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I've been using this Paris quote for a signature - and I just started wondering about it. In the episode it is derived from, I believe that Paris was stating that once in warp drive, a vessel was unable to modify its course/heading without dropping out of warp, re-orienting the ship via thrusters, and re-engaging warp. Wait a cotton-picking minute... Haven't starships in warp been seen to change heading before (various tv shows). Surely there is a case of Picard aboard the old Ent-D (already travelling at warp) instructing his helmsman to "...alter heading/course to *** mark **" - without either instructing him to drop out of warp - or perhaps there is an exterior screenshot of a vessel altering course at warp? Or has this already been noted? Or was Paris just gonzo?
------------------ Faster than light - no left or right.
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If they can alter they're course, most likly it's only slightly. I've never seen an exterior shot of a starship changing course mid-warp.
The reasoning behind Picard not having to teel the helmsmen to drop out of warp, is that it is a known thing that you have to drop out of warp. If a captain had to tell every officer exactly how to do everything, they'd never get anywhere.
------------------ "You left spacedock without a tractor beam?"
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I'm pretty sure Kirk ordered "hard about" at full warp several times. There's the Enterprise Incident for one, and when they were trying to escape Trelane for another.
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We have seen a visual effect of a ship making a course adjustment at warp. In TNG's "The Wounded," watch when the Enterprise is escorting the Phoenix back to Federation territory. The Phoenix detects a Cardassian freighter that may have weapons aboard it. From the Enterprise's main viewer, we see the Phoenix turning and altering course.
If the Phoenix had dropped out of warp to change course, the Enterprise would have plowed into her rear end. That's assuming the viewer's angle was correct and that the Enterprise was following the Phoenix.
I'm also sure that there were other instances, but I don't recall where exactly.
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posted
We've seen the stardrive section of the E-D do a tight turn after dropping off the saucer in "Encounter at Farpoint", and that was at the maximum warp speed Picard dared try.
One might say that tight warp turns wreak havoc on ships, just like high g-forces weaken the structure of aircraft. In combat, you HAVE to pull high gee, but you are nevertheless instructed to avoid it whenever not in combat.
Starfleet could simply be teaching its helmsmen that slogan so that they would not attempt to perform tight turns unless ABSOLUTELY necessary. Perhaps a ship is ready for scrapping after 5-10 tight turns, and while it can withstand hundreds of shallower warp turns at low speeds, even this is generally discouraged.
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Well since we in "Farpoint" saw the enterprise and saucer from the side I think it's safe to say that the engineering section slowed to warp one or impulse while turning, otherwise the warp streaks would've showed.
What's the turning radius of a Galaxy-class at high warp, in any case? Not 2000 meters, I would venture.
------------------ Here lies a toppled god, His fall was not a small one. We did but build his pedestal, A narrow and a tall one.
-Tleilaxu Epigram
[This message has been edited by Nimrod (edited February 22, 2001).]
posted
Didn't the Equinox and Voyager change cource in their 'battle'?
And how in the hell could the Prometheus split and attack that Nebula class at warp if it could not change cource??
I'm with the 'change course slightly' theory. You are travelling at enormous speeds, so you'd have a HUGE turning circle. I think Paris was hinting towards that. Since they needed to make a few very tight turns, but they also needed to travel as fast as possible they needed to drop out of warp to change cource.
------------------ Terry: "Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, ...." Max: "And?" Terry: "I forgot." Max: "Come on, Clinton was the fun one, then came the boring one." Terry: "They're all boring."
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The course changes that they were talking about in "The Return of Kes" episode (I can't ever remember the title) were extremely sharp and there were alot of them. I think you can *adjust* your course but you can't make sharp changes to it. Keep in mind just how much distance we're talking about covering in the time it took for the Phoenix to veer slightly off it's course, for instance. It's really a rather gentle tilt. But to essentially go through a labyrinth of spacial anomolies would be a totally different thing.
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Altair: The Prometheus-sections changed POSITION, and surrounded the Nebula so as to cover the best attack-angles. Their heading never changed though, all sections faced twelve o'clock.
------------------ Here lies a toppled god, His fall was not a small one. We did but build his pedestal, A narrow and a tall one.
-Tleilaxu Epigram
[This message has been edited by Nimrod (edited February 22, 2001).]
Turning at warp is possible if you alter the warp field. If e.g the Enterprise E was 1 light year from Earth and was travelling at Warp 6 towards Earth. The ship was ordered to Vulcan at maximum warp. The ships computer would then accelerate the ship to maximum and create a slight imbalance between the nacelles e.g. lower the speed in one let's say to Warp 9.6 and the other is kept a maximum warp (9.98) The nacelle with the lower speed would then create drag, The ship would then spin on this axsis and as soon as the ship was pointing in Vulcans direction, The computer would then accelerate the lower speed nacelle to maximum and the ship would then proceed at maximum warp.
------------------ "Cry havoc and let's slip the dogs of Evil"
Oh YES THEY DO... sort of
"Bring out the holy book of armourment..." ST:TNG Tech Manual page 85 last para on the page.
"Spacecraft manuvers are performed by intoducing controlled timing diffrences (read adjusting plasma injector firing rate) in each set of warp coils, thereby modifying the total warp field geometry and resultant ship heading."
now I'll grant you that the result change in velocity from port nacell to starboard nacell isn't more then a tenthousandth of a warp factor or else you run the risk of the "linear dissociation" talked about at the end of the section.
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