Function of the Front Deflector Dish of the Star Trek:Enterprise NX-01 Starship

• According to 'Star Trek' database, the front deflector dish of the Star Trek:Enterprise NX-01 starship "projects a force field ahead of the ship that deflects small debris out of the ship's path while it is travelling at warp speed."
• The front deflector dish "protects the ship from space dust and other particles that would otherwise cause significant damage at faster-than-light speeds."
• In the Star Trek universe, the deflector dish of the Enterprise NX-01 was used in the year 2154 "to generate a deflector pulse which destroyed Sphere 41, thus disrupting the entire network of spheres in the Delphic Expanse. Later that year, the NX-01's deflector was modified to emit a positron burst, which disabled Harrad-Sar's barge when it passed through the grappling line of his ship."

Antenna Dishes That Can Work as Wideband Receivers of Circularly Polarized Signals

• There are some peer reviewed research papers that discuss about antenna dishes (some parabolic, others non-parabolic) that can work as wideband receivers of circularly polarized signals. These papers are mentioned below.
• The paper titled "Multi-Beam Circular Polarized Reflectarray on Parabolic Reflector by Variable Rotation Technique" by Álvaro Somolinos, Rafael Florencio, Iván González, and Felipe Cátedra, researchers at the University of Alcalá in Spain, discusses the design of such a parabolic antenna that can provide six spot beams at 19.7 GHz.
• The paper titled "A Novel Wideband Circularly Polarized Antenna for RF Energy Harvesting in Wireless Sensor Nodes" by a team of researchers led by Nhu Huan Nguyen discusses a "novel wideband circularly polarized antenna array using sequential rotation feeding network" that works at at frequencies from 5.05 GHz to 7.45 GHz.
• The paper titled "A Circularly Polarized Circular Antenna Array for Satellite TV Reception" by a team of researchers from the University of Liverpool and the National Physical Laboratory "proposes a novel design of a wideband compact circularly polarized circular antenna array for satellite TV reception" that works at frequencies between 11.7GHz and 12.7 GHz.
• The paper titled "Design of Wideband Circularly Polarized Capacitive fed Microstrip Antenna" by researchers S.Murugan and V.Rajamani proposes "a wideband circularly polarized Microstrip patch antenna" that works at frequencies between 1.26 GHz and 1.49 GHz.
• The paper titled "A Low Profile, Ultra-Lightweight, High Efficient Circularly-Polarized Antenna Array for Ku Band Satellite Applications" by a team of researchers led by Jianquan Huang discusses an antenna array that works at frequencies from 11.55 GHz to 12.25 GHz.
• The paper titled "12- and 21-GHz Dual-Band Dual-Circularly Polarized Offset Parabolic Reflector Antenna Fed by Microstrip Antenna Arrays for Satellite Broadcasting Reception" by Masafumi Nagasaka and other researchers discusses such a parabolic antenna that is currently being used for "satellite broadcasting for 4K/8K ultrahigh-definition television (UHDTV)" in Japan.
• The paper titled "A Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Antennas System for Small-Satellite Applications" by Paolo Squadrito and other researchers states that "circularly polarized (CP) antennas are used in space applications for telemetry tracking and command (TT&C)" and proposes such an antenna system that can work in the frequency band 2.0 GHz to 2.3 GHz.

Summary of the Early Findings Relevant to the Initial Research

• We are allotted one hour to conduct the initial research. Also, Wonder policy does not allow for primary research. Wonder researchers have to conduct secondary research from information that already exists freely in the public domain.
• During the one hour allotted, the team of researchers was able to clarify the function of the front deflector dish of the Star Trek:Enterprise NX-01 starship and also present evidence of peer reviewed research papers that have discussed about antenna dishes that can work as wideband receivers of circularly polarized signals. Some of these antenna dishes are parabolic, while some are non-parabolic. These dishes work on a range of frequencies.
• As evidenced during our initial research, parabolic reflector antenna dishes that work as wideband receivers of circularly polarized signals are still at an early stage of development. However, such antenna dishes have been used for TV satellite broadcasting in Japan.
• Please select one or more of the following options if further research is required.