Particle Fountain Project The Particle Fountain Project was initiated to develop a new mining technology . In 2364 Dr . Farallon invented the particle fountain and continued to be the project ' s supervisor . The initial design of the particle fountain was to lift 500 kilogram s per minute from a planet ary surface . At the time the project began , lift capacity was far below this , and by increasing the particle stream density , the lift capacity was boosted by 72 % . In order to prevent overloading the field generator s , though , the stream overload needed to be distributed evenly throughout the system . It took four months to get the particle flux to its necessary strength . It took about six years of study and research before the particle fountain was ready for field testing , but the project was plagued with many problems , which raised the question of whether this new technology was more efficient than conventional mining techniques . In 2369 the visited Tyrus VIIa to monitor the project ' s progress . Starfleet wanted a feasibility study performed because they wanted to use a particle fountain on Carema III . Captain Picard was asked to evaluate the project and send his findings to Starfleet . Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge was sent to the station to perform the evaluation . On his first visit , there was a problem with the power grid . Shutting down the particle stream would have solved the problem but would have caused a four month delay to the project , so Dr . Farallon used an exocomp to repair the power grid . Dr . Farallon asked to postpone the particle fountain evaluation report to Starfleet for forty - eight hours . To complete the project within that time frame and boost the efficiency of the particle stream she proposed to use the exocomps . The only risk would be that the project would fall further behind schedule , but Dr . Farallon was willing to take that risk . Lieutenant Commander Data agreed that the exocomps had the potential to advance the project whereupon Dr . Farallon asked Captain Picard if Data could work with her . On the station , Data performed fourteen separate tests on an exocomp and found its performance to be excellent . When a plasma conduit needed to be repaired , the exocomp did not respond to the commands and burned out his command circuitry . When " Enterprise " personnel investigated the problem in engineering , it turned out that the exocomp ' s pathways had increased by 632 % . Further investigation by Data revealed that the exocomp burned out its own circuitry and repaired it two hours later . This led Data to believe that the exocomp had a form of self - preservation . Because there were now only two working exocomps , Commander La Forge added an extra shift and dispatched two extra engineering teams to the station . With the help of the exocomps the project should be finished in time . At this time Data told Dr . Farallon that she could not use the exocomps because he had reason to believe that they were alive . In a briefing with Captain Picard it was decided to test the exocomps . Although the initial tests proved no self - preservation the final test revealed that the exocomp knew it was a test and therefore finished repairing the simulated plasma failure . When Captain Picard was on the station , it was clear that full particle stream strength would not be reached within forty - eight hours but it would be close . When suddenly something started a power drain into the main particle impeller and within seconds the internal confinement fields were lost and the particle stream could no longer be contained . This meant that the control room would be flooded with radiation and within one minute field ionization would make communication and transport with the " Enterprise " impossible . The station needed to be evacuated . Everyone but Picard and La Forge managed to transport to the " Enterprise " . Fortunately , La Forge was able to raise a low intensity force field that would protect him and Picard for about twenty minutes . Commander Riker suggested asking the exocomps if they would help , as Data refused to beam the exocomps into the particle matter stream so their detonation would disrupt the stream . The exocomps solved the problem by distorting the particle stream frequency . Unfortunately , one of the exocomps did not survive because it had to stay behind to disrupt the particle stream so the other two could safely be beamed back to the " Enterprise " . Due to the failure of the particle impeller , the particle fountain needed to be reconstructed . Dr . Farallon expected that within two years the technology could be recommended to Starfleet . ( )