Jumpspace - What Does It Look Like IYTU?

[Sinanju]

I've been thinking about this. When a ship jumps, it enters into a tiny pocket universe, I'm told. There is no possible communication with anyone or anything outside of that tiny pocket universe. I also remember reading (somewhere) that the hydrogen "fuel" required for a jump is actually used to "inflate" that tiny pocket universe around the ship. Which at least gives me *some* justification for the enormous quantities of hydrogen required for a jump.

But what does that pocket universe look like?

Does it look like anything?

Is it a mind-bending absence of anything to look at, like Larry Niven's "blindspot" in hyperspace?

I'm thinking (having seen some really interesting videos recently) that it's a black void illuminated by eery curtains of light very similar to the aurora borealis.

But what do YOU think it would look like?

 

[mancerbear]

Officially, you can't look at jumpspace without risking your sanity. In MTU all portholes seal with a jumpshield to prevent anyone accidently looking out.

I believe it's supposed to look like a roiling grey fluid, referred to in some games I have played in as "grey brain".

 

[Sigtrygg]

The official version of what jump space looks like can be found in T5 and MWM's novel Agent of the Imperium.

It will surprise you...

 

[Condottiere]

I think it can only be a wormhole.

So, Big Bird at the other end.

 

[mancerbear]

The official version of what jump space looks like can be found in T5 and MWM's novel Agent of the Imperium.

It will surprise you...

Would you be able to describe it please Sigtrygg?

 

[Sigtrygg]

I'll quote a couple of bits:

“Here’s the display panel with a feed from outside the hull.” He
touched tabs and made adjustments. “This is what the lenses see in
the visible spectrum.”
It was a mottled grey. I felt fine. This would be all right. I would
survive.
“And this is in false color across a variety of wavelengths.”
It was the same.
“It is important that you see this first. The lenses are dumb, unconscious,
unthinking."

“Seeing jumpspace is a quantum effect. What imagers and lenses
see is one thing; what consciousnesses see is another. Photographs,
images, sensors, lenses, displays all produce a near-uniform grey image.
Consciousness sees something else. More than that. When several
consciousnesses see the same view, they all see the same average.
When only one consciousness sees it, it is unique.”

And now for the best bit:

I saw roiling currents of thick grey smoke lined with thin streaks
of yellow and blue. Every few seconds, it was overlaid with an intense
pointillism of stark white in random currents.
Jonathan continued, “See, you’re still sane. We’re almost there.”
“This isn’t it?”
“Not quite. This is an average of what you and I are seeing. If
there were ten of us, it would be a muddy grey average of ten different
consciousnesses. See the brief flashes? I can make them longer.”
“How?”
“When I close my eyes, then only your consciousness sees it.”
The murky grey was replaced by a cascade of intense points
of light in colors across the spectrum, infinitely small, yet terribly
bright. “What are those?”
“We don’t know. Individual packets of photons escaping from
jumpspace through our protective fields? Notice the murky grey is
still there behind all the sparks.”

All of this is from MWM's novel Agent of the Imperium and if you play Traveller in any version of the 3I you should buy this book if you haven't already.

 

[mancerbear]

I have the book. I have found it difficult to read. I should give it another go.

 

[twodsix]

I have two universes, but the answer is the same in both. However you'll only see the answer in one.

Note that I don't use the standard Jump Drive, which makes my settings rather different to the OTU. Both generally abuse the fact that ships move faster to centralise government more, with governments primarily for sectors rather than systems (although each system does have a government) and less habitable planets in the universe.

In one the 'Jump Drive', which uses the Space Folding Drive rules, creates a wormhole around the ship with a uniform black even horizon. However the wormhole lasts for so little time you'll only notice it by taking a high speed recording and playing it at normal speed.

The other universe exclusively uses the Hyperdrive rules. Hyperspace is a barren universe filled with a gaseous substance which completely absorbs light (justifying why ships need to provide constant thrust in hyperspace but not realspace). Therefore looking outside, whether by a window (rare in this universe, normally only present on yachts) or by a camera, you'll just see solid black in all directions. Ships use mass sensors to navigate, as the 'gas' tends to clump around where stars and planets reside in realspace.

 

[Chumbly]

You know in lot of ways... I always preferred the B5 jumpspace to the traveller one.
It was red and gaseous. you jumped in, and then navigation was treacherous, stay on the shipping lane
mapped with beacons or risk becoming lost. The jump space had terrain, the suns in normal
space tended to be vortex whirlpools in jumpspace. Where systems were relative to each other
was not a related to each other in B5 jumpspace, it actually made the idea of scouts more
likely.. you have to drop into normal space from jumpspace to find a mapping for jump to real space in
any particular region of the galaxy. It also means the path to the next system wasn't straight foward and
not variable in time duration. No flat 1 week we jump out business. It actually was more vague and treacherous for doing jump exploration
than the starfire universe jump down the wormhole idea.There were currents that might change over time,
and the equivalent of weather with jump space storms occasionally.

I figure if you are going to have a starship spend time in jumpspace, giving jumpspace terrain(whirlpool vortexes)
and weather(currents/ storms) at least makes the time pass interesting.

Chumbly

 

[dragoner]

No stars, no ambient light, and no matter; so it can't look like anything, unless the absence of everything can look like something. It's more of a hard-sf bent.