The crew of the USS Voyager, who had tested their own transwarp drive in 2372, encountered a transwarp-capable species known as the Voth while journeying in the Delta Quadrant. This vessel, which is thought to have been an advanced prototype, was later destroyed by the Enterprise. This time the Borg used a transwarp vessel capable of generating conduits within which an object could travel at incredible speeds - the USS Enterprise accessed one of these conduits and made a short trip at an average of some 236,000,000 times light speed. In 2369 the Borg invaded Federation space for the third time, under the command of the android Lore. In 2364 the USS Enterprise made several short transwarp flights with the assistance of an alien being known as "The Traveller". Alien Technologiy Although many regarded transwarp drive as an impossibility, recent experience has shown that transwarp is indeed possible. Significant problems also remain with navigating a vessel using this form of drive system, and as a result even unmanned probes have proved to be unusable. As well as the guaranteed genetic damage, the subspace fields associated with this form of transwarp drive results in an 85% chance of fatality per flight. Voyager relayed some details of this flight back to Starfleet in 2373 via an alien subspace communications array experts analysing the technology have indicated that the difficulties experienced by Voyager are in fact only the tip of the iceberg. In 2372 the crew of the USS Voyager succeeded in conducting two brief shuttlecraft flights at warp 10 - actually straddling the warp barrier itself, and achieving infinite speed! However, several significant problems remain with this approach Voyager crew members who conducted the flight experienced severe health problems, including genetic abnormalities. This was not the end for Federation transwarp technology, however. Starfleet abandoned the Excelsior transwarp project altogether in 2287 and refitted the ship with a standard warp drive. Despite years of further work on the engines, the Excelsior was branded a failure - never made a successful test flight, and never having broke the transwarp barrier. Launched in 2285, it was only a deliberate act of sabotage by the Chief Engineer which prevented a catastrophic nacelle implosion on the first flight. Unfortunately, while the Excelsior's non propulsion systems where a success, the transwarp project itself proved to be over-ambitious. This new "Excelsior" class was also to incorporate the very latest computers, sensors, and weapons systems - it would, quite simply, be by far the most sophisticated vessel in known space. A huge engineering project was begun with the aim of developing a starship capable of transwarp speeds. This technology, dubbed "transwarp", quickly attracted the attention of Starfleet. Nevertheless, as early as 2275 scientists working at the Daystrom Institute proposed that standard warp physics was in fact only a small part of a much larger puzzle. Warp technology has been tremendously successful, and there remains much potential for development in warp drive systems. Basic warp propulsion systems have been in use with the major alpha quadrant powers now for over three centuries.
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