ship?

The most likely 'Trek' explanation would be that if you don't 'feed' it, then it won't produce energy, meaning it goes dormant until you feed it matter [much like a black hole]... or it just vanishes into subpspace and re-emerges when the ship is active (which seems conveniently unlikely).

Containing a stellar phenomenon like that... it shouldn't be possible for a ship to be 'switched off' at any time if you wanted to keep it onboard.
It would have to be similar to a Forced Quantum Singularity used by the Romulans. Meaning, once its switched on, it can't be turned off... same principles would apply to a Protostar or even a Main sequence star... unless the Protostar is created and snuffed out every single time a ship is powered on or off (which doesn't seem like it would be possible - it just seems more likely the Protostar goes out of phase or something to that effect and just 'appears' inside the containment when the ship is switched on).

Although fusion reactors are basically like mini suns... its a matter of INITIATING fusion reaction (so, emulating what happens inside a star in a controlled fashion).

So, its possible they don't have an actual protostar but are tapping into 'baby star' energy generation potential by triggering a protostar reaction for generating energy and radiation far surpassing what can be produced with 24th century fusion reactors and antimatter.

Its a cool concept, but we're still in early days and we have no detailed explanation behind how the UFP managed to do all of this or if the classification for a 'Protostar' is technically accurate.

But to say its 'solar powered'... eh... since a Protostar is NOT technically a main sequence star, then no?
Its somewhere before that.

This post deserves a standing ovation

 

[F. King Daniel]

A main sequence type star like our own emits 384.6 Yottawats of energy every second (that's 384.6 MILLION Exawatts per second).
Ent-D Warp core was rated at 12.7 Exawatts per unspecified time frame - but the script indicated that Data was supposed to say ' per second' in 'True Q' (so, yeah, the Enterrprise - D M/AM power source doesn't even come close to a main sequence star in terms of energy production... and even if a 'baby star' was a more accurate term and if it emitted just about 10 000 exawatts per second or, 100 000 or even 1 million exawatts per second, that would still vastly surpass Ent-D Warp core power generation while considered a 'baby star' - at least in power generation terms).

Also, the ENT-D Warp engines were capable of reaching and sustaining Warp 9.6 mostly (Voyager was only able to sustain Warp 9.75 for 12 hours - not 9.975).

Jankom Pog indicated that a single Warp core on the Protostar could take them to Warp 9... suggesting a slightly less powerful or equally powerful Warp core as on the Ent-D... times two of course.

As for whether we are looking at ignorance of scale... well, it depends.
A protostar is massive (to say its 'much' larger than a star would be an understatement actually), but in terms of energy output doesn't come close to a main sequence star at all (but it DOES produce energy and radiation).

Fusion can still occur in a Protostar when it reaches a certain point in its transition to becoming a main sequence star... so its possible that SF found a way to create or harness a Protostar, then shrink it using a tech they made from encountering that shrinking anomaly from 'one small ship' in Ds9 without compromizing on its energy/radiation production (which could be potentially enhanced with subspace properties) or some other technology or techniques they developed (maybe creating an artiticial universe... and instead of doing that, they created a Protostar), and trapped it in a specific state so they can use it (or just its specific radiation) for jumping to Transwarp - it could be in a stage of becoming an actual star, which would mean that its still technically a Protostar, but with an energy output vastly surpassing that what you can get from matter/antimatter reactions that are enhanced with subspace technology.

The containment field which keeps the Protostar in place is a massive power drain... and given the gravimetric distortions emitted by black holes and stars (Protostars included), you'd have to be able to contain massive amounts of gravity (which is probably why its called a 'Protostar gravimetric containment').

This also begs a question: what keeps the Protostar in place when the ship is powered off?
Aka, what happens to it and/or where does it go when there is no power through the ship?

The most likely 'Trek' explanation would be that if you don't 'feed' it, then it won't produce energy, meaning it goes dormant until you feed it matter [much like a black hole]... or it just vanishes into subpspace and re-emerges when the ship is active (which seems conveniently unlikely).

