Maneuver Drive

"Maneuver Drive" is the general term referring to one of the three primary engineering systems used in starships and spaceships. The Maneuver Drive moves ships through normal space, throughout systems, and to and from planetary surfaces.

• They are also commonly called Relativistic Drives or Reaction Drives (but see below), as they move a vessel thru Normal Space (aka Einsteinian Spacetime).
  • Maneuver Drives that operate by altering a vessel's momentum are properly referred to as "Impulse Drives".
  • Maneuver Drives that operate by expelling on-board Reaction Mass as propellant are known as "Reaction Rockets".
  • Maneuver Drives that are propellantless and operate by altering momentum via interaction with an external force field are known (in full) as "Field-Propulsion Impulse Reaction Drives". (Note that they are sometimes inaccurately referred to as "Reactionless Drives".)
  • Maneuver Drives that are propellantless and operate by altering their own momentum without an apparent alteration or transfer of momentum in opposite reaction to other bodies or material within Normal Space are properly referred to as "Reactionless Drives".
• The term "Maneuver Drive" is a generic term that refers to STL Relativistic Drives in general.
• In common (but technically inaccurate) usage, the term Impulse Drive tends to be restricted in its usage to that subset of Impulse Drives that are propellantless and thus do not qualify as Reaction Rockets, (i.e. Field-Propulsion Impulse Reaction Drives and Reactionless Drives).
• The term "Maneuver Drive" should not be confused with the term "M-Drive" (= "Maneuver Drive"), which refers specifically to the common modern high performance propellantless Field-Propulsion Impulse Maneuver Drive Reaction Engine that reacts against the curvature of spacetime (i.e. gravity-gradient) that is in use at standard TLs throughout Charted Space, and also underlies both the NAFAL N-Drive Long-Range Field-Propulsion Impulse Maneuver Drive Reaction Engine and the Advanced Type-T_N "Reactionless" Gravito-Nuclear Impulse Field Thruster used as a Deep Space Maneuver System, which have all also been occasionally referred to as "Thruster Plates".
• The two other primary engineering systems are Jump Drive and Power Plant.
• It is a kind of Ship Equipment.

Description (Specifications)

Because the M-Drive carries the word "Maneuver" in its title, various references to "Maneuver Drives" can be confusing: the word may refer to a specific type of drive (...the Maneuver Drive or M-Drive), or to a general class of drives that propel ships by changing their momentum (Impulse Drives). The meaning can usually be derived from context.

The specific technology used for the maneuver drive depends upon the Technology level of the worlds producing the ships.

Typical Drive Designations

The following Impulse Drive types are all gravitic-based "field-drive" systems found in relatively common use:

• Z-Drive (Lifter) or "Contragravity-Lifter"
• G-Drive (Gravitic-Drive) (Standard Gravity-Thruster)
• M-Drive ("Maneuver-Drive") (High-performance Intermediate-Range Gravity-Thruster / Relativistic Spacetime Drive)
• N-Drive (Gravitic "NAFAL" Drive (= "Not As Fast As Light")) (Long-Range Gravito-Nuclear Thruster / Relativistic Spacetime Drive)

• T_N-Drive ("Reactionless" Field Thruster) - (Advanced Gravito-Nuclear Thruster Plate)

• Deep Space Maneuver System

Alternative Drives

In addition to the widely-available gravity-based vector movement drives, other drives are available. These are used by cultures who never developed, or don't have access to, the grav based drive systems.

