Kobiyashi Maru test - what would you do?

[Lt. Staplic]

no, at impulse it would have less mass than on thrusters...I don't think that at warp the ship even could impact the other ship...the nature of the warp drive would be to bend the space, and therefore the ship, around it.

[Tyyr]

I guess I didn't bring it up in this thread but during XI it clearly states during the test that Starfleet Command orders the ship into the neutral zone after the Kobiyashi Maru. So just ignoring the ship's distress signal isn't an option.

[Mikey]

no, at impulse it would have less mass than on thrusters...I don't think that at warp the ship even could impact the other ship...the nature of the warp drive would be to bend the space, and therefore the ship, around it.

Even with the space-bending effect, there are obviously measures in place in 21st - 24th century navigation technology to counteract this. Otherwise, how would they ever be able to plot a course to anywhere? Or, for a more analgous situation, how would the Picard maneuver have worked if short range courses were unable to be effected at warp?

[Tyyr]

Actually there would be no need for conventional navigation if material at warp couldn't effect objects in normal space. You'd just point the ship at the destination and go, frak whatever might be between you and it. There also wouldn't be any need for a navigational deflector at warp.

[Mikey]

Yet they seem to use both navigation and the deflector. Ergo, there must be some sort of interaction between objects at warp and the normal, non-subspace reality.

[Lt. Staplic]

conceeded

[Mark]

Well, collisions at warp MUST be possible

Best of Both Worlds part two

Riker: Mr. Crusher plot a collision course.....you heard me, a collision course. (To Geordi) LaForge, we're going to need maximum warp (or something like that)

Of coure, if while a ship is in warp its warping space with subspace, I don't see HOW they could have collided.

[Lt. Staplic]

after thinking about it I understand how it's possible......

think about a model on a sheet, the model representing the ship, the sheet space-time. now warp works by "pulling" the space in front of the ship, wrinkling it up, while it is pushed away from the back of the ship, stretching it out, however, the space around the ship is "normal" which allows relativity not to be broken because in it's own frame of reference the ship isn't moving. Now if another model is on the sheet, say in front of our original model, then as the warp drive works, the space time around the new ship will be warped, along with the ship itself until the ship enteres the same warp bubble where the collission would happen just like in regular space, just at a really big speed....the trick would be to calculate the speed of impact I think

[Griffin]

soooo, can i ram the klingons or not.

edit - 10 posts woooo!

[Mark]

We all agree not at impulse I think. Damage would be SERIOUSLY reduced. But then, could the Klingons shoot you down BEFORE you ram them? I'd guess most likely.

[Lt. Staplic]

you would be able to ram them using any engine I'd imagine... with thrusters you'd have your full mass, but little velocity...impulse you'd lower your mass but have a much higher velocity (favorable over thrusters since the velocity is squared)...at warp you'd have your mass with a tremendous velocity (cause a really big boom)

[thelordharry]

I'd send over an officer who's been surgically altered to look like Kahless the Unforgettable to confuse them all and nip in and save the ship.

[sunnyside]

My impression of warp fields are that they are fragile. it seems when anything happens to a ship at warp it invariably drops out of warp.

Also, when a ship drops out of warp it seems to be standing still. A bit hard to tell in space, but that's my impression. And I think the treknobable is that the ship is "stationary" while at warp, hence no time dialation, but space is moving around it.

In short, I think if you attempt to ram something at warp what happens is that your warp bubble will "pop" damaging your ship and leaving you adjacent to your opponent with little velocity.

[Sionnach Glic]

I doubt ramming at warp would be all that viable a tactic due to the whole mass-ligthening thing. The fact that no one has ever attempted it would seem to lend credence to such a conclusion.

Ramming at impulse seems to be an alright tactic, though. We've seen it done a few times, with some pretty impressive results.

[Mikey]

Well, the mass-lightening effect functions at impulse, but I've never heard of it being used at warp. However, I agree with Sunny that attempting to ram at warp could easily cause the attacking ship to drop out of warp short of the target, leaving it more as a vulnerable target than as a desperate threat.