Well, note that those remarks were "Dave39;s ruling," and we know how some
sentiment runs towards Dave's rulings. Only take it to banks you don't
mind being laughed out of.
I concur with you that the passages don't seem to be written within the
established Traveller feel, but I could see granting some descriptive
license as people groped toward deriving the "quantized by parsecs" rule
that Traveller used and worked out the underlying physics. Still, as you
say, some of it makes no sense, but I always refer people to "The Picard
Maneuver" as proof that everyone in Star Trek's future except Kirk and
Spock was a complete idiot. (I don't know if it's "Picard" or "Piccard"
and I don't care.)
I especially agree that "a true Jump-1 drive" is problematic. The way the
Traveller rules developed, microjumps only came later, which implies that
one has to first have a true jump 1 capability that one can use at lesser
capacity, not that there are Jump 0.5 drives, Jump 0.75 drives, and so on
before Jump 1 drives. IIRC CT said that J1 space and J2 space and J3 space
etc. were completely separate "universes," and left no room for J0.5 space
and so on. In TNE I was modifying this so that they were all "contiguous"
with quantized "membranes" between them, but your penetration curve
determined how "deep" you dove into J-space, a shallow J1 or J2 curve, or
a deep J4, 5, 6 curve. But again, only take that to the "First Imperial
Everyone Laughs at Dave" bank. Or don't take it there, I'm now tangled in
my own metaphor.
And I'm pretty sure that those Microjumps still consumed a full J1 worth
of fuel, and definitely took the full 168 (+ or -) hours. It's in JTAS
someplace.
I'm with you that the narration would have to be tuned to bring it into
line with accepted Traveller pseudo-physics, because right now it's a
little 2300-ish and generic SF-ish, only broadly settling into Traveller
understandings.
But I will make one final observation in defense of the author. The only
reason that Traveller has quantized Jump ranges is because of the hex
grid. In the "real universe" stars are not placed at neat 3.26 light year
intervals. Damn! I have another set of "it's only a game" teethmarks on my
butt again.
> 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.
sentiment runs towards Dave's rulings. Only take it to banks you don't
mind being laughed out of.
I concur with you that the passages don't seem to be written within the
established Traveller feel, but I could see granting some descriptive
license as people groped toward deriving the "quantized by parsecs" rule
that Traveller used and worked out the underlying physics. Still, as you
say, some of it makes no sense, but I always refer people to "The Picard
Maneuver" as proof that everyone in Star Trek's future except Kirk and
Spock was a complete idiot. (I don't know if it's "Picard" or "Piccard"
and I don't care.)
I especially agree that "a true Jump-1 drive" is problematic. The way the
Traveller rules developed, microjumps only came later, which implies that
one has to first have a true jump 1 capability that one can use at lesser
capacity, not that there are Jump 0.5 drives, Jump 0.75 drives, and so on
before Jump 1 drives. IIRC CT said that J1 space and J2 space and J3 space
etc. were completely separate "universes," and left no room for J0.5 space
and so on. In TNE I was modifying this so that they were all "contiguous"
with quantized "membranes" between them, but your penetration curve
determined how "deep" you dove into J-space, a shallow J1 or J2 curve, or
a deep J4, 5, 6 curve. But again, only take that to the "First Imperial
Everyone Laughs at Dave" bank. Or don't take it there, I'm now tangled in
my own metaphor.
And I'm pretty sure that those Microjumps still consumed a full J1 worth
of fuel, and definitely took the full 168 (+ or -) hours. It's in JTAS
someplace.
I'm with you that the narration would have to be tuned to bring it into
line with accepted Traveller pseudo-physics, because right now it's a
little 2300-ish and generic SF-ish, only broadly settling into Traveller
understandings.
But I will make one final observation in defense of the author. The only
reason that Traveller has quantized Jump ranges is because of the hex
grid. In the "real universe" stars are not placed at neat 3.26 light year
intervals. Damn! I have another set of "it's only a game" teethmarks on my
butt again.
> 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.