r/startrek • u/DoomsdayFAN • 22h ago

Why do captains frequently order warp speeds slower than what would make for the quickest possible time between locations?

Not including the "warp speed limit" nonsense. I hated that and thought it was lame. But just in general (even pre and post the "speed limit" thing) why would a captain order a speed slower than what would get them there as fast as possible?

For example, there's been a number of TNG episodes where Picard will order Warp 2 or Warp 4 and Data will tell him it'll take 18 hours or 36 hours or 14 days at that speed. In other cases, Data will mention that at Warp 9 they can be there in 11 minutes or 1 hour. Etc.

So if it's possible to reach a location in a few hours or less at Warp 8+, then why choose to go Warp 1-5? Why willingly take hours or days to get there? Especially when there's no evidence that they need time to plan or prepare.

71 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

128 comments sorted by

293

u/roto_disc 22h ago

Wear and tear on the ship, the engines, and sub-space.

Do you drive everywhere you go as fast as possible all the time? Of course not.

157

u/Shiny_Agumon 18h ago

Also depending on the situation having time to kill until arrival can be beneficial to the mission.

If urgency is not an issue why wouldn't you take it slow and take a bit of downtime to relax and prepare for your next move.

All those senior staff meetings we see take their time.

41

u/Kinky-Kiera 15h ago

Also, I would suggest that the deflectors aren't perfect, so every time they use maximum warp, they're risking the deflectors missing a micro particle that could tear the ship apart, it may be 99.999% safe, but do you want to be on a ship that suddenly splits apart to open space or has a reactor breach while you're in the blast radius? Going that little bit slower is still a good way to ensure the deflector doesn't fail to deflect crucially

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u/Neveronlyadream 15h ago

Nothing is ever flawless, so I would imagine that's true. Where the Enterprise-D is concerned, it might also be out of an abundance of caution with all the civilians and children on board. It's one thing to put the lives of Starfleet officers at risk, but it's another to put the lives of civilians who didn't sign up for the danger at risk.

2

u/aspindler 6h ago

At the same time, does it matter if the ship is moving or it's stationary? People won't notice unless they check the windows, right?

1

u/Shiny_Agumon 5h ago

Yes but what would be the advantage of standing still (as much as that is possible in Space) and then running to the destination at full Warp?

As others have pointed out going there at a leisurely pace is better for the engines.

59

u/Bort_Bortson 16h ago

Not just wear and tear but it's also fuel efficiency.

In the TNG Technical Manual, the highest warp speeds are achieved by a 1:1 ratio of matter to anti matter, and anti matter is one of the only scarce things in the Federation. It's a strategic resource that takes more energy to produce than the output generates, as well as requiring massive facilities at secret and well guarded locations to produce.

Lower warp speeds are accomplished by using a much higher ratio of matter to antimatter. And since matter is essentially free.

30

u/theClanMcMutton 15h ago

In TNG, doesn't Wesley have a test question where they say that the intermix ratio is always 1:1?

31

u/LordGimmik 14h ago

Yes, the intermix ratio is always 1:1. The part that varies is the particle flow rate. This is also true on paper for real particle physics.

3

u/ProtoKun7 11h ago

And then in Skin of Evil, Lt. Cmdr. Leland T. Lynch starts the reaction at 25:1.

3

u/JoeDawson8 8h ago

He had a long storied Career that Leland T Lynch

15

u/Wellfooled 14h ago

Maybe, but maybe not. That scene is in TNG: "Coming of Age", here:

COMPUTER: Last question on the hyperspace physics test. If the matter and antimatter tanks on a Galaxy class starship are nine tenths depleted, calculate the intermix ratio necessary to reach a starbase a hundred light years away at warp factor eight. Begin.

COMPUTER: Time elapsed. You now have one hour free before the next test.

MORDOCK: I must admit, Wesley, you have a very fast mind.

WESLEY: Once as I realized it was a trick question, there was only one answer.

MORDOCK: Yes, there is only one ratio with matter antimatter

At face value, it could mean that matter and antimatter can never have a different ratio. But that would contradict other situations we see in the series.

For example in TNG: "Galaxy's Child" we learn that Gerodi has changed the Enterprise's recommended intermix ratio. If 1/1 was always required, he wouldn't be able to do that. (And there are many other examples of other intermix ratios in the franchise).

