star trek communications speed

Subspace communication

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Subspace communication was the most common form of communication used in the Federation . Because the system transmitted messages and data through subspace , it allowed the information to travel faster than the speed of light .

Subspace communication could be jammed on a large scale via the use of the subspace equaliscopic system . ( Star Trek: False Vacuum : " Structural Unemployment ")

External links [ ]

• Subspace communication article at Memory Alpha , the canon Star Trek wiki.
• Subspace communication article at Memory Beta , the non-canon Star Trek wiki.

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Speed & Range of Subspace Transmissions?

Discussion in ' Trek Tech ' started by glock27 , Jan 29, 2011 .

glock27 Ensign Red Shirt

Lieutenant 'A' on Earth wants to say "whaddup" to Ensign 'B', who is on a ship at an equidistant point measuring 20 light years (one full sector) away. So how long does it take for Lt. A's transmission to reach Ens. B? The warp scale says it takes a ship going Warp 9.9999 fifty-three minutes to travel that distance. Is the transmission traveling faster than a boat doing five-nines? Are we talking the 'holy grail' speed of Warp 10? Is there an effective range limit for the transmission? If so what it is it? If a subspace transmission travels at Warp Factor 'God', shouldn't it be everywhere at once, and thus, transmit in real time, with no lag?  

Mage Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

The reason why subspace communication works relativly fast is because of relays. In ENT there was an episode in which we saw Enterprise deploying one of these relays. They make subspace communication a lot faster, faster then max warp. But not always fast enough. In DS9, it was once stated that it took a while for a subspace message from Cestus 3 (where Kassidy's brother lives) to reach her. Not sure how long, but it was days I believe.  

C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

Even subspace transmissions don't travel at Warp 10--at least according to the various Tech Manuals and the Star Trek Encyclopedia --so there is a limit to how fast subspace signals can go. They go significantly faster than starships, but not at infinite velocity.  

The Inquisitor Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

Maybe the mass of the transmission in comparison to the mass of a starship could indicate why it travels faster. Just a thought.  

sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

See my answer in your previous thread.  

Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

One would think that the signal goes faster and travels farther if it's pushed into subspace by a more powerful transmitter. We have currently no reason to think that subspace signals would behave according to the frankly rather exotic rules that govern electromagnetic radiation and restrict it to exactly one speed in vacuum (the speed of light). Thus, a runabout could easily fly outside its communications range, while a big starship would have to fly much faster or longer to exceed its communications range. Which we do see happening when we compare DS9 and TNG communications problems... Also, if the signal drops from subspace to normal space after running out of oomph, and perhaps gradually slows down before this dropping, then it would be possible to have a message travel across 2,000 ly in one second (if there's a relay buoy every 10 ly with the ability to re-push the signal to high speed for the next 10 ly) or in one century (if there are fewer or weaker relay buoys). It's quite unlike radio, and more like moving a message baton physically between two locations. Timo Saloniemi  

SWHouston Commander Red Shirt

The Borg didn't seem to have much trouble keeping in touch. But, I'm not sure that was Subspace, I remember Data mentioning the Borg Interlink Freqs were "sorta" related to a type of Transporter Signal.  

Deks Vice Admiral Admiral

The Borg were indeed mentioned to use subspace signals for communication (at least that was the case in BoBW). They probably kept using that kind of method... albeit via TW signals. It's all subspace based anyway, because as it was already established, Trek is primarily centered around subspace manipulation and one has to use it in order to achieve faster than light or warp speeds. As for communications for SF... they are amplified by subspace transceivers. When the Enterprise-D sent a message during it's exploratory assignments, it would have taken it 2 days to get a response from SF. It is likely the ship was immediately outside of range of the Federation subspace network, or was in an area of space where no nearby transmitters were present.  

