Impulse drive

• Short for "internally metered pulse drive" (Invasion Novel: First Strike)
• Main Federation sublight drive system,
  • Description guided by both TNG technical manual and general description in Final Frontier, in order to best fit qualities on-screen inconsistent with straightforward Newtonian drive
  • Based on deuterium-fed laser pulse fusion reactor generating high energy electroplasma compatible with internal EPS power systems
  • Combination of Newtonian and non-Newtonian propulsion (DS9 Novel: Gamma: Original Sin)
    • Fusion reaction captured by artificial gravitational field, subspace field effects to hypercompress released energy, generating spatial distortions to linearly propel vessel either forward or in reverse
    • Velocity aided and vectored by expulsion of reactants under effect of a subspace field driver coils, increasing reactant mass and reducing vessel mass to increase effectiveness of Newtonian propulsion
  • Maximum impulse velocity limited to 0.25c by policy, to prevent severe relativistic effects from bringing vessels too significantly out of sync with rest-frame activities
    • Up to 0.75c in emergency situations

History

• 2018: Invented by Earth, quickly displacing other engine technologies