Elba II and Planetary Shielding
Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 5:59 pm
Regarding Elba II from "Whom Gods Destroy"[TOS], let's recap pages 1-7 of the main Planetary Defenses thread . . . or at least the on-topic parts. Since Oragahn is now distancing himself from his claims that Elba II represented an advanced alien shield and instead seems to have settled on it being a base shield expanded to cover the planet, let's ponder that versus what I consider to be a hypothesis of stronger explanatory power, that being the ignitable atmosphere.
1. Shield Expansion (the Garth-Mod)
Basically, this is the notion that the madman Garth, who curiously claimed to have created an explosive capable of destroying the whole planet, was an actual genius and managed to expand the shields around a small domed base for no apparent reason. This shield expansion served no useful purpose for him whatsoever, except to make sure that the toxic planet whose only tourist trap was an insane asylum had yet another reason to have no visitors.
Garth's genius is, as noted, demonstrated by his creation of an explosive which he claimed could destroy the planet. Contained in a semi-transparent vial smaller than a canned beverage (I'd estimate it at about 8 fluid ounces, or about a quarter of a liter), the explosive was shelf-stable but supposedly impact-sensitive, and Garth had a remote detonation technique available for use.
However, when a sand-grain size amount was detonated, it produced nothing like the effect one would expect. A grain of sand tops out at 2mm, but can be as small as 0.0625, per most definitions. Even dropping that smallest figure down to 0.05 for ease of calculation, that's 0.000000000000125 cubic meters versus the vial's 0.000236588 cubic meters . . . a factor of 1.9 billion, give or take, with the smallest difference at 2mm being 30,000 times. The explosion of the sand-grain sized amount produced an explosion that was visually impressive for an explosive so small, but which under Earth-like conditions certainly didn't appear to exceed a ton of TNT, and looked very much like far less . . . something in the range of kilograms.
Even assuming an entire ton of TNT, the yield of the whole vial similarly detonated ought not exceed 1.9 billion tons of TNT, or 1.9 gigatons. In the worst cases, it would be closer to 30,000 times oh, say, ten kilograms, or 300,000 kilograms, which is of course a mere 300 tons of TNT.
Obviously, neither of those figures are sufficient to actually destroy the planet. But, let's skip any further derision of the genius of this explicit madman for now.
Given that extension of starship shields by five kilometers is known to weaken them significantly ("The Defector"[TNG3]). . . even in relatively skinny tubular form this would represent something up to like a factor of ten expansion of protected volume . . . let's ponder what it would take for a madman to expand the shield to cover the planet. Assuming Earth-like size, and with a starting point of a shield of around ten kilometers (which we'll treat as a sphere for sake of laziness), that means that in order to cover the entire planet, the shield would have to project itself through thousands of kilometers of rock, and at the same time expand by a factor of . . . oh, let's be generous and assume it was only a factor of literally one billion (1000 cubic kilometers expanded out to the trillion or so of the Earth's volume) . . . while still being capable of repelling phaser strikes under those conditions.
But, a factor of a billion might seem unfair. After all, shields aren't necessarily to be judged by volume, but by surface area. So, let's consider . . . the surface area of a sphere ten kilometers wide is 314.15 square kilometers. The surface area of the planet Earth is 510 million square kilometers. That brings us down to a surface area difference of a mere 1.6 million times.
Clearly, then, the Elba II shield that was meant to protect an asylum was undoubtedly impervious to the combined fleets of all the major 23rd Century territorial powers, until Garth went and expanded it to cover the whole planet.
An unfortunate side effect of this planetwide coverage was that, if phasered down as it now could be, the shield's generator or related systems could, according to this hypothesis, explode violently, killing everyone inside the dome.
The expansion also apparently enabled shuttlecraft flight into the shield via some unspecified technobabble, presumably related to small instabilities or weapons-fire-related dimplings or what-have-you. The shuttle could gain entry but the ship presumably could not, and neither could her phasers. And, when the shuttle entered the shield, she'd be unable to fly, period . . . a completely unexplained detail in this hypothesis.
Interestingly, however, this proves that Federation planetary shielding is possible, since even a madman seemingly incapable of math had the ability to expand shield coverage by a factor of millions or billions with, we might try to realistically presume, no actual drop-off in effectiveness. As the shields survived in this modified state, the Federation would have the ability to study the technique and improve upon it.
Still, we have a variety of unanswered questions. Similar to religious "GodDidIt" proposals, this "GarthDidIt" argument has more than a few holes.
