Jump Drive/meta
Notes (2019)[edit]
Jump drive handwavium varies from version to version. IIRC Classic Traveller and Mega Traveller just require a lanthanum (or barium, but it's less efficient) jump grid in the hull of the ship that is charged with lots of energy to initiate the jump, which then proceeds unstoppably. Whether or not the jump drive still needs to be supplying any power to the jump grid during the jump is unspecified (but I always inferred not, otherwise you could do an emergency 'crash out' mid jump, albeit in the middle of interstellar nowhere). The energy is supplied from the jump fuel by the jump drive via the Zuchai crystals (which I always inferred to be a very highly efficient and specialised fusion plant and the capacitors of the gods respectively).
Mongoose Traveller is different - there at least part of the hydrogen jump fuel is used to physically create a jump bubble around the ship (my guess being that somebody somewhere did the maths on the energy flows for a CT jump drive and decided it would melt the jump drive, the engineering compartment, the engineers and most of the ship).
For the former case, where the energy comes from would seem to not be a critical part of the process - you could beam it in from outside, store it in the Zuchai crystals and use it with no problems (apart from coping with the rate of power flow, and being even more doomed than usual in the case of a misjump).
For the latter case - you'll still need whatever proportion of the jump fuel is needed to inflate your pocket universe jump bubble.
To clarify the above:
- Barium as an alternative to lanthanum for jump grids is in 'The Traveller Adventure'.
- Jump drives containing capacitors is from 'High Guard'.
- Zuchai crystals as the high efficiency capacitor of choice is from MegaTraveller 'Imperial Encyclopedia' IIRC.
- EXTERNAL LINK: Jump Drive Conversation of Argian Stargate Post
- - Maksim-Smelchak (talk) 13:51, 8 February 2019 (EST)
Notes (2016)[edit]
T5 TL Expanded Notation Correlation (2017)[edit]
- Reminder to build out 1 to 33
- - Maksim-Smelchak (talk) 07:27, 15 April 2017 (EDT)
| Tech Period | TL | FTL-1 | FTL-2 | FTL-3 | FTL-4 | FTL-5 | Min-TL | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ur-tech | 6 | Relativistic Drive RD-6 | 6 | Only STL or NAFAL available.
| ||||
| Ur-tech | 7 | Relativistic Drive RD-7 | 6 | Only STL or NAFAL available.
| ||||
| Ur-tech | 8 | Relativistic Drive RD-8 | 6 | Only STL or NAFAL available.
| ||||
| Ur-tech | 9 | Relativistic Drive RD-9 | Prototype JD-1 | 9 | FTL becomes available as a prototype. | |||
| Stell-tech | 10-A | JD-1 | 9 | TBD | ||||
| Stell-tech | 11-B | JD-2 | 11 | TBD | ||||
| Stell-tech | 12-C | JD-3 | 12 | TBD | ||||
| Stell-tech | 13-D | JD-4 | 13 | TBD | ||||
| Stell-tech | 14-E | JD-5 | 14 | TBD | ||||
| Stell-tech | 15-F | JD-6 | 15 | TBD | ||||
| Stell-tech | 16-G | JD-7 | Prototype HD-1 | 16 | The Prototype HD-1 brings an order of exponential advance to FTL travel. | |||
| Stell-tech | 17-H | JD-8 | HD-1 | 17 | TBD | |||
| Stell-tech | 18-J | JD-9 | HD-2 | Prototype SD-1 | 18 | The Prototype SD-1 brings an order of exponential advance to FTL travel. | ||
| Ultra-tech | 19-K | HD-3 | SD-1 | 19 | Hop Drives entirely replace Jump Drives. | |||
| Ultra-tech | 20-L | HD-4 | SD-2 | 20 | TBD | |||
| Ultra-tech | 21-M | HD-5 | SD-3 | 21 | TBD | |||
| Ultra-tech | 22-N | HD-6 | SD-4 | 22 | TBD | |||
| Ultra-tech | 23-O | HD-7 | SD-5 | 23 | TBD | |||
| Ultra-tech | 24-P | HD-8 | SD-6 | 24 | TBD | |||
| Ultra-tech | 25-Q | HD-9 | SD-7 | Prototype BD-1 | 25 | The Prototype BD-1 brings an order of exponential advance to FTL travel. | ||
| Ultra-tech | 26-R | SD-8 | BD-1 | 26 | Skip Drives entirely replace Hop Drives. | |||
| Ultra-tech | 27-S | SD-9 | BD-2 | 27 | TBD | |||
| Dei-Tech | 28-T | LD-1 | BD-3 | Prototype VD-1 | 28 | The Prototype VD-1 brings an order of exponential advance to FTL travel. | ||
| Dei-Tech | 29-U | LD-2 | BD-4 | VD-1 | 29 | TBD | ||
| Dei-Tech | 30-V | LD-3 | BD-5 | VD-2 | Prototype 6D | 30 | The Prototype 6D-1 brings an order of exponential advance to FTL travel. | |
| Omni-tech | 31-X | LD-4 | BD-6 | VD-3 | 6D | Prototype 7D-1 | 31 | The Prototype 7D-1 brings an order of exponential advance to FTL travel. |
| Omni-tech | 32-Y | LD-5 | BD-7 | VD-4 | 7D | Prototype 8D | 32 | The Prototype 8D-1 brings an order of exponential advance to FTL travel. |
| Omni-tech | 33-Z | LD-6 | BD-8 | VD-5 | 8D | Prototype 9D | 33 | The Prototype 9D-1 brings an order of exponential advance to FTL travel. |
Acronym Key (2017)[edit]
| Acronym | Full Name | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| RD | Relativistic Drive | Conventional N-space travel. |
| JD | Jump Drive | Unconventional FTL J-Space travel. |
| HD | Hop Drive | Unconventional FTL H-Space travel. |
| SD | Skip Drives | Unconventional FTL S-Space travel. |
| LD | Leap Drives | Unconventional FTL L-Space travel. |
| BD | Bound Drives | Unconventional FTL B-Space travel. |
| VD | Vault Drives | Unconventional FTL V-Space travel. |
| 6D | Six Drives | Exotic supra-FTL 6-Space travel. |
| 7D | Seven Drives | Exotic supra-FTL 7-Space travel. |
| 8D | Eight Drives | Exotic supra-FTL 8-Space travel. |
| 9D | Nine Drives | Exotic supra-FTL 9-Space travel. |
HIGHER ORDER JUMP DRIVES (2016)[edit]
While they are not currently known to Imperial Science as of the 1116 era, there are actually at least 9 tiers of "hyperspaces", or "Tau-spaces", of which Jumpspace is only the lowest tier. The actual values and performances are listed below.
