Star ships MUST always have shields up?

[ZERO_of_ZERO]

I was reading a thread about star bases which have internal storage for star ships, and wondering why they should be kept indoors.

My first thought was protection from meteors etc.
now what I mean by meteor is not necessarily giant rocks, but possibly small particles of dust, pea size or larger pieces of rock (which can all be destructive at very high speeds)

Then (and this is the point) I thought:

If a starship is travelling at warp speed (MANY times the speed of light), and hits a small/medium/large piece of rock, it could potentially destroy it.

So do starships always have some kind of shields on/up?

Any thoughts?

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

So do starships always have some kind of shields on/up?

Any thoughts?

It is my understanding that this is what the Navigational Deflector is used for (When not being turned into a super death-ray or simulating a torpedo hit...)

 

[Deks]

The navigational deflector is a different one in comparison to the main deflector dish.
At least Voyager had 1 nav. deflector and 1 main deflector dish.

In any case, it is my understanding that nav. deflectors are used for removing objects from the ships path.
Obviously it cannot move a torpedo or a meteor the size of Texas ... still, smaller objects can be moved ... primarily particulate dust and micro-meteors to name a few.

It's a shame that the ship when under Warp simply doesn't phase out of standard space.
That way, they would be able to travel through a star or any other phenomena (if it doesn't operate on a phase frequency the ship is using) without ever changing a course.

 

[Tom]

Well there always the future..

 

[CommodoreKong]

^I think you're in the wrong thread.

 

[Xatso]

As Deks stated, the main deflector is used to deflect 'small' objects in the ships path as nicely shown in "Year of Hell - part 2"

If I understand correctly, the warp engines creates a subspace field which the ship enters during warp - and the only matter that seem to exist there is Tetryon particles.

("Tetryon particles are a form of subatomic particle which can only exist naturally in subspace." - Memory Alpha)

...so shields during warp is a waste of power IMO.

 

[captcalhoun]

the NX-01 had navigational deflectors, but didn't have shields.

shields are to deflect (arf) energy beam attacks or torpedoes. deflectors shield (arf) the vessel from space debris at sublight velocities.

 

[Sululu]

I always thought navigational deflector was similar to a navigational radar that a modern day ship might use - purely as a sensor to detect obstacles to the projected course of the ship or starship.

It is the deflector shields - a grid embedded into the structure of the hull (I saw a diagram in one of the tech manuals) that protects the starship from space dust/particulates etc.

 

[Guartho]

I always figured that smaller particles were simply incinerated when they interacted with the warp field. That's my rationalization for why we see "star smears" when the Phoenix is at warp in First Contact, even though Earth still appears big enough to be recognizable at the end of the test flight. The "star smears" are actually microscopic particles not surviving the interaction and exploding gloriously while being accelerated nearly to the ships velocity. To those in the ship they appear as a nifty line of light that the ship seems to be passing by.

The deflector is for particles that are big enough to survive and may impact the ship at a high relative speed once they've been caught up in the warp field. There's also the possibility that smaller particles become more of a danger at high warp factors. This may explain why Miranda class ships have no visible deflector. It could be that they're not intended to travel as fast and a powerful centralized deflector is not necessary.

 

[Vanyel]

The navigational deflector is a different one in comparison to the main deflector dish.
At least Voyager had 1 nav. deflector and 1 main deflector dish.

In any case, it is my understanding that nav. deflectors are used for removing objects from the ships path.
Obviously it cannot move a torpedo or a meteor the size of Texas ... still, smaller objects can be moved ... primarily particulate dust and micro-meteors to name a few.

It's a shame that the ship when under Warp simply doesn't phase out of standard space.
That way, they would be able to travel through a star or any other phenomena (if it doesn't operate on a phase frequency the ship is using) without ever changing a course.

I always thought that the Navigational Deflector and the Main Deflector were one in the same. I also thought that most ships had more than one. Ships that have the ability to separate (The Galaxy Class, The Prometheus Class) would most definitely need them. Having multiple deflector dishes would seem to be a good thing to have in any event and it would explain why the big blue dish is called the MAIN Deflector Dish.

the NX-01 had navigational deflectors, but didn't have shields.

shields are to deflect (arf) energy beam attacks or torpedoes. deflectors shield (arf) the vessel from space debris at sublight velocities.

I think that this would bolster my argument that the Deflector and Navigational dish are one in the same.

I always thought navigational deflector was similar to a navigational radar that a modern day ship might use - purely as a sensor to detect obstacles to the projected course of the ship or starship.

It is the deflector shields - a grid embedded into the structure of the hull (I saw a diagram in one of the tech manuals) that protects the starship from space dust/particulates etc.

I remember that that too. That sensors were tied into the deflector dish. It would make sense. During warp travel the dish would have to emit a beam that extends far ahead of the ship. Tying the sensors into that would extend the range of the forward sensors.

 

[Timo]

One wonders if it is possible to travel at warp at all if one doesn't have the benefit of shielding (be it navigational shields or combat shields, and whatever the exact designation).

One can then take a look at ST:FC. We have no indication that Cochrane's experimental vessel would have had a dedicated shielding device, yet it survives the brief warp jump. So I very much like Guartho's idea that a warp field alone will suffice if there is nothing bigger than sub-micron particles on your path, and that this is what creates the "warp streaks", or at least a certain percentage of those.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[USS KG5]

We have had numerous references to "gyro shielding" - low powered shields that complement the navigational deflectors but do not provide the same level of shielding (or even close) to combat shields.