Question: How did the Phoenix land on Earth after the warp display for the Vulcans? It looked like a non-reusable rocket to me.
Charles Austin Miller
26th Jan 2019
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Answer: While the main fuselage was a re-purposed intercontinental ballistic missile, and they separated from the ascent stage of the rocket, the payload section housed two deployable prototype warp nacelles capable of achieving lightspeed. Beyond that, the payload also contained the prototype warp core (which was powered by matter/antimatter annihilation), the warp core coolant, elaborate magnetic-containment systems, and probably even impulse drive and landing thrusters (It kind of goes without saying that thruster and impulse technology would have existed before warp technology). There was no space left over in the payload section for conventional rocket propellant, and Zefram Cochrane's enormously-expensive and one-of-a-kind warp components would not be expendable; so he must have devised a way to safely bring the Phoenix down for re-use. Since the Phoenix's return and landing were never addressed in the film, my assumption is that the payload section was powered entirely by the warp core, including its impulse drive and landing thrusters.
27th Oct 2017
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Question: How did making contact with aliens bring an end to poverty, disease, and war? Even after the Third World War, there still would have been millions of people who wanted wars on earth, and they would find ways to commit attacks that would start wars on earth, and get away with it, by pretending to help bring an end to wars, poverty, and disease, by secretly stealing alien technology, and by attacking homes, and destroying replicators once every citizen on earth had one, and by telling the aliens to leave earth and never return, and they would have been no way to catch everyone who wanted wars on earth.
Answer: By realizing that humanity was not alone in the universe, it gave them hope and something new to strive for, leading to a change in behavior.
Answer: The Vulcans introduced the human race to subspace scanner and transporter technology, enabling instantaneous communications, surveillance, deployment and security enforcement planet-wide. Thus, the vast majority of mankind's tribal squabbling was eliminated.
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Answer: It was never shown or explained how they landed, so any answer would be a guess. This is set in the future (mid-21st Century), so there could have been new rocket technology.
raywest ★