| Minimum TL | Space | Level #s | Weave (Order of Magnitude) | Drive Names |
FTL | Travel Duration | Travel Distance | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Real Space (N-space) |
0 | None | Conventional Drives (Relativistic) |
NAFAL | Conventional Space-Time limitations. | Unlimited (Fuel limitation) |
Pre-FTL or NAFAL Technologies.
|
| 9 | Jump Space (J-space) |
1 to 9 | 0th-Order (100) | Jump Drives
J-1 to J-9 |
FTL | 168 hours [± 10%] | 1-9 pc | Drive rating are equal to the maximum travel distance in parsecs of travel.
|
| 17 | Hop Space (H-space) |
10 to 18 | 1st-Order (101) | Hop Drives
H-1 to H-9 |
FTL | 168 hours [± 10%] | 10-90 pc | Drive rating are equal to the maximum travel distance in 10s of pc of travel. |
| 20 | Skip Space (S-space) |
19 to 27 | 2nd-Order (102) | Skip Drives
S-1 to S-9 |
FTL | 168 hours [± 10%] | 100-900 pc | Drive rating are equal to the maximum travel distance in 100s of pc of travel. |
| 22 | Leap Space (L-space) |
28 to 36 | 3rd-Order (103) | Leap Drives
L-1 to L-9 |
FTL | 168 hours [± 10%] | 1000 pc to 9000 pc |
Drive rating are equal to the maximum travel distance in 1000s of pc of travel. |
| 26 | Bound Space (B-space) |
37 to 45 | 4th-Order (104) | Bound Drives
B-1 to B-9 |
FTL | 168 hours [± 10%] | 10,000 pc to 90,000 pc |
Drive rating are equal to the maximum travel distance in 10,000s of pc of travel. |
| 29 | Vault Space (V-space) |
46 to 54 | 5th-Order (105) | Vault Drives
V-1 to V-9 |
FTL | 168 hours [± 10%] | 100,000 pc to 900,000 pc |
Drive rating are equal to the maximum travel distance in 100,000s of pc of travel. |
| 31 | "6-space" | 55 to 63 | 6th-Order (106) | Six Drives
"Six"-1 to "Six"-9 (?) |
FTL | 168 hours [± 10%] | 1 million pc to 9 million pc |
Drive rating are equal to the maximum travel distance in millions of pc of travel. |
| 32 | "7-space" | 64 to 72 | 7th-Order (107) | Seven Drives
"Seven"-1 to "Seven"-9 (?) |
FTL | 168 hours [± 10%] | 10 million pc to 90 million pc |
Drive rating are equal to the maximum travel distance in 10s of millions of pc of travel. * Generally not available. |
| 33 | "8-space" | 73 to 81 | 8th-Order (108) | Eight Drives
"Eight"-1 to "Eight"-9 (?) |
FTL | 168 hours [± 10%] | 100 million pc to 900 million pc |
Drive rating are equal to the maximum travel distance in 100s of millions of pc of travel. * Generally not available. - Note that Singularity occurs at TL33, so only an "Early" Eight-Drive is possible at TL32. |
| 34 | "9-space" | 82 to 90 | 9th-Order (109) | Nine Drives
"Nine"-1 to "Nine"-9 (?) |
FTL | 168 hours [± 10%] | 1 billion pc to 9 billion pc |
Drive rating are equal to the maximum travel distance in billions of pc of travel. * Generally not available. - Note that Singularity occurs at TL33, so only a "Prototype" Nine-Drive is possible at TL32. |
EXOTIC DRIVES (2016)[edit]
Other EXOTIC DRIVES available in the OTU (presumably at very high TL) that are generally not available (and TL is not known):
- Inertialess Drive
- Alcubierre Drive (at Trav RPG Wiki)
- Alcubierre Drive (at Wiki)
- Reality Drive
Also see article: Jumpspace
Notes (2007)[edit]
The Jump Drive is the device that allows faster-than-light travel for starships in the Traveller universe.
- Lanthanum is not very uncommon on present day earth, priced at around $360/kg.