Physicist William Edelstein and his son Arthur recently published a report on how FTL travel via Warp Speed (Star Trek), KK Drive (Alan Dean Foster’s Commonwealth novels) and Stutterwarp (GDW’s 2300 AD game) would kill the starship’s crew immediately. Other Sci-Fi franchises have the starship leave our universe temporarily to get around the problem along with the bigger one, time dilation (what Einstein’s relativity is about): Hyperspace (Star Wars), Jump Gates/Drives (Babylon 5, Crusade, Buck Rogers 1979 and GDW’s Traveller game) or some rather instantaneous bending of Space to get from point A to B (Battlestar Galactica 2003, Lost in Space 1998, Dune, Event Horizon, Space Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers, and the Niven-Pournelle CoDominion-Mote in God’s Eye novels). I have no idea how FTL travel works in the Alien movies and who cares in Futurama.
Moving back to the topic at hand, the people who designed the original Enterprise probably put the satellite dish on the front to make it look realistic. Then the writers decided to explain it by saying it was the starship’s navigational deflector to prevent what the Edelsteins claim (congrats to my friend Tarl for beating me to the punch for the explanation; we also had a lively discussion earlier over which side really experiences time dilation). I originally thought it didn’t matter because the Enterprise forms a “warp bubble” around itself to bend time and space, therefore breaking the light speed barrier became feasible; contrary to some physicist in Mexico I saw on The History Channel saying the starship moves the Universe around it. Plus they have low-powered deflector shields to prevent micrometeorites from denting the hull.
I know it’s all fiction and fun but I have been re-watching Sagan’s Cosmos which showed that even in 1980 scientists designed a theoretical starship with a front scoop employing lasers to capture/direct the Edelsteins’ hazardous hydrogen into fuel. It would have to be kilometers in diameter though, deep space has about one hydrogen atom per 10 cubic centimeters. Besides, if one could attain light speed, there’s the transformation to energy and having almost infinite density, how could protons “kill” such a thing?
Maybe Dr. Plait will enlighten me on his blog about it, if he has time.