OTOH, it's possible to get a signal across millions of lightyears without the benefit of relays in a matter of centuries, at least in "Where No One Has Gone Before". That would sort of suggest that even if a starship were two annoying lightdays beyond the reach of the UFP booster net and therefore theoretically would suffer a delay of days in standard communications, the comm officer could simply flip the switch for this intergalactic transmitter and connect to Earth in milliseconds... ...Unless there's something special about intergalactic space that makes signals go automatically faster or decay more slowly there. Perhaps signals travel slowly in dense (thin) subspace, and subspace is denser (thinner) inside galaxies? Timo Saloniemi  

Crazy Eddie Vice Admiral Admiral

Canon is going to screw with your head on this one because "instantaneous" subspace communications come and go through the series and have never been consistent in Trek history. I for one ALWAYS build a time delay into Trek stories as a regular plot device; Kirk and crew have to use their own discretion in Situation A because it'll take way too long to wait for a response from Starfleet, or have to stall for time in Situation B because a message will take several days to reach the nearest starbase and then it'll take a week or two for help to arrive, etc. If you want some consistency, try plotting subspace signals traveling at, say, Warp 10 based on the calculation of warp 1-9. At least that way the reason you can't reach or exceed warp ten is because that's the speed that subspace signals propagate and crossing that velocity has similar problems as crossing the sound barrier.  

...And since warp 10 is infinite speed, we get those instantaneous communications we so often witness. Also, Kirk should by all rights be out of comm range in situations where Picard is not, because Kirk surveyed the wilderness while Picard flew through civilized space. Timo Saloniemi  

PrimeDirective Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

So subpace communication can only happen when a starship, or one of its smaller versions(i.e. runabouts, shuttlecraft) is in warp? Isn't subspace the bubble of normal space that the ship is in, when at warp?  

JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

I don't think they ever clearly defined what subspace is. Subspace is some fictional concept, on another level than normal space. Distances are shorter there, subatomic particles exist there naturally, life forms exist there, too, another form of communication is possible (faster than light and not degrading with distance). In Insurrection they used subspace weapons that created a rift into nothingness, and in one TNG episode Dr. Crusher was caught in a subspace bubble (or was it a warp bubble in that episode?). Sensors need to work with subspace somehow, too. Otherwise they wouldn't see where they are going, and couldn't instantly see things that are lightyears away.  

So subpace communication can only happen when a starship, or one of its smaller versions(i.e. runabouts, shuttlecraft) is in warp? Click to expand...

Aahz Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

It has been correctly stated here that "canon" has screwed up subspace communications. More correctly, anything Trek produced after Gene Roddenberry died (i.e. Berman/Bragga) screwed up most everything Trek as far as "canon" is concerned the way GR meant for it to be. But regardless... In the pre-TMP days (that is, mid- to late-70s), there was a fanzine called "Trek" in which a writer named Mark Andrew Golding came up with extremely plausible explanations of Treknology based on watching the episodes with an eye for extreme detail. One of the things he explained was subspace communications. He had explained warp drive and pre-warp FTL travel in previous articles, and subspace communication built upon that. Without going into all of that detail, suffice it to say that there are a number of permanent naturally-occurring warps between certain star systems. Ships do not really travel FTL, but really travel at a small fraction of lightspeed and either take advantage of the natural warps or use warp drive to generate an artificial warp. A subspace signal cannot generate its own warp, obviously. However, it does have the advantage of traveling at the speed of light. By placing communications relays at the ends of the naturally-occurring warps, the subspace signal can be directed through the warp and travel at an effective speed of about warp 60 (according to "The Making of Star Trek" which gives the speed but not the explanation). There is an extensive network of subspace relays throughout explored space. If a ship is near one of the relays, communication with a ship, station, or something else near another relay can seem almost instantaneous. But if you're some distance from the nearest relay, the signal travels at "only" the speed of light until it reaches the relay, then travels at full subspace speed through the network. For example, in "The Trouble with Tribbles" Kirk has a real-time communication with Admiral Fitzpatrick even though they're near the Klingon border, presumably because there is a relay either near Station K7 or actually part of the station. OTOH, in "The Enterprise Incident", Subcommander Tal says a message to Starfleet would take 3 weeks from their present location (some point actually in Romulan space past the Neutral Zone, where Starfleet would not have had the chance to place relays). In "Star Trek IV", in the very brief scene on the Enterprise-A at the end of the movie, take a look at one of the overhead displays at Uhura's station. It is a portion of a map of the subspace relay network. A better view of this map is printed in "Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise" and can probably also be found on-line somewhere. So even though Mark Andrew Golding's explanation was written based solely on TOS episodes, it appears to remain valid with the later movies and TV series.  

scotpens Professional Geek Premium Member

newtype_alpha said: ↑ Canon is going to screw with your head on this one because "instantaneous" subspace communications come and go through the series and have never been consistent in Trek history. I for one ALWAYS build a time delay into Trek stories as a regular plot device; Kirk and crew have to use their own discretion in Situation A because it'll take way too long to wait for a response from Starfleet, or have to stall for time in Situation B because a message will take several days to reach the nearest starbase and then it'll take a week or two for help to arrive, etc. Click to expand...

