Ring Transporter
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The Ring Transporter is a fictional device from the sci-fi television show Stargate SG-1 and the Stargate movie.
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Design and usage
A Ring Transporter (or ring teleporter) is a transportation device originally developed and used by the Ancients but now manufactured and used almost exclusively by the Goa'uld and their enemy, the Tok'ra. It consists of 5 rings (as seen in the TV show) or 10 rings (as seen in the movie) that levitate slightly off the ground and stack on top of each other during operation. All transport rings are identical and are thought to be mass-produced by the Goa'uld in staggering numbers. In the sixth season episode, "The Other Guys," it is stated that each ring transporter platform weighs 12.9 tonnes but it is not clear what components are included in the term "platform." Also established in that episode is the fact that Earth's naqahdah generators are capable of powering transport rings. The rings are roughly half the diameter of a Stargate and functions under similar principles. However, if a set of rings is under water, the column of water is transported along with anyone else (unlike a Stargate, which prevents such events from occurring), to a mildly amusing effect (Descent). The rings move to surround an object or person being transported from a holding platform, which is a cylindrical chamber, contained in either a ceiling compartment or rising up from the floor.
Function
All matter inside the rings is dematerialized and teleported instantaneously to another set of rings in a different location where it is then rematerialized. In the Stargate movie, Ra's First Prime had been killed when the ring transports were activated while he was under it; his head lay within their transportation area, his body outside of it, and he was decapitated. If there is a person or object at the receiving set of rings, the rings simply exchange the two simultaneously. This has been seen as a sneaky way of escape from an area; by stepping under the rings as they come down and transporting out when an enemy happens to be transporting in. They can be activated by a transport ring remote worn on the arm or hand by Goa'uld and their Jaffa, or controlled by a remote panel located somewhere near a ring platform.
It is possible that the rings can be set to be 'out of phase' with existing matter, allowing it to pass through matter without disturbing it. This is evidenced in the SG-1 episodes The Tokra, Part 1, where the rings can be observed passing through sand without disturbing it, and in Seth, where the rings pass through solid wooden planks with no visible opening.
Storage and mobile rings
After a completed transport, the rings move back into their storage platform and deactivate. The rings themselves do not transport. Some ring platforms are portable, and can be moved when they are inactive. They contain sensors that detect other active transport rings in an area. Transport rings are also sometimes used to enter and exit from spacecraft, with one set of rings inside the craft and another set of rings mounted outside the hull. This is commonly seen with the Goa'uld Tel'tak cargo ships, but the Earth ship Prometheus also uses them in this way (as seen in the episode Memento). A Tel'tak's ring transporter was used to transport a Kull Warrior outside while it was in flight in a planet's atmosphere and once the Kull Warrior had rematerialized outside the hull, the external rings fell away from the craft along with him. Transported matter passes between sets of rings in a "matter stream" that can be detected by a ship's sensors. It is possible to intercept a matter stream that is in transport by interposing a set of mobile rings (like those in a Goa'uld shuttlecraft) between the sending rings and the planned receiving rings.
Ori rings
Image:Ori-rings.jpg The Priors of the Ori apparently also use ring transporters; there are six rings instead of five, and the rings themselves are smoother. They can apparently also completely disappear under ground.
Similar technology
There are also some similarities between ring transporters and the transportation booths in Atlantis, including similar flashes of light upon transportation and swapping of the contents of the pair of devices when operated at the same time. The actually beam sound is also the same. Considering that the Ancients invented both, it is conjectured that the technologies are related.
The Asgard also have a similar transport system, but it does not require the use of the rings. It is called by humans an Asgard "beam" or "beam transporter"; it was installed on both the Prometheus and on Daedalus-class battlecruisers. It requires either the use of Asgard sensors or a radio signal from the object to be transported in order to acquire a target.