The transporter was introduced in the original Star Trek television series in 1966 as a device that could instantly move people or objects from one location to another. Instead of using a shuttlecraft, a person would stand on a transporter pad, where they were converted into an energy pattern, transmitted to another location, and then reassembled exactly as before.

The transporter became one of the most recognizable technologies in science fiction and inspired generations of scientists and engineers to think about the future of transportation and quantum physics.