LANDING THE SHIP

Bethel also has the ability to land on the surface of a planet. The structural strain of landing the ship is absorbed by the structural integrity system, and the ground hover footpad system. (This is the reason why the struts do not, on the face of it, appear to support Bethel's weight - they are meant to carry only a fraction of the ship's weight.) The footpad system is a set of four stabilisation pads that allow the ship to hover over the ground: they gently cushion the landing without damaging the hull. Behind-the-scenes: the landing gear detailed design was done by Sternbach for [The 37's] i.e. after designing the ship and original model, although Sternbach had been informed that the ship would be able to land and had designed in the preliminary gear. Article: Designing Bethel To land the ship on a planet: The ship's status goes to Condition Blue. The chief engineer takes the warp core offline and vents plasma from the nacelles. Main engineering stands by to engage the atmospheric thrusters. On the bridge, the pilot puts the atmospheric controls at standby, and sets the inertial dampers and structural integrity field (SIF) to maximum. The pilot then plots a standard glide trajectory to take the ship down to the planet's surface. The inertial dampers need to be adjusted to match the atmosphere of the planet. In atmospheric flight, the Ops officer maintains atmospheric controls and monitors EM discharges. The landing struts are extended, the inertial dampers are released, and immediately before landing the structural integrity field (SIF) is adjusted to match the planet's gravity. Once the ship comes to rest, the engines are disengaged, the thruster exhaust is secured, and the landing procedure is complete.

Source: STM