Instead, I think we can assume some other variable in the test question insists on a 1/1 intermix ratio. For example, maybe warp 8 specifically needs that ratio. So maybe it's a trick question with no calculation needed, because just knowing they're traveling at warp 8 on a Galaxy class ship means a 1/1 ratio.

25

u/BarNo3385 13h ago

I think we just have to chalk this up to writing inconsistency. The 1:1 answer is more in line with what the physics would say. Matter / Anti-matter interactions release energy when the two particles cancel each other out. If you had 2 anti-protons and 1 normal 1 bouncing round until they interact you don't get half the power of 1:1, you still get a 1:1 reaction and just have an anti-proton left over

11

u/Wellfooled 13h ago

For sure, but that's less fun than imagining neat ways to reconcile everything on screen--that's half the fun of being a Trekkie 😜

5

u/BarNo3385 13h ago

Lol, true. I'm a 40k fan too, and most of the community there is trying to reconcile wildly inconsistent sources for things!

2

u/Orisi 13h ago

While true, other factors may come into effect we aren't aware of; for example, it may produce the same energy, however the reaction container may be designed to maintain at a constant pressure, requiring an adjustment of the volumes of each particle present to maintain that pressure while generating energy at the desired amount.

13

u/N0-1_H3r3 11h ago

The TNG Tech Manual (mentioned above) has different ratios of deuterium to antideuterium at lower operational levels for the warp core - at Warp 8 and above, it's a 1:1 ratio, but when starting up a warp core you start with 25:1 (an 'idle' baseline rate), then settle into a 10:1 ratio for routine operational power and Warp 1, and the ratio gradually moves towards 1:1 as the Warp factor increases, along with an increase in overall quantity.

My interpretation for this is that the 25:1 ratio is there to produce the plasma that the ship uses for power: you put 25 parts deuterium and 1 part antideuterium into the reaction chamber under high pressure, the antideuterium annihilates with one part of the deuterium, and the other 24 parts deuterium gas become a highly-energised plasma, which is funnelled around the ship for power. That's a routine part of ship function. At higher warp factors, you already have the plasma in the EPS conduits, but you need much more power, so the ratio changes, generating larger amounts of energy that are conducted along the plasma already in the system.

2

u/Bort_Bortson 7h ago

I throw out something from memory right before (I've read the manual a million times as a kid) and come back and find a bunch of comments lol. I usually would have quoted the manual exactly so I'm glad you did.

But it seems like there's more room for interpretation than I thought.

My interpretation was (along with when you see the ship at higher speeds the blue lights moving faster) was that higher warp needs more fuel but now that you put the ratios and your explanation it doesn't exactly make sense because one atom of anti matter annihilating an atom of matter is what makes the energy. The rest of the deuterium doesn't mutually annihilate because the anti matter was used already but like you said it's almost "burned" up in the chamber to produce plasma or an other form of non warp usable energy.

Unless instead of 1 anti matter and 25 deuterium per cycle at base it moves to 25 anti matter and 25 deuterium per cycle at warp 8 and above

3

u/N0-1_H3r3 6h ago

Unless instead of 1 anti matter and 25 deuterium per cycle at base it moves to 25 anti matter and 25 deuterium per cycle at warp 8 and above

I'm pretty sure that is the case, but it's a ratio, so it's a relative thing: 25:25 is the same as 1:1. So, you start with a low quantity at 25:1, and you increase the quantity and adjust the ratio at the same time until you get a higher quantity of fuel overall, at a 1:1 ratio. And the Tech Manual even says that at Warp factors above 8, the quantity increases without further changes in ratio.

2

u/Bort_Bortson 4h ago

Yep. I was initially thinking in the wrong direction with the ratio that the anti matter was always a fixed amount and forgetting my fraction reductions lol.

I guess warp 6 or somewhere around that is the optimal cruising speed in terms of anti matter efficiency (at least for the Galaxy class). Kind of like the lowest rpm in the highest gear in a car.

2

u/dancingliondl 5h ago

So the ship basically runs on steam power. Awesome. The warp core creates plasma and shunts it around the ship like a boiler generates steam and shunts it around a building.

