Space Travel and Future Tech

There are a lot of Stars in our galaxy, Credit open source but I don't know whom.

The basic debate is what is Hard Science Fiction and what should be used because it improves game play?

For Example and to start off, going from space to the surface of the planet? The best to me would be taking a little ship off the big ship and doing a reentry and watching the grown come up and then landing and getting out and walking around. BUT! Programming this is a really big pain in the butt plus very intensive for the computer! So just like star trek maybe we should use a transporter. Thus you are in your ship and then you are on the ground in a building. Programming wise this would take just a little bit of time. Also what is lost with this method? I say lets have transporters!

Next Question!
Should we have jump engines and how should they be done? If your friend is on the next star can you talk with him or does the email take one week to get there? For players it would be better, maybe, to have it all instant email and to be able to know if their buddy is online, but for programming (think, keeping the servers small and separate) and realism maybe it is better to make it take a week. Taking a week makes for better planing and also makes for keeping the players locked up in a small section of space or one spaceship. If players spread out to much then it is boring.

Other Questions,
Pysonics?
Robots?
AI (not talking the real world type but the in game type. IE fictional?
Should Warships really be limited by having humans in them and running them? Can they only make 7g turns?
Nano tech.
Very high tech VS very low tech?

Fantasy Tech is anything that can not be easily explained using modern science. I try to limit it as much as I can and still have a fun game that the computer can run.

The Jump drive works based on Jump Energy that gathers around high gravity wells. This energy then arcs over to other wells. The stronger the gravity the farther it can arch. The ships travel by jumping into this energy and following an arcs to a new star. It is easy to jump into this energy when it is very thick, in the gravity wells but very hard to get out of when it is thick. The arcs are not constant and jump from star to star in a random pattern. This jumping happens on average every 100 days. Less often for smaller stars but more often for bigger ones. See chart. (note to self, 10 days for O types about 300 days for G2V stars)

Jump drive will work instantaneously or there about. It will go from a place of high gravity in the near of the surface of a star to an area of low gravity, about 1/2 the distance to the stars termination shock and on a beacon. Jumping from N-space to J-space is best done in an area of very high "gas" density and thus there is a Beacon maintained at the jump in point, this allows for much lower energy jump-ins. Jumping in and out releases a large amount of energy in the visible spectrum and looks like a very bright white flash.

Jumping out is very easy but knowing where you are when doing it is not. To solve this problem jumping out of J-Space is done with a beacon also. These beacons allow for communications through J-Space and also let ships know when the areas is clear for a jump in.

Setting up a Beacon is a talk for the Stellar Rangers. To set one up you much jump into a new system and search for the right place to set up the Beacon. This search can take up to one 30 days to find the best spot, with powerful ships and the right equipment the search time may be cut down to about 3 days. Once found it is easy to follow the point around as it drifts but if lost you must start all over and re-find it. Jumping into a system without a beacon means that your point of arrival will be from 1/2 the distance to the stars termination shock to 3 times the distance and might mean jumping into a solid body(not good).

Beacons use up a large amount of energy and thus are often space stations. Beacons send and receive transmission through jump space and then retransmit to the system that they are in. Even if the wisps are not strong enough for ship travel between stars they are always there and allow for communications between Beacons. The best points for a Beacon in a system tends to drift with time and they must be moved from time to time. Finding if new routes are open can only be done by trying them. This is the job of a specially trained group of ships and pilots called Stellar Ranges.

Jump only works because there is a "gas" in jump space that clusters around points of high gravity in normal space. When this "gas" is of high density it is possible to jump into jump space and travel along wisps of this "gas" that exist for periods of time between stars. To jump back to normal space you need to be in an area of thin "gas" because the "gas" tends to hold objects in Jump space. Sometimes the whisps break or thin to the point of uselessness and reform to other local stars. There are potential connections to all stars within about 6 parsecs of the central star or even farther with massive stars. These connections once formed tend to last about 1 year and then switch to a new star. At any given time about 50% of the local stars are connected. The relation of jump space to normal space is not one to one and seems a bit random due to scientists not yet fully understanding it, thus the need for beacons to come out at the right place.

For ships to jump they must have a jump drive, jump sensors and jump navigation systems. Jump engines do not use reaction mass and hence do not need to be mounted on the surface of the ship. Jump Engines create a sphere of energy that allows the ship to transition into and out of jump space. This sphere shape can be modified by the use of jump nodes on the surface of the ship or at least close to it. Jump engines use large amounts of power.

A normal trip from star A to star C via star B is done like this.

1. Travel in normal space from the planet to the inner Beacon.
   

2. Get the jump routes that are open and pick one.
   

3. Charge jump engines and then jump.
   

4. Arrive at star B in 0 time at outer Beacon.
   

5. Refuel needed for next jump from ether Beacon or a planet or from a comet or from a gas giant. Perhaps jump takes some special fuel in addition (dilithium crystals?)? This could serve to limit jumps if need be.
   

6. Fly in normal space to inner Beacon and repeat jump.
   

7. Come out at planet C at outer Beacon. Fly to habitable planet and sell goods and buy new ones.

Luckily these disasters are very rare! Most common listed first.

• Ship loose Beacon signal. Your ship comes out at the star but perhaps a long way out.
  

• Miss jump. Gate closes as you jump. Ship comes out at wrong star and you can't go directly back to the star you started from.
  

• Bad jump. You come out at wrong star.
  

• Really bad jump. You come out is deep space with no way to get home and starve to death.
  

• Ship blows up due to bad repair, bad part or sabotage.

Major question.

• How far can a ship jump at jump one between two stars of mass M and m (in sun masses)? Parsecs = ln(M+m+2.1) * ln(<jump number> + 2.1)
  

• How often do jump lanes change? That is based on the average mass of the 2 stars (In sun masses). The number of days until you check if the lane changes = 100/(M+m)/2. There is a 2 in 6 chance it will change.
  

• How far apart are our stars anyway? On average there is about 50% chance of a star per parsec.
  

• What is the maximum jump number or range? This depends on the masses of the stars in question, the technology level of the jump engine and the rating of the engine. Jump Engines can be rated from 0 to infinity with the max being dictated by the tech level of the manufacturer, real numbers are used.
  

• Where exactly should the inner and outer Beacons be located?
  

• How far is this for each star type?
  

• How much time does this mean for normal travel?
  

• What speed is the maximum for ships?
  

• What is the maximum acceleration for the ships?

Beaming transport must be done from a large sending device to a large receiving device. The range is short, about 1500 km. The energy required is high and thus the costs are high, roughly equal to the costs of a Seattle to Tokyo plane flight. The main reason for this is to avoid the programming needed for planet landings and ship to ship transport.

Artificial gravity is not used because it takes to much magic to make it work and this is hard SF with the exception of Jump Tech. Most ships pull one G at all times to give the feeling of gravity on the ships. Others rotate for this reason.

Star to Star Communications is done using a sideline of Jump Tech. It is instantaneous and requires the use of a Beacon or jump ship it the system. It travels from one Beacon to the next Beacon and from there at the speed of light to anyplace in a system. This also implies that the communications might be intercepted by the Beacon stations.