I received this 6 years ago from Richard Coyle who made some props for a couple of ST films (Enterprise A era) and he claimed that this was given to him after the 'refit' Enterprise interiors (from TMP through ST III) had been scrapped and replaced. He told me that around TMP this plastic honeycomb material was used as the transporter pads but it wasn't quite strong enough and one pad cracked quickly during filming. Not to be wasteful the piece was supposedly removed and trimmed down for use as a piece of 'futuristic' set-dressing lighting. Coyle claims that this was gifted to him from someone in the Production when such details were scrapped for a starship stage make-over.
A couple of screen-caps from The Motion Picture are included to show the honey-comb material in use both as the transporter pad and the over-head disk.
More from Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
