Can Star Trek really work ?

[Ghostrider]

Well then when in combat they should have it dialed all the way up, so that near misses still blast the target into next year. Of course the real reason it's not so powerful is because the writers needed the drama of starships taking less-then-fatal damage, similar to naval vessels hitting each other with cannonballs.

That's the last problem with space combat in ST. They're always engaging well in visual range while their weapons should be BVR, but BVR engagements are a different kind of drama. Besides, just exploding stuff in space (especially against shielded vessels) isn't too effective. With all parties fielding shielding technology, they should have developed some anti-shield weaponry.

 

[Unstung]

"Warp" speed (speed of light?) would cause anything to become flat, right?

 

[Andy44]

That's the last problem with space combat in ST. They're always engaging well in visual range while their weapons should be BVR, but BVR engagements are a different kind of drama. Besides, just exploding stuff in space (especially against shielded vessels) isn't too effective. With all parties fielding shielding technology, they should have developed some anti-shield weaponry.

In one episode, the Enterprise travels through time back to the 1960s, and winds up flying through the upper atmosphere under impulse power over the United States prior to climbing up into orbit.

The USAF scrambles an F-104 Starfighter to intercept this odd radar target. Spock identifies the aircraft type and states that it may be armed with nuclear warhead-tipped air-to-air missiles, and that if the Enterprise is hit by one, it "could cause considerable damage".

I always found it ironic that a 23rd Century starship with antimatter missiles was about to be blasted from the sky by Kelly Johnson's 1950s fighter jet. (BTW, air-to-air missiles with nuclear warheads were in the operational inventory in those days.)

 

[Urwumpe]

Like I said before - how Star Trek imagines the future is already now technologically useless. It is all just a plot device. For a missing plot in the later seasons, but still.

If we would have space combat, it would not look at all like in Star Trek. If we would have FTL travel, it is very unlikely it will happen like in Star Trek. That does not make Star Trek better or worse, but fans should remember: It was not written by superhumans and not even written by engineers. The scientific advisers had little impact on the show.

What is left, is fiction. Which is pretty entertaining and a good start into the real physics.

But Star Trek did not invent the warp drive. They just created the name for a whole set of different fictional propulsion technologies. Inventing would mean, to be able to build it in real world and solve the technological challenges. Star Trek never needed that.

Of course, Star Trek is still great. An a good inspiration. I have a small project on my HD, which tries to combine the ships from the Star Trek inspired Starfleet Museum page with the concepts from Universal Combat. OK, it is a slow project and not high on my fanciness scale, also it is currently based on PDCurses for just testing the effects.

http://starfleet-museum.org/index.htm