Project Arcturus
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Project Arcturus is a power generation device in the Stargate universe of the science fiction series Stargate Atlantis.
Technical Information
Project Arcturus is capable of generating astronomical amounts of energy. Unlike the Zero Point Module, which utilizes an artificially created region of subspace to extract zero-point energy from, Arcturus was an attempt at extracting zero-point energy from our own universe. In the words of Dr. Zelenka, this could potentially make it as powerful as the scope of the universe itself. It was described as the Ancients' last and possibly greatest discovery before Ascension (recent information suggests that the Ancients had knowledge of Ascension before they even came to the Milky Way galaxy).Background
The ultimate goal of Arcturus was to replace ZPMs. Work on Arcturus began on the world Doranda when the Ancients were already a century into their war with the Wraith. Arcturus was originally intended to power the weapons of the Dorandan people. The scientists who were working on the project did not feel that it was ready to be tested under battle conditions, but they had no choice, and Arcturus failed. Virtual particles were created inside the containment field, and because the behavior of these particles cannot be predicted, the field could not be properly adjusted to compensate for them. This resulted in these particles breaching the containment field as hard radiation. During the original test, the weapon acted as a release valve in an attempt to prevent a catastrophic overload. The Ancients working on Arcturus barely managed to shut down the weapon, but it was too late; it had already obliterated the planet's surface. Due to the automatic containment field adjustment system the Ancients had in place, the overload finally ended on its own with a massive release of hard radiation, which killed the researchers nearly instantly.Current times
The Atlantis expedition discovered Doranda in the database of the city. Dr. McKay and a team of scientists attempted to finish the Ancients' work, not knowing about the particle containment problem. In their first powerup, there was an overload, and the containment field shifted asymmetrically in the direction of the command access tube, killing a scientist who was attempting to manually adjust the containment field. Despite protests from Dr. Weir and various other scientists, McKay was allowed to attempt one last powerup of Arcturus, which he attempted to do by trying to manually adjust the field to compensate for the particles. His attempt failed, and resulted in another overload, which was significantly more catastrophic than the two previous ones. The weapon armed and began firing at random targets to prevent a catastrophic overload. Thanks to intervention from the Daedalus, McKay and Sheppard managed to escape with their lives, but it was too late for Arcturus. Because McKay had disabled the containment field monitoring system, and was adjusting the field manually, there was nothing left in place to automatically shut it down after they escaped. The power source overloaded and caused a massive explosion, which destroyed over three-fourths of the Dorandan solar system. While being reprimanded by Dr. Weir, McKay (in his classic pompous precision) objected that it was actually "five-sixths, but it's not an exact science."| Technology in the Stargate universe | [http://encycl.opentopia.com/ Edit] | |
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