I think it was more change for the sake of licensing.
USS Enterprise (eventually) on Discovery?
- Thread starter EJD1984
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I think it was more change for the sake of licensing.
That's a pretty good point, it's unlikely any shuttlepod would try to go hatch-to-hatch with a ship that was under acceleration. For one thing, they'd have to match the thrust of the starship.
Sideways (or backwards, in this case).
Would they turn them completely "off"? The impulse engines are run by some type of reactors, and I think it would take time to get those fired up again, no?
Even at 0% thrust, they probably still glow. Like @Tomalak said, they aren't rockets, we've never seen visible thrust the way we have with RCS thrusters.
Even at 0% thrust, they probably still glow. Like @Tomalak said, they aren't rockets, we've never seen visible thrust the way we have with RCS thrusters.
Indeed, there isn't even any "probably" about it. In all those shows that showed glowing bits at all (that is, anything that came after TAS), the impulse engines were always glowing, utterly regardless of flight mode. The same brightness was there at "full impulse" and "full stop", too.
Slight variety was provided by ST:TMP where there was a ramp-up to the glow (but we could chalk that up to the engines being activated for the first time ever, after a layover) and by TOS-R where there finally was glow during intense accelerations (but not all accelerations).
Calling these things tailpipes is thus a pretty safe bet. Even on idle, they burp out something noxious, but this does not necessarily fry an approaching shuttlecraft, any more than it fries the ship's own pylons if they happen to be proximal. And just as in classic naval action, the use of immense smokestacks is common but not vitally necessary (underwater exhaust in small ships, diesels having much smaller 'stacks than coal- or oil-burners let alone gas turbines), and some ships may make do without impulse glow altogether (say, Kirk's old ship or Sisko's).
Timo Saloniemi
Slight variety was provided by ST:TMP where there was a ramp-up to the glow (but we could chalk that up to the engines being activated for the first time ever, after a layover) and by TOS-R where there finally was glow during intense accelerations (but not all accelerations).
Calling these things tailpipes is thus a pretty safe bet. Even on idle, they burp out something noxious, but this does not necessarily fry an approaching shuttlecraft, any more than it fries the ship's own pylons if they happen to be proximal. And just as in classic naval action, the use of immense smokestacks is common but not vitally necessary (underwater exhaust in small ships, diesels having much smaller 'stacks than coal- or oil-burners let alone gas turbines), and some ships may make do without impulse glow altogether (say, Kirk's old ship or Sisko's).
Timo Saloniemi
They're not on at warp, normally. At least that's what TMP and ST09 suggest, but I guess they were too lazy to do that all the time on TNG.
The noxious exhaust may also be radioactive. It still seems a bad location for a docking port.
Not if you need to go outside to work on the engines.
I'll give you that an access hatch makes sense for maintenance, but not a docking port for ships.
A large materials or work vehicle or rescue craft would use it.
A space drydock. Hmm.
So, a space drydock (or Spacedock) would "drain" out space and replace it with an air atmosphere. Wouldn't crews be able to breath air and not need a space suit to build or repair ships. We never see this in Star Trek. I wonder why?
...Pretty dry out there in vacuum! And possibly moist in docks filled with air (or with exhaust gases - Spacedock must be a bitch to keep clean of such).
In "Obsession" already, we learned there was no need to keep impulse engines on during warp, not that they'd always be turned off at warp. Might be it's laborious to shut down these things, although not impossible, and thus they are fairly seldom completely shut down.
Timo Saloniemi
In "Obsession" already, we learned there was no need to keep impulse engines on during warp, not that they'd always be turned off at warp. Might be it's laborious to shut down these things, although not impossible, and thus they are fairly seldom completely shut down.
Timo Saloniemi
Yup - but this is apparently an incorrect model. Not only does "Obsession" fairly late in the game feature dialogue establishing that impulse drives are not needed during warp, but the introductory "Corbomite Maneuver" already tells that a ship struggling against a tractor beam with her warp engines can draw on further fighting resources provided by the impulse engines, heretofore unused!
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
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Gonzo
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Drydock is just an old naval term when a ships keel is fully out of the water for repairs, upgrade or maintenance.
Its not really appropriate as a name but they cant use Spacedock as there is a station already using that name.
So its as good a term as any.
Its not really appropriate as a name but they cant use Spacedock as there is a station already using that name.
So its as good a term as any.
No the warp bubble is what moves. You need the warp engines for that. Impulse would only move you within the bubble, which would be pretty useless.
Supposedly...
Movement while using the WARP Drive is obtained by expanding/compressing the WARP Bubble in specific ways around the ship.
The only thing the Impulse Drive might be useful for in this circumstance is to possibly add additional power to the WARP Drive itself.
From here...
https://science.howstuffworks.com/warp-speed3.htm
"The ability to manipulate space is the most important concept in regard to warp speed. If the Enterprise could warp the space-time continuum by expanding the area behind it and contracting the area in front, the crew could avoid going the speed of light. As long as it creates its own gravitational field, the starship could travel locally at very slow velocities, therefore avoiding the pitfalls of Newton's Third Law of Motion and keeping clocks in sync with its launch site and destination. The ship isn't really traveling at a "speed," per se -- it's more like it's pulling its destination toward it while pushing its starting point back..."
Movement while using the WARP Drive is obtained by expanding/compressing the WARP Bubble in specific ways around the ship.
The only thing the Impulse Drive might be useful for in this circumstance is to possibly add additional power to the WARP Drive itself.
From here...
https://science.howstuffworks.com/warp-speed3.htm
"The ability to manipulate space is the most important concept in regard to warp speed. If the Enterprise could warp the space-time continuum by expanding the area behind it and contracting the area in front, the crew could avoid going the speed of light. As long as it creates its own gravitational field, the starship could travel locally at very slow velocities, therefore avoiding the pitfalls of Newton's Third Law of Motion and keeping clocks in sync with its launch site and destination. The ship isn't really traveling at a "speed," per se -- it's more like it's pulling its destination toward it while pushing its starting point back..."
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