Battery A battery was a type of power source . Individual . In 2267 , Fleet Captain Christopher Pike was kept alive by a battery - driven heart . ( ) Vehicles . Batteries were used by Human s for powering vehicles since at least the early 20th century . A 1936 Ford truck ' s engine was powered by a battery . In 2371 , after recovering the truck in deep space , the ' s navigator Thomas Paris activated the truck ' s engine with a key . ( ) In 1937 , Amelia Earhart ' s plane , a Lockheed L - 10 Electra , was powered by a battery . Over four hundred years later , a distress signal from this plane was picked up by an away team from the USS " Voyager " on the surface of a Delta Quadrant planet . The team leader , Captain Kathryn Janeway , was skeptical that the plane ' s battery would be functioning after these many centuries . An investigation of the plane revealed that the plane ' s AM transmitter was being powered by an alien fusion generator . ( ) Three decades later , in the 1960s , batteries powered the descent stage of the Apollo Lunar Module . The schematic of an Apollo Lunar Module depicting the location of these batteries in the spacecraft was stored in the ' s library computer database . This database was accessed by the Talosians in 2254 . ( , " remastered " ) In later spacecraft , batteries were " demoted " from a primary power source to a tertiary power source . Also known as emergency power cells , batteries were used as an emergency backup to control gravitation and oxygen levels on starship s . ( ) Gravity control was switched to batteries when the collided with the galactic barrier in 2265 . ( ) When three lithium crystals burned out on the " Enterprise " in 2266 , the transporter s had to be supplemented with battery power . ( ) After the " Galileo " made an emergency landing on Taurus II in 2267 , Spock and Montgomery Scott used battery power to electrify the exterior of the hull , in order to drive away the attacking natives . ( ) The Excalbian s caused a power failure on the " Enterprise " in 2269 , forcing the ship to operate only on emergency battery power . ( ) Later that year , the " Enterprise " was pulled into an alternate universe . Captain James Kirk called for emergency battery power to restore the ship ' s failing life support . ( ) The also used emergency battery power to operate life support systems . ( ) After a surprise attack on the USS " Enterprise " by the in 2285 , the starship was powered by the batteries until auxiliary power was restored . ( ) When Ferengi attacked the in 2364 , battery power was reduced by 30 percent . ( ) Later that year , Geordi La Forge activated the emergency power cells on the . He was surprised that they still worked . ( ) In 2375 , The Doctor complained " " I ' m a doctor , not a battery " " when Tom Paris wanted to use his mobile emitter as a power source . ( ) Facilities . In the 2150s , emergency lights in the United Earth Embassy on Vulcan were powered by batteries . After the embassy was bombed in 2154 , Travis Mayweather and Malcolm Reed detected a power signature which they believed was coming from the batteries . They discovered the signature was being emitted from an armed bomb that had failed to explode . ( ) In the mid - 24th century , a duckblind was powered by a 4 . 2 gigawatt reactor and could be run with battery power for three hours at best . ( )