• Reaction Drive (R-Drive)

- (Reaction Rocket - using reaction-mass):

• Chemical Rocket (R_C-Drive)
• Electric Rocket

• Electrostatic: Ion Drive (R_E-Drive)
• Electromagnetic: MPD Drive ((R_M/P_M) R_P-Drive)
• Electrothermal: VASIMR Drive ((R_T/P_T) R_P-Drive)

• Nuclear Rocket

• Nuclear Thermal Rocket (NTR) - (R_N/P_N-Drive)

• High Efficiency Plasma Recombustion (HEPLaR) (R_H/P_H-Drive)

• Fusion Drive (Fusion Torch) (R_F-Drive / F-Drive)
• Orion Drive (Fission Orion (O₁-Drive) and Fusion Orion (O₂-Drive))

• Antimatter Rockets

• Orion Drive (Hybrid Orion (O_2bis-Drive)/ANPR and AM Orion (O₃-Drive))
• Antimatter Thermal Rocket (ATR) - (R_A-Drive)
• Antimatter Pion Drive (A-Drive)

• Solar Sail - (using external particle or field pressure)

• Light Sail
• Plasma Sail
• Magnetic Sail
• Shkadov Thruster

• Reactionless Drive

• T-Drive (Reactionless Motion Thruster)

• Gyroscopic Inertial Thruster (GIT)
• Dean Space-drive Thruster

• T_N-Drive (Reactionless Field Thruster)

• Deep Space Maneuver System - (Advanced Gravito-Nuclear Thruster Plate)

STL Drive Specifications

STL Drive Specifications (Starship Propulsion)

Category	Specifications	Remarks
Name	Generic Impulse Drive / Reaction Drive	Reaction Rocket; Propellantless Field Impulse Drive; Reactionless Thruster
Drive Type	Relativistic Drive STL	Sublight Relativistic space drive.
Velocity	6-9 G	Few fighters can exceed sustained 6-9 G acceleration due to pilot limitations. Compensators can sometimes allow higher acceleration. Missiles and unmanned craft can exceed 9 G.
Duration	Limited by reaction mass or fuel tankage.	Smallcraft rarely carry more than a few hours of sustained reaction mass or fuel.
Hazards	Collision or drive failure	The vacuum is an unfriendly environment for most lifeforms and life support is always potentially failure ridden.
Physical Constraints	Biophysiological limitations	Lifeforms tend to be fragile even with inertial compensators.
Geometry	~ "Euclidean" (Perceived) (Riemannian / Geodesic Trajectories)	Conventional space-time
Levels	1 level	Conventional space-time or normal space
Entry	n/a	n/a
Exit	n/a	n/a
Fuel	Drive-Dependent	Typically conventional reaction mass or hydrogen fuel
Resource Requirements	Machinery, fuel, electricity, etc.	Fusion power plants are in widespread use. Other plant types also exist.
Inventor	Various	Various
Characteristics	Various	Starships typically make use of a number of disparate technologies and drives.

History & Background (Dossier)

The earliest spacecraft in most sophont societies tend to utilize rockets or rocket drives. As the technology base for a society grows so too does an array of ever more sophisticated drives.

By the TL:10-12 technological epoch, gravity control technology tends to become commonplace and Gravity Drives or G-Drives become widely available on worlds able to support the technology.

Technological Overview of Projected Propulsion Technology

Expected Drive Development Sequence: NAFAL to FTL

• Relativistic Drive (NAFAL) → Jump Drive → Hop Drive → Skip Drive → Leap Drive → Bound Drive → Vault Drive → Six Drive → Seven Drive → Eight Drive → Nine Drive

---

---

Library Data Referral Tree

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

Starships:

---

---

Speed-of-Travel

• Speed of Travel

• NAFAL (STL) - (Not As Fast As Light) / (Slower Than Light)
• Light Speed (c)
• FTL - (Faster Than Light) - "Superluminal"

• Astronomical Unit (AU)

» Imperial Standard Astronomical Unit

• Light-second (ls)
• Light-minute (lm)
• Light-hour (lh)
• Light-day (ld)
• Light-week (lw)
• Light-year (ly)
• Parsec (pc)

» Solomani Parsec

» Vilani Parsec ("Deshi")

» Imperial Standard Parsec

---

Impulse-Drives

• Spacecraft Drives (Interplanetary Drives)

• Reaction Drives:

• Reaction Rockets:

• R-Drive (Rocket Drive)
• O-Drive (Orion Drive)
• P_H-Drive (HEPlaR Drive)

• Impulse Drives:

(Field Propulsion Drives / Propellantless Drives)

