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SCAVENGERS PG8
Next Comic:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2725150/
Previous Comic:
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Ah! So we find out what the UMV 102 RECOVERY does as a job. Owner Jordan Hasely finally is seen and Dale... well, otters are otters. :)
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2725150/
Previous Comic:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1848615/
Ah! So we find out what the UMV 102 RECOVERY does as a job. Owner Jordan Hasely finally is seen and Dale... well, otters are otters. :)
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Comics
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 800 x 1210px
File Size 261.2 kB
It's from "A Mote In God's Eye" by Larry Niven, and has since become one of the classic methods of FTL
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/ro.....et3v.html#mote
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/ro.....et3v.html#mote
Instantaneous travel between points through a jump gate? Well, there are some similarities, but the core difference is that in my universe is that travel is not instant. Here's the basic method:
Transmit and Receive, or Pitch and Catch.
Gates are simply means of boosting speed. Yes, they do link between sectors within their own network, but they only are boosters... or catchers as the case may be.
In system transit is through normal sublight means. Reaction or other methods acceptable.
When you need to travel to another sector, you need to use the gate or jump point. You cannot go from a stop to instant FTL speeds- inertia dampers simply aren't that advanced yet. Sure, they can help a lot, but there are some things that science hasn't overcome. A ship needs to build up momentum to a sufficient levels that the jump gate can accelerate you to the next point in the chain. You'll need to go into the system, build up your speed and coordinate to be at X velocicy at the gate's position Y at the right time. Remember Back to the Future and the 88 mph? It's somewhat like that. The system is calibrated to a set velocity. Your mass has already been accounted for in your plans you filed for the operators so they know exactly how much thrust to apply. That's critical to know as you'll see shortly.
So you hit the jump point, are accelerated and you're off. There's still real time to travel those great distances and you will possibly spend days in transit between distant points. More likely than a day, but during which you cannot... well, it's STRONGLY discouraged to make any sort of correction in coarse. Seriously. Don't do it kids. THnk of a bullet in transit that glaces off a target- you're still going high speed but no longer on target.
Now depending upon where you are going, different amounts of thrust may be used. If you are going to a known site, another gate on the far side will be there to receive or 'catch' your ship as it arrives. All that excess energry is damped down and absorbed into the system to help powrer up the next jump. It's not a lossless system, but you do want to use regenative methods where you can. If all goes well, your velocity will be reduced to the original X that you entered the system in, but now on the far side. You only now need to reduce your speed through normal means in slow down routes before traveling in system. That slowdown process may take hours/days/a week or more depending again upon your mass and velocity required for your initial jump. Obviously smaller ships are easier to work with, but massive freighters are another case altogether.
What do you do when there is no receive point to catch you? Oh yes, a single shot throw? That's highly dangerous. Again, you can do it, but you better be prepared for a very very long slow down time on the far side. If the boost given is minimal enough, you could drop out of this FTL level at a predetermined point, however you'll still be going much too fast for your own ship's systems to account for the mass and momentum to handle. You'll ned up an out of control missile with little to no control. Better hope there isn't a planet in the way. That can be.... awkward.
Some ships such as military and exploratory vessels are set up with their own jump systems. They tend to be huge things accordingly, but can move themselves unaided. You obviously don't do long distances since the slowdown rates would be too much to account for, but energy dampeners can help for short jumps. It's energy intensive and wasteful. Military vessels can get away with it with bulk brawn, but exploration count on the end point being largely void of obstacles. They ARE on an exploration, after all.
Jump points are built in a step by step method, almost a pull yourself up by your own bootstrap means. You launch AI scout ships first to your projected target. Those arrive, scan the area and send back their report by tightbeam high power before they disappear out of the system. That's right, it's a one way trip for them. Next up AI consttructor ships are sent. These are sent with minimal boost from a gate, targeted to arrive near the site with the realization that it may take months/years for them to shed enough speed to get to the target. Organic crews cannot be risked in this manner. Once the construction ships get on site, they will build a reception gate/jump point. Once that is operational, manned ships can be sent through. Usually it's a small temporary gate only suitable for small craft which will then proceed to build a full scale commercial unit nearby. Once you have that, a station is built in any safe location near a natural body of interest that was the point of building in this location to begin with.
I have gone way too much into this system than I intended, and it's probably better suited to a tech / background information file. :)
Transmit and Receive, or Pitch and Catch.
