Transporters

Transporters are matter-energy conversion devices which is used to provide a convenient means of transportation. The transporter briefly converts an object or person into energy, beams that energy to another location, and then reassembles the subject into its original form.

Transport Chamber

This is the protected volume within which the actual materialize / dematerialize cycle occurs. The chamber platform is elevated above the floor to reduce the possibility of dangerous static discharge, which sometimes occurs during transport process.

Operator Console

This control station permits the Transporter Chief to monitor and control all transporter functions. It also permits manual override of atutosequencer functions and other emergency abort options.

Primary Energizing Coils

Located at the top of the transporter chamber, these coils create the powerful Annular Confinement Beam (ABC), which creates a spatial matrix within which the materialize / dematerialize process occurs. A secondary field holds the transport subject within the ABC; this is a safety feature, as disruption of the ABC field during the early stages of dematerialization can result in a massive energy discharge.

Phase Transition

Located in the transport chamber platform, these wideband quark manipulation field devices accomplish the actual dematerialization / materialization process by partially decoupling the binding between subatomic particles. All personnel transporters are designed to operate at quantum resolution (necessary for successful transport of life forms). Cargo transporters are generally optimized at the more energy-efficient molecular resolution, but can also be set at quantum resolution if necessary.

Molecular Imaging Scanner

Each upper pad incorporates four redundant sets of 0,0012µ molecular imaging scanners at 90° intervals around the primary pad axis. Error-checking routines permit any one scanner to be ignored if it disagrees with the other three. Failure of two or three scanners necessitates an automatic abort in the transport process. Each scanner is offset 3,5 arc seconds from the ABC axis, permitting real time derivation of analog quantum state data using a series of dedicated Heisenberg compensators. Quantum state data are not used when transporters are operating cargo (molecular resolution) mode.

Pattern Buffer

This superconducting tokamak device delays transmission of the matter stream so the Doppler compensators can correct for relative motion between the emitter array and the target. A single pattern buffer is shared between each pair of transporter chambers. Operating rules require at least one additional pattern buffer to be available in the system for possible emergency shunting. In emergency situations, the pattern buffer is capable of holding the entire matter stream in suspension for periods approaching 420 seconds before degradation in pattern image occurs.

Biofilter

Normally used only in transport to the ship, this image processing device scans the incoming matter stream and looks for patterns corresponding to known dangerous bacteriological and viral forms. Upon detection of such patterns, the biofilter excises these patterns from the incoming matter stream.

The Transporters was in fact Gene Roddenberry's solution to the television production problem of how to get his characters from the starship down to a planet's surface. Landing a huge spaceship every week would have cost far too much for a television budget, but the transporter provided an ingenious means of getting the characters quickly (and inexpensively) into the midst of action.