Containing a stellar phenomenon like that... it shouldn't be possible for a ship to be 'switched off' at any time if you wanted to keep it onboard.
It would have to be similar to a Forced Quantum Singularity used by the Romulans. Meaning, once its switched on, it can't be turned off... same principles would apply to a Protostar or even a Main sequence star... unless the Protostar is created and snuffed out every single time a ship is powered on or off (which doesn't seem like it would be possible - it just seems more likely the Protostar goes out of phase or something to that effect and just 'appears' inside the containment when the ship is switched on).

Although fusion reactors are basically like mini suns... its a matter of INITIATING fusion reaction (so, emulating what happens inside a star in a controlled fashion).

So, its possible they don't have an actual protostar but are tapping into 'baby star' energy generation potential by triggering a protostar reaction for generating energy and radiation far surpassing what can be produced with 24th century fusion reactors and antimatter.

Its a cool concept, but we're still in early days and we have no detailed explanation behind how the UFP managed to do all of this or if the classification for a 'Protostar' is technically accurate.

But to say its 'solar powered'... eh... since a Protostar is NOT technically a main sequence star, then no?
Its somewhere before that.

A very detailed reply, thank you. You've pointed out more issues than I'd considered, particularly the idea that it shouldn't be able to be switched off. I wonder if the Prodigy writers have given it this much thought? Or was it just "it sounds cool, fans will make the tech make sense themselves"

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

A Watt is a measure of energy over time, also expressed as joules per second, so “Watts per second” is incorrect. Unless you mean a Watt-second, which is basically a measure of joules of energy.

Sorry to be pedantic, my undergrad was in physics. :P

Mark

 

[YouAreDooomed]

Logically, the protostar cannot be a power source since it's not able to sustain its own containment. I assume the engine harnesses its gravitons or other exotic (fictional) particles akin to vertions found in white dwarfs.

A main sequence type star like our own emits 384.6 Yottawats of energy every second (that's 384.6 MILLION Exawatts per second).
Ent-D Warp core was rated at 12.7 Exawatts per unspecified time frame - but the script indicated that Data was supposed to say ' per second' in 'True Q' (so, yeah, the Enterrprise - D M/AM power source doesn't even come close to a main sequence star in terms of energy production... and even if a 'baby star' was a more accurate term and if it emitted just about 10 000 exawatts per second or, 100 000 or even 1 million exawatts per second, that would still vastly surpass Ent-D Warp core power generation while considered a 'baby star' - at least in power generation terms).

No, Data says, "We are presently generating twelve point seven five billion gigawatts per..." while the ship is basically idling, no warp, no shields etc., it's just life support, lights, computers, maybe holodecks, and probably replicators here and there.
On top of this, these figures are anything but reliable or sane. VOY "Hunters" tells you that typical stars are in the megawatt range.

A very detailed reply, thank you. You've pointed out more issues than I'd considered, particularly the idea that it shouldn't be able to be switched off. I wonder if the Prodigy writers have given it this much thought? Or was it just "it sounds cool, fans will make the tech make sense themselves"

Do we have any reason to believe the ship can be "switched off" completely and without catastrophic consequences in the first place? When the vessel is found, the containment is presumably active even before the other systems boot up.
I guess this will be the reason why proto-warp never gets beyond the prototype stage, too dangerous

 

[Danja]

A very detailed reply, thank you. You've pointed out more issues than I'd considered, particularly the idea that it shouldn't be able to be switched off. I wonder if the Prodigy writers have given it this much thought? Or was it just "it sounds cool, fans will make the tech make sense themselves"

Nonsensical technobabble has a long history within Trek:

Geordi: "Captain, we can repel the entity if we de-catonize the Halaron Generators."
Picard: "Make it so."

 

[Deks]

No, Data says, "We are presently generating twelve point seven five billion gigawatts per..." while the ship is basically idling, no warp, no shields etc., it's just life support, lights, computers, maybe holodecks, and probably replicators here and there.
On top of this, these figures are anything but reliable or sane. VOY "Hunters" tells you that typical stars are in the megawatt range.

But that 'presently' could have just been an indication that Data wanted to clarify of how much the Warp core was generally rated at... regardless whether warp drive was online, or shields, weapons, etc.
Presently does mean 'at this time'... but doesn't necessarily mean or imply the Warp core can produce MORE power than that.

