Modifying Traveller Starships to make time machines

[Tom Kalbfus]

I think the closest modification would be to use the hyperdrive option, that is a variation of the hyperdrive to allow time travel by a Traveller starship, the same requirements for the hyperdrive are followed for this Time Drive, the properties of the hyperspace entered are different. The Time Drive opens up a portal into Chronospace, it is a hyperspace where one of the spacial dimensions is exchanged for the dimension of time, by moving forward or backward along the time direction in this hyperspace using one's maneuver drive, one moves forward or backward in time. The maneuver drive when used to move in the time direction has an acceleration rating equal to 10 times the maneuver drive number in seconds per crew experienced second squared, that means during the first second the maneuver drive is activate, the ship accelerated either forward or backwards in time by the number of seconds indicated per experienced second of the crew. So at time zero of entering chronospace the ship is moving 1 second forward in time per experienced second, and if a maneuver 1 drive is activated the ship is now moving at 10 seconds per experienced second after one second, when another second passes the ship is then moving at 20 seconds per experienced second, with each experienced second with the manuever drive on the ship increases its velocity through time, in order to exit chronospace the ship must first match the normal movement through time of 1 second per experienced second and then it can open up a portal to exit chronospace.

For instance a year contains 31,536,000 seconds, to travel forward or backward in space by one year the starship using its Time Drive opens up a portal into Chronospace and then enters using its maneuver drive. If it has a maneuver drive of 1 for instance divide 31,536,000 by 10 and take the square root of the result. The number should be 1775.83783043385 seconds of crew experienced time to travel that one year forward or backward in time, this is equal to 29.5972971738975 minutes.
If one wanted to travel 10,000 years back or forward in time, the ship would enter chronospace and apply its manuever drive for the number of seconds equal to 315,360,000,000 seconds divided by 10 who's square root is 177583.783043385 seconds, converting this to the appropriate time unit we have 2.05536785929844 days.

If we want to go 65 million years back in time to do some dinosaur hunting we have 65,000,000 times 31,536,000 seconds which equals 2,049,840,000,000,000 seconds, divide this by 10 and take the square root and we get 14,317,262.308137 seconds which equals 5.5236350308642 months.

 

[Nerhesi]

Rules for time machines and time drives are actually in the Psion book.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Rules for time machines and time drives are actually in the Psion book.

Don't have the Psion book, I actually have the old T20 Traveller Book, Have Pathfinder, and through that website I found this game. I noticed the Hyperdrive option, so I don't know if the time drive works like that, or if its more like a Time Jump. The main property I was looking for in describing this time drive is the ability to make short hops in time and also go into deep time, for example one can travel into historic time periods such as the Renaissance and also do some dinosaur hunting in geologic time periods. With the hyperdrive style time drive, one could also set up fixed time gates. I imagine a Capital Scout ship placing time gates which basically hold open a portal to Chronospace, at the 100 diameter Jump Limit, which around Earth would be 1,280,000 km from Earth's Center. Basically a giant capital scout ship would use its Time Drive to travel to various time periods in Earth's history and place the time gates and then depart, later on an ordinary scout/courier would use the gates to visit the various time periods and do some exploring. All one needs is a maneuver drive to travel in Chronospace once the gates leading to and from it are available. The Time Corps are a very secretive bunch, basically their official policy is not to interfere with history, but to study it. They recruit time agent from time periods not earlier than the 20th century, being easier to train to use the various Traveller technology that comes with the time ships. Often times the time agents know very little about their employers other than they come from the future, basically they are sent into their own relative past to gather information. Sometimes various time stations get cut off when the local timeline veers off of its historic course and history needs to be put back on track otherwise an expensive time station could be lost as it veers off into a parallel timeline. Prehistoric time stations are safer, they are used to study wildlife and collect samples to send back into the future. Of course when these missions go astray is when an adventure occurs. Time agents in historic time periods have to keep a low profile and bland in with the locals, prehistoric time stations not so much.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I made a table showing travel times:
Standard travel times as seen from the point of view of the time traveler

