Reverse Impulse

[Jedi Marso]

Are you perhaps confusing weight with mass? Even in a zero-g environment, an object will still have a certain mass and require a specific amount of kinetic energy to push it

No, I'm talking about moving masses- weight is the force of gravity (or an acceleration) acting on mass. If you can generate artificial gravity fields, you don't need a rocket to provide that kinetic energy to move a mass. Instead of thinking in terms of using your finger to push a tennis ball along a flat surface, think of the ability to raise one end of the surface and just let the ball 'roll downhill.' That's not a perfect analogy, but it sort of illustrates what I'm talking about. If you can 'bend space' to create a virtual incline instead of a flat surface, you don't need the finger-push (rocket power) to move.

I always interpreted impulse propulsion as a sublight form of warp drive. It works on the same general principle but not to the extent that the ship travels at warp speed. Again, it's all make believe anyway so people can create whatever rules that tickles their fancy or suits the plotline of their story.

 

[Mytran]

No, I'm talking about moving masses- weight is the force of gravity (or an acceleration) acting on mass. If you can generate artificial gravity fields, you don't need a rocket to provide that kinetic energy to move a mass. Instead of thinking in terms of using your finger to push a tennis ball along a flat surface, think of the ability to raise one end of the surface and just let the ball 'roll downhill.' That's not a perfect analogy, but it sort of illustrates what I'm talking about. If you can 'bend space' to create a virtual incline instead of a flat surface, you don't need the finger-push (rocket power) to move.

I always interpreted impulse propulsion as a sublight form of warp drive. It works on the same general principle but not to the extent that the ship travels at warp speed. Again, it's all make believe anyway so people can create whatever rules that tickles their fancy or suits the plotline of their story.

Thanks for explaining your position further. However, I would have to imagine that there is a technological gap in between creating enough gravitons to keep boots on the deck and generating a field large enough to propel a starship

 

[Pauln6]

Romulans use artificial black holes for power. That might suggest they use gravity to propel their ships although in TOS at least, they did use conventional fuel for Impulse.

 

[Timo]

The exact way the Romulans use their artificial quantum singularities is not explained to us - but "Face of the Enemy" specifies it as a power source rather than a drive system. Then again, the knowledgeable double-defector in the episode also says that if the power source hiccups, one may observe a "magnetic" disturbance - probably the same sort of magnetic as in "magnetic boots", that is, an attractive force that isn't necessarily electromagnetic in nature. Might be the AQS power source moves the ship by direct manipulation of "magnetism" or gravity. Might be it just produces stealthy power for conventional warp engines.

FWIW, Romulans still mine dilithium on Remus...

It's true that if a pressor/tractor beam can push or pull an object then it can push or pull your ship where the mass of said object is greater than the mass of your ship.

Or then regardless of such mass (if any). After all, A locking a tractor beam on B creates no forces on A: say, Wesley can lift a heavy-looking armchair with the strength of his wrists along a momentum arm several meters long in "The Naked Now", by locking a tractor beam on that chair. There's nothing as simple as Newtonian feedback involved there.

There are also limitations. The field generated by the emitters is narrow and not omnidirectional.

Which would be great for moving in a desired direction, I guess.

The ship had insufficient power to divert the asteroid in the Paradise Syndrome and burned out its systems in the attempt.

A rock "the size of Earth's moon" might be a tad high a goal to set. Why worry about that when you only want to move a starship?

The creature from "Obsession" used gravity fields for FTL and sublight propulsion so in some sense early Star Trek writers understood that possibility.

Good point - the heroes seem to think that using gravitational force for propulsion is worth a special mention, suggesting it's not something they themselves do all that often.

Or is it just that a "creature" doing this is exceptional? Probably not - Spock later claims that doing so goes hand in hand with the ability to penetrate deflector shields, and our heroes and their usual opponents do not penetrate deflector shields as a matter of routine. (But perhaps their torpedoes do, say?)

Timo Saloniemi