CT Only: Heim Theory/Device

[Supplement Four]

I started reading John Shirley's Aliens book, Steel Egg, and I was surprised to see that he's added some real science to the Alien universe: The Heim Device.

He says that the ships in the Alien universe are powered with such a drive.

You can read about Heim Theory just by doing a google, but here are two links that I read:

ON GIZMODO

AT THE REGISTER IN THE UK



This Gizmodo article says this....

Enough of a magnetic field will not just pop a spaceship out of a gravitational pull, but out of regular, three-dimensional space itself. By going into higher dimensional space, a ship or person might hop from one place to another, traveling, to ordinary four-dimensional eyes, faster than light.

The ship translate into another dimension? Does that not remind you of a certain favorite RPG set in the Far Future?

 

[Supplement Four]

I thought this was cool, too. Maybe an aspect that we can add to our games?

Dorea had tapped her wrist control and a workstation emerged from its niche in the wall behind them, floating to her--it would stop or circle around any obstacles--and she set about giving Navi-Grip the instructions. The ship responded, shuddering briefly, then accelerating smoothly towards the alien craft.

That's a pretty nifty idea. Wherever you are standing in the ship, you can summon a workstation with a touch on your bracelet. The workstation will make its way to you, wherever you are. In this case, Dorea doesn't have to go three decks up to the bridge. She gives the ship a movement order while standing right there in Observation.

Pretty cool.

 

[aramis]

The ship translate into another dimension? Does that not remind you of a certain favorite RPG set in the Far Future?

Yeah, Spacemaster, Albedo, Aliens Adventure Game...

 

[GypsyComet]

Wherever you are standing in the ship, you can summon a workstation

And well within standard tech.

 

[ShapeShifter]

Or PCs could be surgically fitted with jacks to physically plug into access points in a ship to interface with the onboard systems a la Space Quest RPG.

 

[Supplement Four]

And well within standard tech.

How big are anti-grav units? I guess if a grav belt has them, and the pics I've seen of those aren't bulky at all, then you could easily have one in a floating board.

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

Could do, but easier to use augmented reality tech and project the controls onto a set of glasses (or even contact lenses ) with a visual feedback system to track hand movements or maybe gloves . The user would be waving his hand in the air but could manipulate controls etc.

 

[Timerover51]

Could do, but easier to use augmented reality tech and project the controls onto a set of glasses (or even contact lenses ) with a visual feedback system to track hand movements or maybe gloves . The user would be waving his hand in the air but could manipulate controls etc.

What happens when he or she scratches their nose?

 

[Grav_Moped]

Or PCs could be surgically fitted with jacks to physically plug into access points in a ship to interface with the onboard systems a la Space Quest RPG.

This could be probematic if the artificial gravity/inertial compensators fail. Ouch.

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

Obviously their would be a overide or activate button in the setroop up, maybe eye trackers in the glasses to link hand actions to attention to a virtual control.

It's not a one size fits all solution and many things would still have manual controls like airlock or other critical systems

 

[Enoki]

The way I've always explained jump, and why it's limited to 6 parsecs (or an equivalent lightyears), plays well to Heim Theory as one more reason.

I assume that the ship's jump drive creates a Nth dimensional gravity well ahead of the ship and this pulls the ship in. Time is a constant in the calculation of the well so you end up spending a week (give or take due to small errors in the calculations along with small differences in things like gravity in interstellar space, etc.) in jump.
The 6 parsec limit is due to being able to stretch such a gravity well only so far and no further. So, the method of jump is thus limited.
The ship precipitates out at the gravitational singularity at the far end of the well and the well collapses in behind the ship pushing it towards the singularity point.


If you miscalculate the singularity point any large gravitational body can cause the well to prematurely collapse and precipitate your ship out of jump.

This means you use all the energy and fuel for a jump in creating the well. Once you enter, the well exists until it collapses with your ship heading to the singularity point. That is, you use all that energy creating the well in an instant.

This also means you can jump to empty space, or to any point near a system you want to choose assuming you have a good enough navigator and pilot to do it. The 100D rule is simply the default navigation program taking you to the primary of a system and dropping you out far enough from the planet's gravitational effect to make the jump safe.

Heim Theory seems to parallel the idea of Nth dimensional gravity wells so I think this explanation gives it as one more way to add some science to it.

 

[wellis]

What happens when he or she scratches their nose?

Since I imagine the controls aren't jammed up right in your face, you could probably scratch your nose okay.

Hell, maybe the visuals or controls can be changed through eye movements, like you often see in scifi, such as a blink-clicking through stuff.