Distance
Years-	1----	2----	3----	4----	5----	6----	Time Unit
1-----	29.60	20.93	17.09	14.80	13.24	12.08	Minutes
5-----	66.18	46.80	38.21	33.09	29.60	27.02	Minutes
10----	93.59	66.18	54.04	46.80	41.86	38.21	Minutes
20----	132.4	93.59	76.42	66.18	59.2	54.04	Minutes
50----	3.488	2.466	2.01	1.744	1.560	1.424	Hours
100---	4.933	3.488	2.848	2.466	2.206	2.01	Hours
200---	6.976	4.933	4.028	3.488	3.120	2.848	Hours
500---	11.03	7.800	6.368	5.515	4.933	4.503	Hours
1000---- 15.60	11.03	9.006	7.800	6.976	6.368	Hours
2000---- 22.06	15.60	12.74	11.03	9.866	9.006	Hours
5000---- 34.88	24.66	20.1	17.44	15.60	14.24	Hours
10000	49.33	34.88	28.48	24.66	22.06	20.1	Hours
20000	2.91	2.055	1.678	1.45	1.300	1.187	Days
50000	4.596	3.250	2.653	2.298	2.055	1.876	Days
100000	6.500	4.596	3.753	3.250	2.91	2.653	Days
200000	9.192	6.500	5.307	4.596	4.111	3.753	Days
500000	14.5	10.28	8.391	7.267	6.500	5.933	Days
1 million	2.936	2.076	1.695	1.468	1.313	1.199	Weeks
2 million	4.152	2.936	2.397	2.076	1.857	1.695	Weeks
5 million	6.566	4.643	3.791	3.283	2.936	2.680	Weeks
10 million	9.285	6.566	5.361	4.643	4.152	3.791	Weeks
20 million	13.13	9.285	7.581	6.566	5.872	5.361	Weeks
50 million	20.76	14.68	11.99	10.38	9.285	8.476	Weeks
65 million	23.67	16.74	13.67	11.84	10.59	9.664	Weeks
70 milllion	24.57	17.37	14.18	12.28	10.99	10.03	Weeks
80 million	26.26	18.57	15.2	13.13	11.74	10.72	Weeks
90 million	27.86	19.7	16.08	13.93	12.46	11.37	Weeks
100 million	29.36	20.76	16.95	14.68	13.13	11.99	Weeks

Basically the time machine accelerates in time, standard travel rates are 1 through 6.
Where 1 = 10 seconds per perceived second squared
2 = 20 seconds per perceived second
etc.
This indicates how much time the travelers spend in the time machine before the reach their destinations in time, the time machine accelerates to the mid point and then slows down to match the normal forward rate of time 1 second per perceived second before it can reenter the time stream. If one is to write a story or play a role playing game, this table could be used as a rule of thumb.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Tom, I really like this variation! Nice work!

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Tom, I really like this variation! Nice work!

Thanks. I also think a Time Corps is likely to be run as a spy agency, because of the potential for time agents to affect history, whether intentionally by a rogue agent, or by accident, such as falling in love with the wrong woman, who happens to be some famous person's mother, for example. Now Time Stations could be placed on Mars, but what would be the point, their purpose would be to examine Earth history, so the best place to put a time station is some place remote, one needs a place to land the starships, where they won't be noticed by too many people, and having time stations in any place where there are radar stations complicates matters a bit, but these same places are good places to recruit time agents, because they speak the languages. I mean someone from the Classic Traveller Era isn't going to speak English the same way we do, also they may know the important facts in history, but they might not know all the social ques as well as someone who lives closer to the era in question, so basically time stations are headquarters for spy networks. You have someone from the Traveller Era as the chief spy and a bunch of natives gathering all the information.

To give an example of how. I'd put a Time Station in February, 2004, put it 10 years in our past, originally that station was established in January of 2000 and has been there for 5 years, pervious to that we trisect the centuries establishing each station 33 years and four months apart, so on station is in New York in February, 2004, actually it is based on a ship in New York Harbor, which goes out into the Atlantic whenever a scout/courier has to land or take off, and then docks at the harbor to dispatch or receive time agents. Another station is off of Cape Canaveral, Florida in November, 1969, another one is in July, 1936 in London, and another one is based in Charleston, South Carolina in February 1904. Basically cities are good places to blend in, because in small towns everyone knows everybody, a stranger in a big city draws no additional notice., In the previous century, we have time stations in November 1869, Chicago.