giftindex Cadet Newbie

The Best Data to the Question "How Fast and How Far Subspace Transmission can travel?" is answered in the Star Trek Next Generation Season 1 Episode 5 entitled "Where No One has Gone Before". Shortly after coming to a complete Stop, the crew determines that they have traveled 2,700,000 Light Years in mere moments. The indicate that it would take them 300 Years to travel that distance at Maximum Warp indicating That to be 9000 Times the Speed of Light. Data is cut short before he can give his complete answer regarding how long a subspace transmission would travel. But He states that the subspace message they just sent would take 51 Years 10 months 9 weeks 16 days To get there. (Actually 52.04977169 Years) A quick calculation would indicate that a subspace message would have to travel at 51873.4 Times the Speed of Light after adustments for leap years.  

CuttingEdge100 Commodore Commodore

Well as a hypothetical, I've always thought a good arbitrary rule of thumb for the maximum theoretical velocity of either a subspace transmission or a warp-drive would be the speed of light squared. It would come out to around 3,600 light years an hour at that speed, you would take about 30 hours to cross the galaxy.  

T'Girl Vice Admiral Admiral

giftindex said: ↑ But He states that the subspace message they just sent would take 51 Years 10 months 9 weeks 16 days To get there. (Actually 52.04977169 Years) A quick calculation would indicate that a subspace message would have to travel at 51873.4 Times the Speed of Light after adustments for leap years. Click to expand...

...Not to mention that "51 years, 10 months, 9 weeks, 16 days" cannot be the same thing as "51 years + 10 months + 9 weeks + 16 days", because 9 weeks is more than a month, and 16 days is more than a week. Nobody would express a single period of time with those words, then. (Instead, one would say "52 years, 3 weeks, 2 days", assuming that a month is defined as being 30 days long even though no such definition is agreed upon). But one could well express three or four periods of time with those words. Say, the message could travel for 51 years or 10 months or 9 weeks or 16 days, depending on parameters that Data is not allowed to dwell on because Picard shuts him up in mid-sentence. Which means we know next to nothing about the relationship between the distance of 2.7 million lightyears and the comm delay imposed by it. For all we know, Data's parameters would not be met in any practical conditions, and the message that they did send home would actually arrive in 2.69 million years! Timo Saloniemi  

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Communications officer

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Communications officer Nyota Uhura at work

The role of communications officer (also known as comm officer ) was a specialized occupation held by crewmembers aboard Starfleet vessels , installations , and bases. Found across multiple divisions , the individuals holding the position were held responsible for managing all incoming and outgoing transmissions, whether they were visual, audio, or text communications.

During the 22nd and 23rd centuries, comm officers such as Ensign Hoshi Sato and Lieutenant Nyota Uhura held distinct positions on a starship's bridge . During the mid-to-late 24th century , tactical and operations officers such as Lieutenant Commander Data and Lieutenant Worf doubled as communications officer. ( Star Trek: Enterprise ; Star Trek: The Original Series ; Star Trek: The Next Generation )

Surprised that Larr was able to pick up the English language quickly on his own, Doctor Phlox commented to Hoshi Sato in 2151 , " Perhaps we've found an assistant comm officer. " ( ENT : " Dear Doctor ")

In 2266 , after Uhura expressed a frustration with hearing the word "frequency" that had nearly driven her to tears , Spock found himself unable to continue her line of conversation, given the illogic of a communications officer possessing such a sentiment. Uhura explained that she wanted him to talk with her about something else for a change. ( TOS : " The Man Trap ")

• 1.1 22nd century
• 1.2 23rd century
• 1.3 24th century
• 1.4 25th century
• 2 List of alternate reality communications officers
• 3 List of mirror universe communications officers
• 4 List of parallel universe communications officers

List of prime reality communications officers [ ]

22nd century [ ].

23rd century [ ]

24th century [ ]

• Chief Pendleton , USS Enterprise -D , 2369

25th century [ ]

List of alternate reality communications officers [ ]

List of mirror universe communications officers [ ]

List of parallel universe communications officers [ ]

See also [ ]

• Communications master
• Communications officer's log
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)