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Star TrekThe 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 micro meteors 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 shieldA deflector shield is a fictional technology commonly found in science fiction. Typically, deflector shields (often referred to as simply "shields") are some form of energy field that is projected along the surface of, or into the space around, a starships generated by the deflector.
The beams and shields created by the deflector are often a source of subspaceIn mathematics, if a set with certain properties is called a space then a subset of which with same properties is usually called a subspace . Those with entries in Wikipedia are: Linear subspaces (also called vector subspaces in linear algebra; Topologica 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 axesAxis has several uses: In mathematics, an axis is a straight line around which a geometric figure can be rotated. An axis of symmetry is a line with respect to which a body can be symmetrical. The term is also applied for the axis of a graph; the horizont 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 computertower of a personal computer. A computer is a device for making calculations or controlling operations that are expressible in numerical or logical terms. While factually accurate, this definition and those found in other dictionaries are so broad that th in control of the device.
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 hardwareHardware is equipment such as fasteners, keys, locks, hinges, wire, chains, plumbing supples, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts, especially when they are made of metal. In the United States, hardware has been traditionally sold in " hardware stor used in navigational deflectors can be quickly reconfigured to produce a variety of particleA particle is # In particle physics, a basic unit of matter or energy. In ecology, a small object of nonbiological kind. In linguistics, a grammatical particle. In computer graphics, an element of a particle system (simulation). In common use: a very smal streams and energyThis article is about the scientific concept. Energy use by humans is discussed in other articles''. Energy generally and qualitatively speaking, is the property (or the quantity of the property) of doing things or supplying power. The expressions 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 , 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.
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.
