Andromeda

[Jason M Durkish]

I have a question .
I have a race that is from the Andromeda galaxy

How many years would it take them to get to our galaxy traveling faster than light ?

And if this is the wrong form then I apologize .

Thank You for your time and patience .

 

[Quint]

I have a question .
I have a race that is from the Andromeda galaxy

How many years would it take them to get to our galaxy traveling faster than light ?

And if this is the wrong form then I apologize .

Thank You for your time and patience .

It all depends on how fast they are travelling?

Jump-1? Skip-9? Wormhole?

It kind of meaningless question without knowing how they got here...

D.

 

[Jason M Durkish]

I was thinking jump technology .

 

[Reban]

Jump makes it reallllly difficult because of the fuel requirements. And there is an added complication that some rule systems don't allow jumps into empty hexes which suggests jumps into inter-galactic space couldn't happen except by misjump or referee intervention.


.

 

[flykiller]

I have a race that is from the Andromeda galaxy

any particular reason they're from andromeda? our own galaxy is pretty big.

probably the best way to determine how they got here is to determine why they travel all that distance in the first place.

 

[mike wightman]

Jump makes it reallllly difficult because of the fuel requirements. And there is an added complication that some rule systems don't allow jumps into empty hexes which suggests jumps into inter-galactic space couldn't happen except by misjump or referee intervention.


.

The only rule set that doesn't allow this in the whole Traveller corpus are the GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars rules. In every other rules iteration for Traveller empty hex jumps are possible.

 

[mike wightman]

Andromeda is 778 kiloparsecs from our galaxy.

That's 130,000 weeks assuming jump 6 and instant refuelling (some sort of portal technology could provide the fuel).

2500 years.

If they could invent a controlled missjump drive so they can cover 36 parsecs per jump you can cut that by a factor of 6.

So 420-450 years.

 

[Jason M Durkish]

any particular reason they're from andromeda? our own galaxy is pretty big.

probably the best way to determine how they got here is to determine why they travel all that distance in the first place.

I just thought that they would be a interesting background for the race.

I am not sure why they came to Milky Way galaxy .

 

[SanDragon]

For our women!

And chocolate.

 

[Quint]

Andromeda is 778 kiloparsecs from our galaxy.

That's 130,000 weeks assuming jump 6 and instant refuelling (some sort of portal technology could provide the fuel).

2500 years.

If they could invent a controlled missjump drive so they can cover 36 parsecs per jump you can cut that by a factor of 6.

So 420-450 years.

So, double that if they are using T5 Collectors for fuel...

D.

 

[mike wightman]

Collectors need stars - which are a bit sparse in inter-galactic space.

 

[whulorigan]

Collectors need stars - which are a bit sparse in inter-galactic space.

Not under T5. The Collectors as described in T5 interact with "exotic particles" which are found anywhere, including interstellar (and presumably intergalactic) space. It is a change from the Collectors as described in Annic Nova. One week to charge - no stars necessary.

 

[mike wightman]

So it does - I stand corrected. I hadn't noticed the total absence in T5 of any reference to the collector having to be close to a star (as originally described in Annic Nova).

It is a bit embarrassing since I have been posting for years that the collector in Annic Nova could be explained as collecting exotic particles from stars rather than just absorbing electromagnetic radiation.

 

[whulorigan]

It is a bit embarrassing since I have been posting for years that the collector in Annic Nova could be explained as collecting exotic particles from stars rather than just absorbing electromagnetic radiation.

Obviously someone was listening . . .

 

[Adam Dray]

Andromeda is roughly 766,500 parsecs from the Milky Way. A hex is one parsec. There aren't many stars between here and there for refueling -- probably some rogue stars being whipped around at weird velocities, but nothing easy.

If you have a skip-6 drive that can go 600 parsecs in two weeks, it would take around 50 years to finish the trip, assuming no stops for refueling or maintenance. That's 1278 jumps (600-parsec skips).

OR...

The Milky Way is 30,000 parsecs across (or about 47,000 parsecs half-way around). Say they come from the other side of the galaxy and say that it took 79 jumps at skip-6 to do it. That's still about three years.

T5 has skip-1 at TL20, but doesn't list higher drives. Let's assume skip-6 is at least TL25. Or you can go with skip-1 and multiply all travel times by six (18 years to go half-way around the Milky Way).

OR...

Say there's a wormhole that connects the two galaxies and the Andromedans figured out how to exploit it or (probably better) accidentally got sucked through it and have no idea how that happened.

 

[whulorigan]

T5 has skip-1 at TL20, but doesn't list higher drives. Let's assume skip-6 is at least TL25. Or you can go with skip-1 and multiply all travel times by six (18 years to go half-way around the Milky Way).

The Skip Drive table on T5.09 p.344 gives the Skip-progression for Standard Skip Drives as Skip-6 => TL-26.

 

[flykiller]

I am not sure why they came to Milky Way galaxy .

then neither are they.

say they arrived here frozen in a comet or other kuiper belt object, that was whipped around several times by passing stars and was "thrown" here. "what a long strange trip it's been ...." perhaps they picked up a few odds and ends along the way ... some artifacts, some powers, some genetic alterations ....

 

[Frankymole]

So it does - I stand corrected. I hadn't noticed the total absence in T5 of any reference to the collector having to be close to a star (as originally described in Annic Nova).

It is a bit embarrassing since I have been posting for years that the collector in Annic Nova could be explained as collecting exotic particles from stars rather than just absorbing electromagnetic radiation.

Hooray, I sense the Liberator from Blakes 7 (which was way above TL15 anyway) becoming more "canon"

then neither are they.

say they arrived here frozen in a comet or other kuiper belt object, that was whipped around several times by passing stars and was "thrown" here. "what a long strange trip it's been ...." perhaps they picked up a few odds and ends along the way ... some artifacts, some powers, some genetic alterations ....

No reason they can't be immortal (a robot probe or self-repairing machine intelligence kind of thing, or even low berths with lots of shielding, provided their are computer brains to control the travel).

 

[flykiller]

No reason they can't be immortal (a robot probe or self-repairing machine intelligence kind of thing

or you could go with the andromeda strain approach. "don't send a signal or a machine or a person, rather send the coded information to build the machine/person to deliver the message".

yeah, there you go. they didn't come from andromeda, they were seeded from andromeda, and are constructed complete with memories and skills.

heh. think of the clone factory in star wars. yeah, that's the ticket, they conquer galaxies, they're here to conquer ours. a civilization with an intergalactic/intermillenial frame of reference to reality. why conquer? they don't know, they're just programmed that way. perhaps an enterprising traveller character with computer 5 and medical 5 could reprogram them ....

hey, perhaps it's not THEIR civilization, they're just the military slaves, perhaps the real aliens are on the way in some long-term sleeper ship and are due to arrive at the prepped invasion zone soon. crystalline life forms, yeah, that's the ticket, they live millions of years, are highly individualist and require entire planetary systems for each individual which is why they need entire galaxies, breed (share crystal code) only intermittently, slowly spreading through the intergalactic universe ....

 

[SanDragon]

A von Neumann invasion?