Also I don't see why that figure is unreliable or insane.
We have evidence that points to the idea that subspace technology is radically amplifying Trek power generation and overall technological capabilities... well beyond what one would normally get from regular M/AM reactions.

As for VOY 'Hunters' saying stars are in the MW range...actually, no.
The script is contradicting itself with power figures (by incredibly large amounts) in that episode.

First off, VOY crew encountered a relay station which was powered by a black hole... when describing that black hole, Kim mentioned: "It's a tiny one, probably about a centimetre in diameter, but it's putting out almost four terawatts of energy."

4TW = 4 million MW ... so definitely higher than a MW range.

Later on, Janeway after analyzing the station said:
"I've learned a few interesting things about that relay station. It's generating as much energy every minute as a typical star puts out in a year."

4TW x 60 (if Kim meant 'per second') = 240TW per minute.

240TW however is nowhere near what a typical star outputs in a year.

A typical star like our own was stated that it emits about 384.6 Yottawatts per second.... which is WELL in excess of 4 TW.

1 yotawatt = 0.0000000000001 TW (or 1e-12).

In fact:
12,128,745,600 Yottawats... that's how much our Sun (or a typical star - if that's what a 'typical' is) emits per year.

So, VOY writers were WAY off base in power generation figures.

Instead, the dialogue could have had Kim say that the black hole is emitting 2900 TW per second... and Janeway could have mentioned that in 1 minute that black hole was emitting same amount of power that hits the Earth from the sun every second.

That particular dialogue in Hunters needs to be taken with a grain of salt... and probably 'repurporposed' to be more in range with what we know of our Sun's power generation.

 

[The Old Mixer]

1 yotawatt = 0.0000000000001 TW

That appears to be reversed.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

They probably put as much time into the mechanics of how the "gravimetric protostar containment" drive works as they did with powering the Romulan Warbird with an artificial quantum singularity. It sounds cool, and it does the job.

 

[Deks]

That appears to be reversed.

Actually, its supposed to be 0.000000000001 (a zero less from what I wrote)... or at least, that's what 1e-12 would look like as a number.

 

[Deks]

They probably put as much time into the mechanics of how the "gravimetric protostar containment" drive works as they did with powering the Romulan Warbird with an artificial quantum singularity. It sounds cool, and it does the job.

Well, at least in the case of a forced quantum singularity as used by the Romulans, its stated that once its activated it cannot be shut down - which DOES have merit because its an actual interstellar body and not a mimickry of one's internal functions (such as Fusion reactors which reproduce a fusion reaction inside the reactor to get large amounts of power, but its not a mini sun with its own gravitational pull etc.).

In the case of a Protostar (that is, if the thing was an actual Protostar and not just mimickry of a 'reaction' that happens in a Protostar), then technically it shouldn't be possible for it to be shut down at all... all that mass/gravity and countless other things would 'de-compress' from that tiny containment unit and destroy the ship (and anything else in a ridiculously humongous radius).

 

[YouAreDooomed]

But that 'presently' could have just been an indication that Data wanted to clarify of how much the Warp core was generally rated at... regardless whether warp drive was online, or shields, weapons, etc.

Or Data could just attempt one of his awkward jokes, and we can dismiss the statement altogether. "We are presently generating" clearly does not refer to their max. output. Let's not slide into wild speculation.

Presently does mean 'at this time'... but doesn't necessarily mean or imply the Warp core can produce MORE power than that.

Actually, it's pretty much exactly what it implies, nothing indicates the warp core operates at full capacity. Besides, if they decided to go to warp or activate their shields at that point, they would in fact require more power.

Also I don't see why that figure is unreliable or insane.
We have evidence that points to the idea that subspace technology is radically amplifying Trek power generation and overall technological capabilities... well beyond what one would normally get from regular M/AM reactions.

On its own, the "True Q" figure isn't far-fetched, I was rather referring to the given numbers concerning power and energy in ST in general. Another instance from TNG is a nebula somehow generating over 5e41 watts which is over 10,000 times the luminosity of the entire Milky Way, that nebula is also not even unique at all. ("Ménage à Troi")

"Super antimatter" is kinda my point, that's how they could probably generate much more than some exawatts.