Gates are simply means of boosting speed. Yes, they do link between sectors within their own network, but they only are boosters... or catchers as the case may be.
In system transit is through normal sublight means. Reaction or other methods acceptable.
When you need to travel to another sector, you need to use the gate or jump point. You cannot go from a stop to instant FTL speeds- inertia dampers simply aren't that advanced yet. Sure, they can help a lot, but there are some things that science hasn't overcome. A ship needs to build up momentum to a sufficient levels that the jump gate can accelerate you to the next point in the chain. You'll need to go into the system, build up your speed and coordinate to be at X velocicy at the gate's position Y at the right time. Remember Back to the Future and the 88 mph? It's somewhat like that. The system is calibrated to a set velocity. Your mass has already been accounted for in your plans you filed for the operators so they know exactly how much thrust to apply. That's critical to know as you'll see shortly.
So you hit the jump point, are accelerated and you're off. There's still real time to travel those great distances and you will possibly spend days in transit between distant points. More likely than a day, but during which you cannot... well, it's STRONGLY discouraged to make any sort of correction in coarse. Seriously. Don't do it kids. THnk of a bullet in transit that glaces off a target- you're still going high speed but no longer on target.
Now depending upon where you are going, different amounts of thrust may be used. If you are going to a known site, another gate on the far side will be there to receive or 'catch' your ship as it arrives. All that excess energry is damped down and absorbed into the system to help powrer up the next jump. It's not a lossless system, but you do want to use regenative methods where you can. If all goes well, your velocity will be reduced to the original X that you entered the system in, but now on the far side. You only now need to reduce your speed through normal means in slow down routes before traveling in system. That slowdown process may take hours/days/a week or more depending again upon your mass and velocity required for your initial jump. Obviously smaller ships are easier to work with, but massive freighters are another case altogether.
What do you do when there is no receive point to catch you? Oh yes, a single shot throw? That's highly dangerous. Again, you can do it, but you better be prepared for a very very long slow down time on the far side. If the boost given is minimal enough, you could drop out of this FTL level at a predetermined point, however you'll still be going much too fast for your own ship's systems to account for the mass and momentum to handle. You'll ned up an out of control missile with little to no control. Better hope there isn't a planet in the way. That can be.... awkward.
Some ships such as military and exploratory vessels are set up with their own jump systems. They tend to be huge things accordingly, but can move themselves unaided. You obviously don't do long distances since the slowdown rates would be too much to account for, but energy dampeners can help for short jumps. It's energy intensive and wasteful. Military vessels can get away with it with bulk brawn, but exploration count on the end point being largely void of obstacles. They ARE on an exploration, after all.
Jump points are built in a step by step method, almost a pull yourself up by your own bootstrap means. You launch AI scout ships first to your projected target. Those arrive, scan the area and send back their report by tightbeam high power before they disappear out of the system. That's right, it's a one way trip for them. Next up AI consttructor ships are sent. These are sent with minimal boost from a gate, targeted to arrive near the site with the realization that it may take months/years for them to shed enough speed to get to the target. Organic crews cannot be risked in this manner. Once the construction ships get on site, they will build a reception gate/jump point. Once that is operational, manned ships can be sent through. Usually it's a small temporary gate only suitable for small craft which will then proceed to build a full scale commercial unit nearby. Once you have that, a station is built in any safe location near a natural body of interest that was the point of building in this location to begin with.
I have gone way too much into this system than I intended, and it's probably better suited to a tech / background information file. :)
You win! Have you read Stargate (not the terrible mess of a series, rather the 1977 paperback by Stephen Robinett)? This also reminds me of the short by Ken MacLeod, "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359" where intersystem transport involves being electromagnetically accelerated down a gun about 180 AU's long that's "Carefully calibrated" with another gun in another system. Emphasis on careful.
Actually, except for the time spent in transit, it also sounds a bit like "Starman Jones", by Heinlein. That posited that the 3-D universe we percieve was "crumpled" though a few other dimensions, and by exceeding lightspeed, one could pop through to a congruent point elsewhere. Surveying these was the real bitch.
But you had to be at .999 C at exactly the right point in space on a VERY precise course before boosting over lightspeed. And then slow down again after the jump. Or you end up... somewhere other than where you intended. Reversing the process is, obviously, not easy. Main differences:1> that needed no external hardware, and 2> travel was instantaneous.
Lessee... Forever War... well, travel was instantaneous from the view of those traveling. relativity was a mother during acceleration, though.
