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The USS Enterprise and other related starships travel around using fusion engines, and using warp to travel great distances in a short space of time. Thing is, they never actually hit anything (besides from a couple of times, and the obvious exception of the warship in Into Darkness).

One would assume that anything they hit in warp speed would be vaporised, but wouldn't this also cause substantial damage to the ship (assuming no shields are online)? This would certainly be the case if travelling at non-warp speeds!

The Enterprise is far too large to maneuver to avoid small asteroids (or any asteroid when in warp).

So, why doesn't the Enterprise ever actually hit anything?. I'm pointing to TNG here mainly.

AStopher
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    FWIW, in the real world, an object the size of the Enterprise traveling in a straight line in open space would be extremely unlikely to hit anything much bigger than dust, even over distances of thousands of light years. Granted, the ST universe is a bit different to ours. :-) – Harry Johnston Aug 06 '14 at 20:19
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    @HarryJohnston True, but as Himarm answered below, the Enterprise would be destroyed if even a microscopic piece of dust hit it. – AStopher Aug 06 '14 at 20:21
  • @HarryJohnston - http://phys.org/news/2012-03-warp-killer-downside.html – Valorum Aug 06 '14 at 20:32
  • @zyboxinternational - Not quite true. There's a scene in voyager where the hull is being degraded by interstellar particles but it doesn't result in the ship being destroyed. – Valorum Aug 06 '14 at 20:33
  • Related: What would be the effects of warp collisions? – Izkata Aug 06 '14 at 23:19
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    "The USS Enterprise and other related starships travel around using fusion engines" -- no, they don't. The alleged technology uses matter-antimatter annihilation. – Raphael Aug 07 '14 at 08:25
  • @Raphael: Not really. In TOS "Obsession", the vampiric cloud is driven out of the ventilation system by flooding it with "radioactive waste from the engines". Which is funny since in "The Voyage Home", nuclear reactors appear to be a completely unknown archaic and extremely dangerous source of energy that people used in the 20th century, much like sorcery. – Damon Aug 07 '14 at 12:43
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    @Damon Fission reactors (the kind I assume you are referring to) are not the only way to create radioactive material. Fusion reactors certainly do, shooting neutrons at stuff will do the job, and matter-antimatter annihilation probably does, too. – Raphael Aug 07 '14 at 12:52
  • @HarryJohnston Never tell me the odds! – Acccumulation Oct 31 '19 at 04:30

5 Answers5

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One of the primary systems that makes prolonged spaceflight possible in the Star Trek universe is the "Navigational Deflector".

The TNG Technical Manual explains the operation of this device in mind-numbing detail but in brief, it projects a series of low level static shields and deflector shields that, when coupled with a deflector-beam (basically a tractor-beam-in-reverse) is able to repulse all but the largest of objects.

enter image description here

enter image description here

Valorum
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    I have to wonder what a ship in the way would experience. That could be a pretty nasty wake. – cHao Aug 06 '14 at 19:54
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    @cHao - I think you just get gently moved aside. – Valorum Aug 06 '14 at 19:59
  • They also have "navigational" lasers/phasers, mentioned in one episode where they're "threatened" by a couple of lower-tech ships ( the episode with the flamboyant merchant captain). Worf mentions that the other ship's weapons are weaker than the Enterprise's navigational lasers. – Joe L. Aug 06 '14 at 20:02
  • @JoeL. Wait, lasers fire light, right (obviously). How can this system possibly work if the Enterprise is travelling at any warp speed. Since warp speed is faster than light speed, would lasers not work? – AStopher Aug 06 '14 at 20:05
  • @JoeL. Also, if the laser is firing to the front of the ship and the ship is travelling at warp speed, what happens to the light? This is obviously a physics-based question, so I'll ask it over at Physics Stack Exchange also. – AStopher Aug 06 '14 at 20:06
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    The quote is "WORF: Still no response. Captain, they are now locking lasers on us. RIKER: Lasers? WORF: Yes, sir. PICARD: Lasers can't even penetrate our navigation shields. Don't they know that? " – Valorum Aug 06 '14 at 20:07
  • @Richard You're right, I misremembered that scene. My bad. – Joe L. Aug 06 '14 at 20:28
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    @JoeL. - What's interesting is that in the original script, the exchange was less than enlightening: "WORF (overlap) Captain, they have locked phasers. 
     PICARD
(somewhat puzzled)

    Phasers?

     RIKER
(same look)

    Regulations call for a Yellow Alert.

