Impusle Speed

Wild Karrde · Post by **Wild Karrde** » 2002-08-01 08:05pm

I was just wondering if someone could do me a small favor. I'm currently debating a trekkie about the pathetic sublight speeds of star trek ships and he replied with this:

In The Next Generation episode "Suspicions", a Type VI personnel shuttle is launched from the E-D and proceeds at 3/4 impulse towards a point that is 1,000,000km away. The ETA is given as 3 minutes! The shuttle launched from the Enterprise at a standing start. This gives a type 6 shuttle much greater acceleration capabilties than anything ever seen in Star Wars using pure sublight drive. We have seen in other episodes that a starship can easily keep up with (and even catch) shuttles, so we know that Federation sublight speed and acceleration are far superior to star wars.

Now I know this can't be right because so many other episodes contradict speeds that high but could someone do me a favor and tell me what happened in that episode ("Suspicions") that would make the trekkie I'm debating say starship speeds are that high, thanks.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2002-08-01 08:17pm

300 000 KM a Sec for Speed of Light sooo 3.333 seconds for 1 C

So a mear 5555.55KM a Second for the Ship

Referance someone has it around that Obi-Wan's Fighter had a top speed of 7,000 KM a Second

Hope that helps its in the ICS

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2002-08-01 08:19pm

Bean, whatever you're smoking to get 7000Km from Obi's fighter, you better godsdamn share.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2002-08-01 08:21pm

Its good stuff man

Maybe its Per hour and I'm mistaken it was mentioned into the Jango VS Obi-Won Fight in the astroid belt and I remeber it being 7000Km per hour or per second I can't remeber and yes it does make a diffrance

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2002-08-01 08:24pm

All I know is the ICS stats, which is 12000Km/hr sustained atmospheric, and 5000G linear accel.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2002-08-01 08:47pm

Couldn't you use that against him, and say that means that 1/2 impulse isn't 0.5C? Because at .75C, the shuttle would travel 1,000,000km in 4.4 seconds. And what does he mean by "launched"? Did he mean it lifted off and propelled itself, or did was it shot from the E-D?

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2002-08-01 10:32pm

BTW, 5000 G's of acceleration is a hell of a lot. that is one, speed-demon of a starship.

BTW, the X-Wings that moved from Yavin IV to intercept the DS in only seconds demonstrated far greater accelerations than the shuttle, as did the Queen's starship in EPI when it moved from the ground to orbit in seconds. The Trekkie's information on SW is incorrect, though I don't remember the incident that he is talking about from Suspicions.

DarkStar · Post by **DarkStar** » 2002-08-02 12:45am

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:Did he mean it lifted off and propelled itself, or did was it shot from the E-D?

TheDarkling · Post by **TheDarkling** » 2002-08-02 12:57am

The shuttle was already under way for abuot 5 seconds before the figures were stated.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2002-08-02 01:09am

So we're looking at, at best, 1/60th C. And this is full impulse from a shuttle. Not the .9c claimed by so many Trekkies to be full impulse for a GCS...

Diamedes · Post by **Diamedes** » 2002-08-02 02:34am

This doesn't really tell us anything about the speed of the shuttle.

We don't know if they accelerated for a time, and then coasted before deaccelerating. Unless they desired economy, it's more likely that they accelerated to the midpoint and then deaccelerated down to rest relative to the destination, or whatever orbital velocity they required at the point, another unknown.

It's obvious though that they didn't travel the entire distance at full speed. If they did, the acceleration at the very beginning of the trip would have been enormous. I don't think we can make any real determination of speed from this, because the distance might not have been enough to reach full speed. Just because a car can only accelerate so much over a quarter mile doesn't mean that's it's top speed.

The only thing we can comment on is acceleration, and assuming constant acceleration and deacceleration, I'm getting 12 000 gees off the cuff, also assuming zero velocity relative to the destination before and after the trip. And that's just a rough estimate. If that acceleration is the same for starships, and full "impulse" is .9c, that would still take about forty minutes to achieve, and that's not taking into account special relativity, which might slow them down. Mass lightening would screw with that. Depends on how well they can control momentum and what not.

Still, I guess that contradicts other episodes, and some of my assumptions might be wrong. I'd like to hear more about the scene.

Wild Karrde · Post by **Wild Karrde** » 2002-08-02 02:54am

Thanks guys all that stuff everybody posted helped.