Deep Space Maneuver System

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The Deep Space Maneuver System, also known as a Reactionless Field Thruster (TN-Drive), is based on 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. [1]


Description[edit]

For vessels equipped with propellantless Field-propulsion Impulse Maneuver 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-propulsion Impulse Maneuver 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 Long-Range Interstellar 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 a combination of insufficient micro-acceleration time and relative velocity. [2][3][4]

The Reactionless Field Thruster (TN-Drive) which comprises the Deep Space Maneuvering System is an advanced modification of standard gravity-based M-Drive and N-Drive technologies based on principles of the Consolidated Hypergravity Unified Theory[5] regarding Gravito-Nuclear Fields, allowing it to operate in free, unstressed spacetime via additional interactions with high-energy spin-off forces associated with the unification of the pseudo-gravitational and hypernuclear forces. Efficiency in free unstressed spacetime 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. [2][6][4]

Theory[edit]

The graviton, a massless sub-atomic particle, is initially introduced hypothetically in most quantum models of universal forces to be the spin-2 tensor-boson mediator of the attractive gravitational field. However, deeper understanding of Hypergravity and Hyper-spacetime 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 field equations governing the unification of the fundamental forces (in particular, the effect of gravity and the nuclear-field interactions thru spontaneous symmetry breaking under certain conditions). Utilizing this theoretical model, the gravitic G-Drive was developed which produces a field which, in effect, alters the way gravitons interact with a vessel, giving rise to secondary emergent pseudo-gravitational fields mediated by superpositional components of the graviton such as the massive spin-1 vector-bosons known as the pseudo-graviton, graviphoton and gravivector (as well as the massive spin-0 scalar-bosons, the graviscalar and the radion). As vector-boson fields, they give rise to both attractive and repulsive forces, but only over limited interaction ranges, as the rest mass of the particles causes their range to be statistical rather than inverse-square, the maximum interaction range decreasing with increasing vector-boson rest-mass. In so doing, the grav-propelled craft is able to interact with and utilize these emergent vector-boson fields for thrust in any direction. [6][4]

The M-Drive and N-Drive likewise rely upon interaction with the emergent graviton fields, but are more advanced in that they likewise involve the components of emergent secondary pseudo-gravitational and gravito-nuclear fields, yielding the higher-energy hypergraviton which normally decomposes thru spontaneous symmetry breaking into the above mentioned particles and other hypernuclear particles within a certain critical energy range. 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 and N-Drive operate in similar manner but leverage higher-energy field unification interactions to extend the range of the drive from a gravity source by prolonging hypergraviton decay half-life in order to react to much smaller gravity-gradients. [6][4]

Further research and development into the exploitation of the Hypergravity and Hypernuclear interactions leverage the high-energy hyper-gluonic/weak-field excitations mediated by hyperbosons of the hypergluon / hyperweakon group (all longer half-life spin-1 vector bosons mediating longer-ranged attractive/repulsive fields). Aspects of propulsion technology which involve the strong and weak nuclear force deal with the behavior of the gluon (a particle which mediates the strong nuclear force via the threefold attractive/repulsive "color" charge - being both color-charged itself (and thus self-interacting) as well as binding color-charged quarks together at the sub-atomic level) and the various weak bosons (which mediate particle transformation seeking to attain lower energy states thru particle decay subject to conservation laws). The odd situation of gluons both mediating color charge between color-charged particles and being color charged themselves, and thus self-interacting via their own interaction and giving rise to additional mediating virtual gluons ad infinitum leads to the peculiar property that the farther one separates two attractive color charged particles from one another, the stronger the force between them becomes as more attractive virtual gluons arise within the intervening space, thus giving rise to higher and higher energies until the spontaneous generation of particle-antiparticle pairs of new quarks occurs within the intervening space. It thus becomes impossible to separate naked color-charged particles, or to "feel" the force of naked color-charge on a macroscopic level, despite it being the strongest force in the Universe, a property known as "confinement". [4]

