Ramming

[BrotherBenny]

Technically, if you are using a beam to PUSH something AWAY, it is called a REPULSOR beam. A TRACTOR beam PULLS an object TOWARD you.

And don't forget Wesley's repulsor beam in "The Naked Now" when he pushed the Oberth-class ship into the asteroid to give Data time to finish reconstructing the isolinear chip thingy.

 

[Timo]

Just about any standard tractor beam seems capable of holding the target still, even if said target tries to maneuver back and forth. So clearly these things don't just pull!

But it may be that standard tractor beams - or at least the model fitted on the Galaxy class - are optimized for pulling, and have a limited capacity for pushing. Similarly, some earth-moving equipment today is very good at pulling and poor at pushing the shovel-head that digs into the ground, or vice versa: the hydraulic cylinders are arranged to prefer one mode of operations. So it's not completely irrational that Wesley's modifications in "Naked Now" might be an unprecedented innovation.

As far as the terminology goes, I don't think we've ever heard of "pressor beams" or "repulsor beams" in aired Trek. But such terminology might exist even if there aren't two different types of device. For example some electronics components today have such dual names, depending on their mode of operation...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BrotherBenny]

Timo said:
As far as the terminology goes, I don't think we've ever heard of "pressor beams" or "repulsor beams" in aired Trek. But such terminology might exist even if there aren't two different types of device. For example some electronics components today have such dual names, depending on their mode of operation...

IIRC, wesley and the chief/deputy chief engineer did say repulsor beam, then the chief mentioned it taking weeks to make the necessary connections, before wunderboy did it in seconds.

 

[JuanBolio]

I'd like to see the effects of a large starship or even a small shuttlepod ramming an enemy planet at warp, or high impulse.

*sigh* Star Trek NEVER got the most out of the destructive potential of its ships.

 

[jayrath]

Yeah. Slamming ships together is what "Star Trek" is all about. That is, like, so cool when ships hit each other. We need many more ships ramming each other.

Ahem.

 

[Deks]

Although the problem is that shields should prevent such an impact despite the object being a starship or what not.

DS9 shields did in fact protect the station from a Jem'Hadaar bug that attempted to ram it.
Well, the ramming was a success, but the bug never went pass the shields.

Seems to me the writers merely chose to render shields inoperative in terms of one ship ramming another one.

It's a good strategy for lowering someone's shield integrity a lot ... but one that also has a high price.

The Enterprise E ramming the Scimitar in Nemesis would work better if Shinzons shields were DOWN.
Heck the Scimitar had a double layered shield around it ... it should have prevented the Eneterprise E from touching it's hull.

 

[Timo]

...It would already have helped if there had been a graphic showing that the "70% shields" stated on the Scimitar meant 100% strength over 70% of the ship, and 0% strength over the 30% at the bow.

To be sure, this is the only time ramming has been successfully performed against a target that was said to be shielded. But it's unfathomable why the Klingon ships in Tears of the Prophets would not have been shielded as well - they hadn't even been shot at before they were rammed in that battle. (The recycling of that footage in "What You Leave Behind" is a different matter, because the rammings there theoretically took place after those ships had been fired upon.)

It's not all that bad, though. Just one episode of successful rammings against probably shielded targets, and one movie of the same against a provably shielded target. Generally, shields do seem to repel kinetic attacks without much trouble.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Deks]

Smaller ships would undeniably experience larger damage consequences as a result of another larger ship ramming them (particularly if the ramming ship explodes as consequence) ... depending on how powerful their shields are ... but mostly would be knocked back with some damage.

I think when LaForge mentioned Scimitars shields being down to 70% that he meant on all of their shields and not just specific areas.

I find it doubtful that shields would not be able to repel a ramming ship even if they were not of 100%.
Granted that most likely the impact would reduce the integrity but extremely stupid to believe that another ship would penetrate them as if they are not there to begin with.

Writers goofed it up.

 

[Timo]

I think when LaForge mentioned Scimitars shields being down to 70% that he meant on all of their shields and not just specific areas.

And there's even an in-focus Okudagram to back him up, sort of. Alas! Localized collapse would have made so much more sense here.

Although it should be noted that this Okudagram specifically shows the bow area of those shields accompanied with suggestive red brackets...

Timo Saloniemi