As for VOY 'Hunters' saying stars are in the MW range...actually, no.
The script is contradicting itself with power figures (by incredibly large amounts) in that episode.

First off, VOY crew encountered a relay station which was powered by a black hole... when describing that black hole, Kim mentioned: "It's a tiny one, probably about a centimetre in diameter, but it's putting out almost four terawatts of energy."

4TW = 4 million MW ... so definitely higher than a MW range.

Later on, Janeway after analyzing the station said:
"I've learned a few interesting things about that relay station. It's generating as much energy every minute as a typical star puts out in a year."

4TW x 60 (if Kim meant 'per second') = 240TW per minute.

First of all, you keep saying "watts per second/ minute" which is wrong and confusing, it has been pointed out in this thread already that 1 watt = 1 joule per second.

So, a typical star (probably a red dwarf btw) would generate 240 terajoules or 2.4e14 joules per year.

2.4e14 / (365,25 * 24 * 60 * 60) = 7,605,141 joules per second ≈ 7.6 megawatts

Yes, I would call this "megawatt range".

240TW however is nowhere near what a typical star outputs in a year.

A typical star like our own was stated that it emits about 384.6 Yottawatts per second.... which is WELL in excess of 4 TW.

1 yotawatt = 0.0000000000001 TW (or 1e-12).

In fact:
12,128,745,600 Yottawats... that's how much our Sun (or a typical star - if that's what a 'typical' is) emits per year.

So, VOY writers were WAY off base in power generation figures.

Instead, the dialogue could have had Kim say that the black hole is emitting 2900 TW per second... and Janeway could have mentioned that in 1 minute that black hole was emitting same amount of power that hits the Earth from the sun every second.

That particular dialogue in Hunters needs to be taken with a grain of salt... and probably 'repurporposed' to be more in range with what we know of our Sun's power generation.

ALL dialogues dealing with power/ energy need to be taken with a heap of salt. What Kim or Janeway could have said doesn't matter, we got what we got, and it's as much canon as the information from "True Q". I could point out that Starfleet had possibly redefined "watt" and "joule", or the infamous subspace magic somehow kicks megawatts into the e22 watts (or more) region.

e22 (lower limit) because a red dwarf qualifies as "typical star"...

A red dwarf is the smallest and coolest kind of star on the main sequence. Red dwarfs are by far the most common type of star in the Milky Way, at least in the neighborhood of the Sun, but because of their low luminosity, individual red dwarfs cannot be easily observed. From Earth, not one star that fits the stricter definitions of a red dwarf is visible to the naked eye.Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, is a red dwarf, as are fifty of the sixty nearest stars. According to some estimates, red dwarfs make up three-quarters of the stars in the Milky Way.
[...]
Red dwarfs are very-low-mass stars.As a result, they have relatively low pressures, a low fusion rate, and hence, a low temperature. The energy generated is the product of nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium by way of the proton–proton (PP) chain mechanism. Hence, these stars emit relatively little light, sometimes as little as 1⁄10,000 that of the Sun, although this would still imply a power output on the order of 10^22 watts (10 trillion gigawatts). Even the largest red dwarfs (for example HD 179930, HIP 12961 and Lacaille 8760) have only about 10% of the Sun's luminosity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dwarf

Actually, its supposed to be 0.000000000001 (a zero less from what I wrote)... or at least, that's what 1e-12 would look like as a number.

You confused YW with TW.

1 yotawatt = 0.0000000000001 TW (or 1e-12).

It should be: 1 yottawatt = 1,000,000,000,000 TW
or what you probably were trying to say...
1 terawatt = 0,000000000001 YW

Well, at least in the case of a forced quantum singularity as used by the Romulans, its stated that once its activated it cannot be shut down - which DOES have merit because its an actual interstellar body and not a mimickry of one (unlike Fusion power).

In the case of a Protostar (that is, if the thing was an actual Protostar and not just mimickry of a 'reaction' that happens in a Protostar), then technically it shouldn't be possible for it to be shut down at all... all that mass/gravity and countless other things would 'de-compress' from that tiny containment unit and destroy the ship (and anything else in a humongous radius).

