Inertial damping system
Inertial damping system, inertial dampers, or inertial dampeners, were a system used on almost all starships to counter the effects of rapid acceleration and deceleration by sustaining and absorbing the natural inertia of a vessel as it moved through space or if it was under attack from another vessel.

A starship could not jump to warp speed without inertial dampers, as the rapid acceleration would smash the crew into the walls, killing them instantly. () 

For  to prepare to land on a planet, it was required for the ship to adjust its inertial dampers to maximum. Once landed, the ship released inertial dampers and adjusted them to match the planet's gravity. To depart from the surface, the inertial dampers were set to flight configuration. ()

In 2155, while using a comet as camouflage to infiltrate John Frederick Paxton's base on Mars, Travis Mayweather disabled the inertial dampers of the , causing it to maintain an erratic flight path to better resemble a chunk of the comet. This caused Malcolm Reed some distress, as he had a history of gastrointestinal problems. ()

Although the inertial dampers were activated by default, the crew could enable, disable, and configure the strength of them manually. If the inertial dampers were disabled, they could be reactivated by resetting the inertial dampening field base at three-zero-zero and re-initializing the dampers. () 

This use of them could exaggerate the damage sustained by a starship in a battle, as the ship rocked more violently when its inertial dampers were disabled. () 

In an alternate timeline, after the  was struck by the   in the starboard nacelle, the impact caused the Enterprises inertial dampers to fail, and it to lose attitude control. ()

As a safety precaution, the inertial dampers on Federation vessels had an automatic bypass that kicked in when the system was disabled. ()

The entire crew of a Jem'Hadar attack ship was killed when their inertial damping system apparently failed as the ship went into warp. A Changeling that was aboard initially survived, but later died of its injuries. ()

On stardate 50482.2, a cascade virus previously planted in the computers of the  by Maquis defector Michael Eddington wiped all systems aboard. Several days later, the inertial dampers had not been fully repaired and, while the ship could reach warp 6, Chief O'Brien added, "Don't expect a smooth ride". ()

In 2375, The Doctor suggested that the inertial dampers aboard  being out of alignment could have accounted for a spate of space sickness cases. ()

Soon after, Tom Paris simulated the effects of a mine with a disruption to Voyagers inertial dampers. ()

In 2376, Voyagers inertial dampers went offline when the ship pursued the  into a planet's parthogenic atmosphere. ()

Appendices

See also 
 External inertial dampener
 Inertial coupling
 Inertial micro-damper

Backgound information 
According to the , inertial dampers were "invented" by Star Trek writers to explain how the crew avoided becoming "chunky salsa" when starships accelerated or decelerated.

External link

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