Warp Pods?

[RobertScorpio]

I was watching WALTZ, DS9 episode where Dukat-Sisko crash land on some barren world. They crash landed in a shuttle. But an line of dialog intrigues me...

Worf, Kira, and the others back on DS9 are told that many escape pods managed to evacuate the Starship that was destroyed..and that many of the pods could be in 'many' of the surrounding systems. Well...how fast does one of these escape pods go? I thnk they have to go pretty fast to end up on a star system AND on some world. I mean, think of it...if the Enterprise blew up in orbit of Pluto, how long would it take for an escape pod to reach earth? Minutes? Hours? Days? Years?

Rob

 

[Unicron]

I'll have to look and see if the DS9 TM says anything. I'd assume something that small has no FTL capability and would simply stay in the local system. Most of the escape pod systems I've learned details about are from other series like Star Wars and Battletech, and they operate in this manner.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I'll have to look and see if the DS9 TM says anything. I'd assume something that small has no FTL capability and would simply stay in the local system. Most of the escape pod systems I've learned details about are from other series like Star Wars and Battletech, and they operate in this manner.

yeah...I thought the same thing too. I mean, if the things can go warp speed, why aim for some unknown planet? Are they like the probe that Worf's baby was sent in???

Maybe I mis-heard the dialog..but I am certain they said escape pods..in fact, Gul Dukat mentions flying past many of them as well to Sisko on the planet...

Rob

 

[Mister_Atoz]

It would make sense that escape pods would be limited to sub-light speeds, and probably pretty modest sub-light speeds at that, it would add to the drama and allow for "lifeboat" type stories...trouble is when the writers get lazy, they can put ftl drives into something the size of a suit case if they want to; as such there may actually be on screen support for escape pods that travel at warp speeds.

 

[Kaziarl]

I don't know about any onscreen evidence that they have warp capability, but I could see them having a warp sustainer(the thing that keeps torpedo's and probes moving) so that they CAN get to a near by system instead of just floating in space.

 

[Unicron]

yeah...I thought the same thing too. I mean, if the things can go warp speed, why aim for some unknown planet? Are they like the probe that Worf's baby was sent in???

I think you might be remembering wrong, and thinking of the modified probe K'Lheyr traveled in in "The Emissary." That was before Alexander's birth.

 

[RobertScorpio]

yeah...I thought the same thing too. I mean, if the things can go warp speed, why aim for some unknown planet? Are they like the probe that Worf's baby was sent in???

I think you might be remembering wrong, and thinking of the modified probe K'Lheyr traveled in in "The Emissary." That was before Alexander's birth.

Perhaps...

Anyway, the episode is called WALTZ. A Federation starship is attacked and escaped pods end up being scattered all over 'the nearby solar systems"...

Perhaps the escape pods can leave the ship at warp speed, which would account for them being scattered, but somehow I doubt that...

If anyone wants to check, and I will again this weekend, its the scene at DS9 ops when they are looking at a screen depicting the signals they are getting from various escape pods....

Rob

 

[Plecostomus]

Ok so the starship is traveling at warp-speed and something catastrophic happens. There is no time to deccelrate safely due to whatever technobabble you care to insert.

Pods are ejected at FTL speed and they exit the warp field using technobabble and end up coasting over quite a distance, some here, some there... some over there... more over there...


Try this. Drive down the road at 55mph and chuck a handfull of marbles out the window. Notice how they scatter?

 

[Kaziarl]

They scatter to either side and forward from where they left the car, and presumably the pods would do the same. But those marbles don't usually make it to the next town either, which is why I think it's likely that the pods have one of those sustainers.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Ok so the starship is traveling at warp-speed and something catastrophic happens. There is no time to deccelrate safely due to whatever technobabble you care to insert.

Pods are ejected at FTL speed and they exit the warp field using technobabble and end up coasting over quite a distance, some here, some there... some over there... more over there...


