Most useless ship I've ever seen

[Tsukiyumi]

Door number three won you your very own.............Travel Pod!!!!!!!

Hey, I'd take one. By modern standards, it would be awesome.

"Hey, man. Check out my new car!"

"Screw that. Take a look at this..."

[Mark]

[stitch626]

Nice.

[Mark]

Imagine picking up your date in one.

Oh yes. I'd be using the cockpit window for MAXIMUM effect

[Teaos]

It's a matter of usefulness. Impulse only shuttles are SEVERELY limited in the roles that they can play and their overall usefulness. If I had a choice of 100 warp capable shuttles or 500 impulse shuttles, which one would make more sense to take?

But giving it a warp core makes it far harder to build.

[Tsukiyumi]

It's a matter of usefulness. Impulse only shuttles are SEVERELY limited in the roles that they can play and their overall usefulness. If I had a choice of 100 warp capable shuttles or 500 impulse shuttles, which one would make more sense to take?

But giving it a warp core makes it far harder to build.

Well, that's why he said 500 impulse shuttles vs 100 warp shuttles. A 5 to 1 ratio seems to illustrate the difficulty of building warp-capable shuttles. I'd also go with a mix, as stitch said; say 50 warp shuttles and 250 impulse shuttles.

[Sionnach Glic]

You're not factoring in the cost. While it may be 5 times quicker to build a non-warp shuttle, it may also be 5 times cheaper, and require a lot less resources. Add all that in and you can see why Starfleet builds a lot of them.

[Mikey]

Field maintenance must be a hell of a lot easier for a non-warp shuttle, also.

[Captain Seafort]

They also wouldn't need antimatter. An important consideration, given Starfleet's safety record.

[Sionnach Glic]

Aye, safer all around.

[Mark]

But they would be restricted to use in systems or by planetary facilities. A rather narrow scope, IMO

[Captain Seafort]

That's not a serious limitation for a shuttle. They're so slow at warp as to take months between systems anyway, and they don't have the accomodation necessary for extended flights. If warp-capable shuttles are necessary then build a few, but the vast majority only require impulse drive.

[Tsukiyumi]

I like runabouts better, anyways. They'd be much better suited for short or medium-range travel than shuttles.

Man, I'd love to have a runabout.

[Sionnach Glic]

But they would be restricted to use in systems or by planetary facilities. A rather narrow scope, IMO

Even a warp-capable one isn't going to be going to other systems anytime soon.

Besides, the whole point of shuttles is to ferry personel and equipment from your ship to another ship/starbase/planet. In the vast majority of those cases you'll have the ship itself nearby. As such, warp drive is not required.

[Mikey]

Or to take Geordi or Worf to a conference or competition and take long enough in the process to allow for abduction/space-time phenomenon.