A. When was the shield expanded? If it was planetwide on Enterprise arrival, this would've been shocking, so it must've happened afterward. The moment it happened should've raised all manner of alarms, and yet there is never any mention of it. Indeed, after Garth's first attempt to fool the Enterprise into beaming him up in the guise of Captain Kirk, Sulu's report about the status of the shield is entirely normal . . . and yet even then Scotty suggested that everyone would die if they phasered the shield down.
B. Why couldn't shuttles fly beneath the shield?
C. Why would Garth take a powerful shield and nerf its effectiveness by expanding it by millions or billions of times, which also put his life in danger if the shield were actually used?
D. How would Scotty instantly know that this modified shield would explode?
Obviously, I have little faith in "GarthDidIt".
2. A More Than Toxic Atmosphere
Much is made of Elba II having a protective dome, beyond which lies a poisonous atmosphere. One of the inmates is taken out into it and, while there is no clear indication of pressure differential, it is clear that Garth's description that she'll choke to death in minutes is accurate.
However, what if there's a bit more to it?
In the 2150's the SS Enterprise visited a colony with an atmosphere very sensitive to great heat sources, such as shuttlepod drive plasma. The Paraagan colony was a mining world and their mining operations emitted tetrazine gas into the atmosphere, which settled at a relatively thin layer dozens of kilometers up in the atmosphere. Visiting vessels had to secure their exhaust plasma so as to avoid ignition.
Similarly, Bersallis III is a world that features a regular cycle of firestorms. High-energy plasma in the planet's atmosphere and particle emissions from the local star combine to cause the entire atmosphere to burn regularly. In "Lessons"[TNG] an unusually fierce and early firestorm begins, one more than capable of overwhelming the thermal insulation designed into the colony's structures.
And, of course, we have "A Matter of Time"[TNG], in which asteroid impact and volcanic dust motion in a planet's atmosphere generates such severe electrostatic effects that a modified phaser blast is thought capable of literally burning off the planet's atmosphere in a single shot as the dust particles are converted into a high-energy ionized plasma.
That's three planets with ignitable atmospheres in the Trek canon, and I may very well have missed one or more.
So let's take this fairly common concept and apply it to Elba II. First, let's assume the planetary shield is normal in its function. Then . . . well, let me just quote me, with some minor modifications:
"Suppose, for instance, that the very atmosphere of Elba II is not just toxic, but like the {other atmospheres noted above this quote} was actually explosive under certain conditions, like excesses of energy release. In this case, phasering down the shield means detonating the whole atmosphere, the .95 {explosion} concern for the dome was based on the worry that the atmosphere would ignite, and even Garth's uber-explosive sand starts to make {somewhat} better sense. Certainly the fact that the shuttles shouldn't fly is also notable, here. Similarly, Scotty's plan to phaser down the shield at the weak point might've been with the hope of not igniting the atmosphere, or igniting it and then running like hell to the other side of the planet to beam everyone up before they died in an atmospheric explosion (hence the "margin of safety" {which Sulu, not Mr. Scott, confirms}).
{With an atmosphere like that}, having a planetary shield makes a rather good amount of sense. Indeed, given that it's a small dome and a planetary shield is generally not necessary nor used to shield small facilities on the surface of planets, the notion of the explosive atmosphere is actually chock-full of explanatory power because it even explains why they have a planetary shield *at all*, along with a dome of sufficient strength that only starship weaponry can penetrate. After all, if the air was just poison, a simple inflatable dome could otherwise suffice."
Now, obviously I rather favor this idea. Besides having plenty of precedent, it doesn't add more holes to an already weakly-scripted episode, and relies only upon a single concept, not directly spelled out in the episode, that is well-covered in Star Trek precedents, yet which basically explains all of what otherwise seems odd.
3. Discussion
Contrast the last note above with "GarthDidIt", which requires that Garth basically create a new technology, Scotty be clairvoyant, Garth be an actual genius with egomania and suicidal tendencies otherwise unobserved, and still doesn't explain why shuttles can't fly in the atmosphere.
Occam's razor has been cited in favor of "GarthDidIt" because no additional entities are created . . . a somewhat disingenuous point of view. After all, if I was assessing modern technology and knew the capacity for aircraft existed but was ignorant of actual aircraft, and had before me an example of Person A going from New York to London in a matter of hours circa 1990, I could simply posit a supersonic rocket-boat, but I'd be wrong, and would have in all reality created an additional entity anyway via the modified ship that doesn't exist.
Instead, the criteria should not be an overreliance on simplicity . . . commonly Occam's formulation includes the caveat "but no simpler" . . . but on explanatory power. This is what Chatton and Menger's Anti-Razors are getting at when having too few entities is noted as leaving explanatory inadequacy.
