I had read that starships whose warp-engines were out of control could slow themselves down by using gravity wells. Here are a few ideas I have, which I call Project Tangent, related to this:
You could calculate equations for tangentially glancing off a gravity well, or series of gravity wells, and store them in your ship's main computer. For security purposes, you could also store them (separately and independently) in PADDs secured by your ship's senior staff officers, to use in case of damage or sabotage to the other records.
To calculate your ship's mass when fully loaded--including personnel, fuel, cargo, equipment, etc.--Starfleet could develop a standard speed chart that would record the times it takes vehicles to travel a fixed distance at the same sublight speed. Different classes of ships (with various warp-engines) could be timed, to produce an accurate chart. You could then compare your ship's speed over that same distance with other ships, to calculate your ship's mass.
Using this information, you could calculate the proper angles at which to approach a gravity well, to slow down your vessel, in an emergency or a drill.
What do you think?
You could calculate equations for tangentially glancing off a gravity well, or series of gravity wells, and store them in your ship's main computer. For security purposes, you could also store them (separately and independently) in PADDs secured by your ship's senior staff officers, to use in case of damage or sabotage to the other records.
To calculate your ship's mass when fully loaded--including personnel, fuel, cargo, equipment, etc.--Starfleet could develop a standard speed chart that would record the times it takes vehicles to travel a fixed distance at the same sublight speed. Different classes of ships (with various warp-engines) could be timed, to produce an accurate chart. You could then compare your ship's speed over that same distance with other ships, to calculate your ship's mass.
Using this information, you could calculate the proper angles at which to approach a gravity well, to slow down your vessel, in an emergency or a drill.
What do you think?
