Starship Construction & population

[aramis]

When you travel 100 diameters out to jump, is there any reason that should be directly "towards" your destination? I can see why the opposite direction might feel like a bad idea (because there's a planet in the way), but jump travel doesn't pass through real space, so why not? I guess the traffic management may be better if all ships avoid each other, so Icosahedron may be right that there could be a lot more traffic out there, just beyond range.

Under CT. with jump-at-rest, only as much as is needed to clear the relevant intervening bodies.

Under TNE, with "moving" jumps, much more so. You need to be on a vector that, when you jump exit, puts the target ahead of you... and given TNE's fuel rates, and the 33 hour jump exit window, that's going to make for fairly narrow traffic corridors.

 

[tinker123]

Under CT. with jump-at-rest, only as much as is needed to clear the relevant intervening bodies.

I'm just a bit worried about the word "intervening". I thought the point of going 100 diameters away was to reduce the gravity field on the ship, before entering jump space, which is separate from real space. But maybe not..

Book 2 talks about spending a week "in jump" (but not in jump space), and simply describes 100 diameters as "a safe distance". If jump isn't a separate dimension though, but a way of travelling quickly through real space, there are also sorts of objects in the way that could make a nasty dent in the front of your ship. Do we have/need rules for that?

 

[Bob Weaver]

Well, after a quick check, I've found at least one canon reference to Jump Space as separate from normal space. Bk 5 (2nd ed) p. 17: "ships in jump space are untouchable and cannot communicate with other ships or stations". So a ship with its jump drives lit should be able to ignore planets or other objects in its normal-space path. Right?

 

[Icosahedron]

Tinker, the word 'intervening' is the idea of 'Jump Masking' that I mentioned earlier.

IIRC, in canon, although J space is a separate dimension or whatever, apparently your ship can be 'influenced by' bodies in real space, causing your ship to drop out of jump if your route takes you within 100D of a star or world. However, the ship can't be hit by anything, nor (apparently) can the strange pan-dimensional influence of gravity be used to turn a repulsor into a communicator(!)
I never figured why not - IMHO gravity is gravity, it either projects an influence into J space or it doesn't.

Personally, I found the whole idea (or my understanding of it) so inconsistent, self-contradictory and downright preposterous that I dropped it entirely IMTU. My J space is completely independent of real space. You cannot enter or leave J space close to a world for fear of misjumping, but once you have jumped your 'route' isn't even described by space, much less influenced by it.

Each to his own. I'm not interested in discussing the pros and cons of jump masking, I'm just explaining roughly what it is and why I chose to drop it. mega:

Er, wasn't this discussion moved to a new thread?

 

[aramis]

My interpretation of Jump Masking isn't that the n-space objects precipitate one out as much as deflect one's course.

It's in that "In canon sources but not of need canon" category.

It is canon enough that I use it (sparingly) as a plot device.