The way I always read that is that the Terrans were, in essence, using the
"feature" of a jump drive precipitating you out of jump space when you hit
a gravity well as their "braking system". They didn't understand the
mathematics well enough to calculate a jump into empty space. Basically,
they were playing bumper cars with the jump drive. Once they got a working
model of a jump drive that worked properly, someone had an "ah-hah!" moment
on the mathematics.
--
Mario
http://mario.silent-tower.org/
On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 12:45 PM, [Traveller_TNE] <
> wrote:
>
>
> 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.
>
>
"feature" of a jump drive precipitating you out of jump space when you hit
a gravity well as their "braking system". They didn't understand the
mathematics well enough to calculate a jump into empty space. Basically,
they were playing bumper cars with the jump drive. Once they got a working
model of a jump drive that worked properly, someone had an "ah-hah!" moment
on the mathematics.
--
Mario
http://mario.silent-tower.org/
On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 12:45 PM, [Traveller_TNE] <
> wrote:
>
>
> 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.
>
>