How fast is Impulse Drive?

[Starrtom]

I am sure some one out there knows this but how fast is impulse drive in say km/h. They always say to the helmsman 1/4 impluse, 1/2 impulse or full impluse, I would really like to to know how fast that is? Thanks for any answers.

[DigiFluid]

That's been made incredibly unclear in 40 years of Star Trek. It's been said on many occasions that sub-warp speeds would take years to reach even close locations. But it's also been said (on several occasions) that warp drive is not supposed to be used in a star system--so travel even through the vast sprawl of an individual system is just a matter of hours or minutes.

[Starrtom]

That's been made incredibly unclear in 40 years of Star Trek. It's been said on many occasions that sub-warp speeds would take years to reach even close locations. But it's also been said (on several occasions) that warp drive is not supposed to be used in a star system--so travel even through the vast sprawl of an individual system is just a matter of hours or minutes.

Can you hazzard a guess, would it be maybe 1million KM/H for full impulse?

[DigiFluid]

Memory Alpha has a decent article on it here, but even they point out how unclear it is. Hope it helps.

[Starrtom]

Memory Alpha has a decent article on it here, but even they point out how unclear it is. Hope it helps.

Cheers I'll give it a read.

[Starrtom]

Memory Alpha has a decent article on it here, but even they point out how unclear it is. Hope it helps.

Just read it thanks, it is variable and inconsistent. But one thing for sure it is much, much faster then anything we have today, what ever the right speed turns out to be. Man if we just impulse drive now, the solar system would be relatively short trips, we could even possibly make it to Alpha Centauri.

[Cold Fuzz]

Just read it thanks, it is variable and inconsistent. But one thing for sure it is much, much faster then anything we have today, what ever the right speed turns out to be. Man if we just impulse drive now, the solar system would be relatively short trips, we could even possibly make it to Alpha Centauri.

Impulse drive would revolutionize travel inside the solar system. However, we're going to need something that bypasses relativity if we're going to get to the Centauri system.

[Saquist]

Alot has been said on impulse speed but what has been said and what has been shown has been highly contradictory especially in the films. According to the Tech Manuals Full impulse is supposed to be 1/4 of light speed. 167,653,800 miles per hour.

Yet if that's full impulse then 1/4 Impulse Power would be 41,913,450 Miles per Hour.
Normally in the interplanetary scene we have no frame of reference for how fast they are traveling. However in Star Trek III and Star Trek VI Admiral/Captain Kirk orders 1/4 Impulse Power in side the spacedock, clearly.

Like everything else canon is effected by the slang the writers are in the mood for. This is no different. As a result 1/4 impulse is very very slow, orbital speeds infact. The fastest impulse can go was shown in TMP when the ship moved to warp .85 on Impulse Power.

[Jeffala]

One should assume that (like the re-designing of the warp scale post-TOS/movies), the speed of impulse drives changed over time. It's possible that 1/4 Impulse was slow enough for spacedock then.

[the fifth man]

Impulse drive would revolutionize travel inside the solar system. However, we're going to need something that bypasses relativity if we're going to get to the Centauri system.

One step at a time, right? Just being able to easily travel within our solar system would be an amazing feat.

[jsonitsac]

Memory Alpha to the rescue: According to Jo'Bril in the episode "Suspicions", the shuttles aboard the Enterprise-D had a maximum impulse velocity of approximately 2.5% of light speed – he specified that at 3/4 impulse the shuttle would travel a distance of 1,000,000 kilometers in approximately 3 minutes.
A reference made in "Fair Haven" indicated that USS Voyager's impulse power would not be enough to outrun an approaching neutronic storm that was traveling at a velocity of 200,000 kilometers per second (447,387,258 miles per hour), or roughly 2/3 the speed of light.

[DigiFluid]

I already posted a link to the Memory Alpha article

[Starrtom]

One step at a time, right? Just being able to easily travel within our solar system would be an amazing feat.

Agreed, if we could do this we could go to Mars in a matter of days, and the moons of Jupitor and Saturn in a matter of weeks, that would be cool

[Saquist]

At 2/3 light you could travel one light year in almost exactly 3 years.

[Giantevilhead]

It is possible that it depends on the ship. The Enterprise E could move much faster at full impulse than a shuttle.