alex_greene
Guest
The sixth volume of The Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society contains an article on a ship with a unique and exceptionally powerful drive, the Hop Drive.
"Hops cover 10 parsecs for each rating. This is a minimum, so jumping less than 10 parsecs takes the same fuel and time as jumping 10 parsecs and 11-19 the same as 20. Hop-2 drives are able to jump merely 10 parsecs for the same fuel use and difficulty as a Hop-1, just as Jump-2 drives can imitate Jump-1. While a Jump-1 and a Hop-1 use the same amount of fuel, astrogation difficulty increases as if a full 10 (or if greater, rounding up to the next multiple of 10) parsecs were to be crossed, even for a short hop."
That includes transitions of between 2 and 9 parsecs.
A ship with even a Hop-1 drive can outperform the Imperium's finest Jump-6 Express Boats easily, and uses Jump-1 worth of fuel for a distance of up to 10 parsecs.
Even taking into account the increased difficulties of using a hop-drive, such as having to travel to 1,000 diameters out and requiring heavy computations which could take days rather than hours or minutes, even a small ship equipped with a Hop-1 drive could accomplish wonders.
And that's before even taking into account the possibility of there being such a thing as Skip-drives, capable of transitions of 100 parsecs per rating per transition ...
"Hops cover 10 parsecs for each rating. This is a minimum, so jumping less than 10 parsecs takes the same fuel and time as jumping 10 parsecs and 11-19 the same as 20. Hop-2 drives are able to jump merely 10 parsecs for the same fuel use and difficulty as a Hop-1, just as Jump-2 drives can imitate Jump-1. While a Jump-1 and a Hop-1 use the same amount of fuel, astrogation difficulty increases as if a full 10 (or if greater, rounding up to the next multiple of 10) parsecs were to be crossed, even for a short hop."
That includes transitions of between 2 and 9 parsecs.
A ship with even a Hop-1 drive can outperform the Imperium's finest Jump-6 Express Boats easily, and uses Jump-1 worth of fuel for a distance of up to 10 parsecs.
Even taking into account the increased difficulties of using a hop-drive, such as having to travel to 1,000 diameters out and requiring heavy computations which could take days rather than hours or minutes, even a small ship equipped with a Hop-1 drive could accomplish wonders.
And that's before even taking into account the possibility of there being such a thing as Skip-drives, capable of transitions of 100 parsecs per rating per transition ...