Double Jumping

[Piper]

Thanks for posting that, and the heat threads as well. Also a special thanks to Robject (much easier to follow on your site).
It's a thought-provoking and very well done article.

I never considered that the large fuel requirements for a jump might involve cooling and the concept of lanthanum superconducters is simply inspired.
I still have some issues with it, but it's the most comprehensive explanation of jump drive I've ever come across.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Interesting thoughts, Horatio. I will definitely have to look at this for my high TL polity IMTU.

 

[Horatius]

You're very welcome. Based on the discussions, I think I know what to do should my PCs actually try something like this. Its been discussed, never implimented.

Follow up question: Could 'Double Jumping' be used to return a vessel to normal space prior to the 168 hour window? Kind of like using a second engine to stop your car when its moving at 60mph (100kmh for our metric bretheren). Or would it be more like stopping a car by throwing a brick wall at it?

 

[mike wightman]

If you mean switch on the other engine in the opposite direction I would think the ship would be ripped to pieces.
Or stranded in jumpspace

 

[Horatius]

Not so much turning it on in the opposite direction, but more using it to create a second tunnel from jumpspace that leads back to normal space.

Also, I not sure anything can be 'stranded' in jumpspace. If a normalspace object were deposited into jumpspace, wouldn't it precipitate out of jumpspace whe its energy state became too low to maintain itself in jumpspace? The shear forces when it dropped out of J-space would do some horrendous damage to the vessel (that sudden deceleration from 154c back to sublight must be murder). I'm sure there are a bazillion traveller's myths about ships being stranded in jumpspace, but I would find it difficult to put much stock in them. Once the 'lasing cloud' or jump tunnel dissipates, the vessel would have no protection and would drop back into n-space.

 

[lordrichter]

Originally posted by Horatius:
... I think I know what to do should my PCs actually try something like this.

Sure you do...

You are so lucky that I took the time to read this thread. I need to reread the article and pick your brain, before I pick a theory.

See you sunday.

 

[TheBrain]

Originally posted by Vhela Psylocin:
Also, note that Traveller's concept of nonspace is different than that in, say, Babylon 5. There, using the jump gates, ships COULD be stranded in hyperspace if they lost their lock on the beacon showing the exit jump gate. A grisly prospect...

"Jump while your already in jumpspace? Sir they tried that durning the war. They ended up calling it the bonehead manuever."

 

[mike wightman]

There are examples in Traveller canon of ships being stranded in jumpspace...

 

[Spinward Scout]

This is an idea I came up with for my universe:

JUMP MULTIMPLEXOR DRIVE

The Jump Multimplexor was created from a secret research requested by Emperor Strephon. It is currently in use aboard 5 of the Emperor’s ships – for use to ease his escape, if needed. The Zhodani, the Solomani, the Vargr, and the Hivers are all aware of this due to a security leak (the person that leaked the information mysteriously committed suicide by shooting himself a record 42 times), and are attempting to steal the plans for the device. The Emperor is planning on waiting until one of his holdings would be able to mass produce the devices and multiply the economic standing and stability of the Imperium. What a boon this would be for all involved if these devices were to be unleashed upon the galaxy. The Jump Multimplexor cannot be currently bought at this time in the Imperium, but it can be stolen.
The Jump Multimplexor is a modified piece of Jump technology that multiplies the Jump Factor of a Jump Drive. Example: The Fantastic Nova has a Jump-3 drive. The Nova is capable of Jump-1, Jump-2, and Jump-3. They have a Jump Multimplexor-3 installed at a maintenance facility in the Spinward Marches. The Fantastic Nova is now capable of Jump-1, Jump-2, Jump-3, Jump-6, and Jump-9, but not Jump-4, Jump-5, Jump-7, or Jump-8. Fuel is calculated as normal for the normal Jump drive, and the energy used for the Jump Multimplexor reduces the normal operations power output of the ship by One Day x Additional Jump Levels. Example: The Nova makes a Jump-9 trip. The normal Jump drive uses up enough fuel and energy to make a normal Jump-3. The Jump Multimplexor uses the energy and fuel of 6 days of operation. At it’s highest level, J-6 and JM-6 (36 parsec jump), the use of drop tanks would most likely be necessary, otherwise, the ship may very well end up powerless in space after the Jump is finished. Tonnage is Ship Tonnage x Jump Multimplexor level x .02. For a Jump Multimplexor-3 on a 200 ton ship, the tonnage would be 200 x 3 x .02 = 12 tons. The cost is calculated similarly: Ship Tonnage x Jump Multimplexor x 20 (modify the .02 and the 20 in the calculations if you want to make this more rare in your campaign). Using the example above, 200 x 3 x 20 = Cr12,000. It takes 12 man-hours per ton to install properly.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

"There are examples in Traveller canon of ships being stranded in jumpspace..."

Really?

 

[mike wightman]

Yep.

 

[mike wightman]

And now for the longer answer.

In one of the T4 adventures.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

(waits for even longer answer)

 

[mike wightman]

Sorry, I keep getting distracted.

The T4 adventure Gateway includes a couple of jump space encounters. One is with an alien ship that "overlaps" the PC's ship in jump space, while another is with jump space demons. The jump space demons are really Droyne trapped in jump space.

Slightly less canonically there were a few horror issues of Challenge that had some weird stuff in IIRC.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Hmm. Don't remember those bits (but then it was 8 years ago...)

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Vhela,
Is that similar to the J6 that runs on only 100dTons of fuel, that the Solomani (or the Japanese, or somebody) is hiding because it will cut into their profits?

 

[mike wightman]

IIRC the jump governor was introduced in High Guard first edition.

By second edition of CT there was no need for a jump governor because the way the jump drive works was changed in the rules. Thus it was not mentioned in second edition High Guard or second edition CT.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

I KNEW I'd seen this somewhere. From MWM's JTAS 24 article:

"Some attempts have been made to launch starships into jump space from other starships; problems in properly matching drive fields, or even turning them on near other ships, has shown that the technique is impractical at best, and probably imposisible."

 

[mike wightman]

All from the perspective of a TL15 Imperial scientist, and declassified for public release

What sort of jump research is really going on in all of those Imperial Research Stations

 

[JAFARR]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
IIRC the jump governor was introduced in High Guard first edition.

By second edition of CT there was no need for a jump governor because the way the jump drive works was changed in the rules. Thus it was not mentioned in second edition High Guard or second edition CT.

Basicly it allowed a ship with higher than jump-1 drives to make jumps of Less than max capacity and use less than the full tank of jump fuel.