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Questions tagged [impulse]

In the Star Trek universe, the impulse drive is the method of propulsion that starships and other spacecraft use when they are travelling below the speed of light.

7 votes
2 answers
1k views

Can warp drive be used to travel at sublight speeds?

The answer and discussion around this question Can warp drive allow for light speed? make me wonder about the following: Warp drive works by warping space so that the ship need not "travel faster ...
ThePopMachine's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
13k views

Why don't Star Trek vessels experience time dilation while travelling at impulse speeds

This may be a little complicated but I will try to keep it simple Einstein's laws of Special relativity says that the closer you get to light speed the more of a time dilation effect you get. So if ...
Matt's user avatar
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14 votes
4 answers
2k views

In Star Trek Beyond, how does terminal velocity help "jump start" the Franklin?

In Star Trek Beyond, they fix up the old Federation ship, USS Franklin. It wasn't made to fly in atmosphere, so in order to take off they need to propel it off a cliff and reach terminal velocity ...
justin's user avatar
  • 251
8 votes
4 answers
1k views

Was relativistic time dilation ever a plot point in Star Trek?

It established that time dilation doesn't affect ships at warp. (Do ships at warp experience time dilation?) And in this answer to this question Why is getting back to the future always such a ...
ThePopMachine's user avatar
6 votes
5 answers
2k views

Do ships in Star Trek that can land on planets use impulse drive to reach space?

I have read many sources and understand that impulse drive can be very fast. A quarter of impulse can be way faster than the escape velocity on Earth (11 km/s) or on the Sun (600 km/s). Does this ...
dh16's user avatar
  • 163
11 votes
5 answers
3k views

Does the deflector dish pose a danger to inhabited worlds?

Now the purpose of the deflector dish on a starship is to push aside debris and objects in the ships path so that when the ship is moving it doesn't plow through this debris and destroy the ship. ...
BBlake's user avatar
  • 19.9k
26 votes
5 answers
20k views

How fast can impulse drive propel a ship?

Impulse drive, how fast is it? Throughout star trek we see various ships travelling at fractions of 'Impulse drive'. An impulse is a unit of force and thus converting to speed is difficult. Here are ...
AncientSwordRage's user avatar
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