     – Valorum Aug 06 '14 at 20:31
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    @zyboxinternational Considering "warp speed" isn't an actual physical phenomenon in our universe, you're probably better off opening another question about it here. – Chris Hayes Aug 06 '14 at 20:55
  • @ChrisHayes Yeah, my question on Physics Stack Exchange got closed because it's 'based on fictional phenomenae', although actual Physics studies are suggesting that the speed of light is actually a lot faster than we currently think.. – AStopher Aug 06 '14 at 21:10
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    @zyboxinternational Have you created that question yet? If not: velocities are not actually just added together when involving relativistic speeds. the sum is divided by (1 + (the product of the 2 velocities divided by c²)), C being the speed of light. This means that when of the speeds is close to light speed, it's actually divided by the speed of light. When both speeds are relativistic, the sum is divided by 2. If neither are close to 0, it's divided by something so close to 1 that it's negligible. If you create a question, I can explain it in detail. – Nzall Aug 06 '14 at 21:28
  • Deflectors and their purpose are mentioned more than once throughout the Trek franchise. There's a brief conversation about it in the ST:ENT premiere (Broken Bow, I believe), in Engineering, between 2 of the 3 of Mayweather, Trip, and Reed. – Anthony X Aug 07 '14 at 01:38
  • @zyboxinternational In warp drive (and the related real speculative physics concept the Alcubierre drive) a bubble of normal space exists within a region of space that is being warped. Once an object is within such a bubble normal (low relative velocity) physics applies; so a laser would behave normally until it reached the inside edge of the bubble – user20310 Aug 07 '14 at 14:32
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    @zyboxinternational "actual Physics studies are suggesting that the speed of light is actually a lot faster than we currently think" what studies? I was not aware of any recent (non microscopic) adjustments to the speed of light – user20310 Aug 07 '14 at 14:33
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    @cybermonkey: Ehm, warp drive doesn't let you "break the speed of light" any more than choosing to drive on a motorway rather than adjacent country roads allows you to break the speed limit on those country roads. The Enterprise is not locally breaking the speed of light at any time (which would be completely impossible; that is the entire point of warp drive -- it takes you out of that locality to allow you to go reach your destination faster) and neither would be any laser you fired from it. – Lightness Races in Orbit Jan 21 '15 at 17:23
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit That was established shortly after this question was asked. – AStopher Jan 21 '15 at 20:22
  • @cyber Figured I'd take a crack at summarising it clearly. – Lightness Races in Orbit Jan 21 '15 at 20:50
  • @AStopher Your confusion in an early part of this thread (many years ago, admittedly) seems to be based on the previous commenter's statement that the navigation deflector is a laser. It isn't. – T.J.L. Oct 16 '19 at 18:21
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There are two pivotal technologies at play. One is the deflector shield, which as you will find well documented in this answer umm... deflects... any potential hazards away. Of course, what isn't very well documented is what the limits are. For example, you would expect this to be used as a military device if it were stronger. So how big of an object can you move with this?

But the deflector shield is really only useful at sub-light speeds. Full impulse is only 1/4 the speed of light. The original Enterprise was able to sustain about 1/2 the speed of light with its impulse engines but nothing approaching the speed of light for obvious reasons.

This is important because the deflector dish must emit its influnce at a speed less than the speed of light. If you are travelling faster than the speed of light, you might expect to be going faster than your deflector dish. This would be bad as you at best merely outrun your deflector dish or at worst it deflects your ship away from itself. All of these scenarios are bad.

Luckily, when it comes to faster than light travel, you don't need to worry about that because you're not travelling through space. With a warp drive, the space around you is itself travelling through space. As you ride along this distortion wave, I can't say for sure what would happen if an object happened to get bumped by your warp field, or if your warp field even exists in dimensions that matter would be able to interact with it. But if all we care about is what happens to our ship, then we don't need to worry because nothing is happening to our ship. As long as it stays within its warp bubble, it will be fine. As you can see here, the warp field appears similar in configuration to the field created by the deflector. However, since it is doing the travelling and we, relative to it, aren't moving at all, the dangers outlined above by the deflector dish are mitigated.

enter image description here

corsiKa
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    Within Star Trek, it is possible to go faster than light without going backwards in time. There are beams that go faster than light. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I think you need to better address why the deflector must be sublight. The part about the warp field itself serving as a sort of deflector is useful, though. – trlkly Aug 07 '14 at 05:33
  • I think this answer deviates a bit into more recent real-world theories rather than the theories that were actually employed in the fictional universe. – Ellesedil Aug 07 '14 at 14:18
  • @trlkly: Which beams are those? And don't say subspace transmissions, because there's a reason "subspace" is in their name... – Lightness Races in Orbit Jan 21 '15 at 17:23
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit Tachyon beams, for one. A tachyon is a particle that moves faster than light, by definition. We also see them using scanning devices that get information faster than light speed, giving them information even while in warp from well outside the warp bubble. We've also seen them detect things in real time that would have a bit of delay at the distances given. And we have proof in the episode with the Picard Meaneuver where they were able to analyze gasses in real time. If they were using light speed sensors, they would have been just as useless as visual sensors. – trlkly Jan 22 '15 at 05:07
  • @trlkly: Okay granted – Lightness Races in Orbit Jan 22 '15 at 10:15
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The deflector arrays do as they sound, deflect, they were made for travel to deflect particles away from the ship as something microscopic hitting the enterprise at warp would blow the ship up. They are to my understanding similar to the shields just less intensive. I believe the ship itself makes minute corrections in navigation to avoid anything of substantial size.

Himarm
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a ship traveling in a warp bubble is stationary, so I've read. so there would be no momentum and no equal and opposite reaction to surrounding matter so hell if I can tell you what that implies...

extreme pressure on the forward side as occupying matter gets in the way and extreme vacuum to the rear as the space you just occupied is left empty, right? these forces would try to squeeze you out the rear of your bubble like a Tijuana street taco.

But what do I know..

Marc McCall
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    Welcome to SFF! Perhaps you could improve your answer by adding some citations. Also, there would be no "pressure" in front of the ship or "extreme vacuum" behind the ship, per se, because space itself is a vacuum (for the most part). –  Apr 29 '15 at 22:10
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Because space is so damn big that hitting anything is next to improbable. The distances between stars, planets, and asteroids is massive when looking at cosmic scales. It's the same reason why you can zoom around in Space Engine at light speed and not hit anything.

Beep Bop
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