Try this. Drive down the road at 55mph and chuck a handfull of marbles out the window. Notice how they scatter?

Nice try...but it falls short. I don't think its ever been established that escape pods can be used at warp-speed. Wouldn't make much sense, I think. I think a ship had to come out of warp, and then fire the escape-pods, or that has always been my understanding.

Rob

 

[Saturn0660]

It would make sense that escape pods would be limited to sub-light speeds, and probably pretty modest sub-light speeds at that, it would add to the drama and allow for "lifeboat" type stories...trouble is when the writers get lazy, they can put ftl drives into something the size of a suit case if they want to; as such there may actually be on screen support for escape pods that travel at warp speeds.

It's funny that you would say that.. It bears the question. Just how small can a warp drive be made? You can buy a micro jet engine for RC planes. Micro Warp engines?

 

[RobertScorpio]

It would make sense that escape pods would be limited to sub-light speeds, and probably pretty modest sub-light speeds at that, it would add to the drama and allow for "lifeboat" type stories...trouble is when the writers get lazy, they can put ftl drives into something the size of a suit case if they want to; as such there may actually be on screen support for escape pods that travel at warp speeds.

It's funny that you would say that.. It bears the question. Just how small can a warp drive be made? You can buy a micro jet engine for RC planes. Micro Warp engines?

If these people could fly around in FTL pops, then why don't the Romulans build MILLIONS of them and send them into Federation space to invade worlds?

If China ever did have desires to take over the world, and hopefully they don't, and ALSO had Ironman kind of suits? We'd all be learning the chinese anthem pretty quick I dare say...

Rob

 

[Timo]

Let's remember that basically every evacuation scene we have seen has also involved launching the ship's or station's warp-capable auxiliaries. I mean, why not use them, in addition to the lifepods?

The assorted shuttles would of course be too few to house the ship's entire complement, and they probably wouldn't be able to do much to help those who ejected in lifepods. Shuttles may have tractor beams (some VOY Type 12 shuttles apparently did, at least - c.f. "Day of Honor"), but there'd be only so many lifepods that they could tow at impulse, let alone at warp.

So one would expect the evacuees to scatter. Perhaps not always, not when rescue was to be expected - but certainly in wartime, when a vicious enemy would know where a ship went down / blew up, and would come hunting for survivors. The sublight pods might linger in interstellar space forever, but the shuttles would try to reach inhabited worlds and summon help, or would be forced to hide on uninhabited planets.

A Nebula class ship would probably have something like fifty shuttles. But part of those would no doubt be undergoing maintenance, would not be fueled, would not be parked in a manner that would allow emergency scrambles, etc. OTOH, since the ship would be evacuated in chaotic conditions, under enemy fire, it's quite possible that one of the shuttles might end up carrying just two evacuees, one of whom would be a dangerous prisoner...

So "escape pods" might be technically inaccurate, but the average listener (in Starfleet, or in the audience) would understand that this refers to a mix of types, including a few warp-capable ones.

I don't think its ever been established that escape pods can be used at warp-speed.

I don't think the opposite has been established, either. Matter can exit a warp field - we just don't know if it can exit a warp field intact enough. If this is technologically viable, it's something the engineers would certainly have built into the escape pods.

How about ENT "Bounty"? Archer did eject at warp there, now didn't he? That's Klingon tech, to be sure, but I doubt the UFP would do worse, two centuries later.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mytran]

Regarding FTL escape pods, there's also the scene at the end of "Year of Hell part 1" where Voyager launches her escape pods, planning to rendezvous on the other side of Krenim space. The only way this could work would be if the pods had considerable FTL ability.

 

[Timo]

Or if Janeway wanted her crew to find a means to cross Krenim space, after ejecting in pods that didn't provide that means.

