Deep Space Maneuver System

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The Deep Space Maneuver System, also known as a Reactionless Field Thruster (TN-Drive), is an Advanced "Reactionless" Gravito-Nuclear Thruster system that is a modification of the standard gravity-based M-Drive technology that allows vessels to maneuver in the extreme microgravity gradients of unstressed interstellar space at meaningful accelerations.

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Description[edit]

For vessels equipped with propellantless Field Impulse Maneuvering Drives such as the standard M-Drive, attempting to maneuver in deep space away from a significant gravitational gradient poses significant challenges. The standard Field Impulse Maneuvering Drives (G-Drive, M-Drive, and N-Drive) require a gravity gradient to work against and fall off to less than 1% efficiency when the gradient drops to a small enough arbitrary value due to quantum mechanical considerations, even with the tight focusing found in such drives as the N-Drive. Within a star system gravity well this is not much of a problem, as the local gradient is generally sufficient to run conventional gravity-based field-impulse maneuver drives. But in the interstellar void of Deep Space this gradient drops to almost nil, causing significant problems. A vessel may find itself in interstellar space relatively close to its desired destination, but unable to reach it before its onboard fuel and supplies are depleted due to insufficient micro-acceleration time and relative velocity.

The Reactionless Field Thruster (TN-Drive) which comprises the Deep Space Maneuvering System is an advanced modification of the standard gravity-based M-Drive and N-Drive technologies employing elements of the Consolidated Hypergravity Unified Theory[1] as applied to Gravito-Nuclear Fields, allowing it to operate in free, unstressed space via additional interactions with high-energy spin-off forces associated with the unification of the pseudo-gravitational and strong nuclear forces. Efficiency in free unstressed space is still greatly reduced as compared to N-Drives and M-Drives, but vessels so equipped can produce accelerations in excess of 0.1g and even reach accelerations as high as 2.0-3.0g in some cases, depending on the output of the particular drive compared to the tonnage of the vessel. Once close to a mass with displacement, the conventional operation of the drives will respond to the normal gravitational gradient of the body to allow standard maneuvering.

STL Drive Specifications[edit]

STL Drive Specifications (Starship Propulsion)
Category Specifications Remarks
Name TBD
TL TBD
Drive Type TBD
Velocity TBD TBD
Duration TBD TBD
Hazards TBD TBD
Physical
Constraints 		TBD TBD
Geometry TBD TBD
Levels TBD TBD
Entry TBD TBD
Exit TBD TBD
Fuel TBD
Resource
Requirements 		TBD TBD
Inventor TBD TBD
Characteristics TBD TBD

History & Background[edit]

In-system Impulse Drives utilizing propellantless field interactions for maneuvering and propulsion go back to almost the dawn of starflight in most spacefaring cultures. Light-, Magnetic-, and Plasma-Sails, and later gravitic-field reaction drives that can plot brachistochrone trajectories become standard means of in-system maneuver and propulsion that turn weeks- or months- (or in some cases years-) long voyages into hours, days or weeks in duration. Nevertheless such drive systems are typically hampered by a range limit based on the source of the field and the local field-gradient, meaning that maneuvering outside the system (or within its outer reaches) must often be accomplished by some other means of local propulsion. Even the longest-ranged and highly focused N-Drive which allows limited lateral motion typically cuts out at about 1/8 ly from its field source.

Eventually, most races begin using gravitic propulsion for thrust within a star's gravity well. Beyond the strong pull of gravity, however, drives of this type rapidly drop off in efficiency, limiting their ability to propel a ship in the outer reaches of the local star system. The gravitic G-Drive and M-Drive both rely upon interaction with the graviton. The graviton, a massless sub-atomic particle, is initially introduced hypothetically in most quantum models of universal forces to be the carrier of gravitational force. However, deeper understanding of Hypergravity and Hyperspacetime geometry associated with Jumpspaces and the quantized excitation states (or "particles") associated with many of their associated fields led to a recognition of the "graviton" to be a higher-dimensional superposition of related particle field excitation states that arise from the unification of the field equations governing the unification of the strong and weak nuclear forces with gravity thru spontaneous symmetry breaking, and the existence of related emergent secondary pseudo-gravitational and gravito-nuclear fields, yielding the massive pseudo-graviton, hypergraviton, graviphoton (gravivector) and graviscalar (or radion), alongside other secondary high-energy pseudo-gluonic/weak-field excitations such as the hypergluon and hyperweakon associated with longer half-life vector-bosons, and hence longer range associated mediating force-fields.

The gravitic G-Drive produces a field which, in effect, alters the way incoming gravitons react with the ship. In so doing, the grav-propelled craft is able to use normally attractive gravitons for thrust in any direction. It is worth noting that this basic ability to affect the way in which gravitons interact is fundamental to many other fields of modern physics and engineering. The more advanced M-Drive operates in similar manner, but leverages higher-energy field interactions to extend the range of the drive from a gravity source by reacting to much smaller gravity-gradients.

Breakthroughs in quantum physics eventually lead to Reactionless Thruster Plates, leveraging the advantages of the unification of gravity and pseudo-gravitational forces with the strong and weak nuclear interaction and the breaking of the property of "confinement" or naked hypercolor-charge cyclically for infinitesimally brief moments. Faster and more efficient than gravitic propulsion systems, thruster plates represent the most modern form of slower-than-light transportation available to any known race. Thrusters are somewhat more advanced than gravitic propulsion units, but operate in a similar manner. Their development is an outgrowth of the combined effects of both gravitic technologies (as defined above) and nuclear damper technologies (as defined elsewhere in this text). By reacting with both the strong and weak nuclear force, thrusters are able to produce a reactionless thrust which allows a spaceship to move at high speed even beyond the limns of a strong gravitational field. Aspects of thruster technology which involve the strong nuclear force deal with the behavior of the gluon (a particle which binds quarks together at the sub-atomic level), and were directly responsible for the evolution of meson technology (which itself is based on quarks).

Library Data Referral Tree[edit]

Please refer to the following AAB Library Data for more information:


Starships:

Speed-of-Travel
  • NAFAL (STL) - (Not As Fast As Light) / (Slower Than Light)
  • Light Speed (c)
  • FTL - (Faster Than Light) - "Superluminal"
» Imperial Standard Astronomical Unit
» Solomani Parsec
» Vilani Parsec ("Deshi")
» Imperial Standard Parsec
Impulse-Drives
(Field Drives / Propellantless Drives)
Interstellar-Drives


References[edit]

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 Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.
  1. ↑ The Consolidated Theory of Gravity is mentioned in the Appendix of Agent of the Imperium.
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