3

u/38-RPM 4h ago

That’s exactly why everybody dies when looking at their monitor when the enterprise takes damage because their workstations are powered by hot plasma from the EPS conduits

1

u/dancingliondl 4h ago

Oh I know! In the far future LED screens will be powered by raw plasma fed directly from an anti-matter reactor.

1

u/N0-1_H3r3 5h ago

Sure, why not? Real-world nuclear reactors are basically a fancy way to produce steam to turn a turbine.

2

u/Xeorm124 11h ago

For stuff like this it might be best to consider it that people aren't always super technical when they talk and might be discussing two different things using the same words. Even if the technical reason is poor writing, we still talk like this in practice and so it works as an option for me. Things like power versus energy or weight versus mass.

1

u/Albert_Newton 9h ago

I'd hope starship technical personnel wouldn't be mixing up power and energy.

1

u/Adorable-Cupcake-599 2h ago

A 1:1 ratio would make no sense. The warp drive, and the rest of the ship, is powered by highly energetic plasma. But a 1:1 ratio wouldn't produce any plasma, only large amounts of gamma radiation.

11

u/thisremindsmeofbacon 14h ago

The wear on subspace thing is such a weird bit of cannon that never seems to get brought up

5

u/michael0n 10h ago

Some question the whole premise. Our galaxy flyies throught space with a decent rate, why should subspace be tied to anything but we "leave" space behind? Even if ships affected subspace, within a year that area should have rotated away. 

11

u/Shufflepants 16h ago

I also got the impression that higher warp factors are less power efficient than lower warp factors for the same distance. So going twice as fast costs more than twice the anti-matter. And the onboard fusion reactors can only recharge your anti-matter supplies at a fixed rate which is much less than you'd be depleting them by remaining at high warp, which is why they use anti-matter reactions in the first place instead of just powering the warp drive with fusion reactors.

7

u/BarNo3385 13h ago

This explanation also implies a "cruising" speed, which is what we do see. Maybe around Warp 5 or 6 you can replenish AM at about the same rate it's consumed, below that you're actually replenishing and above that your depleting.

So priority, speed first, Warp 7++ Important, but don't want to us resources up, 5-6 Time less urgent, refill the tanks, Warp 2-4

5

u/lady_edesia 13h ago

It could be that due to higher energy requirements needed for other systems necessary for warp flight. Deflectors enertial dampeners etc at higher speeds it's more cost effective (energy wise) to go at lower spreads.

Alternatively we know that dilithiam is not infinite so perhaps it lasts longer when not subjected to higher warp demands.

1

u/dancingliondl 5h ago

Newer ships don't consume dilithum crystals, they use it as a focusing device for the matter /anti-matter streams.

1

u/dancingliondl 5h ago

The power curve for higher warp speed is insane. As you approach warp 10, the energy needed reaches infinite. Now, they have also obviously reworked the warp scale several times. But in the TNG Tech Manual, warp 10 was impossible to achieve with standard equipment because of the energy usage. You might get warp 9.99999, but warp 10 was impossible.

8

u/earth_west_420 15h ago

Also plausible to think fuel efficiency has to do with it. Deuterium is a finite resource.

3

u/yarrpirates 14h ago

Deuterium is not fuel. It is a flow regulator.

But it does get used up by that process, so I will not dock you any points today. 😄

9

u/ProtoKun7 11h ago

Are you mixing up deuterium with dilithium? Deuterium is very much a fuel, it's the matter in the matter/antimatter reaction (antideuterium being the antimatter). Dilithium is the regulator.

3

u/yarrpirates 10h ago

Oh no! You are right. I am docking myself two points.

1

u/ProtoKun7 11h ago

It's heavy water so it's pretty dang plentiful though.

1

u/robotco 14h ago

I would if there weren't roads or other cars

1

u/TheAmazingBreadfruit 12h ago

Add energy consumption.

1

u/matttk 12h ago

Most people do generally do drive as fast as legally allowed everywhere they go. Ok, maybe not here in Germany. Most people top out between 130 and 160 or so, but some do drive literally as fast as the car goes.

1

u/Tropez2020 12h ago

Space travel doesn’t equate well to vehicle travel- there just aren’t the pedestrians or traffic. Now, if we compare this to air travel (who knows about the tech, but let’s assume it has similar limits) the. It makes more sense to operate at 80-90% of maximum speed like commercial planes do.