Bio of a Space Tyrant. Hmmm. Yeah, that looks like a reasonably close parallel, IIRC. haven't re-read it in AGES. The drive system effectively converted you to light. so it was lightspeed travel, no time passing for those in transit. but it had to be very precisely aimed so you could be converted BACK.
There's another similar system out there that I'll have to dig a bit to recall where it was from. But thanks for the infodump, Flinters. I appreciate knowing the nuts and bolts. ;)
But you had to be at .999 C at exactly the right point in space on a VERY precise course before boosting over lightspeed. And then slow down again after the jump. Or you end up... somewhere other than where you intended. Reversing the process is, obviously, not easy. Main differences:1> that needed no external hardware, and 2> travel was instantaneous.
Lessee... Forever War... well, travel was instantaneous from the view of those traveling. relativity was a mother during acceleration, though.
Bio of a Space Tyrant. Hmmm. Yeah, that looks like a reasonably close parallel, IIRC. haven't re-read it in AGES. The drive system effectively converted you to light. so it was lightspeed travel, no time passing for those in transit. but it had to be very precisely aimed so you could be converted BACK.
There's another similar system out there that I'll have to dig a bit to recall where it was from. But thanks for the infodump, Flinters. I appreciate knowing the nuts and bolts. ;)
It's a standard exposition format, for when your characters already know most of the information, you used a modified form. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p.....Main/AsYouKnow
SCAVENGERS!!!!!!
FISHY!!!!!
*ahem* Jump points. First thing to mind is, yes, Alderson drive, or any similar "ley-line" system. It basically posits that there are paths through some kind of hyperspace generated (usually) by the gravitational stress of stars. They're either mathematically predictable (Mote in God's Eye) or at least detectable (Starfire Universe, Legacy of the Aldenata Universe). Jump points don't need to be QUITE so fixed, however, it could just be that that's where traffic is routed due to beacon and hardware reasons (Babylon Five, possibly Freehold), and drives may or may not exist that give direct access to the same hyperspace.
The mentioning of a specific jump point does pretty much limit/eliminate much free-flight Hyperspace travel, unless there's a pretty severe cost to it, usually in terms of very high power generation requirements, or excessive amounts of hardware. (see again Aldenata, Babylon 5, Freehold)
Sorry, you got my inner (okay, NOT so inner) sci-fi geek running with that bit. ;)
This is why a lot of sci-fi sticks solely to free-flight hyperspace (Star Trek, Star Wars, Laumer, Doc Smith, et cetera, ad nauseam), the logistical end of jump points can get... convoluted.
FISHY!!!!!
*ahem* Jump points. First thing to mind is, yes, Alderson drive, or any similar "ley-line" system. It basically posits that there are paths through some kind of hyperspace generated (usually) by the gravitational stress of stars. They're either mathematically predictable (Mote in God's Eye) or at least detectable (Starfire Universe, Legacy of the Aldenata Universe). Jump points don't need to be QUITE so fixed, however, it could just be that that's where traffic is routed due to beacon and hardware reasons (Babylon Five, possibly Freehold), and drives may or may not exist that give direct access to the same hyperspace.
The mentioning of a specific jump point does pretty much limit/eliminate much free-flight Hyperspace travel, unless there's a pretty severe cost to it, usually in terms of very high power generation requirements, or excessive amounts of hardware. (see again Aldenata, Babylon 5, Freehold)
Sorry, you got my inner (okay, NOT so inner) sci-fi geek running with that bit. ;)
This is why a lot of sci-fi sticks solely to free-flight hyperspace (Star Trek, Star Wars, Laumer, Doc Smith, et cetera, ad nauseam), the logistical end of jump points can get... convoluted.
Ironically, the jump gate theory is largely the core of my comic's purpose. It's something I'm interested in as well, and is something Tibo and I laid out a while ago in detail to make this universe 'work'. After all, you have to know how things work correctly first before you... well... break it. ;)
Wahoooo! Another Scavengers is up!
I had been despairing that our author/artist 'Roo had been going to leave the crew of the Recovery en route for ever......
Jordan seems to be an enthusiastic, if somewhat clueless owner, while Vicki seems less than amused with both Jordan and their assignment....
I had been despairing that our author/artist 'Roo had been going to leave the crew of the Recovery en route for ever......
Jordan seems to be an enthusiastic, if somewhat clueless owner, while Vicki seems less than amused with both Jordan and their assignment....
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