Jump Distances

[Babylon 5 Aide]

Does anyone have a way of figuring how far a jump is? Four jumps from B5 is mentioned, but I don't know what that means really - and how long does it take for jump engines to recharge after being used to come out into realspace?

 

[Kizarvexis]

Does anyone have a way of figuring how far a jump is? Four jumps from B5 is mentioned, but I don't know what that means really - and how long does it take for jump engines to recharge after being used to come out into realspace?

Well, Lennier said in "Walkabout" that the Whitestar jump engines would take 20 minutes to recharge after they were taken off line to provide extra power to defeat the Battlecrab that Lyta was holding telepathically still. When the jump engines are not taken off line, then they would recharge faster. I would expect that it would take more than a minute, but probably less than 10 minutes based on how ships acted in the series.

Jumps are from gate to gate and vary depending on how far the gates are apart in hyperspace, which doesn't correlate to how far they are apart in real space.

Kizarvexis

 

[ShadowScout]

Does anyone have a way of figuring how far a jump is? Four jumps from B5 is mentioned, but I don't know what that means really...

There is no distance attached to a "jump" - one jump just means "travelling through hyperspace alone ONE of the beacon lines" (for beacon lines, see the map in the galactic guide or basic book).
So four jumps would mean four different beacon lines travelled until you reach your destination.
In fact, hyperspace beacon lines have no real relation to real-space distances. Due to "hyperspace currents" and such they go as far as the plot needs.

...and how long does it take for jump engines to recharge after being used to come out into realspace?

Well, that depends on your jump engine. One like the WS can do it in two minutes (unless it's taken offline, then it needs ten times as much time to recharge). A Sharlin can recharge in 50 seconds. Primus in 80 sec., Omega and G'Quan need 100 sec. (look up the times in Babylon 5 wars, then remember that each B5W turn is 5 sec. - as determined by the cold start recharge of a WS's jump engine!)