Goa'uld 1 Tok'ra ships : Engines or not Engines ?

[Ko'or Oragahn]

Goa'uld & Tok'ra ships : Engines or not Engines ?

First, the pics.

Tau'ri - X301 Protype

Tok'ra - Vorash Scout Ship

Goa'uld - Al-Kesh

Goa'uld - Apophis' New Mothership

Goa'uld - Cheops Class Mothership

Goa'uld - Cheops Class Motheship - Hyperspace

Goa'uld - Troop Transport Ship (Lander)

Goa'uld - Osiris' Personnal Cruiser

Goa'uld - Tel'Tak Transport Ship

Goa'uld - Ha'Tak Class Warship

Goa'uld - Gate Glider

Goa'uld - Death Glider


Note : As seen in the movie, there's a blue light coming from underneath Râ's mothership. Could be light emitted in the upper Earth atmospheric layers, but during the movie, none engines were seen during the landing and taking off processes.


So why are there only so few Goa'uld ships using engines (completely opposite from Asgards' ships) when most of them uses some sort of gravitationnal related system ?

 

[Ko'or Oragahn]

Well, I'm sad. Nobody wants to reply to this...

Is it too... tricky ? :evil:

 

[PTeppic]

I suppose it is because most of what we discuss is based on at least one line of audible dialogue from the show, which can be related to "real world" physics or similar.

And we really have nothing to work with, for the engines.
It would all be pure speculation.

But if you want to start us off?...

 

[Ko'or Oragahn]

A bit of teasing is always a good thing to boost up a thread.

Since there may be interesting visual clues if we start to look for them, we may not have to speculate more than needed.

We could think of the advantages of "classic" engines rather than gravity propelling :

1 - Does the gravity propelled ships also use fuel ?

2 - Is using engines gives more manoeuverability or thursting ?

3 - Are the engines detected by sensors ?

4 - Does the engines have particular reactions with the shields of the ships ?

As far as I can think of, all the Asgard ships are engine-propelled, unlike the Goa'Uld vessels which at the majority of them are gravity propelled.

Well, I say gravity propelled because this is what sounds the more logical to me.

 

[PTeppic]

After 5 seconds thinking I have perhaps thought of a problem with the theory. Gravity needs to work on "something" - since it is an attractive force (apart from the anti-gravity elements they use on planets e.g. Death Gliders).

I think they may use anti-gravity for "floating" ability, to avoid using wings, like current Earth aircraft, but still use some sort of propulsive engine through space. Otherwise there is little to "push against". They MAY use gravity engines within an atmosphere though, since there is the gases in the atmosphere to push against.

 

[Ko'or Oragahn]

Strange, in the image I linked above, the Al-Kesh bomber still uses its engines while it could have used the other system. The chasing Death Glider use "traditionnal" gravity propelling.

Oh, while Im' it, when I say gravity propelling, it could also be totally artificial, having the gravitationnal generator creating some kind of focal mass before the prow of the ship to pull it towards.

There's also the possibility of anti-gravity, aka, repulsorshift.

All the Goa'Uld ships I've seen are capable to emulate a near as 9.8 G gravity within its structure.

But if it does, then all the objects, be it people or other stuff, do push towards the ground of the ship, so it has to compensate that.

It may work on the same way of a condenser, but with a different mecanism, thus making a common Goa'Uld ship able to generate and apply an artificial gravity field to itself, and giving "material" to propell, glide and drift.

While it seems to be quite usefull when it comes to manoeuverings, it seems that engines are still better in terms of speed or acceleration.

In fact, we have this problem with almost every sci-fi movie or series : Star wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, etc. And I'm not counting all the minor shows, series, animates and one shot movies, be it B or not.

 

[Ko'or Oragahn]

Btw, does someone knows what is the ovoid ship seen on this image ?

It has an elliptic shape and is landed in the right of the background, at the right of the farthest Troop Carriers.

 

[Ko'or Oragahn]

Autant pour moi.

It is an Al-Kesh bomber.