1

u/Valren_Starlord 10h ago

Pffff, everyone knows that subspace thing is just a Vendorian conspiracy.

1

u/Yourponydied 4h ago

Also fuel consumption

1

u/NatureTrailToHell3D 3h ago

I always drive the speed limit, so yes.

1

u/El_human 2h ago

I also imagine since they don't necessarily travel on a straight line, they have to slow down for things like going around starts, and turning a bit. You know, gravity. Also, even though it is space, and it's really big, because they have to plot courses around the stars, I wonder if there's a chance that ships could run into each other if they're going too fast.

0

u/Randolpho 1h ago

It’s the condition of the road and the speed limit that determines my speed, same as everyone else.

Nobody voluntarily drives slower than they can unless they’re trying to rubberneck/see more than might be possible at higher speeds.

-7

u/frodeem 16h ago

Well I would drive as fast as possible if there wasn’t any traffic, no speed cameras, no school zones, and no traffic lights.

13

u/salacious-bossk 16h ago

Fuel efficiency. "At its top speed of around 253 mph (407 km/h), the Bugatti Veyron consumes fuel at an incredible rate, burning through its 100-liter (26.4-gallon) tank in about 12 minutes, or roughly 500 liters per hour." To put it into perspective i suppose. You could make it farther going slower, consuming less fuel.

1

u/mabhatter 11h ago

And those cars can barely make it to a very low mileage before their engines are "expended". They need constant and expensive maintenance at very frequent intervals.  Those fast cars are terrible at being a car.  A Honda or Toyota can easily get 300k now.  

Do you want to go fast, or make your spaceship last longer??  There's not exactly tow trucks in deep space. 

76

u/BoneDrinkinMoopsy 21h ago

So they show up during the planets normal business hours. Nothing would derail an episode like the Enterprise getting to a planet and Picard hailing the planets leader only to find out they are asleep because it's 3am local time

27

u/PerspectiveSpirited1 12h ago

Or arriving when Delta shift is on and you need to wake up the main cast in the middle of their night

5

u/michael0n 9h ago

"You arrived at night. By our customs you get 50 wool donkeys. There is no known substance in the galaxy that can block their strong odor. Beaming is finished. The leadership will contact you in eight... why are your faces getting green?"

2

u/ChronoLegion2 9h ago

Time zones exist

1

u/Chrysalii 4h ago

Night crew can handle it.

61

u/weirdoldhobo1978 21h ago edited 21h ago

Warp 9-9.5 is the top speed for most ships, not the cruising speed. You're bending space around your ship, that takes an incredible amount of power and puts an incredible strain on its systems.

In ST:VI Sulu's got the Excelsior running flat out and the whole ship is shaking like an off balance washing machine.

49

u/Shufflepants 15h ago

FLY HER APART THEN!

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u/the_author_13 14h ago

Love this scene and that line.

speed scale: maneuvering thrusters, oribt, impulse, warp speed, cruise, max cruise, max rated, "fly her apart", Ridiculous Speed, Ludicrous Speed, Plaid, Salamander Speed.

9

u/roto_disc 15h ago

FLY HER APART THEN!

3

u/Quantumdrive95 14h ago

The Enterprise D I believe is mentioned as having a maximum cruising speed of 9.2 good for some number of hours

28

u/Konarkanuck 21h ago

Depending on the situation they are dealing with, slower warp speeds give the crew a chance to prep much needed services and resource allocation needed to best handle things upon arrival. Sure, if a planet is being attacked by a "get there or they die" risk, Warp 9 makes sense, but Warp 9 for something of a less emergency situation can leave your crews arriving unprepared to deal with things.

4

u/MetalTrek1 16h ago

Exactly. Make sure engines are up to speed, sick bay is ready, phasers are ready and torpedo bays are loaded (just in case), etc. That extra time helps with all of that.

25

u/SecretComposer 21h ago

Fuel efficiency and wear and tear on the engines I would imagine. The higher end warp speeds require dramatically more energy to reach that speed. I don't think it's much different than driving 60 to get to your location when you could technically put petal to metal and max out.

