Canonically the impulse engines at least on the Enterprise D can achieve a top speed of 0.25 c. This means that when they’re being “cautious” and moving at one quarter impulse, they’re still moving at an insanely high velocity.
Was talkin about that in another comment thread actually. My headcannon is that’s why you hardly ever see them use full impulse unless it’s a life or death situation. Like you said, even 1/4 impulse is still something like 20 million meters per second.
Edit: If anyone is curious, the fastest man-made object in the universe is currently the Parker Solar Probe, which hit 0.000641C by slingshotting around Venus seven times!
Canonically the impulse engines at least on the Enterprise D can achieve a top speed of 0.25 c. This means that when they’re being “cautious” and moving at one quarter impulse, they’re still moving at an insanely high velocity.
Was talkin about that in another comment thread actually. My headcannon is that’s why you hardly ever see them use full impulse unless it’s a life or death situation. Like you said, even 1/4 impulse is still something like 20 million meters per second.
Edit: If anyone is curious, the fastest man-made object in the universe is currently the Parker Solar Probe, which hit 0.000641C by slingshotting around Venus seven times!