Matter Transporter

The Matter Transporter is a device that can materialize matter across significant distances without needing a starship to get to the desired destination.

• No workable extant examples exist in Charted Space although functioning artifacts are rumored to exist.
• Some prototypes have appeared in newscasts, but all appear to have major drawbacks and function with no reported reliability.
• The Zhodani can already achieve some functions of this projected machine with their psionic technology.

Description (Specifications)

These devices will revolutionize and transform the interstellar economy when they are perfected.

• Most such hypothetical devices are considered to transform physical matter into an energy form for transmission and then restore that coded energy back to physical form upon destination.
• The first successes with matter transport as energy are anticipated to occur at TL–16, but the transport results in considerable randomization of molecular patterns and is thus limited to raw materials only.
• Some project that matter transport using matter transmutation appears at TL–17, but it is limited to solely inanimate objects.
• Some project that practical matter transport for life forms (...using portal/circumvention techniques) does not occur until TL–18.

History & Background (Dossier)

Some theories advocate the idea that matter transport implies energy to matter creation. Thus at TL-16 any raw material that can be transported can also be created from energy. This does not apply for circumvention.

Precursors & Matter Transporters

A number of the more advanced precursor races are widely assumed by archaeological sophontologists to have possessed matter transporter technology. The Ancients are widely assumed to have had at least some limited mastery of this future technology. What's more curious is why they didn't use this technology more widely. Some attribute this to the incredibly diverse nature of Ancient civilization and technology before the Final War. Others attribute it to an ancient evil that destabilized their civilization and hypothetically drove it into exile or hiding. No-one can prove anything conclusively.

Futurological Hypotheses

Despite many outlandish predictions predicated elsewhere in this article, the general consensus is that matter transporter technology will not become available until the TL:19-21 technological epoch at the earliest.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This article has a secret.

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.

• Donald P. Rapp. Merchants & Merchandise (Paranoia Press, 1981), 22.
• Marc Miller. Referee's Companion (Game Designers Workshop, 1988), TBD.
• Marc Miller. T5 Core Rules (Far Future Enterprises, 2013), TBD.
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science