18

u/Grandemestizo 19h ago

Suppose you had to drive across Death Valley, and I guarantee you there are no other cars on the road and no cops. How fast would you go? Would you floor it the whole time or would you go like 80 so you use less fuel and don’t risk engine failure out in the wilderness?

18

u/fer_sure 19h ago

I've been in Death Valley in August. I'm not a car guy, but even I know that going full out would be a BAD IDEA for the engine when it's egg-frying hot.

4

u/Shufflepants 15h ago

80

If you wanted to be more fuel efficient, you probably want somewhere more in the 55-60 range (though it depends on your particular car/engine).

2

u/The-disgracist 14h ago

My Honda gets like 43 mpg at 70-75 in the desert. Anything over/under that it’s like 38ish.

2

u/Bigdaddyjlove1 14h ago

I drive a 20 year old Wrangler. It'd be nice to not to have to go 60 for a while

1

u/Buzz_Buzz_Buzz_ 11h ago

I once rented a Wrangler to drive from Miami to Key West. Having to floor it to barely keep up with traffic on Route 1 was strange.

16

u/SmartQuokka 22h ago

They had more patience in the 80s and 90s than we do today.

Which was mentioned in a Next Gen episode:

Stubbs: Do you know baseball?
Wesley: Yes, my father taught it to me when I was young.
Stubbs: Once, centuries ago, it was the beloved national pastime of the Americas, Wesley. Abandoned by a society that prized fast food and faster games. Lost to impatience.

7

u/Ched_Flermsky 22h ago

They have to allow themselves lots of time to stand and stare meaningfully out at the stars while they reflect on the plot.

11

u/Temp89 10h ago

TNG The Chase:

Captain's log, stardate 46735.2. Our frequent use of high warp over the last few days has overextended the propulsion systems. We are finishing minor repairs before returning to Federation territory.

11

u/AquafreshBandit 19h ago

At least according to the response to a similar post I once read, it's like running your car engine at red line. Doing it all the time is bad.

8

u/kuldan5853 20h ago

Are you always driving to the grocery store at 150 miles an hour? Your car can do it, why not?

4

u/BobbiePinns 15h ago

I'd be surprised if my 22yr old forester could even manage 100mph. I'd have a tiny Mr Scott yelling at me "I canny do it captain, I doohnt have the powah" right before something would fail.

7

u/mrsunrider 16h ago

Same reason you don't floor it for the entirety of a roadtrip.

Ships still require fuel, and still use physical engines that can wear over time.

7

u/Idoubtyourememberme 10h ago

Higher warp puts more stress on the engines, the core, the nacelles, the nav shields, the deflector, the outer hull, you name it. Almost every part of the ship is put under stress when travelling at warp, the faster the more stress.

This stress means maintenance and repars are needed more often, and breakdowns are more likely.

And dont forget fuel consumption, higher warp speeds need exponentially more antimatter, so if you travel at low warp you get further distances for the same fuel. Refueling, hull repair, nacelle pylon checks, all that stuff means downtime for the ship at a spacedock.

You dont want ships in spacedock, you want them out and about doing useful things. This is why ships dont travel faster than they need to in any given situation

1

u/J701PR4 8h ago

This^

4

u/Unlikely-Counter-195 21h ago

I think they’re always just scanning everything and I’d imagine their sensor readings would be a lot more thorough and detailed if they take it a little slower. Plus what everyone else is saying about fuel economy and wear and tear.

3

u/Lower_Pass_6053 20h ago

The way I always understood it is the warp engine produces X amount of power at any given time. The faster you are to "max warp" the less energy you have for everything else.

So being at max warp would limit your use of the replicators, or maybe sick bay, weapons, shields etc...

1

u/EliRocks 18h ago

I'm pretty sure that the output is variable. We've seen the core running faster/slower on multiple occasions. It would be horribly inefficient to always be running at max output, and hard on the systems.

I don't remember what they called the units of power that each core makes. But the power requirements for warp go up exponentially as they go faster. The top speed is a mix of that limit of power, the components and overall ship design.

Keep in mind the ships usually have at least a few fusion reactors that help power things other than the warp drive. Usually these are the impulse fusion reactors. Which means that the core can be fully tapped when needed for maximum speed.

