> Flight of Nova is a simulator based on newtonian mechanics in which you control spacecraft in the Noren star system. You fly multiple types of spacecraft doing transport and search missions in an environment with realistic aerodynamics and orbital physics.
They're usually in geosynchronous orbit over the interesting area of the planet. That requires power to maintain if you're not just staying over the equator. Even over the equator it only works without power at a certain altitude.
My theory was always that ships hardly ever orbited unpowered, they usually went into much lower powered "orbits" or even just hovered "in place" using the (immense) power of their engines.
But to fly so low as to slow the ship down if unpowered, they'd generate enormous heat from atmospheric friction. They could use shields but then the ship would glow, alerting the natives below and violating the Prime Directive. And they called it "standard orbit".
Orbiting doesn't require power. Even a satellite in a very low orbit only needs a slight boost once in a while to counter the drag.
There's no reason for the shields to cause friction though. They're not made of ordinary matter so an extended, very angular shield could probably cut through atmosphere seamlessly.
Yeah, but maybe that's the maximum range when conditions are best. Much of the time, if there's an equipment problem called for in that episode, there's some issue with the planet's atmosphere ("electromagnetic storm" or similar) which causes trouble with the transporters.
