So the text would at least have to be rewritten to say, "when the Terrans
achieved a true Jump-1 navigational paradigm," as it's not the drive, it's
having the instruction book.
> Right. The problem is explicitly as much about navigation as Jump itself.
> The Terrans were still exploring the new technology while the Vilani had
> the experience & knew all the dead ends (of J1 and J2).
>
> On Thu, Mar 5, 2015, 11:28 Mario Butter
> [Traveller_TNE] <> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> 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.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
achieved a true Jump-1 navigational paradigm," as it's not the drive, it's
having the instruction book.
> Right. The problem is explicitly as much about navigation as Jump itself.
> The Terrans were still exploring the new technology while the Vilani had
> the experience & knew all the dead ends (of J1 and J2).
>
> On Thu, Mar 5, 2015, 11:28 Mario Butter
> [Traveller_TNE] <> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> 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.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>