In the Consolidated Theory, the higher energy fields arising from the nuclear fields' unification with other forces' fields and their resultant emergent fields give rise to the hypergluon and hyperweakon fields (which were incidentally both directly responsible for the evolution of meson technology (which itself is based on both quarks and lepton decay)). This research in turn leads to breakthroughs in high-energy quantum physics that eventually lead to Reactionless Thruster Plates or TN-Drives, leveraging the advantages of emergent pseudo- and hyper-gravitational fields with the hyper-nuclear interactions comprising the overarching Strong and Weak field interaction with Hypergravity. Through this high-energy interaction, the breaking of the property of "confinement", or naked hypercolor-charge, cyclically for infinitesimally brief moments, allows for the spontaneous generation of high-intensity attractive and repulsive forces for very brief moments at macroscopic levels that can be leveraged for propulsion with the side effect of significant particle and neutrino radiation from the generating plates as the naked hypercolor charges seek to neutralize themselves thru re-confinement. [4]

The development can thus be seen as an outgrowth of the combined effects of both the unification of gravitic technologies (as defined above) and nuclear damper technologies. By reacting pseudo-gravitational and hypergravitational fields with both the strong and weak nuclear fields and their emergent hypercolor fields, thrusters are able to produce an effectively reactionless thrust which allows a spaceship to move at high speed even beyond the limits of a strong gravitational field gradient, but at the cost of requiring a high-yield external power source with some ability to overclock. The fact that some of the resultant particle radiation carries its momentum into a Hypergravitational manifold that bears some not well understood relationship to the various Jumpspace dimensional levels, only to reemerge along their particular N-dimensional geodesics back into Normal Space with their momenta and trajectories randomized due to the local Hyperspacetime curvature gives the perception that momentum conservation is violated when in fact the particles and radiation have just rapidly travelled along a path "outside" standard observable N-Space dimensions that brings them back along a path into observable N-Space that seems inconsistent with their previously observed momenta and trajectories. Thus, the Advanced Gravito-Nuclear Thruster Plate is often referred to as a "Reactionless" Field Thruster. [4]

The TN-Drive or "Reactionless" Field Thruster or Advanced Gravito-Nuclear Thruster Plate is more efficient than pure-gravitic propulsion systems, and represent the most modern form of slower-than-light transportation available to any known race.

STL Drive Specifications[edit]

STL Drive Specifications (Starship Propulsion)
Category Specifications Remarks
Name Reactionless Field Thruster "Thruster Plate"
  • Deep Space Maneuvering System
TL 15 TBD
Drive Type Propellantless Field Impulse Drive Advanced Gravito-Nuclear Field Thruster
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. Continued advancement in M-Drive and N-Drive propulsive development eventually lead to the TN-Drive Reactionless Field Thruster Plate that operates on higher-order field-unification principles and is far less effected by gravitational-gradient magnitudes, thus making it useful as a hybrid adjunct propulsion system for an M-Drive or N-Drive expected to operate in gravitational micro-gradient regions. It finds its primary use as a Deep Space Maneuver System.



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 Propulsion 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. ↑ This article is a harmonization and adaptation of material appearing in prior rulesets combined with original material and speculation by WHULorigan in order to sort out all of the various overlapping, and in some cases contradicting, terminology with what has gone before.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Martin Dougherty. Referee's Handbook (Mongoose Publishing, 2021), 65-66.
  3. ↑ Marc Miller, Robert Eaglestone, Don McKinney. Starships (Far Future Enterprises, 2019), 55-56, 63, 76-79, 100-109.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Information provided to the library by WHULorigan
  5. ↑ The Consolidated Theory of Gravity is mentioned in the Appendix of Agent of the Imperium.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Rob Caswell, William W. Connors, Joe Fugate, Gary L. Thomas. Starship Operator's Manual (Digest Group Publications, 1988), 2-4.
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