Let me propose the following formula: "Impulse factor" ^ 13 = factor of c. In episode 5 of season 1, Jordi makes a comment which can be used to determine not only the maximum speed of the Enterprise but how fast … 12,400,000 miles per hour is 0.01849c making 1 Impulse drive 2.46% c. But is this inconsistent with the above value? Let’s look at the math behind impulse power, and why Starfleet finds it impractical for normal operations. In Star Trek, it seems like whenever any warp-capable ship travels at less than light speed, it’s almost always “one quarter impulse power.” Let’s use some constant acceleration physics in PTC Mathcad to calculate the time and distance necessary to reach one quarter impulse power: Wow. An impulse is a unit of force and thus converting to speed is difficult. He ends with a quote from The Next Generation episode "Conspiracy": Riker: "Increase to warp six." Your base speed and turn values are determined by a combination of your ship's impulse modifier, your level, engine power, and the quality of your equipped impulse … All Epic Engines have [SecSpd-2] as their default fifth modifier, though this can be re-engineered into a different … According to page 78 of the TNG Technical Manual: normal impulse is limited to 0.25c for time dilation concerns. Suppose the traveler’s journey – by her own clock – starts on January 1, At 0.5 c, the traveling twin’s calendar will say January 1. FASA didn't in writing their first Star Trek RPG. A person taking a 10 year round trip at 0.9c would find more than 200 years had passed on earth. The Enterprise D has a mass of 4.5 million metric tons, and a maximum sustainable impulse speed of 0.92 c. The impulse engines have a required acceleration of 10 kilometers per second per second, which is just over a thousand g’s. In your answers and calculations you assume a linear scale; "Impulse 0.5" = 0.5 * "Impulse 1". In this case, it's best not too look too deeply at canon, as what you find is "Speed of Plot.". Forums > Misc. It is always sub-light speed, and it is likely different for every ship (size, number of drives, etc.). The Enterprise D has a mass of 4.5 million metric tons, and a maximum sustainable impulse speed of 0.92 c. The impulse engines have a required acceleration of 10 kilometers per second per second, which is just over a thousand g’s. ... Full Impulse is 2-3x as fast as normal mode, ButFull Impulse can only be used out of combat. The speed of light in a vacuum is 299,792,458 m/s. Steven Cole of Amarillo Design Bureau interpreted the canon to include "FTL." If, as some people think, different generations of warp drive were described as "space warp", "time warp", "transwarp" etc., it is possible that an early form of warp drive was called "impulse warp drive" for some technical reason, and by Kirk's era "impulse warp drive" was sometimes called "impulse drive" (confusing it with the current impulse drive) and sometimes called "warp drive". They also have inertial damper. What about fuel? Therefore, we can conclude that they have the ability to counteract gravity. Ricard - I cited a source which claims that there are examples of faster-than-light travel with impulse power in TOS and TNG. Not long ago, I used PTC Mathcad to uncover some real-world truths about Star Trek and its implausible use of “warp speed.” Of course, Start Trek is fiction, but I thought exploring some of the concepts found in the popular science fiction series would be an interesting way to demonstrate how PTC Mathcad can help you work out physics problems. This is when the Enterprise-F was launched. Our calculations in PTC Mathcad show that it will take ridiculous amounts of energy and the relativistic effects completely upsets our perceptions of the passage of time. Star Trek: Online Additional impulse engines are available through modifications; however, the traditional impulse engine has undergone little change since the 23rd Impulse engines star trek. At 0.9 c, and extra 1.3 years would have passed, and at 0.99 c, the Earth-bound sister will now be over six years older than her twin. But full warp for the Enterprise D is over warp factor nine in the new scale so he couldn't go to full warp to reach warp six. Nobody seems to believe that the TOS Enterprise had a faster-than-light impulse drive or that it could warp time with its engines, but the dialog in "Where No Man Has Gone before" seems to prove that one or the other, or possibly both, is correct. The Star Trek impulse engines are magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters based on nuclear fusion. (At c=1, time dilation and mass increase to infinity.) Or it is possible that impulse drive was always totally different from warp drive and that at one time impulse drive was a rival and alternate form of faster-than-light drive but by Kirk's era warp drive was clearly superior for faster-than-light travel and impulse drive was only used for slower-than-light travel and the impulse engines used were no