EMP in Star Trek

[JALU3]

Given that there was a near miss recently of possible solar weather impact on our modern lives, I have to wonder if this has been explored in Star Trek in the past. There was the environmentalist story of over use of warp, but nothing that I can remember regarding the impact of an EMP on a society.

Are Federation electronic systems vulnerable to EMPs or other similar natural phenomena? If not, why not? If so, what plots could be built around the issue?

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Are Federation electronic systems vulnerable to EMPs or other similar natural phenomena?

Most Starfleet ships would have to be shielded from regular EMP hazards in order to function safely, given the variety of environments one may find in deep space. "Disaster" and the Breen weapon in DS9 indicate that the idea of a catastrophic failure of ship systems is never far from the show-writer's minds, though...

[Tomcat]

One of our game episodes dealt with this - the ship suffered the effects of an EMP and it caused the computer core to lock up. The ship also fell out of warp which caused injuries and fires on board. The only solution was to re-boot the core. The players had a blast as they were restricted by time as the billions of lines of code had to be run through in the boot up and systems came back online in priority (I.e. first environment, then sensors, etc.) It was fun watching them be creative to put out a masive deck fire that was gobbling up oxygen by blowing a hole in the hull. They wrote batch files to circumvent the core's priority start up and other stuff. They had to create triage centers in hallways as medics climbed between decks. Cool stuff.

Now why the ship suffered the EMP and fell from warp? Well I am sure there are a lot of trek folk out there that would give me reasons why it wouldn't work, or certain redundancies, but sometimes a story has to happen.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

What was the massive deck fire burning?

[Tomcat]

It was burning any consumables that would be on a starship...

plastics
rubber
conduit
wire
cloth/fabrics
some softer metals
people
lubricants
oxygen
containment bottles with chemicals
etc.

It was also in the forward part of the ship which was where most of the labs were, so:

lab equipment
lab animals
lab chemicals
lab clothes
lab clothing
lab people

I think that is a good list of what was being consumed. There is probably a whole lot more that could be added.

So, all of the above burning material creates heat and smoke as it travels to wherever there is new fuel. Since the ship's containment and suppression systems were down the fire moved as it wished.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Presumably Starfleet would be choosing materials in construction to avoid exactly that kind of situation.

[Tomcat]

Presumably so...

http://www.empireonline.com/images/u...learned-20.jpg

http://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo...creen_Fire.jpg

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__...magination.jpg

http://popculturezoo.com/wp-content/...trekkelvin.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P8H4JN4Nfh...%2BYouTube.png

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__...f_destruct.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/e002117c5...g5lso1_500.gif

http://www.projectrho.com/public_htm...erprisecut.jpg

http://image.stirileprotv.ro/media/i...0/60436405.jpg

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17kp...jpg/medium.jpg

[Tomcat]

1 - 3... show fires inside a starship

4 - 6... show these presumably fire-retardant materials burning in the vacuum of space

7... shows Spock sitting in a smoke filled bridge (what makes smoke?)

8... I believe in the movie after this scene, the engine room and torpedo rooms erupted into fire

9... well she would have just about started a fire anywhere on the ship, and I believe it was still regulation

10... a follower to #8

Fire is the biggest worry in any self-contained environment. My brother served on the submarine, USS John Marshal, and it was a constant drill and a semi-regular event to have to put out a fire. I have read that it is also a primary fear for the international space station in orbit. Granted neither are Starfleet, but I think we can presume fires occurred on starships.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

I'm sure the Abrams ships have electrical fires from overloaded lighting rigs all the time.

[Owen E Oulton]

And it won't help that the engine rooms are full of alcohol...

[The Tatterdemalion King]

And it won't help that the engine rooms are full of alcohol...

The construction guys also just took the schematics and scaled it up to 200%. That can't be good.