7.6 Tractor Beams

Tractor beam emitters are located at key positions on the ship's exterior hull, permitting objects at practically any bearing to be manipulated. Key amongst these are the three main tractor beam emitters; two on the engineering hull and one mounted on the bottom of the Saucer section. Additional emitters are located near each shuttle bay and the fighter launch bay for use in landing maneuvers. Mooring tractor beam emitters, used when the ship is in dock, are located at each reaction control thruster quad.

The main tractor beam emitters are built around six variable-phase 50MW graviton polarity sources, each feeding six 550-millicochrane subspace field amplifiers. Phase accuracy is within 1.3 arc-seconds per millisecond, necessary for precise interference pattern control. Secondary tractor beam emitters have lesser performance ratings. Main tractor beam emitters are directly mounted to primary structural members of the ship's framework. This is because of the significant mechanical stress and inertial potential imbalance created by tractor beam usage. Tying the tractor emitter into the structural integrity field network by means of molybdenum-coated waveguides provides additional structural reinforcement and inertial potential cancellation.

Effective tractor beam range varies with payload mass and desired delta-v (change in relative velocity). Assuming nominal 10-m\sec delta-v, the primary tractor emitters can be used with a payload approaching 8,000,000 metric tons at less than 1,000 meters. Conversely, that same delta-v can be imparted to an object massing about one metric ton as ranges approaching 30,000 kilometers.