It's not as if Janeway was really thinking that this would happen. She expected to die. Yet she also expected her crew to go on, all the way to Earth, using whatever means possible. That's what they had been doing all along, with what sometimes counted as insufficient resources, and that's what they'd keep on doing, even if temporarily stranded in slow-as-molasses lifepods.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[RobertScorpio]

Or if Janeway wanted her crew to find a means to cross Krenim space, after ejecting in pods that didn't provide that means.

It's not as if Janeway was really thinking that this would happen. She expected to die. Yet she also expected her crew to go on, all the way to Earth, using whatever means possible. That's what they had been doing all along, with what sometimes counted as insufficient resources, and that's what they'd keep on doing, even if temporarily stranded in slow-as-molasses lifepods.

Timo Saloniemi

Good point...

If the pods do have FTL speed, then I guess it might make sense. But, i don't know..I could see that technology being used by Jem'Hadar to invade on a grander scale. Heck, why put the borg on those giant cube "targets"? Why not send millions upon millions of drones in small FTL ships?

maybe its just me? But if they have FTL pods, then is there only enough for one burst of energy? Can they go Warp 9? What is their limit? Heck, do they have toilets and food rations? Maybe they have holodecks too...I think it totaly undercuts the emergency of a Pod if it has warp-speed...

Rob

 

[Timo]

...To be sure, the Defiant supposedly has phaser strips on her lifepods! (No doubt the emergency rations also have combat knives for cutlery...)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[RobertScorpio]

...To be sure, the Defiant supposedly has phaser strips on her lifepods! (No doubt the emergency rations also have combat knives for cutlery...)

Timo Saloniemi

LOL...who needs a starship? And if they come with a holo-version of your favorite crewmate, then...dude...let the Jem'Hedar attack!!!

Rob

 

[Myasishchev]

Or if Janeway wanted her crew to find a means to cross Krenim space, after ejecting in pods that didn't provide that means.

It's not as if Janeway was really thinking that this would happen. She expected to die. Yet she also expected her crew to go on, all the way to Earth, using whatever means possible. That's what they had been doing all along, with what sometimes counted as insufficient resources, and that's what they'd keep on doing, even if temporarily stranded in slow-as-molasses lifepods.

Timo Saloniemi

Good point...

If the pods do have FTL speed, then I guess it might make sense. But, i don't know..I could see that technology being used by Jem'Hadar to invade on a grander scale. Heck, why put the borg on those giant cube "targets"? Why not send millions upon millions of drones in small FTL ships?

Rob

Or millions upon millions of antimatter bombs plus a cloak.

I think it's a good thing lifeboats can go at warp speed, and have always assumed all of them can. I do, however, believe that their range is probably very limited--enough fuel reserves for 3-4 light years. The specifications laid out by Starfleet for whoever designed 'em probably asked for just enough capacity to cross the average distance between star systems.

 

[EmperorTiberius]

Ok so the starship is traveling at warp-speed and something catastrophic happens. There is no time to deccelrate safely due to whatever technobabble you care to insert.

Pods are ejected at FTL speed and they exit the warp field using technobabble and end up coasting over quite a distance, some here, some there... some over there... more over there...


Try this. Drive down the road at 55mph and chuck a handfull of marbles out the window. Notice how they scatter?

Yeah, but if you do that in New York, you don't expect the stones to fly to Chicago which is the kind of distances we are talking about.

Good point...

If the pods do have FTL speed, then I guess it might make sense. But, i don't know..I could see that technology being used by Jem'Hadar to invade on a grander scale. Heck, why put the borg on those giant cube "targets"? Why not send millions upon millions of drones in small FTL ships?

maybe its just me? But if they have FTL pods, then is there only enough for one burst of energy? Can they go Warp 9? What is their limit? Heck, do they have toilets and food rations? Maybe they have holodecks too...I think it totaly undercuts the emergency of a Pod if it has warp-speed...

Rob

For the same reason we build big ships instead of small ones. Why build dozens of cruisers when you can build 50,000 small boats?