What good is the shutle?

[Automission]

If the destiny only stops at planets with gates, theres no use for the shuttle, just use the gate to get there of course. (unless you could use it to explore planets quicker, which would of made sense for air part 3)
But then the destiny won't stop anywhere else, where the shuttle could be useful.

So pray tell, what could you use the shuttle for, other than a plot device? Also didn't it have a broken window in air part 1? whatever happened to that?

[EvilSpaceAlien]

If the destiny only stops at planets with gates, theres no use for the shuttle, just use the gate to get there of course. (unless you could use it to explore planets quicker, which would of made sense for air part 3)
But then the destiny won't stop anywhere else, where the shuttle could be useful.

So pray tell, what could you use the shuttle for, other than a plot device? Also didn't it have a broken window in air part 1? whatever happened to that?

There is two shuttles. Only one of them had a broken window.

I'm just going to assume that the ancients would know how to turn off the autopilot if they intended to board the Destiny later on. Since that never happened the autopilot is still on and the humans on board the Destiny don't know how to turn it off.

[creed462]

Also, They were never expected to leave the ship during refueling. Maybe the Destiny is more stationary when not powering

[Automission]

Ahh I didn't know there were two, I must of missed that when it was raised during the show. I suppose it could of been used if the auto pilot was turned off, though I still can't see what practical use it would have.

[The Prophet]

If they ever find objects in space, such as investigating a satellite, or another ship that they could dock with.

[GuHNDoi]

I see it as a case of,

It's better to have one and not need it, than to need one and not have it.

[Mythophile]

I get the feeling that these ships were also designed to carry colonists to newly gated worlds in other galaxies. I suspect the shuttles were for vessel-vessel transportation rather than vessel-world transportation.

[Eternal Density]

What if they wanted to visit the moon of a planet with a gate? Need a shuttle for that.

[Starborne]

Maybe its used in the case of an emergency, like lifeboats.

[Dain]

The ship was build with the assumption that an Ancient crew would ewventually arrive and turn the autopilot off.

The Destiny travels through galaxies that are completely uncolonized. Though some seeder Stargates are already pre-installed on several planets by other Ancient ships, there supposedly isn't yet a vast Stargate network in place like in the Milky Way or Pegasus galaxy that connects everything with each other.

So it is very likely that the Ancient crew of the Destiny, if it ever had arrived, would have wanted to visit many planets, moons or other things that weren't yet connected to their Stargate infrastructure.

[Avenger]

Suppose there are planets in systems that they could visit that don't have gates?

[Nemises]

There must be instructions on atlantis on how to disable the auto-pilot because the ancients intended to board it after thousands of years so obviously they would have left instructions for the future generations on how to run the destiny.

[koroush47]

There must be instructions on atlantis on how to disable the auto-pilot because the ancients intended to board it after thousands of years so obviously they would have left instructions for the future generations on how to run the destiny.

They could of just learned before they got onto the ships.


Or maybe it was just basic sense for them.. since they were so smart.. Like using a PC is to us compared to a mac user.

(Yes I am hinting mac users are stupid. It was a great example thats all.)

[Eternal Density]

There's not enough shuttles for them to be used as lifeboats. Better hope they avoid hitting any icebergs.

[Dervish]

Cargo transfer. If you need to go shopping, it's much preferable to take the car than to walk there and lug everything back. The shuttle's just one big, flying, station wagon.

They can load up the shuttle and take everything in one trip, or hoof it through the gate and lug everything back, maybe having to make multiple trips. Even if you didn't care about the inconvenience, there's still the matter of the countdown timer threatening to jump the ship out of the system before you're done.