10-20-2022, 12:27 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-20-2022, 11:06 AM by FaceInTheCrowd.)
Early Trek used the term "lithium crystals" a couple of times and fan attempts have been made to rationalize some exotic use for what is essentially just a form of quartz. I choose to just assume that they really meant dilithium all along.
Dilithium isn't fuel, according to the various Trek tech manuals; it's some sort of catalyst that enables the balancing of matter and antimatter so the two react to produce energy instead of just exploding when they come into contact (the entire third season of Discovery is based on the collapse of the Federation in the 29th century following a mysterious wave that caused dilthium to go inert, resulting in matter-antimatter reactors suddenly detonating). Once they went to series, dilithium was always shown being found in the form of clear or slightly tinted, naturally occurring crystals. I suspect that actually trying to extract it from ore was much less preferable, possibly much too difficult and/or dangerous, which would explain why we never heard of cracking stations again.
Federation and Klingon warp technology is dilithium dependent, and it's a strategic resource they have fought over (the Romulans power theirs with an artificially generated quantum singularity, which is a fictional thing that only Star Trek engineering characters seem to understand). If private concerns play a role in the mining and refinement of dilithium, they are almost certainly doing it under contract to their respective governments (there are all kinds of bizarre things that are profitable mainly because a government wants them very badly). And those governments would undoubtedly ensure that there is no such thing as an open market for their strategic resources.
There had to be a reason why someone would decide to do anything on a barren rock near the edge of the galaxy. Either something necessary that couldn't be found closer to civilization or something that civilization didn't want closer to it.
Dilithium isn't fuel, according to the various Trek tech manuals; it's some sort of catalyst that enables the balancing of matter and antimatter so the two react to produce energy instead of just exploding when they come into contact (the entire third season of Discovery is based on the collapse of the Federation in the 29th century following a mysterious wave that caused dilthium to go inert, resulting in matter-antimatter reactors suddenly detonating). Once they went to series, dilithium was always shown being found in the form of clear or slightly tinted, naturally occurring crystals. I suspect that actually trying to extract it from ore was much less preferable, possibly much too difficult and/or dangerous, which would explain why we never heard of cracking stations again.
Federation and Klingon warp technology is dilithium dependent, and it's a strategic resource they have fought over (the Romulans power theirs with an artificially generated quantum singularity, which is a fictional thing that only Star Trek engineering characters seem to understand). If private concerns play a role in the mining and refinement of dilithium, they are almost certainly doing it under contract to their respective governments (there are all kinds of bizarre things that are profitable mainly because a government wants them very badly). And those governments would undoubtedly ensure that there is no such thing as an open market for their strategic resources.
There had to be a reason why someone would decide to do anything on a barren rock near the edge of the galaxy. Either something necessary that couldn't be found closer to civilization or something that civilization didn't want closer to it.