EMERGENCY GROUNDING PROCEDURE

The Primary Hull of any Class I and I-B Starship is capable of an Emergency
Grounding on a Class M world.  This planet-fall is irreversable, and so is
only executed under direst circumstances, when the vessel is no longer space-
worthy.  Normally, a vessel needing such desperate measures is too far gone,
and the crew will simply abandon ship on the Life Boats.  It is possible how-
ever that the mortal damage to the ship has destroyed the Life Boats.  Or,
if the Primary Hull is reasonably intact, the Captain may elect to land same,
which will enormously increase a stranded crew's resources as they await res-
cue.  Note: if the Primary Hull is so damaged that the grounding is a risk,
the Captain may order the crew to evacuate the ship and orbit the planet in
Life Boats while he and an Engineering party attempt to ground the Primary
Hull.  The orbiting crew can then descend safely.

Emergency Grounding Procedure
-----------------------------
 1) "All Hands to Grounding Stations" called.  All personnel evacuate remain-
    der of ship for Primary Hull.
 2) Seperation of Primary Hull from Secondary Hull/Warp Drive Nacelle(s).
 3) Maneuvering via Impulse Drive to an atmospheric skimming orbit.
 4) Search from orbit for suitable grounding site.
 5) Use of Impulse Drive to slow Primary Hull below orbital speed.
 6) Impulse Drive shut-down.
 7) Primary Hull oriented with underside facing forward during re-entry.
 8) Parabraking.
 9) As Primary Hull (at terminal velocity) approaches 20 kilometer altitude,
    orientation rotates to underside downwards.
10) Underside Thruster Packages slow Primary Hull to near-hover at 5 kilometer
    altitude.
11) Extension of Emergency Grounding Support Pads.
12) Thrusters lower Primary Hull to landing, increasing thrust as ground ap-
    proaches so as to cancel momentum at 20 - 50 meters altitude.

Parabraking
-----------
The entire outer surface of the Primary Hull is designed for maximum stab-
ility during this maneuver.  The underside is contoured, so as to "cup" the
on-coming airstream as it falls and to deflect same airstream downwards and
outwards, slowing the fall.  During parabraking, the underside's Deflector
Shield Grid is used as a superconductor, keeping the underside surface at a
tolerable temperature by absorbing excess heat energy and transferring same
to the much cooler upper surface, where it is radiated away.

[From 'Starfleet Line Officer Requirements Volume One' c. 2285]

Jimmy Dee Notes/Comments:
-------------------------
The emergency landing of the saucer section module goes way back to 'The
Making Of Star Trek' but even the seperation of hulls was unable to be ac-
complished on-screen until TNG, due to budgetary limitations--and also pre-
TNG starships could not accompish "routine" hulls seperation; it was a last
ditch/one-shot act for TOS ships, requiring a starbase facility to recombine
the two hulls... The landing procedure for the post-TOS/pre-TNG ships is
described above... Note the mention of the landing pads, not only indicated
on movie-era Treknical starship prints, but also seen briefly hanging "open"
in ST-TMP before leaving drydock... The TOS ship's ("Constitution" and "Bon
Homme Richard" configurations) Emergency Landing Procedure is diagramed in
the original 'U.S.S. Enterprise Officers Manual,' finally clarifying what
those two radial stripes on the underside of the saucer really are: panels
conceiling fold-down (whip-antenna-like) landing legs from the port and
starboard bow... To the immediate bow underside is the main antigrav unit,
used for "skimming" the saucer... The dorsal fin can be employed as a vert-
ical stabilizer in flight, and the lower (planetary) sensor array platform
can extend downwards as a support pillar when grounded...

An interesting feature is the Command Module's use as a lifeboat! The upper
hub of the primary hull can apparently be detached from the saucer section
and landed independently, having 3 mini landing legs and 3 descent engines
on its underside... Probably features unique only to these pre-ST-TMP
starship classes...

For the TNG's "Galaxy" class, the Emergency Landing Procedure for the Saucer
Module is detailed in the TNG 'manual' and is very similar to that for the
"Enterprise" class above, although it makes use of the Structural Integrity
Field (SID) for greater stability (not incorporated into earlier starships),
and it has never been accomplished thus far, beyond computer simulations,
with a "Galaxy" class starship...