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title: FTL Drives

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# FTL Drives
In all of human history, no singular invention can be said to have opened more doors than that of faster-than-light flight. Prior to its discovery, human expansion was very limited, with even Alpha Centauri taking the better part of 5 years to travel to and from.

## The First Pioneers
The earliest work in discovering FTL flight began in the mid-2100s, after the settling of Adasta in Alpha Centauri provided a reasonable target for an experimental FTL vessel. During this time dozens of theories and prototypes were created, but very little actual progress was made until the Zhang's Comet incident of 2198 opened the eyes of humanity to the "Bluespace"; a parallel dimension which could, theoretically, be entered by specialised vessels. The first successful entry into bluespace by an unmanned vessel was made in 2205 when a research team from the University of Seoul sent a probe through via a "bluespace crush": detonating a bomb encased in bluespace crystals taken from Zhang's Comet, which proved enough to cause a short jump in space. Unfortunately, this initial travel also proved too stressful for the vessel to survive, with only wreckage arriving at the other side, but it was a promising step forward that showed that FTL flight *was* possible.

The bluespace crush concept was expanded upon by subsequent research, with the first successful survivable flight occurring in 2208. From here, small scale tests with living creatures were conducted; first rats, then dogs, then monkeys, and with each proving to be survivable and successful, the race was on for the first manned bluespace jump. For this undertaking, TerraGov itself became strongly involved in the process, assembling a crack team of researchers and corporate sponsors to ensure the viability of the project; as well as picking their first pioneer, Air Force Lieutenant Othman bin Sulaiman. After years of physical and mental preparation and the combined efforts of hundreds of researchers, the day finally arrived for Othman to enter the capsule and begin his test flight. The resulting journey between Jump Zero and Point 65 in Alpha Centauri took around 45 minutes; equating to a nominal Bluespace Travel Factor of 1.2 (BTF is x in the equation v = c^x). This monumental leap made travel between humanity's two closest systems a mild commute; indeed, it took longer by sublight to get to Jump Zero from Earth than the subsequent journey from Jump Zero to Point 65, and overnight this changed humanity's outlook on the stars. After Othman was deemed physically and mentally unaffected by his voyage, plans began in earnest to scale up the technology and reduce the associated cost: while bluespace crush cores worked from a technical perspective, the required load of bluespace crystals for each journey would make the technology economically unviable at larger scales. Eventually, the answer would come in the form of Nuclear Driver Cores.

## Early FTL (Nuclear Driver Cores)
The initial plans for the NDC came from a joint research project between the Institute of Astronautic Research and Conarex under the direction of Doctor Helena Franklin. The Institute had been experimenting for a time with using sources of high energy laser light to energise bluespace crystals, but were unable to generate enough energy by traditional means to create the desired effect. Eventually, the decision was made to investigate the use of nuclear-pumped lasers; previously only investigated experimentally for use as a weapons platform, these lasers generate a colossal amount of energy- however, their various drawbacks made them unviable for most purposes. The economic benefits from having more accessible FTL flight, however, would dramatically overpower these drawbacks; if they could only get them to work. After years of testing and prototyping, a breakthrough was made in 2219, and the first Franklin Spike underwent full-scale testing on the Terran Navy destroyer, the TMV Hammerhead, on a run between Harvest and Earth that achieved an approximate BTF of 2. This finally proved that mass-scale FTL was not only viable but eminently achieveable, and within the year the first Franklin Spikes were making their way off of production lines and into the vessels of the Terran Navy.

Typical bluespace FTL engines, of which the Franklin Spike is no exception, consist of two key components: the laser assembly and the bluespace core. In a Franklin Spike, the laser assembly is contained within a dense blast proof casing and built like the breech of a gun: a nuclear charge is placed into the assembly, sealed tightly, and detonated to produce the colossal energy required to drive the laser.

The bluespace core doesn't differ greatly between iterations of engines, as the key principles of its use remain the same: it consists of a large purpose-grown bluespace crystal (on the largest vessels these can weigh around a tonne), connected to a series of nacelles that ensure that the entire ship is pulled into bluespace. If this system fails, it's not unheard of for only half of a vessel to successfully make the transition; a fate that tends to end badly for whatever's aboard the ship.

