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In DS9’s “The Ship”, the jem’hadar ship impacts into the loose but rocky terrain at speeds greater than terminal velocity (the ship exited warp and went into the planets atmosphere moments later. The crew was dead before leaving warp speeds due to inertial damper failure which translates into no one controlling the brakes - so how fast was the ship traveling? Pretty damned fast as it is shown leaving an atmospheric re-entry burn trail behind it before crashing). While I have some issues with the tiny impact (planetary) area and the ship sort of ‘soft landing’ in the soil. There’s the other aspect I cannot over look and that’s the structural integrity of the ship! It hit hard, into a rocky surface that it couldn’t go far enough into the ground to become completely buried. Yet it’s relatively intact and almost still fly-able! Whatever these things are made of or whatever SIF they’re using, Starfleet needs to switch to it ASAP.

Trek ships have varied significantly in how much they resist impacts, but they do seem to be awfully strong in general. Like you say, advanced materials - duranium or tritanium - plus SIF, plus inertial dampers, all mean that you could probably drive into a cliff face at hundreds of miles an hour and hardly notice.

Graham Kennedy wrote:Trek ships have varied significantly in how much they resist impacts, but they do seem to be awfully strong in general. Like you say, advanced materials - duranium or tritanium - plus SIF, plus inertial dampers, all mean that you could probably drive into a cliff face at hundreds of miles an hour and hardly notice.

think about the enterprise D during generations...

Or Voyager too. Though she hit some rock outcropping and her nacelle was destroyed. But for the most part the ship was intact.

bladela wrote:

Graham Kennedy wrote:Trek ships have varied significantly in how much they resist impacts, but they do seem to be awfully strong in general. Like you say, advanced materials - duranium or tritanium - plus SIF, plus inertial dampers, all mean that you could probably drive into a cliff face at hundreds of miles an hour and hardly notice.

think about the enterprise D during generations...

Yes, although the saucers was said not to be salvageable, there really didn't seem to be a whole lot of damage. Considering it was smashing through huge rock outcrops and literally thousands of trees, it stood up remarkably well.

Graham Kennedy wrote: Yes, although the saucers was said not to be salvageable, there really didn't seem to be a whole lot of damage. Considering it was smashing through huge rock outcrops and literally thousands of trees, it stood up remarkably well.

I imagine they considered it not recoverable for purely "economic" reasons.


To recover it you would still have had to pair it with a new engine section ... at this point, perhaps it would be almost convenient to rebuild it from scratch.

I also wonder how the underside fared. It scraped along the whole way on the ground. Can easily imagine the bottom few decks of the saucer were ripped up and we just couldn't see it.

Graham Kennedy wrote:I also wonder how the underside fared. It scraped along the whole way on the ground. Can easily imagine the bottom few decks of the saucer were ripped up and we just couldn't see it.

this makes it likely a further evacuation of the lower decks during the fall from the orbit, not directly visible on screen


otherwise it is unlikely anyone on that decks could survive

Yeah the saucer really didn't show alot of damage. But Id imagine the saucer is easily a million tons or more. I wonder if the SIF was working during that time.

But yeah I would imagine that whole underside of the saucer is smashed and ripped apart.

And in ST: Beyond, the Franklin, taking off, hit a shitload of rocky outcroppings without any visible damage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtJeBRMSymk

McAvoy wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 1:58 am Or Voyager too. Though she hit some rock outcropping and her nacelle was destroyed. But for the most part the ship was intact.

Referring to the episode, “frozen”?
If so, remember that the nacell was severely damaged and the ship hit the ice hard enough to flatten several decks. However, I believe this was due to the damages the ship had sustained by prematurely and violently exiting the slipstream. From the reports Tuvok was giving, they were lucky enough to even point the ship towards the planet, let alone pull her out of the steep dive she was in prior to impact. If she hadn’t been as damaged, I doubt she would’ve been as messed up as she was when Chakotay and harry located her.

McAvoy wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:45 am Yeah the saucer really didn't show alot of damage. But Id imagine the saucer is easily a million tons or more. I wonder if the SIF was working during that time.

But yeah I would imagine that whole underside of the saucer is smashed and ripped apart.

So is it just me or does anyone visualize a rock skipping on the water, when the saucer section is crashing down? ^-^

00111010 01000100 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 11, 2020 5:23 am

McAvoy wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 1:58 am Or Voyager too. Though she hit some rock outcropping and her nacelle was destroyed. But for the most part the ship was intact.

Referring to the episode, “frozen”?
If so, remember that the nacell was severely damaged and the ship hit the ice hard enough to flatten several decks. However, I believe this was due to the damages the ship had sustained by prematurely and violently exiting the slipstream. From the reports Tuvok was giving, they were lucky enough to even point the ship towards the planet, let alone pull her out of the steep dive she was in prior to impact. If she hadn’t been as damaged, I doubt she would’ve been as messed up as she was when Chakotay and harry located her.

It's the 100th episode but I don't think it was called frozen.

The ships bottom didn't flatten out though in the scene where it was sledding across the surface of the planet. No doubt that most likely the bottom probably suffered severe structural failure and over time the ship's weight caused the bottom to fail as well.

bladela wrote: ↑Fri Oct 04, 2019 12:53 pm

Graham Kennedy wrote:I also wonder how the underside fared. It scraped along the whole way on the ground. Can easily imagine the bottom few decks of the saucer were ripped up and we just couldn't see it.

this makes it likely a further evacuation of the lower decks during the fall from the orbit, not directly visible on screen


otherwise it is unlikely anyone on that decks could survive

If I were doing a saucer landing, I'd want everyone in the top deck or two of the saucer.

Graham Kennedy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 12, 2020 2:23 am

bladela wrote: ↑Fri Oct 04, 2019 12:53 pm

Graham Kennedy wrote:I also wonder how the underside fared. It scraped along the whole way on the ground. Can easily imagine the bottom few decks of the saucer were ripped up and we just couldn't see it.

this makes it likely a further evacuation of the lower decks during the fall from the orbit, not directly visible on screen


otherwise it is unlikely anyone on that decks could survive

If I were doing a saucer landing, I'd want everyone in the top deck or two of the saucer.

Definitely. Though onscreen we didn't really see that. We saw evac when the secondary hull was about to explode but they certainly didn't expect to have the saucer lose control and crash on the planet.

Unless they did because it's a 'just in case' protocol when near a planet.

It's possible the saucer was built and designed to land that way in Generations and protocols made sure to shore up the underside of the saucer with SIF or something.