Quote:After receiving commands from a ship's pilot via paralight system, the process of a hyperspace jump began with the collection of gamma  radiation  by the field guide. A motivator would build up and modify the energy in a fusion generator through several kilometers of looped superconducting wire. To enter hyperspace, the hyperdrive's horizontal boosters would provide energy to the ionization chamber to begin ignition that would release the radiation, causing ripples in the time-space matrix and allowing the ship to propel off the ripples into hyperspace. Inertial dampers were used to protect the ship, crew, and cargo from being crushed by the tremendous acceleration of the jump. Once in hyperspace, a null quantum field generator helped stabilize the vessel and kept it from prematurely emerging from the alternate dimension. Shields also protected the ship from fatal collisions with interstellar gas and dark matter particles. To prevent the relativistic passing of time while in hyperspace, starships used stasis fields attuned to hyperdrive levels to keep organic onboard crews or cargoes "in time" with the standard galactic dimension.

Certain hyperdrives used antimatter as fuel, stored in special anti-matter pods, though it remains unclear how this integrated with other hyperdrive mechanics.

Upon exiting hyperspace an unknown technology was used to decelerate the starship. Both entrances into and exits from hyperspace created wake rotation and Cronau radiation that produced a detectable signature often used to reconnoiter fleet movements or by planetary customs authorities. Other technologies, such as the 4-axial stabilizer and hyperdrive regulator kept the ship from being ripped apart by the physics of hyperspace travel. To prevent overheating, some hyperdrives made use of overheat fail safes, like a hyperspace shunt or transpacitor, or alluvial dampers to regulate the flow of ion particles used to provide superluminal thrust.

A hyperdrive could only initiate a jump into hyperspace when reasonably free of the gravitic pull of a major celestial body. Sublight engines were used to liberate the starship from a body's gravity well before the ship could jump. Hyperdrives included an automatic failsafe that cut out the hyperdrive when a gravity well was detected in the navigational path. While this was used to prevent a collision in the event of an astrogational error, the failsafe was exploited by engineers to create artificial gravity wells, such as those used on Imperial Immobilizer 418 cruisers or Hapan mass mines, to either pull starships from hyperspace at a specific location or to prevent them from fleeing into hyperspace. This, of course, relied on either knowledge of a starship's travel pattern or being situated along a particularly popular hyperspace route. Some systems allowed an override of the failsafe, but it was known to have disastrous effects.

Serpent wrote:That's a very fascinating article, Trick, and something I have been discussing with my friends (who also write for fun for things like Nano) for a long time.

Trying to get around the fanciful ideas of sci-fi, and yet still have that grand sense of scale is very tough, and it is for that reason that I love reading up on the development of new technologies for space exploration.

I mean, when I was a kid, Warp drive was just something on Star Trek, and 'solar sails' was an interesting quirk of Eldar technology in the Warhammer 40k universe.

Now, of course, Warp drive is theoretically possible (according to Stephen Hawking, who knows more about physics than anyone else alive), and as for solar sails, well, the Japanese tested them in space on a probe last year!  So they are now real!

So yes, grand sci-fi without fanciful, almost 'magic' ideas is tough.  By remember, our definitions of impossible are always changing....