One Nacelle Down...
- Thread starter 2 of 10
- Start date
I don't believe that it was ever addressed on the show. In the technical entry in Star Trek the Magazine in the early 2000s it was said that Voyager's nacelles moved because of the variable geometry warp field it created (supposedly to eliminate the effects of the Warp 5 Barrier from TNG Season 7).
As said, we were never told.
But we could argue that the ship accelerates to warp faster if she squeezes her nacelles together at the crucial moment. That way, it would be rational for the nacelles to be lowered as soon as the ship drops from warp, so that they are ready for another squeeze.
Alternately, we could argue that the nacelles are at slightly different angles at slightly different warp speeds - but we couldn't explain why the nacelles have to go all the way down when the ship goes to impulse, then.
At least Archer's Enterprise NX-01 could go to low warp even when one nacelle was completely down for the count. So presumably Janeway's ship could, too.
And yes, "Year of Hell" has Torres lamenting that "One of the warp nacelles is still offline; the other one's a lost cause." Janeway's response indicates that she still hopes to go to warp with a ship like that: "Route all available power to the good one." And indeed it seems the ship manages to cross interstellar distances after that.
Timo Saloniemi
But we could argue that the ship accelerates to warp faster if she squeezes her nacelles together at the crucial moment. That way, it would be rational for the nacelles to be lowered as soon as the ship drops from warp, so that they are ready for another squeeze.
Alternately, we could argue that the nacelles are at slightly different angles at slightly different warp speeds - but we couldn't explain why the nacelles have to go all the way down when the ship goes to impulse, then.
At least Archer's Enterprise NX-01 could go to low warp even when one nacelle was completely down for the count. So presumably Janeway's ship could, too.
And yes, "Year of Hell" has Torres lamenting that "One of the warp nacelles is still offline; the other one's a lost cause." Janeway's response indicates that she still hopes to go to warp with a ship like that: "Route all available power to the good one." And indeed it seems the ship manages to cross interstellar distances after that.
Timo Saloniemi
Yes, maybe it is the movement of the warp coils relative to the main body of the ship or to one another at the very moment that the fields are first initiated that is important, somehow introducing some dynamic to the fields which is otherwise not possible. It might have something to do with the greater environmental friendliness of the ensuing warp travel as well. (Perhaps equally new ships have coils that are somehow articulated within the nacelles to recreate this effect?)
Also, it is possible that they *can* maneuver effectively at impulse when the engines are swung upward, but just have superior maneuverability and/or efficiency when the engines are positioned "down." Looking at where that places the exhausts, this seems at least somewhat plausible.
Also, it is possible that they *can* maneuver effectively at impulse when the engines are swung upward, but just have superior maneuverability and/or efficiency when the engines are positioned "down." Looking at where that places the exhausts, this seems at least somewhat plausible.
...But it doesn't explain why the engineers would make the seemingly idiotic choice of placing the impulse engines that way. Unless the pylons already have some reason for going down during impulse flight, it makes no sense to require them to do so merely so that the impulse engines can be moved to where they have to be. Just install them where they have to be in the first place, you silly engineers!
Oh, well. Quite a few ships in the late TNG/DS9 era have had their nacelles mounted at an angle: at least the Akira, Sabre, Steamrunner, and whatever class the Yeager kitbash represented. Perhaps there are advantages to doing that, but also advantages to the classic horizontal position, and the designers of the Intrepid class decided they'd let the captain choose. And Janeway always chooses the tilted way, because it gives her greater mileage and she doesn't need the maneuverability or the dash speed of the classic design.
Timo Saloniemi
Oh, well. Quite a few ships in the late TNG/DS9 era have had their nacelles mounted at an angle: at least the Akira, Sabre, Steamrunner, and whatever class the Yeager kitbash represented. Perhaps there are advantages to doing that, but also advantages to the classic horizontal position, and the designers of the Intrepid class decided they'd let the captain choose. And Janeway always chooses the tilted way, because it gives her greater mileage and she doesn't need the maneuverability or the dash speed of the classic design.
Timo Saloniemi
Indeed in year of hell they mentioned about the one nacelle, the lifted nacelles would be in my opinion to reduce the subspace interference at warp and it does say on wikitrek that the intrepid class were known for their maneuverability.
Here's my conjecture.
A warp field is what allows a ship to travel FTL,as long as a warp field can be established and maintained (presumably possible with just one warp nacelle).
How fast you could go would depend on the strength of the warp 'bubble',as the faster a ship goes the stronger the bubble must be to prevent a ship from outrunning its own warp field.
So,conversely if the warp field is made as small as possible you can send that energy into the engines ,rather than spend it powering the warp bubble to cover protruding pieces of hull.
Hence contracting the nacelles shrinks the area Voyagers warp bubble needs to cover,allowing the ship to fly faster and manouver better with the freed up power.
A warp field is what allows a ship to travel FTL,as long as a warp field can be established and maintained (presumably possible with just one warp nacelle).
How fast you could go would depend on the strength of the warp 'bubble',as the faster a ship goes the stronger the bubble must be to prevent a ship from outrunning its own warp field.
So,conversely if the warp field is made as small as possible you can send that energy into the engines ,rather than spend it powering the warp bubble to cover protruding pieces of hull.
Hence contracting the nacelles shrinks the area Voyagers warp bubble needs to cover,allowing the ship to fly faster and manouver better with the freed up power.
There was that season one episode where they put the nacelles up but didn't go to warp, to try and warm the ship up and kill the bacteria.
But that would probably be impulse maneuverability, since people generally don't go to warp in the Badlands.
Yup, "Learning Curve". After the fictional designers were married with the idea that nacelles go up for warp, they probably decided there would be no harm done if all the support and control systems of the warp drive required the nacelles to be in the up position in order to work properly. Hence, the hinges have to swing even when there is no real warp field in the making...
Timo Saloniemi
Yes, sure, but maneuverability isn't all that useful when warp drive only allows you to go forwards anyway.
Oh, it allows you to "pivot" at warp two all right, at least in TOS. Or to do classic fighter duels, as in DS9 "Treachery, Faith and the Great River".
That they teach the no-turns rhyme to aspiring helmsmen "the first thing at the Academy" should tell us something: at that point of training, one usually introduces rules that are meant to be broken...
Timo Saloniemi
That they teach the no-turns rhyme to aspiring helmsmen "the first thing at the Academy" should tell us something: at that point of training, one usually introduces rules that are meant to be broken...
Timo Saloniemi
As I understand it warp nacelles typically have two rows of Bussard units per nacelle,so it possible to 'split' a nacelle so as to use the two halves as 'mini nacelles'
Mostly it works by warping space. NX-01 was only able to get to warp 1.7 on a single nacelle, but it's able to get to warp.
The ``even number of nacelles'' thing seems (to me) mostly to have been a Gene Roddenberry/Richard Arnold attempt to get control of Star Trek licensing back after the Franz Joseph technical manual and the board games and the like. It's been of limited interest to the writers.
Also, warp bubbles seem to come from somewhere in main engineering or the Next Generation episode where everything in the universe stops existing makes a lot less sense.
This makes sense; I wondered if it weren't split somehow. Interesting. It wouldn't make a very wide field, seems like. Need a good pilot.
Similar threads
