posted
I think I started such a topic (or made considerable contributions) at least two or three years ago.
The discussion was essentially about the question whether a starship could actually reverse the thrust of the impulse engines to stop. Momentum conservation would essentially forbid that because with thrust to the aft you couldn't move the ship to aft. Or could you, with some sort of pipe that's facing forward?
Anyway, what Timo just posted seemed to be generally agreed on.
In any case the much more realistic stop would be just turning the ship 180� in the flight plane using the thrusters and then fire the impulse engines (now facing forward) to stop. But we've never seen anything like that.
-------------------- Bernd Schneider
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I always figured that starships used the inirtial dampeners in stopping by (by the miracle of trechnology) sapping away much of the ship's inirtia. Perhaps I'm confusing inirtia and momentum (but I suspect whoever came up with "inirtial dampeners" did also).
-------------------- If the crew discover I'm really just Dennis the donut boy, I'm finished.
Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
If I had to guess, I'd say that momentum only works with an object thats moving. Inertia exists even if the object is standing still. I think. But I'm almost certainly mistaken.
The inertial dampeners create a counter force to the ship's accelleration to keep the crew from becoming wall stains when the ship speeds up or slows down. They don't have anything to do with the speed of the ship.
posted
Ah, I know that is how the inirtial dampers are usually described and that they have never, in any canon or fanon source, been implied to affect the movement of the ship. What interests me is that they are a devices that able to exert a "counter force" (your words) against moving objects. Granted, we are talking about treknology and thus real physics is really of use to us by analogy. I was just suggesting that if starships carried, as standard equipment, devices that can exert counter forces on moving objects, or cancel/dampen their inirtia, that these same devices might be used to slow or stop the ship itself.
Since we don't know how inirtial dampeners work, let me throw out a suggestion. Perhaps they are able to use some sort of treknology to transfer kinetic energy of an object to another oject or substance. Maybe they can convert this kinetic energy into another form of energy. In this way the inirtial dampeners might be able to slow objects by bleeding off their kinetic energy in another form, say heat, either radiated from the spacecraft or tranfered to a working fliud carried aboard ship. Anyway, its just a suggestion. I hope it makes sense.
-------------------- If the crew discover I'm really just Dennis the donut boy, I'm finished.
Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
I like the theory about dropping the subspace field. In my views, it kinda relates to real life. Apparently, Einstein said that it was physically impossible to go at the speed of light, so perhaps the subspace field acts as an area in which the laws (or law) of physics don't apply within. Then it would allow the ship to go FTL. So when you cut that field, its again impossible to go FTL, so yeah. But I dunno if THAT will stop the ship, just my 2 cents
-newbiefuck
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Registered: May 2005
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posted
That's how I figured the ship stopped from warp, and since the impulse engines use subspace coils, it would seem that would be the solution. The problem when it comes to impulse engines and stopping at sub-light speeds is (if we use the TNG tech manual as a source, p. 75) that subspace coils were first integreted in the impulse engines of Starfleet ships with the introduction of the Ambassador-class.
-------------------- If the crew discover I'm really just Dennis the donut boy, I'm finished.
Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Timo: Also, collapsing of the mass-reducing fields may be used for slowing down the ship. Such systems would bring the ship to a halt when most or all power fails; reversed impulse thrust would be used for further "stopping power" when in a great hurry.
I think you've just explained the otherwise silly notion of starships losing power and suddenly coming to a complete (relative) stop, without any apparent change in momentum (which in zero-gravity should keep the ship moving at speed indefinitely). But if the mass-reducing subspace-based fields (as suggested in "Deja Q" and "Emissary", among others) were to fail, that would definitely bring the ship to a halt faster (I guess, though I'm not a physicist and am probably way off base). However, the question remains, why would the mass-reducing fields be independent of the inertial dampers, which are apparenly almost always online?
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
I'm gonna agree with Mighty Bloger Snay here: hasn't anyone noticed the huge lever on the bridge? It's marked: 'Make It So' and 'Stop Making'
-------------------- "Brave men are vertebrates: they have their softness on the outside, and their toughness in the middle" -Lewis Carrol
Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
My personal beleif is that the Inertial Dampening Field (IDF) is extended forward, beyond the ships interior, and the forward momentum of the ship is absorbed and then dissipated into subspace.
posted
Banking on my experiences, I'm going to throw my towel in with Timo. The sub-space field generators serve to reduce the effective mass of the ship so the impulse engines can move it. If you throttle down the SSF you can control how fast the ship decelerates.
The IDF is seperate from the SSF, it's job is to keep the ship from turning everything inside the ship to strawberry jelly (or a grape smoothie if you're a Klingon!)
The ship can be dropped from warp merely by shutting off the warp feild generators but to stop it in real space means the use of the SSF.
posted
I'd be perfectly will to accept Timo's suggestion if it weren't for the "fact" that the subspace field generators were not components of impulse engines until the Ambassador class (TNG Tech Manual, p. 75). How did ships stop before then? Or is there another way that ships stop from sublight speeds?
Also, dropping the SSF generators could not stop the ship entirely, it could only slow it down proportionally to the change in apparent mass. The ship would still need a way to loose whatever kinetic energy it has. The RCS couldn't do this because it would need to be at least equal to the force exerted by the impulse engines to get the ship moving in the first place.
*Since I am new to these boards and I seem to a have a slightly dissenting opinion I think it would be a good idea if I made a little disclaimer. Even though I may not agree others' ideas, I really do enjoy discussing and debating these sorts of topics (that's why I'm here). I just don't want these to become heated debates in any way. Since I'm new and unknown, I just wanted to make that clear before any misunderstandings took place.
-------------------- If the crew discover I'm really just Dennis the donut boy, I'm finished.
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quote:Originally posted by Capt_Frank_Hollister: I'd be perfectly will to accept Timo's suggestion if it weren't for the "fact" that the subspace field generators were not components of impulse engines until the Ambassador class (TNG Tech Manual, p. 75). How did ships stop before then? Or is there another way that ships stop from sublight speeds?
Also, dropping the SSF generators could not stop the ship entirely, it could only slow it down proportionally to the change in apparent mass. The ship would still need a way to loose whatever kinetic energy it has. The RCS couldn't do this because it would need to be at least equal to the force exerted by the impulse engines to get the ship moving in the first place.
I'm new here too, a transfer from that "other" Trek forum. I would preface my reply by saying that I'm not a big fan of some aspects of the ST:TNG Tech manual. Notably the idea that it is milepost 1 on the highway of Trek History and what ever came before it is non-canon or irrelevant. I know the reasons for it, I still disagree with them.
I'd suggest that at the time of TOS, it's possible that the SSF still wasn't an intergral part of the impulse drive and was a seperate system of it's own. As far as slowing the ship further, I still think some sort of RCS thruster would be suitable.
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