Amongst the Tizirans, who have had limited access to plasma resources, NDCs remain the predominant form of FTL flight, where they are known as Cannon Drives. Amongst civilian vessels, traditional fission-based drives are the most common, but for the military, hybrid fusion-driven cores are instead used; these drives represent an advancement in NDC technology that allows for higher efficiencies and lower waste production when compared to fission, bringing them almost on par with Plasma-Chemical type cores in terms of performance, but with even greater bulk when compared to traditional fission cores. To get around the restriction of NDCs (and particularly fusion model NDCs) being only suitable for use on larger ships, the Tizirans have also developed a naval doctrine based around a central FTL-equipped vessel to which other non-FTL capable ships in the fleet will anchor for transport. These supercarriers represent the pride of the Tiziran Navy, even if they are struggling to rebuild their capacity after the Human-Tiziran wars.

Major downsides of NDCs include poor fuel efficiency, the required bulk to prevent core rupture or radiation leakage (making these drives functionally unusable on any ship below a certain size), the production of radioactive waste, and the requirement to cool the core between jumps; on larger vessels this can take hours, resulting in large amounts of wasted time between jumps. Another large drawback is the requirement to have viable nuclear weapons aboard vessels to power the drive; this obviously proves a dangerous cargo, and can be especially dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands. Federal regulations state that the devices used for NDCs can be no larger than fit for purpose, must be stored in two parts that are assembled immediately prior to use, and that authorisation in the form of a serially-coded disk keyed to each specific device must be utilised to detonate the devices, with the responsibility for the security of these disks falling to the commander of the vessel.

## Advancements in FTL (Plasma-Chemical Cores)
The first major advancement over NDCs came in the form of the Plasma-Chemical Core. This model of FTL drive utilises a high-temperature and pressure metal-catalysed reaction between plasma and nitrous oxide as the driver for the laser system. As might be expected, this represented a massive decrease in the complexity, cost, and size of FTL drives, finally allowing medium-to-small sized vessels to carry their own FTL drives.

PCCs are the most common type of FTL drive utilised by human vessels. Due to their small viable size allowing them to be used on vessels as small as a screambike, they've brought about a secondary FTL renaissance, permitting even relatively poor pilots to own an FTL-capable ship. The Spinward Rush is attributed directly to the accessibility of PCCs allowing mass exploration and settlement of the region.

PCCs come in two designs; solid and gas based systems. Gas based systems are typically used for smaller vessels, with a tank of plasma fuel that is fed through a preheater into the "hot side" of the system. Solid systems evolved out of safety concerns with larger gas fuel tanks, especially on warships: in these systems, fuel is instead stored as solid pellets which are fed into the system and pyrolysed to plasma gas as required.

In a PCC, keeping the engine free of oxygen is critical to maintaining safe performance. The "hot side" of the engine is sealed and pulled to vaccuum prior to introducing the fuel gases; failure to do so will result in a runaway reaction between the oxygen and plasma, and very likely a large explosion.

Small PCCs tend to run "straight", with no attempt made to recover or recycle the waste gas produced by the process; it is just vented to space and lost for good. On larger vessels, a typical accompaniment to a PCC is a plasma recycler, which recovers a portion of the plasma for reuse. These systems increase the fuel efficiency of a PCC-based FTL drive, helping to offset the generally larger consumption these vessels naturally have.

The abundance of PCCs is a primary contributor to plasma being one of humankind's most important resources; as the process of producing energy via PCCs does not have a 100% recovery rate, it requires a constant input of plasma to continue working, and writ across humanity's total amount of engines, this produces a huge demand for the purple stuff.

## Bluespace Travel Factor
The Bluespace Travel Factor of a vessel is defined as its speed in bluespace; this follows an exponential scale that has no theoretical upper limit, although in practical terms no vessel has yet exceeded Factor 7 and survived to tell the tale.

BTF is actually not strongly influenced by the type of Bluespace Drive installed on a vessel; it instead relies upon specific bluespace impulse engines that are used exclusively for travel within bluespace, being too strong to utilise in normal space. For most vessels at lower distances (e.g. travelling from Sol to Alpha Centauri), a BTF of 1.2 is considered normal; this permits travelling 1 lightyear in around 10 minutes. As distances grow, higher BTFs are recommended to maintain viability, but care must be taken to balance the speed with the vessel's integrity and ability to react to difficult conditions; meeting bluespace turbulence at higher speeds may result in being sent lightyears off course, provided the vessel even survives the encounter.