Jump Governor

A Jump Governor is a device that regulates Jump Drive performance.

• It is a type of Ship Equipment.

Description (Specifications)

A Jump Drive produces a Jump approximately equal to its Jump number in parsecs. A Jump Governor modifies the operation of a Jump Drive allowing any jump performance equal to or less than the drive's rating, including micro jumps within the same system, only using the fuel needed for the number of parsecs actually crossed. For example, a Jump-3 drive with a governor jumping across only 2 parsecs would consume fuel as if the drive was Jump-2.

• It is theoretically possible to use a Jump Governor to emerge from jump at exactly the same location as jump entry occurred. Effectively, the ship spends a week in jumpspace but does not actually move relative to a designated celestial body. (The celestial body - usually a planet or asteroid - is moving during the jump, as all celestial bodies do. Its motion is plotted and the jump follows approximately the same course, typically using the celestial body to precipitate out of jumpspace at the end.) This is sometimes called a "zero jump" or a "null jump", and is among the simplest jumps for an astrogator to plot (since, typically, nothing but the starship, the celestial body, and the system's stars need be considered), so plotting these is a common exercise in astrogator training.
• There are limits to a governor's performance. Jumping less than 1 full parsec, even just a zero jump, consumes fuel equivalent to jumping 1 parsec. Beyond 1 parsec, small fractions of a parsec round off for fuel use; for instance, jumping 1.8 or 2.1 parsecs consumes fuel equivalent to jumping 2 parsecs.
  • Abusing this to save fuel - such as making three 1.33 parsec jumps to cross 4 parsecs on 3 parsecs' worth of fuel - is situational enough, as well as requiring difficult and dangerous deep space jumps, that it is generally not considered even in emergencies. Even when it has been tried, it tends not to work.
    • The best known example was when the experimental starship Kishaa ("It Runs"), testing a prototype jump governor, crossed the 4 parsecs from Ganar to Vland in -5402. The jumps came out as 1.2, 1.2, and 1.6 parsecs, requiring 1, 1, and 2 parsecs' worth of fuel respectively. A group of Sharurshid functionaries who witnessed the result recorded its failure in elaborate detail, and distributed their novel-length report widely; multiple copies survived the Long Night. (This unapproved experiment, ending at Vland itself, helped spark the Consolidation Wars. Later historians have wondered what might have been had the crew been more careful, and the test successful.)

History & Background (Dossier)

A Jump Governor is integral to a standard or higher tech level Jump Drive.

• Experimental, prototype, or early Jump Drives may not have Jump Governors.

Historical Overview

The Jump Governor was a huge breakthrough in FTL transportation technology, which allowed far more consistent and reliable FTL travel with greatly reduced fuel usage. Early prototype jump drives were notorious fuel hogs, using far more fuel than their drive rating. Some early prototype J-1 drives could use 50% or more of a hull's tonnage in fuel. Some even used the ship's entire fuel tanks. They were notoriously unreliable and the Jump Governor helped to change that.

Technological Overview of Alternate FTL Devices

• Jump Drive → Nexus Linkage Device → Jump Governor → Advanced FTL Drives (Hop Drive or more advanced) → Hieronymous Device → Jump Potentiator

References & Contributors (Sources)

This article has metadata.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Book 2
• Book 5 High Guard
• Marc Miller. T5 Core Rules, (Far Future Enterprises, 2013), page 336.
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master Scout Emeritus Adie Alegoric Stewart of the IISS
• Author & Contributor: Adrian Tymes
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science