I don't think it just mimics an actual protostar. Firstly, they say, "the engine is a protostar" instead of something like "it works like one." Secondly, shutting it down should theoretically not be a big deal ("high-priority system requiring command-level authorization").

If the containment fails, I guess either the shrink magic would stop working and the protostar should regain its natural state, or it would collapse into a black hole, as even Jupiter's Schwarzschild radius is about 2.82 metres while the engine core seems considerably smaller.
The upcoming episode(s) will probably give some answers.

 

[Desert Kris]

This reveal about the nature of the Protostar has taken me back to memories of seeing refitted Enterprise in the first three Star Trek movies. I was very young, so I didn't always understand what I was seeing. The glowing blue of the deflector dish was very strange to me, I didn't think it was simply a light. It looked like a window showing the interior of the ship, and sometimes it looked like it was just open to space...it reminded me of the Doomsday machine that had an opening showing the fires of it's interior.

I thought that's what I was seeing with the refit Enterprise, the fire inside that powered her ability to go fast. And eventually I learned about stars and wondered if the Enterprise had a star contained within her, to power her speed.

I know this is very much the logic of my younger self.

Which seems to fit with the nature of Prodigy, a series targeted at a younger audience. I really enjoyed the reveal of the Protostar's nature, because in a spiritual sense it's confirmation of my child-like imaginings: "Yes, the Star Trek ship has a star harnessed within it's engine furnace." I couldn't help being charmed by it.

 

[AnimationAdmiral]

In the most recent episode, the ship Computer mentions the protocore requires an “exotic matter dilithium matrix” to function. Exotic matter is something used in the current “real world” theory for an Alcubierre warp drive, and is capable of negative mass among other things. So essentially, your concerns about the limits of a traditional fusion reaction don’t apply — if anything, they built a more realistic warp drive.

Also, a Star drive is pretty neat, and as others have pointed out already has canon precedence with Romulan ships using an artificial singularity to power their propulsion.

 

[LazyReader]

I"d guess, protostar core is a piece of exotic matter that exhibits, periodic gravimetric shear energy. Einstein's General Relativity says gravity travels at the speed of light. If that's the case, subspace domains using gravity of a star with pulsed warp energy allows it to exceed

 

[Richard S. Ta]

This reveal about the nature of the Protostar has taken me back to memories of seeing refitted Enterprise in the first three Star Trek movies. I was very young, so I didn't always understand what I was seeing. The glowing blue of the deflector dish was very strange to me, I didn't think it was simply a light. It looked like a window showing the interior of the ship, and sometimes it looked like it was just open to space...it reminded me of the Doomsday machine that had an opening showing the fires of it's interior.

I thought that's what I was seeing with the refit Enterprise, the fire inside that powered her ability to go fast. And eventually I learned about stars and wondered if the Enterprise had a star contained within her, to power her speed.

I know this is very much the logic of my younger self.

Which seems to fit with the nature of Prodigy, a series targeted at a younger audience. I really enjoyed the reveal of the Protostar's nature, because in a spiritual sense it's confirmation of my child-like imaginings: "Yes, the Star Trek ship has a star harnessed within it's engine furnace." I couldn't help being charmed by it.

What a lovely thing to type out!

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

A main sequence type star like our own emits 384.6 Yottawats of energy every second (that's 384.6 MILLION Exawatts per second).
Ent-D Warp core was rated at 12.7 Exawatts per unspecified time frame

Uh, Watts are a unit of power, i.e., energy per unit time. Specifically, a Watt (and it's capitalized, like any other SI unit named after a person) is defined as a Joule per second.

A "Watt per second" would be a measure of change in power. A Joule per second squared, in effect.

Incidentally, a "Watt-second" (some defibrillator charge indicators are so-marked) is exactly equivalent to a Joule.

Oh, and in electricity, a Volt is defined as a Joule per Coulomb, and an Ampere as a Coulomb per second. So if you multiply EMF in Volts by current in Amperes, the Coulombs cancel, and you are left with Joules per second, or Watts.

Or to paraphrase my high school physics teacher, unit analysis is your friend.