Jump drive

For the data storage device, see USB flash drive.

A jump drive is a speculative method of traveling faster than light (FTL) in science fiction. Related concepts are hyperdrive, warp drive and interstellar teleporter. The key characteristic of a jump drive (as the term is usually used) is that it allows a starship to be instantaneously teleported between two points. A jump drive is supposed to make a spaceship (or any matter) go from one point in space to another point, which may be several light years away, in a single instant. Like time travel, a jump drive is often taken for granted in science fiction, but very few science fiction works talk about the mechanics behind a jump drive. There are vague indications of the involvement of tachyons and the space-time continuum in some works.

Science fiction literature

Jump drives were used in many science fiction universes for space vehicle movement, initially suggested in The Foundation Series of novels by Isaac Asimov from 1942.[1] In Heinlein's Starman Jones (1953), the characters use a "Horst Transition" to travel instantaneously between spaces that are "flat"; that is, do not have the warping associated with gravity.[2] (Heinlein's Friday novel, published in 1982, uses the same form of jump drive with the same kind of starship.[3])

Jump drive next appears in the Deathworld 2 novel by Harry Harrison in the 1964 trilogy by the same name,[4] and Frank Herbert's Dune. The CoDominium series by Jerry Pournelle which begun publication in 1973 features the Alderson jump drive. However, their popularity exploded only over a decade later with the Alliance-Union universe series by C. J. Cherryh from 1976. The Traveller role playing game (by Marc Miller, first edition in 1977) uses something called "jump drives", but they're actually a kind of hyperdrive, with ships using it traveling through "jump space" (the game's term for hyperspace) for about a week, regardless of distance travelled, before re-emerging into normal space.[5]

In the novel The Forever Man (1984) by Gordon R. Dickson, starships use a jump-drive that makes the vehicle omnipresent for an instant before repositioning the ship in a pre-determined location. Several jumps are needed, because farther triangulations require more time to calculate, therefore a journey across the galaxy may take a few centuries to calculate all at once.

In the novel Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London by Keith Mansfield, various species described as "Owlein" (such as Plicans) fold space allowing for a form of jump drive. This Folding cannot exceed certain (unspecified) distances without damaging the structure of space-time.

In most fictional universes, the total distance per jump is limited and multiple jumps may be needed to reach the final destination. Jump drives often require significant power and many universes require time to "re-energize" the jump drive after a jump, thereby limiting the frequency at which jumps can be executed.

These factors can allow writers to build dramatic tension by showing characters struggling to reach a jump point, or to recharge their drive, before their foes reach them.

The Nights Dawn Trilogy novels by Peter F. Hamilton published in the 1990s, used it under the name ZTT (Zero Temporal Transit) Drive. It is worth noting that with ZTT, momentum is conserved, so a ship might spend days synchronizing its normal-space relative velocity with its destination before or after jumping - a concept first used in E.E. 'Doc' Smith's Lensman series (1937–1948), albeit in connection with 'inertialess' FTL drives rather than jump drives, where it is referred to as "matching intrinsics".

The novel Hyperdrive by Tim Parise featured a kind of jump drive that operated by altering the coordinates of a ship or object within the framework of space-time, causing it to move instantly between two points. This form of jump drive was unusual in science fiction in that the change was effected by a pilot interfacing directly with the structure of the universe rather than by a machine or computer.[6]

Jump drives are also used in the Battletech series of games and literature. In the literature the drive is called the "Kearny-Fuchida Drive", or K-F drive. Named for the physicists that developed the equations needed for the drive to work. The jump takes only a few seconds, but is limited to a max distance 30 lys. There is a variable amount of time required between jumps to recharge the energy for jumping. Recharging is done by solar sails, or in developed systems there may be a recharge station. In rare cases, such as for Warships, a ship may have a "Lithium-Fusion" battery which stores extra power for an additional jump without the normal recharge time. When a solar sail is used for recharging the type of star determines how long a recharge takes.

Jump drives are used as one of the methods for FTL travel in the universe of the Lost Fleet book series by Jack Campbell. The uses of jump drives are limited to only the closest of stars relative to the position of the fleet. Once a portal to jump space has been opened by the flagship, it is left open for the rest of the fleet to follow through. The technical specifications of the jump drive are vague, implying that is simply an alternate universe in which everything moves faster than in the home universe. Jump drives can also be dangerous; an overload in the jump core can be catastrophic, destroying any ships within the blast radius. If used for too long the ships may become lost in jump space due to the constant change in physical characteristics. John Geary (the main character of the series) mentions cheesy zombie motion pictures of his time, in which an entire crew become zombies after remaining in jump space too long. Jump space may also cause side effects to humans, including itchy skin, nausea and headache.

Computer games

There are two main variants of jump drives commonly portrayed in computer games. The first requires a ship to travel through normal space to a specific jump point. Once at that point, the jump drive is used to move to another jump point. In some examples, such as the Capsule Drive in the computer game Independence War, the ship can travel to any other jump point. Others, such as the Wing Commander series, only allow transit from one jump point to a corresponding exit point (which may or may not allow travel in the opposite direction). The second variant allows a ship to execute a jump from anywhere in normal space and move directly to any other location. This variant is frequently subject to other limitations such as distance from strong gravity wells. Battletech uses this style of jump drive in its jumpships.

With the appearance of computer games, many have used jump drives, including:

Variations of jump drive technology in film and television

The Stargate film and television series utilizes two different types of jump drive. Many space craft featured in the franchise have a type of "hyperspace" technology, while the stargates themselves employ a "wormhole" technology which is used for almost instantaneous travel from one point to another across many light years (including intergalactic travel). Similar wormhole technology was also explored in the season finale of Stargate: Atlantis as an alternative to Atlantis's hyperdrive, allowing the entire city to move from the outer edge of the Milky Way Galaxy to Earth in a matter of seconds. In the Stargate Universe series, the ancient spaceship Destiny uses a previously unknown type of faster-than-light-travel, simply referred to as FTL by characters in the television series.

The Babylon 5 television series describes jump drives as a way to jump to hyperspace through a jumpgate. While interstellar travel is not instantaneous, it is much faster than the speed of light.

The reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series utilizes a jump drive known as an FTL Drive. The technology allows a ship to instantaneously jump from one point in space to another, though the mechanics behind the drive are never explained beyond describing preparing the drive as "spinning up".

The film Event Horizon features the eponymous ship using a jump drive. Harnessing the power of an artificial black hole, the drive was designed to project a focused beam of gravitons, folding space and allowing the ship to pass through and arrive immediately at the new location. The drive malfunctioned and opened a rift, sending the ship through a dimensional gateway to hell, a place of pure chaos.

The television series Eureka uses an FTL drive as a method of travel to the moon Titan and was first introduced as a method of delivery for large amounts of data from deep space.

The television series Dark Matter employs an FTL drive to evade enemy missiles in the first episode as well as a means to travel through the universe.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Isaac Asimov, Part I, Psychohistorians, Foundation, 1951
  2. ↑ Heinlein, Robert A. (1953). Starman Jones.
  3. ↑ Heinlein, Robert A. (1982). Friday.
  4. ↑ Harry Harrison, Deathworld 2, Chapter 3
  5. ↑ p.43, Loren K. Wiseman, Book 0, Introduction to Traveller, Game Designer's Workshop, 1981
  6. ↑ Parise, Tim (2013). Hyperdrive. The Maui Company. p. 26-28.
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