Thrusters

A thruster system relies on Newton's Third Law. This states that "every action must have an equal and opposite reaction."

Positively and negatively charged particles are separated. Using a set of magnetic fields, these particles are accelerated to the direction, opposite to the direction the starship or other body is trying to reach. Due to the impulse of these particles as they're expelled, a force acts on the body in the opposite direction, equal to the force with which the particles are expelled. As a result, the body is accelerated in this direction.

Charged particles are a side-effect of many quantum level reactions, such as matter-antimatter reactions. As a result, charged particles that can be used for the thruster systems can be found as a warp core by-product.

The shuttlepod piloted by Travis Mayweather in Vulcan's orbit in 2154 lost their thrusters after they were hit several times by two Vulcan fighters. (ENT: "Awakening")

The stress of a Romulan tractor beam caused sub-microscopic deformations in the structural integrity, specially the nose section and aft thrusters of the type 15 shuttlepod Onizuka. (TNG: "The Mind's Eye")

A year later, forward thrusters of the type 15 shuttlepod Campbell failed when the shuttle was trying to land on a moon of Mab-Bu VI. (TNG: "Power Play")

When Captain Jean-Luc Picard was under the control of the Kataan probe by means of a nucleonic beam, Commander William T. Riker slowly moved the USS Enterprise-D away from the probe, using thrusters only at 100 kph. (TNG: "The Inner Light")

Klingon Birds of Prey were equipped with bow thrusters. In late 2373, first officer Worf ordered bow thrusters ahead one half as he undocked the IKS Rotarran from Deep Space 9's docking ring. (DS9: "Soldiers of the Empire")

Deep Space 9 was equipped with thrusters. Kira Nerys ordered Miles O'Brien to utilize the station's thrusters in order to move the station from Bajor's orbit to defend the newly discovered Bajoran wormhole. (DS9: "Emissary")

Types of Thrusters

• Bow thrusters- Bow thrusters are starship components, located on the nose or bow of the ship. These components appear to function in such a manner as to slow or reverse a ship's forward momentum during use.

• Guidance Thrusters- Guidance thrusters are starship components, located each of a ship's nacelles. These components appear to be separate in function from a starship's main thrusters.

The Jem'Hadar fighter discovered by the crew of Deep Space 9 on Torga IV, in 2373, was found in excellent condition, save a crushed guidance thruster – or comparable Dominion component. (DS9: "The Ship") During a later engagement with the USS Centaur, the Jem'Hadar ship was hit and lost one of its guidance thrusters. (DS9: "A Time to Stand")

While preparing for Operation Return in 2374, the USS Cortéz was forced to fall back for repairs after having a continued problem stabilizing the guidance thrusters in the ships port nacelle. (DS9: "Sacrifice of Angels")

• Landing Thrusters- Landing thrusters are used in the event the starship must land on a planet, or station surface. Usually, structure-stable ships like the NX series or Intrepid have these. Without the landing thrusters, landing may have been rough or dangerous. On the USS Voyager, one of some missions required to land was on the Demon class planet. (VOY: "Demon")

• Polarity Thrusters- A polarity thruster is a type of propulsion technology, used on the Delta Flyer II. They were among many flaws in the Delta Flyer's construction identified by the Ledosian flight instructor Kleg, as they were apparently known to cause accidental accelerations. (VOY: "Natural Law")

• RCS Thrusters- The reaction control thrusters are the standard thrusters used by the Federation for low-velocity propulsion, station-keeping and maneuvering control in space.

In 2367, in an attempt to escape from a Promellian battle cruiser surrounded by aceton assimilators, Jean-Luc Picard used only two of the USS Enterprise-D's RCS thrusters to maneuver the vessel through the remains of Orelious IX. (TNG: "Booby Trap")

A Type 15 shuttlepod uses eight DeFI 657 hot gas RCS thrusters, (TNG: "Descent", display graphic) also known as microfusion thrusters. (TNG: "In Theory")

In 2369 Deep Space 9 was moved from the orbit of Bajor to the mouth of the Bajoran wormhole with six of the stations RCS thrusters. A subspace field was used to reduce the stations inertial mass to shorten the travel time from two months to some minutes. (DS9: "Emissary") Another way of getting more velocity from RCS thrusters is to accelerate the deuterium feed and burn them beyond safety limits.(VOY: "The Cloud")

In order to conduct an emergency shutdown of all RCS thrusters, all deuterium from the RCS system must be vented out. (VOY: "The Cloud")

Starfleet regulations state that only thrusters are allowed for propulsion inside a space dock (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)

According to Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual, although serving the same function, the propulsive exhaust production behind the RCS thruster seems to vary slightly, depending on the size of the craft.

Starships have apparently primary and auxiliary thrusters. The primary thrusters are powered by a gas-fusion reaction chamber. It uses deuterium fuel from fuel tanks that in turn are fed from the ships main deuterium tank. Exhaust is delivered through a field trap into the vectored thrust nozzles visible from the outside. Auxiliary thrusters have no tanks or fieldtraps, and are powered by a microfusion chamber. The generated thrust is considerably lower.

Shuttlecraft, escape pods, work bees and some probes also use microfusion thrusters. In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, the Defiant's lifeboats are said to use something called impulse microthrusters and the microtorpedoes in turn use a miniature fusion thruster for propulsion. Whether these are both synonymous with a microfusion thruster is unclear.

It is not known what type of RCS thrusters Federation space stations use, but it is noted in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual that they are somewhat similar to what the Cardassian stations use. Deuterium fuel is fed into a protean-cycle fusion reaction chamber to produce the exhaust to the thrustnozzles. This seems to differ from a starship thruster in the sense that it is designed to create a low thrust.