The blue navigational deflector is seen here on the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C), an Ambassador class starship.

In the Star Trek fictional universe, the navigational deflector is a device found on many Starfleet ships capable of warp travel, generally noticeable by its foremost location on many ships' engineering hulls and its soft blue glow. The navigational deflector is used while moving at faster-than-light speeds to prevent damage to ships' hulls from micrometeors and friction from the microscopic objects and extremely thin gas found in interstellar space. Deflectors accomplish the first goal through the use of powerful deflector/tractor beams extending several thousand kilometers fore of their ships, aimed automatically through use of the ships' long-range sensors. The deflection of smaller objects and stray atoms is done by largely static low-power deflector shields generated by the deflector. The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C), an Ambassador-class starship This work is copyrighted. ... The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C), an Ambassador-class starship This work is copyrighted. ... USS Enterprise (NCC 1701-C) In the fictional Star Trek universe, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C was the fourth Federation Starship Enterprise to carry that name. ... The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C), an Ambassador class starship The Ambassador class starship is a rarely seen starship class in the Star Trek fictional universe built in the early 24th century. ... http://www. ... A fictional universe is a cohesive imaginary world that serves as the setting or backdrop for one or (more commonly) multiple works of fiction. ... Starfleet Command In the Star Trek fictional universe, Starfleet is the defense, research, diplomacy, and exploration force of the United Federation of Planets. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Enterprise-D goes into warp. ... For other uses, see Blue (disambiguation) Blue is one of the three primary additive colors; blue light has the shortest wavelength range (about 420-490 nanometres) of the three primary colors. ... Jump to: navigation, search Prism splitting light Light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength that is visible to the eye (visible light) or, in a technical or scientific setting, electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength. ... A burst of meteors A meteor is the visible path of a meteoroid that enters the Earths (or another bodys) atmosphere, commonly called a shooting star or falling star. ... Jump to: navigation, search In physics, friction is the non-conservative resistive force that occurs when two surfaces travel along each other when forced together. ... A gas is one of the phases of matter. ... Outer space (also called just space) as a name for a region, refers to the relatively empty parts of the Universe, outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. ... A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer) (symbol: km) is a unit of length equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words khilia = thousand and metro = count/measure). ... Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Jump to: navigation, search Properties For alternative meanings see atom (disambiguation). ... Jump to: navigation, search A deflector shield is a fictional technology commonly found in science fiction. ...

The beams and shields created by the deflector are often a source of subspace distortion and EM radiation, which can interfere with the operation of ships' sensors. Due to this, long-range sensor arrays are often placed circularly around navigational deflectors. This allows the sensors to look along the same axes of the beams and shields to reduce interference and also, because of their close proximity to the deflector, allows for the speedy receipt of data from them by the computer in control of the device. Screenshot (from SSCX Star Warzone). ... Electromagnetic radiation or EM radiation is a combination (cross product) of oscillating electric and magnetic fields perpendicular to each other, moving through space as a wave, effectively transporting energy and momentum. ... Jump to: navigation, search A computer is a device or machine for processing information from data according to a program — a compiled list of instructions. ...

In combat, the navigational deflector forms the first layer of a starship's static defenses. It is almost useless against high-powered beam and missile weapons, but quite potent at blunting the assault of light and medium-powered weapons.

The hardware used in navigational deflectors can be quickly reconfigured to produce a variety of particle streams and energy emissions, making them a sort of 'Swiss army knife' for Starfleet vessels and a convenient deus ex machina device for script writers. Such uses can be seen in Star Trek: First Contact, where it was used to travel into the past and, later, reconfigured into an interplexing beacon, a long-range communication device; in "The Best of Both Worlds" (TNG), as a weapon against a Borg cube ship; in "Scorpion", Pt. 2 (VOY), for travel between alternate universes; and, during the Klingon Civil War, for detecting cloaked Romulan ships. Hardware is equipment such as fasteners, keys, locks, hinges, latches, corners, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts, especially when they are made of metal. ... A particle is Look up Particle in Wiktionary, the free dictionary In particle physics, a basic unit of matter or energy. ... A Victorinox Swiss Army knife Some of the various designs produced by Victorinox. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Star Trek: First Contact (Paramount Pictures, 1996; see also 1996 in film), is the eighth feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series. ... The Best of Both Worlds is a significant and highly regarded two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation written by Michael Piller and directed by Cliff Bole. ... The title as it appeared in most episodes opening credits. ... Jump to: navigation, search In the Star Trek fictional universe, the Borg use a number of different vessels, all appearing as simple geometric solids with greebled exteriors and being very generalized and decentralized in design. ... Scorpion was a two-part episode of Star Trek: Voyager. ... The starship Voyager (NCC-74656), an Intrepid-class starship. ... Jump to: navigation, search The deepest visible-light image of the cosmos. ... In the Star Trek fictional universe, the Klingon Civil War was the culmination of the power struggle between Gowron and the House of Duras, which continued even after Duras himself was killed at the hands of Lieutenant Worf in 2367. ... Jump to: navigation, search In several science fiction universes, a cloaking device is an advanced stealth system which causes a spaceship or individual to be invisible and extremely difficult to detect with normal sensors. ... The Romulans, a fictional race in the Star Trek universe, are descended from Vulcans and are characterized as being deceitful, cunning, and treacherous. ...

Navigational deflectors are not seen on a few Starfleet craft, such as the Miranda, Soyuz, and Constellation classes. These classes perform the same functions by use of bow-mounted tractor emitters and low-power use of the deflector grid. Many alien ships also do not have deflector dishes and presumably operate similarly. The USS Reliant (NCC-1864), a Miranda class starship. ... This is a list of the Federation Starfleet ship classes in the Star Trek fictional universe: // Akira class Main article: Akira class starship Ambassador class Main article: Ambassador class starship Andromeda class Known Andromeda class starships: U.S.S. Drake - registry number NCC-70956 Ambushed by a Klingon battle group... The USS Hathaway (NCC-2593), a Constellation class starship The Constellation class is a class of starships once used by United Federation of Planetss Starfleet organization in the Star Trek fictional universe. ...

In the short online story Journey to Centauri[1], which provides background to the game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, the starship "Unity" has no navigational deflector, and due to a chance collision with a small space object, probably about the size of a fist, at near-lightspeed, the ship is badly damaged. Jump to: navigation, search Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri (sometimes abbreviated to SMAC) is a turn-based strategy 4X computer game created by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier under the auspices of Firaxis Games in 1999. ...

In real life, similar technology would be needed to construct a Bussard ramjet, a promising means to achieve near-lightspeed travel. As well as protecting the ship from high-speed particles, it would funnel them into a reaction chamber to generate thrust. The Bussard ramjet method of spacecraft propulsion was proposed in 1960 by the physicist Robert W. Bussard and popularized by Carl Sagan in the television series and subsequent book Cosmos as a variant of a fusion rocket capable of fast interstellar spaceflight. ...

External link

• "Navigational Deflector" at Memory Alpha