Starship Enterprise (TNG version) - landable on Earth?

[wossname]

I remember seeing either a Star Trek episode or movie where the TNG version of the Enterprise landed on a planet under emergency conditions.

Given the huge saucer section and the flat belly on the rear portion (plus the warp nacelles) might provide a decent amount of lift, would the weight/lift/drag/thrust distributions make it remotely feasible to land this craft on a planet similar to Earth?

I'm just interested in the throught experiment this might lead to. My mind seems to entertain the notion that aero forces would permit some sort of emergency landing / crash landing without wiping out the entire crew (ignoring the "red-shirts" of course).

Is it assumable that impulse power is NOT enough to levitate the enterprise? I'm not sure if that was a pre-requisite of the design of the wessel.

Edited October 17, 2015 by wossname

[Tex_NL]

The USS Enterprise, NCC-1701 D never landed on any planet. Maybe it did in a fan made flic but not in any official episode or movie. However in the saucer section was designed to crash land in an emergency as it did in StarTrek 7, Generations.

USS Voyager, NCC-74656 is a lot smaller and can land.

Edited October 17, 2015 by Tex_NL

[vger]

Are you talking about this scene? It was in the movie, "Generations," not the TNG television series. And it was ONLY the saucer section that landed after jettisoning everything else. The ship wasn't recoverable after this.

Would it be possible? The shape of the saucer doesn't look sufficient enough to generate lift, but then, neither was the space shuttle, really. A more apt description comes from Toy Story. "That's not flying, it's falling with style." A lot of this also depends on the density of the atmosphere.

Edited October 17, 2015 by vger

[Sampa]

*sarcastically* oh no, i think that can fly again. It just has a few,dents.

[rtxoff]

Everything flies given a certain speed, even a brick.

[Tex_NL]

Aerodynamics are COMPLETELY irrelevant in StarTrek. The majority of crew shuttles aren't even remotely aerodynamic, still they fly.

[Randazzo]

"Flight" in Star Trek is based on two important principles.

1. Thrust
   
2. Fiction
   

[Nibb31]

"Flight" in Star Trek is based on two important principles.

1. Thrust
   
2. Fiction
   

Even thrust in Star Trek is wrong. It's based on Magic. It might as well be Lord of the Rings in space.

Why is this in the Science Labs ?

[Dark Junior]

Well, it has no landing legs, sooo...

How could it land?

[wossname]

"Flight" in Star Trek is based on two important principles.

1. Thrust
   
2. Fiction
   

That gave me a big laugh, thanks

[G'th]

Presumably given some time and some extraordinarily careful piloting you could probably land the Enterprise-D. However, in order to do it without completely wrecking the ship you'd have to design something for it to land on that will be able to support the weight and not damage the ship at the same time.

The real issue is why you would want to land it outside of an emergency. I could probably see it being something along the lines of how the Shuttles went (IE, museum pieces) but given the vast and super easy access to space that the people in the Trek universe have, it'd still be a better idea to have it as an orbiting museum. (Which I believe actually is a thing for the older ships in the Trek-verse)

[wossname]

Well, it has no landing legs, sooo...

How could it land?

Intrepid class ships did apparently have landing struts, according to the interwebs. No idea what class the TNG Enterprise was though. And I'm frankly too lazy to look it up.

[Scotius]

Intrepid class ships did apparently have landing struts, according to the interwebs. No idea what class the TNG Enterprise was though. And I'm frankly too lazy to look it up.

It was "Galaxy" class. And seriously - Starfleed ships have access to ludicrous amounts of juice. I reckon that if you have ship capable of going FTL at the snap of the fingers, can generate forcefields all day long and fire mountain-smashing energy blasts, you can do pretty much anything you want.

[vger]

The real issue is why you would want to land it outside of an emergency. I could probably see it being something along the lines of how the Shuttles went (IE' date=' museum pieces) but given the vast and super easy access to space that the people in the Trek universe have, it'd still be a better idea to have it as an orbiting museum. (Which I believe actually is a thing for the older ships in the Trek-verse)[/quote']

Admittedly it's a pretty silly question anyhow. It's like asking if an aircraft carrier can land on the beach. Yeah, technically it can, but why would you want to. You've got transporters and shuttles to ferry people and supplies around. Why waste energy and risk destruction by landing something that massive?

[Sampa]

Intrepid class ships did apparently have landing struts, according to the interwebs. No idea what class the TNG Enterprise was though. And I'm frankly too lazy to look it up.

Galaxy class

[Xannari Ferrows]

Galaxy class

Isn't it Sovereign class?

EDIT: Nope, nope it's not. I am thinking of E.

[Sampa]

Isn't it Sovereign class?

EDIT: Nope, nope it's not. I am thinking of E.

Yeah..i would know, my ship in sto, uss hornet, was a sovereign class. Its predecessor was a galaxy class

[Vaporo]

Is it assumable that impulse power is NOT enough to levitate the enterprise?

If I remember correctly, there's some sort of regulation in the Star Trek universe limiting the speed achieved by impulse power to 1/4 the speed of light. Any engine able to accelerate a ship to that kind of speed in any reasonable amount of time would have no problem lifting off the surface of a planet (or a star, for that matter).

Edited October 17, 2015 by Vaporo

[SargeRho]

Impulse engines are fusion thrusters, might that not impact their performance in atmosphere? Intrepid class ships can land on planets (shown at least once in Voyager), though the that Enterprise is a Galaxy class, which is a lot bigger.

[Xannari Ferrows]

I think they use some sort of conventionally designed form of thrusters for takeoff and landing. Impulse engines are maintained by Deuterium Fusion.

[Shpaget]

Voyager (known to be the prettiest ship in all the Universe and everywhere else) uses antigravity generators and impulse lifters for atmospheric operation and planetary landings, according to Memory Alpha.

Vaporo, you are onto something.

From http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Impulse_drive

The 'Star Trek Voyager Technical Manual' page 13 has full impulse listed as ¼ of the speed of light which is 167,000,000 mph or 74,770 km/s.

However, anything that can repeatedly and effortlessly accelerate itself to 1/4 c and stop is a monster that should have no problems generating enough energy to land on any planet.

[Tex_NL]

Sure. We can all agree a ship that can do 1/4c with ease has more than enough power. The inertial dampers all Federation ships are equipped with stop the ship from being ripped apart during acceleration and deceleration. But does it have the structural integrity to survive the atmosphere? And won't the saucer simply snap off after it has touched down? That big dish must weigh megatons.

Edited October 17, 2015 by Tex_NL

[problemecium]

I don't remember TNG too well, but I do recall this:

- In one episode, they detached the "saucer section" and attempted an emergency crash-landing. The crew survived, but I don't think the ship did.

- In the remakes (yes I know it's not TNG, but still), impulse drive was enough to lift the ship vertically.

[vger]

However, anything that can repeatedly and effortlessly accelerate itself to 1/4 c and stop is a monster that should have no problems generating enough energy to land on any planet.

That all depends. You could do that with ion drives, but you wouldn't want to use it to land.

Max speed and max power are entirely different things. A street racer is as fast as all heck, but you couldn't use it as a towing vehicle and expect good results.

Edited October 17, 2015 by vger

[Shpaget]

That's why I put the "effortlessly" in there.

I don't remember ever noticing Star Trek ships undergoing a process of acceleration (expect in Voyager when they try that warp 10 thing). They accelerate instantaneously, or as good as.