longer designed to go faster than light. Thus it would seem that the "space warp" discovered by Cochrane ("Metamorphosis") was used in the original warp drive but newer warp drive also has a "time Warp". Aboard Federation starships, fusion reactors power the engines using deuterium fuel to create helium plasma. It makes more sense to call it "impulse acceleration". Yesterday, one of the episodes was "Conspiracy" Here are some approximations I found on the memory alpha article on Impulse Drive: In The Motion Picture, The Enterprise traveled at warp 0.5 ... or roughly 1/3 light speed. Impulse power is more like sub-light warp powered by fusion reactors than a simple rocket. This section gives a general guideline on warp speed conversion as offered in the Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual. Both predate TNG, where it's clear that FTL travel is Warp Drive. Section I The Basics. The extended universe, including the tabletop role-playing games, gives full impulse a specific speed, usually varying by timeframe. Which doesn't make much physical sense, since without some wibbly-wobbly spacey-wacey stuff it would take infinite energy to approach light speed. It seems to be sloppy dialogue as much as anything else. For anyone who denies the use of time warps, "Where No Man Has Gone before" PROVES that the Enterprise can travel fast-than-light with impulse drive. In the Star Fleet Universe line of Games (Star Fleet Battles, Federation and Empire, Prime Directive), which are based upon TOS and TAS but developed differently from the core Trek Universe, such FTL impulse speeds as are implied by Balance of Terror are given a name: Non-Tactical Warp. Let’s calculate how much deuterium (heavy hydrogen) it would take to accelerate the Enterprise to quarter impulse: That’s the same mass as 337 Empire State Buildings. We see why traveling for long periods of time at impulse speeds causes such headaches. At 0.75 c, over an extra half year will have passed. I recently discovered that Star Trek the next generation is on Netflix, of course that means watching the whole series from the begining. In "The Cage" and "Menagerie" Lt. Tyler also says that the "time barrier" his been broken and new ships are faster. While each Starship has its own base value for each of these. It would have to be limited at some point to avoid relativistic effects. My understanding was that "impulse speed" was whatever maximum speed could be obtained by a ship's available impulse drives (fusion reactor pushing out plasma). If you want to redirect to English please click Yes. A reference made in "Fair Haven" indicated that USS Voyager's impulse power would not be enough to outrun an approaching neutronic storm that was traveling at a velocity of 200,000 kilometers per second (447,387,258 miles per hour), or roughly 2/3 the speed of light. Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 Next > cwl Commander Red Shirt. Throughout star trek we see various ships travelling at fractions of 'Impulse drive'. When beginning to explain travel times to the illusion survivors (before being interrupted by the sight of Vina), … sci fi reviews channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrLsxBysUHnpSKRpXMbMVzgAll parody Edits : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnnRzi7q1YTRFYvzSnjEzhQ (only true for Warp factors between 1 and 9) I insert an X-Y Plot, with the range variable along the x-axis depicting fractions of the speed of light, and the function evaluated for the range variable and one year of travel along the y-axis: At 0.5 c, the traveling twin’s calendar will say January 1st upon return, but on Earth it’s actually February 25th! Martin is the author of the books Design Intent in Creo Parametric and Top Down Design in Creo Parametric--both available at www.amazon.com. The top impulse speeds seem to vary by ship, and "Full Impulse" seems to be whatever the peak designed safe impulse speed is. In space any propulsion would translate to an acceleration, not a constant speed. An impulse engine (a colloquialization of internally metered pulse drive) was a nuclear fusion-based propulsion system used primarily for sub-light travel. The right axis shows traveler time. If the "space warp" in warp drive is similar to the theoretical Alcubierre Warp Drive it would warp space around the ship and created a warped bubble of space time to propel the ship faster than light as seen from outside the warp bubble. Combined with Balance of Terror, it's pretty clear that "Impulse Drive" is at worse high sublight. As we know, the Warp scale is non-linear; it's cubic or even - to be more exact - 10/3. Page Not found or Currently under translation for the Language you requested. The corresponding velocity is given as "the speed of light multiplied by the speed of light ten times", whereas warp 2 is now "the speed of light squared", implying a general rule of … 1 Impulse = ~2.5%c = 0.5*(1/3*2.5%) = warp 0.004. An impulse is a unit of force and