Key Teck 02

Faster Than Light Travel

 

What is Hyper Space ?  

 In brief, it is an alternative dimension we can use as a short cut between points in real space.

 A more accurate description of it is a series of band widths within a different dimension, each band offering a faster rate of travel but requiring a higher amount of power to reach. The H-1 band offers speeds of right around that of light. The exact speed depends of your engines, tending to + or – 10%

The Chart;

H-1 = light speed

H-2 = 1 Ly / month

H-3 = 1 Ly / week

H-4 = 1 Ly / day

H-5 = 1 Ly / hour

These numbers are approximations of the hyper bands, to give us an easy speed to work with.

The Galactic maximum is around H-4. With many ships using engines of 0.5 Ly / day. 

Those concerned with speed, like the military, tend to have 2 Ly / day abilities. 

The H-5 band is almost impossible to reach without super-advanced tech. 

Danger of H-Space

 

Hyperspace seems to be empty of solid matter, but does have some odd partial clouds and strange radiation. Spending a lot of time in H-Space is hazardous to organic life. Newtonic Radiation in small amounts causes disorientation and sickness, but no lasting damage. Medium amounts cause some permanent damage, but can be fixed with proper medical treatment. Large amounts will kill you.

The actual exposure depends on both time spent in H-Space and the specific band you are in. The higher the band the faster the accumulation of Newtronic radiation. Thus the amount of time a ship can continuously travel at FTL is limited. Recovery time between hyper hops depends on many factors, but for humans the Doctor General recommends a minimum of 8 hours.

Early expeditions took a slow and steady approach to FTL travel. After each 1 light year, they return to normal space and rest for 1 day, making sensor sweeps and inspecting the ship & crew. As experience and confidence grew, these rest stops became shorter and less frequent. 

Navigation

 

Navigation in H-Space is possible by grava-metric detectors, because large objects like planets and stars cast a sort of shadow. Flying through a star in H-space will be a rough ride and toss you off course, but it is not fatal. 

However, FTL travel does not require said detectors. Typically a flight plan is made in advance and not altered while in H-space. Calculating a safe exit point is a matter of known info with predictive models and some guess work. The closer you aim to appear to an inhabited world, the more likely you are to hit something on exit. Safe flight plans will exit 1 AU away from any known objects.

In theory.

Grava-metric sensors can detect the gravity fields of ships, both inside H-Space and out of it. Thus you may detect a ship passing near you in H-Space "near" being a rather fuzzy distance. This brings up a strategic defense consideration. Large grava-metric scanners can detect ships moving in H-Space up to one LY away. Thus a system may get a day or two of warning before a visitor arrives. In theory a network of scanner outposts could cover the frontier of a star-nation. However without working FTL communications the system would be almost useless.

Technical stuff.

An FTL system is made of two components; the Hyper Field Generator and the Hyper Drive Engines.

The HFG is a bit like the Gravity Control Unit, except that its field aims to shift the ship from normal space into one of the Hyper Bands. A basic HFG can only transition to one set band, a more advanced unit can switch to various bands. Typically once the technology allows for a higher band the lower-slower ones are considered obsolete. Except that the military can make use of the H-1 band for tactical moves in a solar system. The HFG requires equipment be placed near the forward and aft points of a ship.

The Hyper Drive or FTL Engines, are what moves you in H-Space, they are useless in normal space. In very simple terms they act as jet engines, combining some of the exotic particles in H-Space with promethium (a very radioactive and luminescent rare Earth element) as the comparison implies, these engines need an intake and exhaust system. As they need to work with a very dangerous fuel, they are preferably placed well away from the main crew area of the ship.

When in operation both the HFG and the Hyper Driver require a lot of power. The main reactor of most ships will not have surplus power while in FTL travel. E-Cells will operate most of the regular systems.  If the power to the Drive is cut, the ship will drift, but is in no direct danger. If the power to the Hyper Field is cut, the ship will immediately and violently drop back into normal space. “A crash dive back to reality.” Any time a ship enters or exits from H-Space there is a noticeable flash and gravity ripple. This makes it hard to sneak up on someone. 

Below is the "Vinland" the first experimental FTL ship produced on Earth.

Size of FTL ships.

 

This is governed by a complicated set of variables, which boils down to a simple rule; small ships are more efficient than large ones as hyper craft. Having said that, we must point out there are limits to how small a HFG can be, for example we can not make one to fit on a shuttle craft. (some aliens can)

This fact is very substantial in the workings of space travel, particularly military planning. Because the size of faster than light ships is limited tightly, while that of local area ships is not. The non-hyper defense crafts of a system can be larger and pack more of a punch than the potential invaders. 

On a more peaceful note, the size limitation matters a lot for colonization planning too. We can not built ships able to move several 1000 people or several 1000 tons of cargo in a single trip.