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Now I finally understand why, in Star Trek TOS, they only visited planets with "lifeforms less advanced than humans" (or with no human-like lifeforms). Bugger t
by jaza 11y ago
Now I finally understand why, in Star Trek TOS, they only visited planets with "lifeforms less advanced than humans" (or with no human-like lifeforms). Bugger the Prime Directive, and the mission to "explore strange new worlds". Doing otherwise was just too dangerous!
Can you imagine the perils of trying to keep a 300m-long starship in orbit, without hitting all the bits of rubbish? Sulu would have been doing slaloms for half of every episode. (Although they could probably spring-clean a planet of orbital debris within a few hours, too, just vacuum it all up with a tractor beam).
As Spock so eloquently put it in ST4: "Judging by the pollution content of the atmosphere, I believe we have arrived at the latter half of the 20th Century."
- 001spartan 11y agoOn the other hand, in order to maintain the orbit, that space junk is going to be traveling at close to the same speed, if it's at the right altitude to hit you.
- nitrogen 11y agoSame speed, yes, but could be any direction (so collisions could be up to 2x speed for circular orbits, more for intersecting arbitrary orbits).
- 001spartan 11y agoThat's a good point. I was thinking about it from the perspective of Earth-launched debris, which would usually be traveling somewhat the same direction, as it's the cheapest orbit in terms of energy expenditure.
- jessriedel 11y agoNot really, since lots of satellites have technical requirements for polar orbits or are otherwise not following the least-energy, eastward orbits. Even if two satellites are traveling within 5 degrees of the same direction, their relative speed is still over 1,000 mph. (LEO speeds are over 15,000 mph.)
- 001spartan 11y agoI stand corrected!
- andrewflnr 11y agoTheir shields would probably handle it.
- jerf 11y ago<nerd>Canonically, the deflector dish is on the front of the spacecraft so that at warp speeds it can deflect space dust out of its way.</nerd> If modern-day humans are able to predict its orbit, the Enterprise... any of them... can handle it. As befits a science fiction ship.
- jsmthrowaway 11y agoI believe that was addressed in canon, the Vulcan scene in ST2009 notwithstanding. However, in Into Darkness, I recall an aside that the Enterprise would incinerate on reentry unless shields were restored, indicating utility beyond weaponry (that they did not, even though the pivotal moment was long after they were in blue sky, was a bit confusing).
- andrewflnr 11y agoYou and jerf both have me hopelessly outnerded. I bow to your superior knowledge.
- LMAlVvQjSGj 11y agoIn S01E01 of TOS, didn't they visit a planet with extremely humanoids?
- rplnt 11y agoIt's not as bad as those dots with radius in tens of kilometers would make you think.
- wlievens 11y agoThat rubbish is tiny and space is very, very big.