Thought so.
Here then is some highlights from the troublesome section...
"The Jump Drive
(A.D. 2088-2098)
The UNSCA research station on Ceres had one more miracle to produce. It was at that station that Terrans first developed the jump drive, which allowed for accessible interstellar travel, in 2088. At first, the prototype jump drive was extremely fuel hungry and limited in range. It was used only within Sol system, as a fast means of reaching the outer planets and the cometary cloud."
Jump drives are jump drives. Fuel efficiency is not an issue per se, though higher capacity drives require more fuel to throw you farther through hyperspace to emerge a farther distance away in normal space. The canon explanation was always that the Terrans were *using* jump drive inefficiently, not realizing at first that their new technology allowed not only faster travel times to the outer system, but could be used to travel interstellar distances. With usage over time they soon discovered they could leap further and further away until the Americans jumped to Barnard's Star.
"Even after the UNSCA produced a true jump-1 drive (in 2092), there seemed to be little practical application
for the technology. No other star systems were within a parsec of Sol, and the mathematics of jump navigation seemed to imply that a jump into empty space was not possible. "
The text essentially contradicts itself, having just given a practical use for the new drive "a fast means of reaching the outer planets..." But that aside, the handwave employed regarding the mathematics of jump navigation also doesn't work. Americans being well...Americans, even the latter 21st century, they would have pushed the envelope. The cometary cloud is nearing the edge of the Sun's gravity well. Someone would have made that next leap outside the Sun's gravity well and when they discovered that they had no problem returning to the last jump point, it would have been an eureka moment equivalent to Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier.
"The first step was to locate a âjump point,â a wandering planet or browndwarf star located at a convenient
point in interstellar space. Such bodies were known to exist, although locating them precisely was often
quite difficult, and it was unlikely for one to be in a convenient location. Here the American mission planners
were lucky â a candidate rogue planet was found, located so that jump-1 starships could reach it from both Sol and Barnardâs Star."
Here they treating jump drive like Traveller: 2300's stutterwarp, which *did* need a gravity well to function.
Later in the next section...
"It was at Barnard that the two societies began an enthusiastic trade in high-technology goods. Terran entrepreneurs did especially well offering medical and biotechnological goods in exchange for examples of Vilani engineering. The Vilani felt that they got the better end of this bargain, not realizing how quickly Terran scientists would reverse-engineer the technology they received. One critical item developed (by 2108) was a Terran version of the Vilani jump-1 drive, allowing Terran explorers their first easy access to the nearest stars."
Jump drive is jump drive and J-1 drives are J-1 drives. The Vilani could not have "better" J-1 drives. At best *for story purposes* the Vilani J-1 drives might be more reliable (which would make sense given that the Terrans were essentially running around on 1st generation jump drives and the Vilani were using J-1 drives that had been made the same way for centuries), but that is not how it is written.
Here then is some highlights from the troublesome section...
"The Jump Drive
(A.D. 2088-2098)
The UNSCA research station on Ceres had one more miracle to produce. It was at that station that Terrans first developed the jump drive, which allowed for accessible interstellar travel, in 2088. At first, the prototype jump drive was extremely fuel hungry and limited in range. It was used only within Sol system, as a fast means of reaching the outer planets and the cometary cloud."
Jump drives are jump drives. Fuel efficiency is not an issue per se, though higher capacity drives require more fuel to throw you farther through hyperspace to emerge a farther distance away in normal space. The canon explanation was always that the Terrans were *using* jump drive inefficiently, not realizing at first that their new technology allowed not only faster travel times to the outer system, but could be used to travel interstellar distances. With usage over time they soon discovered they could leap further and further away until the Americans jumped to Barnard's Star.
"Even after the UNSCA produced a true jump-1 drive (in 2092), there seemed to be little practical application
for the technology. No other star systems were within a parsec of Sol, and the mathematics of jump navigation seemed to imply that a jump into empty space was not possible. "
The text essentially contradicts itself, having just given a practical use for the new drive "a fast means of reaching the outer planets..." But that aside, the handwave employed regarding the mathematics of jump navigation also doesn't work. Americans being well...Americans, even the latter 21st century, they would have pushed the envelope. The cometary cloud is nearing the edge of the Sun's gravity well. Someone would have made that next leap outside the Sun's gravity well and when they discovered that they had no problem returning to the last jump point, it would have been an eureka moment equivalent to Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier.
"The first step was to locate a âjump point,â a wandering planet or browndwarf star located at a convenient
point in interstellar space. Such bodies were known to exist, although locating them precisely was often
quite difficult, and it was unlikely for one to be in a convenient location. Here the American mission planners
were lucky â a candidate rogue planet was found, located so that jump-1 starships could reach it from both Sol and Barnardâs Star."
Here they treating jump drive like Traveller: 2300's stutterwarp, which *did* need a gravity well to function.
Later in the next section...
"It was at Barnard that the two societies began an enthusiastic trade in high-technology goods. Terran entrepreneurs did especially well offering medical and biotechnological goods in exchange for examples of Vilani engineering. The Vilani felt that they got the better end of this bargain, not realizing how quickly Terran scientists would reverse-engineer the technology they received. One critical item developed (by 2108) was a Terran version of the Vilani jump-1 drive, allowing Terran explorers their first easy access to the nearest stars."
Jump drive is jump drive and J-1 drives are J-1 drives. The Vilani could not have "better" J-1 drives. At best *for story purposes* the Vilani J-1 drives might be more reliable (which would make sense given that the Terrans were essentially running around on 1st generation jump drives and the Vilani were using J-1 drives that had been made the same way for centuries), but that is not how it is written.