• Z-Drive (Lifter / <1.0 D)
• G-Drive (Gravitic Drive / <10.0 D)
• M-Drive (Maneuver Drive/Thruster / <1000.0 D)
• N-Drive (NAFAL Drive / <¹/₈ ly)

• Reactionless Drives:

• T-Drive (Reactionless Motion Thruster):

• Gyroscopic Inertial Thruster (GIT)
• Dean Space-Thruster Drive

• T_N-Drive (Reactionless Field Thruster: Advanced Gravito-Nuclear Impulse Thruster)

• Deep Space Maneuver System - ("Reactionless")

---

Interstellar-Drives (Advanced)

• Starship Drives (Interstellar Drives)

• N-Drive (NAFAL Drive / < ¹/₈ ly)
• Jump Space Drives

• Jump Space
• Jump Drive History

• Jump Governor
• Nexus Linkage Device
• Nth Order Jump Space Drives: ("Otherspace Hyperjump Drives")

• J-Drive - Jump Drive (JD₀: "0th" Order Jump Space Drive / > 100 D)
• H-Drive - Hop Drive (HD₁: 1st Order Jump Space Drive / > 1000 D)
• S-Drive - Skip Drive (SD₂: 2nd Order Jump Space Drive / > 10,000 D)
• L-Drive - Leap Drive (LD₃: 3rd Order Jump Space Drive / > 100,000 D)
• B-Drive - Bound Drive (BD₄: 4th Order Jump Space Drive / > 1,000,000 D)
• V-Drive - Vault Drive (VD₅: 5th Order Jump Space Drive / > 10,000,000 D)

• D₆-Drive - "Six Drive" (D₆: 6th Order Jump Space Drive / > 100,000,000 D)
• D₇-Drive - "Seven Drive" (D₇: 7th Order Jump Space Drive / > 1,000,000,000 D)
• D₈-Drive - "Eight Drive" (D₈: 8th Order Jump Space Drive / > 10,000,000,000 D)
• D₉-Drive - "Nine Drive" (D₉: 9th Order Jump Space Drive / > 100,000,000,000 D)

• Jump Potentiator ("Jump Exponentiator")

» Hieronymous Nexus Linkage

• Conjectural Drives

• Jump Potentiator ("Jump Exponentiator")

» Hieronymous Device

• "Inertialess Drives":

» Inertialess Drive ("I_M -Drive")

» Triplanetary Drive ("I_T -Drive")

• Alcubierre Drive ("Albuquerque Drive")
• Improbable Drive
• Reality Drive

• Alternative Interstellar Drive Technologies

---

---

References

This article is missing content for one or more detailed sections. Additional details are required to complete the article. You can help the Traveller Wiki by expanding it.

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.

• Marc Miller. Starships (Game Designers Workshop, 1977), 13,22.
• Marc Miller, Frank Chadwick, John Harshman. High Guard (Game Designers Workshop, 1980), 22,23.
• Herb Petro. Imperium Staple 07 (Herb Petro, 1986), TBD.
• Herb Petro. Imperium Staple 08 (Herb Petro, 1986), TBD.
• Marc Miller. Referee's Manual (Game Designers Workshop, 1987), 56.
• Rob Caswell, William W. Connors, Joe Fugate, Gary L. Thomas. Starship Operator's Manual (Digest Group Publications, 1988), 2.
• Loren Wiseman. "Sublight Drives." Challenge 72 (1994): .
• Frank Chadwick, Dave Nilsen. Fire, Fusion, & Steel (Game Designers Workshop, 1994), 72-73.
• Don Perrin. Starships (Imperium Games, 1996), 71.
• David Golden, Guy Garnett. Fire, Fusion & Steel (Imperium Games, 1997), 65.
• Marc Miller. T5 Core Rules (Far Future Enterprises, 2013), 323-327.
• Adrian Tymes, Sabrina Tymes, Gabriel G. A. B. Fonseca, Robert Eaglestone. Starship Operator's Manual (Mongoose Publishing, 2024), 77.