thus converting to speed is difficult. Impulse … Winfrey cites events in several episodes and movies to claim that impulse drive must still be capable of hyperlight speeds even during the eras of Kirk and Picard. Normally in the interplanetary scene we have no frame of reference for how fast they are traveling. They rely only upon impulse drives, and are capable of speeds up to about warp 5.5. In the Decipher Star Trek RPG, maximum sustained impulse speeds are around 0.75C (75% of the speed of light). When she arrives back on Earth, her twin has experienced a larger passage of time, and is older than her sibling. However in Star Trek III and Star Trek VI Admiral/Captain Kirk orders 1/4 Impulse Power in side the spacedock, clearly. Dave Martin is a former Creo, Windchill, and Mathcad instructor and consultant. According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, which uses the Okuda warp scale, impulse speed is 1/4 lightspeed, or 270 million km/h. Mr. Sulu. In the Decipher Star Trek RPG, maximum sustained impulse speeds are around 0.75C (75% of the speed of light). According to Jo'Bril in the episode "Suspicions", the shuttles aboard the Enterprise-D had a maximum impulse velocity of approximately 2.5% of light speed – he specified that at ¾ impulse the shuttle would travel a distance of one million kilometers in approximately three minutes (approximately 12,400,000 miles per hour). Yet if that's full impulse then 1/4 Impulse Power would be 41,913,450 Miles per Hour. In Elaan of Troyius, they traveled from one planet to another at "sublight factor .037". Then LaForge was correct to say "Full impulse" and the next generation Technical Manuel is incorrect about how the Enterprise D functions. I believe the first explicit use of "warp" for sublight speed was in The Motion Picture, when Kirk ordered "Ahead warp point five". However, as those technical manuals of Star Trek tell us, starships are using impulse drives for … Is that the same for all of the ships? Both also provided for FTL combats, unlike the later series, based upon TOS and TAS evidence. Full impulse speed is about one-quarter light speed, sufficient for interplanetary travel. When people think of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, they mostly associate it with his most famous equation: E=mc2.However, Einstein’s theory revealed two significant ways in which motion affects time and space relative to a stationary observer: For an object in motion, mass increases, length contracts, and time dilates. According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, in simple terms, the new warp speed factor 1 is the exact speed of light, 299,792,458 m/s. Now we have an inconsistent source (1 impulse <2/3 speed of light AND 1 impulse ~8/10) that disagrees with the above (1 impulse is 1/40 speed of light). Trekkies have helped define the science fiction universe, along with the technology that the Star Trek series, books, and movies promise. The "time warp" which was introduced about 13 to 31 years before the first season of TOS may have been used in conjunction with the "space warp" to either one) make interstellar travel seem faster to outside observers, or two) make interstellar travel seem faster to the crew aboard the ship or three) do both. The Trek BBS. Let’s use PTC Mathcad to examine and graph these differences. Impulse engine modifiers [edit source]. Bu the Enterprise was still apparently able to use its "time warp" capability along with the impulse engines to travel a distance of several light days while only a few hours pass on the ship (and possibly also in the outside universe). I also showed that in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" the Enterprise either travels faster-than-light with impulse drive or else slows down the passage of time aboard with a time warp, or perhaps even does both. If LaForge made a mistake, maybe he meant to say "full warp". Overload of an impulse engine on the damaged U.S.S Constellation , a Constitution-class starship, was once rated at 97.835 megatons. Star Trek: The Next Generation. Possibly it was shortened to plain warp factor by the series. so how fast is impulse? I've always thought this was holdover from (sea) ships with Engine Order Telegraphs, which would signal "Half Ahead" or "Dead slow astern" etc. It would take almost two hours and 1.6 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun! A maximum of 0.92c is in the design spec on page 2. 1 History and specifics 1.1 Specifications 1.1.1 Design variants 2 Impulse engine types 2.1 Earth and Federation impulse drive types 3 Appendices 3.1 Related topics 3.2 References 3.3 External link Impulse engines … Of course, Start Trek is fiction, but I thought exploring... | November 30, 2020 One of the most sought-after technologies from those shows is the warp drive.That propulsion system is used on the spaceships of many species in the Trekiverse to get across the galaxy in amazingly short times (months or years …