Mind you, the two ideas discussed aren't the only two possibilities. I just happen to be fond of #2 right now because it has great explanatory power, neatly wrapping up the episode's oddities.
Thoughts?
1. Shield Expansion (the Garth-Mod)
Basically, this is the notion that the madman Garth, who curiously claimed to have created an explosive capable of destroying the whole planet, was an actual genius and managed to expand the shields around a small domed base for no apparent reason. This shield expansion served no useful purpose for him whatsoever, except to make sure that the toxic planet whose only tourist trap was an insane asylum had yet another reason to have no visitors.
Garth's genius is, as noted, demonstrated by his creation of an explosive which he claimed could destroy the planet. Contained in a semi-transparent vial smaller than a canned beverage (I'd estimate it at about 8 fluid ounces, or about a quarter of a liter), the explosive was shelf-stable but supposedly impact-sensitive, and Garth had a remote detonation technique available for use.
However, when a sand-grain size amount was detonated, it produced nothing like the effect one would expect. A grain of sand tops out at 2mm, but can be as small as 0.0625, per most definitions. Even dropping that smallest figure down to 0.05 for ease of calculation, that's 0.000000000000125 cubic meters versus the vial's 0.000236588 cubic meters . . . a factor of 1.9 billion, give or take, with the smallest difference at 2mm being 30,000 times. The explosion of the sand-grain sized amount produced an explosion that was visually impressive for an explosive so small, but which under Earth-like conditions certainly didn't appear to exceed a ton of TNT, and looked very much like far less . . . something in the range of kilograms.
Even assuming an entire ton of TNT, the yield of the whole vial similarly detonated ought not exceed 1.9 billion tons of TNT, or 1.9 gigatons. In the worst cases, it would be closer to 30,000 times oh, say, ten kilograms, or 300,000 kilograms, which is of course a mere 300 tons of TNT.
Obviously, neither of those figures are sufficient to actually destroy the planet. But, let's skip any further derision of the genius of this explicit madman for now.
Given that extension of starship shields by five kilometers is known to weaken them significantly ("The Defector"[TNG3]). . . even in relatively skinny tubular form this would represent something up to like a factor of ten expansion of protected volume . . . let's ponder what it would take for a madman to expand the shield to cover the planet. Assuming Earth-like size, and with a starting point of a shield of around ten kilometers (which we'll treat as a sphere for sake of laziness), that means that in order to cover the entire planet, the shield would have to project itself through thousands of kilometers of rock, and at the same time expand by a factor of . . . oh, let's be generous and assume it was only a factor of literally one billion (1000 cubic kilometers expanded out to the trillion or so of the Earth's volume) . . . while still being capable of repelling phaser strikes under those conditions.
But, a factor of a billion might seem unfair. After all, shields aren't necessarily to be judged by volume, but by surface area. So, let's consider . . . the surface area of a sphere ten kilometers wide is 314.15 square kilometers. The surface area of the planet Earth is 510 million square kilometers. That brings us down to a surface area difference of a mere 1.6 million times.
Clearly, then, the Elba II shield that was meant to protect an asylum was undoubtedly impervious to the combined fleets of all the major 23rd Century territorial powers, until Garth went and expanded it to cover the whole planet.
An unfortunate side effect of this planetwide coverage was that, if phasered down as it now could be, the shield's generator or related systems could, according to this hypothesis, explode violently, killing everyone inside the dome.
The expansion also apparently enabled shuttlecraft flight into the shield via some unspecified technobabble, presumably related to small instabilities or weapons-fire-related dimplings or what-have-you. The shuttle could gain entry but the ship presumably could not, and neither could her phasers. And, when the shuttle entered the shield, she'd be unable to fly, period . . . a completely unexplained detail in this hypothesis.
Interestingly, however, this proves that Federation planetary shielding is possible, since even a madman seemingly incapable of math had the ability to expand shield coverage by a factor of millions or billions with, we might try to realistically presume, no actual drop-off in effectiveness. As the shields survived in this modified state, the Federation would have the ability to study the technique and improve upon it.
Still, we have a variety of unanswered questions. Similar to religious "GodDidIt" proposals, this "GarthDidIt" argument has more than a few holes.
A. When was the shield expanded? If it was planetwide on Enterprise arrival, this would've been shocking, so it must've happened afterward. The moment it happened should've raised all manner of alarms, and yet there is never any mention of it. Indeed, after Garth's first attempt to fool the Enterprise into beaming him up in the guise of Captain Kirk, Sulu's report about the status of the shield is entirely normal . . . and yet even then Scotty suggested that everyone would die if they phasered the shield down.
