Voyager's cruising speed.

[nx1701g]

^ Ok we could go with another example. In Encounter at Farpoint the Enterprise-D was trying to get to their maximum cruising speed (Warp 9.8) in an effort to avoid the Q-Field. Data said that they could reach the maximum cruising speed, but at extreme risk to the ship and crew.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Rick Sternbach has suggested that "Maximum Sustainable Velocity" does not mean INDEFINITELY sutainable; rather, it's "sustainable" for a certain period without the ship flying itself apart. Sternbach further elaborated that Voyager MIGHT be able to hold 9.975 for a day or so, but even then it would be a bumpy ride. Voyager would of course be able to go faster, but not in any maintainable fashion. This sort of thing shows up later in Enterprise, where their Warp Five Engine only hits its maximum speed with a lot of shaking around, and only then can hold it for a new minutes or hours.

That said, it's possible that Voyager is hopping home at high warp, mixing spurts at warp 8 or more for several days with a "cool down" period of a few days while the engines take a break, the dilithium core is recomposited, etc. Of course, it's during this time that the crew takes a look around with the sensors at stuff they'd otherwise be zipping by without blinking - ergo, they find the trouble they get involved in on a weekly basis, or trouble finds them.

Mark

 

[Timo]

In Encounter at Farpoint the Enterprise-D was trying to get to their maximum cruising speed (Warp 9.8) in an effort to avoid the Q-Field. Data said that they could reach the maximum cruising speed, but at extreme risk to the ship and crew.

Naah, that's not the terminology they use there. What they speak about is getting "maximum acceleration" out of the engines, and pushing for high velocity, with a theoretical chance of reaching warp 9.8 if they ignore all the red lights and sign their wills. Nothing about "cruising" there.

Sternbach further elaborated that Voyager MIGHT be able to hold 9.975 for a day or so, but even then it would be a bumpy ride.

Now that sounds quite allowable in terms of what else we know about high warp. And the dialogue in "Threshold" isn't badly at odds with this: the ship isn't in top form at that point, really, since the heroes are still in Kazon territory and haven't had a chance to do proper repairs for almost two years. So when warp 9.9 is referred to as "maximum warp velocity, structural collapse imminent", this doesn't mean a factory-fresh ship couldn't add 0.75 warp factors to that in good conditions and maintain it for an appreciable fraction of a day.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[votd]

I know in various technical resources warp speed increases exponentially, so warp 9 is significantly faster than warp 8 - but was this ever mentioned on screen? If this is true then an extra 0.75 warp factors might take a hell of a lot of effort.

 

[Timo]

I believe some episodes have Okuda's "warp speed and power consumption vs. warp factor" graphics visible, showing how speed vs. factor indeed is exponential but power vs. factor is more complex and power vs. speed isn't all that severe after all. But none of that comes out in dialogue or story premises, no.

In general, it seems that squeezing more speed out of a given engine is always possible. The warp coils themselves can obviously tolerate far higher speeds than what the ship is generally rated for: the alien intruder of the week can boost the output of the powerplant, with the result of flooding the coils with enough power to get them to warp 14 when anything past warp 7 is normally by Captain's discretion only. And the power systems can supply that by themselves, if the alien of the week just jams the emergency valves... Indeed, there seems to be nothing standing between a standard starship and infinite speed but structural integrity, if "Threshold" is to be believed.

So it might be a bit misleading to think that, say, a 5000% speed increase over specs would be a big deal. It's just not recommended by the manufacturer, but it's probably perfectly doable. After all, the ship already enjoys a speed range where the highest warp factors give way more than 5000% the speed of the lowest ones...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[voyagerfan]

I'd imagine at high warp, the plasma manifolds and circuitry would get dirty as well. To get away quickly Voyager uses warp 8 or 9. Although most times its warp 6