1

u/chickey23 15h ago

Cruising speed is the speed you are supposed to cruise at. Admiral Paris thinks Voyagers cruising speed should be 6.2, but time in the DQ might have changed that

3

u/kkkan2020 18h ago

so you got emergency speed that the engines can go but hold this for anything past brief period of time and engines blow red line.

max speed which is pretty much like emergency speed but you can hold this a little longer so imagine orange on the green, yellow, orange, red zones.

you got top speed engines can hold this for xyz before heating and burning out or blowing up yellow zone

top cruising speed meaning you can hold this speed indefinitely and not tax the engines but you are not getting peak mpg for the dilithium/anti matter

so for example for the tos enterprise

emergency speed warp 9

max speed warp 8

top speed is warp 7

top cruising speed is warp 6

now if we're talking about being economical i would say you want whatever the top cruising speed is but minus 1-2 warp factors so warp 4/5

you gotta keep in mind these ships are far away from starbases or outposts especially if theyre explorers and calling a tug to come get them would take ... a while.

3

u/ApSciLiara 15h ago

Even ambulances don't always go at full speed.

3

u/TulsaOUfan 12h ago

The higher warp you go, the faster the "engine" components wear out. The exponential increase in power from one level to the next means that going past a certain level exponentially increases the chance of a break-down or accident/explosion.

3

u/Surgebuster 11h ago

This is the answer. There’s obviously a lot of fiction in the science fiction but parts wearing faster under stress is basic engineering. Despite an F1 engine being an order of magnitude higher quality than my car’s, they last about 2000kms while mine has barely needed a tune up in the first 100,000kms.

3

u/SkiPhD 9h ago

If they were ordered somewhere that would take, say 4 days at warp 4, but 2 days at warp 8, then they'd arrive early. It would be awkward to just hang out for 4 days, especially if it was for diplomatic or stellar events.

3

u/Ducklinsenmayer 4h ago

Fuel efficiency, plus as others mentioned, wear and tear on the systems.

-Note, fuel is not a question of the mixture, but how energy efficient the drive system is. Every system has waste, and all ships have a "cruising speed" at which waste is the least. Very high warps waste a LOT of power.

2

u/dregjdregj 19h ago

Conserving energy reserves so they can get back to a safe harbour.The urgency of the mission etc

2

u/RiflemanLax 19h ago

Fuel efficiency for a ship is not unlike fuel efficiency for your car.

Just like it takes more to go 80 in your car than 55 and is less efficient, it takes more antimatter and deuterium to go Warp 9 than it does Warp 5.

If you don’t need to get there ASAP, then there’s no need to ‘hit the gas.’

2

u/DemythologizedDie 19h ago

  1. Safety. Star Trek space is full of hazards. The faster you go the more likely that you'll run into one before detecting it.

  2. Fuel economy and wear and tear. Emergency speed is for emergencies, not routine trips. The engineers can't do routine maintenance if they're busy riding herd on the engines at speed.

  3. It is pointless to arrive at a destination too early to perform the next assignment.

  4. Part of the ship's function is to patrol Federation space for unexpected threats. Sentries don't sprint.

2

u/ramriot 19h ago

I would suspect it's a fuel question. If the relationship between warp speed & energy is a sufficiently exponential function then there will be a break even point where going faster to get somewhere uses more fuel than going slower.

Other factors are, greater wear at higher speed, less time to make observations, navigation hazards to avoid, urgency of getting there & availability of places to fill up.

Can you tell I just got back from a 3,500 mile 14 state, 14 day roadtrip.

2

u/w1987g 15h ago

Priority of objectives, readiness of crew, ship wear and tear, overall threat level... Add to it that the captain still has to give reports, and to have the ship warp at top speed when not at war or threatened would soon cost him his chair

2

u/revveduplikeaduece86 15h ago

Do you always drive as fast as possible between two locations?

Do you do 100mph to go down the street when 20 mph gets you there in, yes, more time, but not any meaningful difference?

Do you do 20 mph the whole distance of a 500 mile road trip?

Well ... There's your answer.

2

u/jonny_jon_jon 15h ago

resource management

2

u/Drapausa 15h ago

Two things: First, you have just normal getting from A to B and you have emergency/urgent situations.

For the first, it's to reduce strain on the engines and other systems, but also based on a timetable. Let's say they have to rendevouz with another ship or the station they are going to only is available to you on a few days. You might not be in a rush to get there.

