Bardicheart
Mongoose
I did a quick search and didn't see where this had been addressed.
In the past there have been discussions about whether a ship can make a jump while moving, particularly at high speed. That is, say you have a trader leaving a planet and zipping out to the 100 D limit at 2Gs. In past discussions it was assumed that the trader did not have to slow down and stop in order to jump, but could make the jump while still accelerating and carry that momentum with them when they exited jump space elsewhere. But...
You knew there was a "but" coming, right?
On p141 on my copy of the core rules, under Jump Travel we have this paragraph.
Jump travel is the only known means by which a vessel may travel
faster than the speed of light. To Jump, a ship creates a bubble of
hyperspace by means of injecting high-energy exotic particles into
an artificial singularity. The singularity is driven out of our universe,
creating a tiny parallel universe which is then blown up like a balloon
by injecting hydrogen into it. The Jump bubble is folded around the
ship, carrying it into the little pocket universe.
Given that among the various ship operations necessary to make the jump includes diverting power to the jump drive (presumably to create this singularity), and the above description of creating a "bubble" and filling it with hydrogen I have to really question whether you could do this while accelerating or moving at all.
I would definitely say any acceleration has to be cut (otherwise you'd accelerate right out of your own bubble). But I would also tend to think movement would make forming the bubble more difficult or more dangerous (might work but seems iffy to me).
Also, how long does it take to form this jump bubble, how long to "fill" it with hydrogen (also why hydrogen, I mean the more I think about the idea of floating in space in the center of a large bubble of pure hydrogen the more the word Hindenburg keeps springing to mind)? According to the rules given, diverting power and activating the jump drive takes 10-60 seconds, but is that enough time to fill a bubble large enough to contain a 200 dT ship with hydrogen? What about a 400dT ship, much less a 200,000 dT super freighter or a 500,000 dT dreadnaught.
What happens if someone fires a missile or laser or particle beam at that hydrogen bubble before you can actually jump (while you are filling it)? Or if you return fire? Wouldn't that make attempting a jump in combat virtually impossible... if not potentially fatal (how much damage does being in the middle of a big ball of flaming hydrogen do to a ship?)?
Given the above points, wouldn't the trader from my first example would have to accelerate half way to the 100 D limit, then decelerate the other half to come to a stop. Spend 10-60 seconds diverting power and activating the jump drive. Spend an unknown amount of time (1-6 minutes?) filling the jump bubble with hydrogen as it forms until it is large enough to enter jump space... only then does the ship actually jump. During this time, being shot at or shooting at someone would be really BAD and would also make jumping impossible since igniting the hydrogen would collapse the bubble (on second thought, can you ignite pure hydrogen in space? Wouldn't you need an oxidizer? Of course a missile explosion might still be enough to collapse the bubble just by displacing enough hydrogen whether it ignites or not). Any maneuvering (course changes) or acceleration would automatically cause the jump to fail. Being in motion might not, assuming constant speed and direction the bubble would move along with you; but, would this affect the singularity you are forming and how it interacts with the fabric of space to create this "bubble universe"? Don't know, like I said, sounds iffy to me that you could be moving while doing that but since its all science fiction that part could be whatever you want I suppose.
This would also affect naval tactics for combat, patrols and system invasions.
Thoughts?
In the past there have been discussions about whether a ship can make a jump while moving, particularly at high speed. That is, say you have a trader leaving a planet and zipping out to the 100 D limit at 2Gs. In past discussions it was assumed that the trader did not have to slow down and stop in order to jump, but could make the jump while still accelerating and carry that momentum with them when they exited jump space elsewhere. But...
You knew there was a "but" coming, right?
On p141 on my copy of the core rules, under Jump Travel we have this paragraph.
Jump travel is the only known means by which a vessel may travel
faster than the speed of light. To Jump, a ship creates a bubble of
hyperspace by means of injecting high-energy exotic particles into
an artificial singularity. The singularity is driven out of our universe,
creating a tiny parallel universe which is then blown up like a balloon
by injecting hydrogen into it. The Jump bubble is folded around the
ship, carrying it into the little pocket universe.
Given that among the various ship operations necessary to make the jump includes diverting power to the jump drive (presumably to create this singularity), and the above description of creating a "bubble" and filling it with hydrogen I have to really question whether you could do this while accelerating or moving at all.
I would definitely say any acceleration has to be cut (otherwise you'd accelerate right out of your own bubble). But I would also tend to think movement would make forming the bubble more difficult or more dangerous (might work but seems iffy to me).
Also, how long does it take to form this jump bubble, how long to "fill" it with hydrogen (also why hydrogen, I mean the more I think about the idea of floating in space in the center of a large bubble of pure hydrogen the more the word Hindenburg keeps springing to mind)? According to the rules given, diverting power and activating the jump drive takes 10-60 seconds, but is that enough time to fill a bubble large enough to contain a 200 dT ship with hydrogen? What about a 400dT ship, much less a 200,000 dT super freighter or a 500,000 dT dreadnaught.
What happens if someone fires a missile or laser or particle beam at that hydrogen bubble before you can actually jump (while you are filling it)? Or if you return fire? Wouldn't that make attempting a jump in combat virtually impossible... if not potentially fatal (how much damage does being in the middle of a big ball of flaming hydrogen do to a ship?)?
Given the above points, wouldn't the trader from my first example would have to accelerate half way to the 100 D limit, then decelerate the other half to come to a stop. Spend 10-60 seconds diverting power and activating the jump drive. Spend an unknown amount of time (1-6 minutes?) filling the jump bubble with hydrogen as it forms until it is large enough to enter jump space... only then does the ship actually jump. During this time, being shot at or shooting at someone would be really BAD and would also make jumping impossible since igniting the hydrogen would collapse the bubble (on second thought, can you ignite pure hydrogen in space? Wouldn't you need an oxidizer? Of course a missile explosion might still be enough to collapse the bubble just by displacing enough hydrogen whether it ignites or not). Any maneuvering (course changes) or acceleration would automatically cause the jump to fail. Being in motion might not, assuming constant speed and direction the bubble would move along with you; but, would this affect the singularity you are forming and how it interacts with the fabric of space to create this "bubble universe"? Don't know, like I said, sounds iffy to me that you could be moving while doing that but since its all science fiction that part could be whatever you want I suppose.
This would also affect naval tactics for combat, patrols and system invasions.
Thoughts?