B. Why couldn't shuttles fly beneath the shield?
C. Why would Garth take a powerful shield and nerf its effectiveness by expanding it by millions or billions of times, which also put his life in danger if the shield were actually used?
D. How would Scotty instantly know that this modified shield would explode?
Obviously, I have little faith in "GarthDidIt".
2. A More Than Toxic Atmosphere
Much is made of Elba II having a protective dome, beyond which lies a poisonous atmosphere. One of the inmates is taken out into it and, while there is no clear indication of pressure differential, it is clear that Garth's description that she'll choke to death in minutes is accurate.
However, what if there's a bit more to it?
In the 2150's the SS Enterprise visited a colony with an atmosphere very sensitive to great heat sources, such as shuttlepod drive plasma. The Paraagan colony was a mining world and their mining operations emitted tetrazine gas into the atmosphere, which settled at a relatively thin layer dozens of kilometers up in the atmosphere. Visiting vessels had to secure their exhaust plasma so as to avoid ignition.
Similarly, Bersallis III is a world that features a regular cycle of firestorms. High-energy plasma in the planet's atmosphere and particle emissions from the local star combine to cause the entire atmosphere to burn regularly. In "Lessons"[TNG] an unusually fierce and early firestorm begins, one more than capable of overwhelming the thermal insulation designed into the colony's structures.
And, of course, we have "A Matter of Time"[TNG], in which asteroid impact and volcanic dust motion in a planet's atmosphere generates such severe electrostatic effects that a modified phaser blast is thought capable of literally burning off the planet's atmosphere in a single shot as the dust particles are converted into a high-energy ionized plasma.
That's three planets with ignitable atmospheres in the Trek canon, and I may very well have missed one or more.
So let's take this fairly common concept and apply it to Elba II. First, let's assume the planetary shield is normal in its function. Then . . . well, let me just quote me, with some minor modifications:
"Suppose, for instance, that the very atmosphere of Elba II is not just toxic, but like the {other atmospheres noted above this quote} was actually explosive under certain conditions, like excesses of energy release. In this case, phasering down the shield means detonating the whole atmosphere, the .95 {explosion} concern for the dome was based on the worry that the atmosphere would ignite, and even Garth's uber-explosive sand starts to make {somewhat} better sense. Certainly the fact that the shuttles shouldn't fly is also notable, here. Similarly, Scotty's plan to phaser down the shield at the weak point might've been with the hope of not igniting the atmosphere, or igniting it and then running like hell to the other side of the planet to beam everyone up before they died in an atmospheric explosion (hence the "margin of safety" {which Sulu, not Mr. Scott, confirms}).
{With an atmosphere like that}, having a planetary shield makes a rather good amount of sense. Indeed, given that it's a small dome and a planetary shield is generally not necessary nor used to shield small facilities on the surface of planets, the notion of the explosive atmosphere is actually chock-full of explanatory power because it even explains why they have a planetary shield *at all*, along with a dome of sufficient strength that only starship weaponry can penetrate. After all, if the air was just poison, a simple inflatable dome could otherwise suffice."
Now, obviously I rather favor this idea. Besides having plenty of precedent, it doesn't add more holes to an already weakly-scripted episode, and relies only upon a single concept, not directly spelled out in the episode, that is well-covered in Star Trek precedents, yet which basically explains all of what otherwise seems odd.
3. Discussion
Contrast the last note above with "GarthDidIt", which requires that Garth basically create a new technology, Scotty be clairvoyant, Garth be an actual genius with egomania and suicidal tendencies otherwise unobserved, and still doesn't explain why shuttles can't fly in the atmosphere.
Occam's razor has been cited in favor of "GarthDidIt" because no additional entities are created . . . a somewhat disingenuous point of view. After all, if I was assessing modern technology and knew the capacity for aircraft existed but was ignorant of actual aircraft, and had before me an example of Person A going from New York to London in a matter of hours circa 1990, I could simply posit a supersonic rocket-boat, but I'd be wrong, and would have in all reality created an additional entity anyway via the modified ship that doesn't exist.
Instead, the criteria should not be an overreliance on simplicity . . . commonly Occam's formulation includes the caveat "but no simpler" . . . but on explanatory power. This is what Chatton and Menger's Anti-Razors are getting at when having too few entities is noted as leaving explanatory inadequacy.
Mind you, the two ideas discussed aren't the only two possibilities. I just happen to be fond of #2 right now because it has great explanatory power, neatly wrapping up the episode's oddities.
Thoughts?