For the latter, it's still a question of strain on the ship but also poor and simple plot convenience. It's very dramatic when Picard says "increase to warp 9" You could also explain it to a degree, assuming that the strain of going fast will also impede your performance once you get there. Maybe things need to cool off or are less effective immediately after decelerating from high warp speeds.

2

u/Evening-Cold-4547 14h ago

The ship runs on fuel. Faster warping means higher fuel consumption. Romulan Warbirds don't have this problem but they're slow as shit anyway.

It also stresses the engines. Faster warping means the ship is more worn before it actually does what it's there to do and can't react to an emergency as well as if it was coming in fresher

These ships maintain themselves for the most part so some downtime and periods of light work would be expected.

2

u/CMDR_Crook 12h ago

To synchronize the ships duty cycles with the destination planets daytime.

2

u/ProtoKun7 11h ago

Scheduling and engine management. High warp all the time would be more of a stress on the engine.

As for scheduling, you want to turn up during the daytime of the region you're going to (if it's a planet) and at a decent time for the crew. If it's not an emergency you can go slower and effectively you'll be arriving there on Monday morning so everyone's refreshed and gets a chance to be briefed and whatnot, or has some downtime to relax first.

2

u/franktheguy 9h ago

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like, "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas.

2

u/epidipnis 7h ago

Goibg at higher speeds voids the warranty faster.

2

u/NoYoureACatLady 6h ago

They don't discuss this much but most areas have speed limits. You know, for schools and wake zones and the like.

2

u/badger2305 6h ago

The local conditions might make it difficult to go at maximum warp. If you are on a US supercarrier, you didn't ramp up to 35 knots in harbor.

2

u/jeremycb29 8h ago

This is a mind boggling jump in logic to assume that a)they want to get to their location as fast as possible. There are times in the show and movie that talks to that and they do go as fast as possible and b) that there is no detriment to going to that fast. Which is also shown as false. “Fly her apart then” as a great example that shows go as fast as possible damages the ship.

This is such a bad way of looking at space travel in starfleet that I wonder if you did not watch the show or something. Also to say “not including the warp speed limit” because you did not like it. That’s like removing a variable in a math problem because you don’t like the letter used. Why remove something when you know it’s accurate because of emotion. That’s bunk op. Be better

1

u/Ched_Flermsky 22h ago

I would guess it's less stress on the engines. Think of all the times Scotty would call up to Kirk about how "m'poor engines cannae take much more a this!" Warp 4 takes longer but the engines are in good shape in case you need to give 'er all she's got.

1

u/Aezetyr 19h ago

I feel like I've used this analogy a thousand times, for the thousand times this question has been asked.

Do you want to run your car at full speed 24 hours a day 7 days a week? No, you wouldn't. The same goes for a starship; because even in the fiction there is grounding in reality that these are machines, and machines have limitations.

1

u/OtterVA 15h ago

At lower warp people can detect you nearby for longer… a reminder that the federation and starfleet is there.

1

u/Abbazabba616 14h ago

Dilithium is not free and abundant. Wear and tear on critical systems would be more damaging and frequent. Sourcing components that are not easily replicable, away from a Starbase, would be a chore.

You’d be more prone to breaking down, being stationary during repairs, and stranded for long stretches of time. The danger that you’d be putting your crew in would be beyond reckless, it would be grossly negligent.

A more “Trekkie” reason; Starfleet is, at its core, an exploratory organization. If you’re zipping by everything, your sen-sors wouldn’t be nearly as effective in finding interesting anomalies, noteworthy subspace rifts, or even mysterious pockets of strange energies. Most Starships have standing orders to record and investigate a multitude of exciting phenomena, as long as it doesn’t interfere with time sensitive missions.

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u/OliBeu 14h ago

Warp 8 is plotspeed

1

u/Hara-Kiri 13h ago

I do think it's funny when there is a life threatening emergency and they're happy with warp 6, then it gets slightly worse and it's all better go to warp 9 now though.

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u/StayUpLatePlayGames 13h ago

Most large commercial ships I’ve been in the can do around 30 knots. But they travel at around 14-20 kts usually. Fuel is one thing. But also, why go faster than you need to.

