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On 2003-02-01 19:22, Rae wrote:
They didn't tend to travel at near light speeds, me things. It's either orbit speed (which can't be much more than .001c), impulse engines around space dock to go really slow, or straight to Warp Drive. Also, the actual state of going at near light speed isn't what makes the supposed "twin" example work (two twins, one travels to and from Alpha Centuri and back, stays young), but instead its the fact that there isn't really any definition to time dialation when the reference frames aren't at a constant velocity. The act of accelorating and decelorating is what keeps the twin young, but he ages sorta normal like while at high speeds, or at least that is what my Physics Prof said.
I seem to remember, in one of the old movies, they were going .5c, then .6c, .7c, etc., until they hit 1c and went to warp. Then again, Star Trek isn't exactly the most consistent of fictional universes, so they may have changed how it works for TNG. And they would have to accelerate, anyway, to reach those speeds, and decelerate to get back to Earth, just in time for the funerals of their great-grandchildren... ;)