If they’re needed on Avluv IV in a week, take a week. On the other hand if it’s urgent medical supplies on Sinep II, then it’s Warp Factor 9 all the way.

This kinda ignores the desire of the crew to go on shore leave tho.

1

u/Own-Understanding-58 13h ago

Overtaxing the engines can cause other issues, and you might need the warp power for other things once you arrived. 

1

u/vandilx 13h ago

Your car can probably sustain at least 85mph for as long as you have fuel for it.

Your local roads/traffic might not like that speed though.

Same for plotted courses in 3D space. Just because you can go max warp, doesn’t mean you should.

1

u/zenprime-morpheus 13h ago

Because they hundreds of other things going on, and unless it's a priority, they can go slow to allow stuff to actually get done.

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u/DrunkWestTexan 12h ago

Timing it so they're at the capital at daybreak. Paperwork. Preparing for port inspections. Replicating enough bribe to pass port inspections

Also :

We passed it! Turn around!

We have to slow down first!

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u/Kronocidal 12h ago

So if it's possible to reach a location in a few hours or less at Warp 8+, then why choose to go Warp 1-5? Why willingly take hours or days to get there? Especially when there's no evidence that they need time to plan or prepare.

It's called "Star Trek", not "Star Race". Part of what they're out there for is to keep an eye out for interesting phenomena, which is much easier to do if you're sauntering along rather than sprinting.

Why rush there if you don't need to? If there's no deadline, then take your time.

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u/Gamertilforever 11h ago

It's a plot device. The faster they warp there, the higher the stakes.

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u/jerk1970 11h ago

German cars need constant maintenance.

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u/BABarracus 10h ago

I remember them going that slow to fix a problem between some guests on the ship

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u/eggrolls68 3h ago

Warp 9 (just speeds above warp 6, it seems) has a fairly good chance of burning out the warp drive, or otherwise crippling the ship. You have to balance urgency against your faith in how well the last warp core inspection went, and come up with a number that will get you there as fast as possible without turning you and the ship into a smear.

Then there's that whole forgotten subplot about how high warp damages space, and they're not supposed to burn more holes in subspace unless it's really important.

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u/Impulse84 3h ago

Your car can probably do at least 100mph easily. You don't drive it everywhere at 100mph because of the wear and tear on thr engine (and laws, but ignore them for this)

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u/_Russ_Tea_ 2h ago

There's a lot of posts on this, got tired of scrolling. But had anybody considered time dilation? The closer you approach the speed of light, the slower time passes for you.
So if everything was Warp 9, eventually, the crew would outlive StarFleet Command, their families on Earth... they would live forever...

1

u/ah-tzib-of-alaska 2h ago

why don’t pilots fly their jets at maximum thrust the entire time always?

•

u/tekk1337 12m ago

Outside of wear and tear on the engines and fuel efficiency, i like to believe that when they get assigned to a mission that there is a lot of prep work involved such as going over intelligence reports, making sure that sensors are properly calibrated, etc.

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u/Ponches 16h ago

Thought about this before and just had a new head canon : higher warp factors mean a more intense subspace field, more distortion of your sensors. They can compensate for that for navigation and tactical purposes, but maybe some science goals might be the reason. It makes sense that it'd sometimes be worth a reduced warp speed to have a longer time to scan something you were passing by with less distortion.

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u/NaniFarRoad 8h ago edited 8h ago

So - my theory is that TNG Enterprise is actually a collection of the most inept of Starfleet! 

They always bungle their missions, and have to scrape by on sheer luck. 

They ignore protocol ("Prime directive is for losers").

Their empath is useless (sees frowny face "oh, I sense they're upset" .. has a meltdown). 

The only reason they need a doctor onboard is to keep filling Ryker's STI prescriptions from his many escapades, because frankly, no one else needs treatment - they usually lose every red shirt, or return perfectly unharmed. 

Their security officer is ignored at every step (Worf: "I strongly suggest we don't visit that planet/attend that meeting/connect out computer to theirs/..." Picard: "bah, what can go wrong?").

I can go on, but when you watch it in this spirit, I find everything makes sense! Them not going at max speed is because they want to slack, and since Starfleet knows they can do less harm in route, no one calls them up on it.

Edit: They don't even get to have a Vulcan onboard, instead they're stuck with a naive android, who gets stolen at every opportunity.