The idea of a jump capable suit made me wonder what other uses there might be for a jump drive if it was possible to be able to make very small jump drives and power sources, accurate short distance jumps, and/or make things jump capable without too much difficulty. A number of applications would need the jump drive to destroy itself after jumping, perhaps using a cold burn or something or wait until the Jung have jump drives. For now just three concepts with a number of ideas within.
1. Demolitions. Generally if something needs destroyed, then explosives are the answer, but jumping part or all of it away might faster be as effective. Seems like specs ops teams could attach emitters to the outside of a building, turn on the power source and a few seconds later the building is falling is falling several thousand feet to the ground and the emitters and such have been cold-burned to dust. Although, I think the jump drive actually has to be moving to work, so it might be more like attaching emitters to a plane or (space) ship on the ground (perhaps in an incomplete form so they jump only part of it) then having them active once the plane or ship is moving. Alternatively, perhaps only the emitters themselves have to be moving. In which case, the emitters could be mobile, and after they are all placed, they move just enough to allow for a jump.
2. Small arms jump munitions. Projectiles not going far enough? Slap on a mini jump drive and watch as the range increases dramatically. A grenade launcher with jump capable grenades could allow for very accurate grenade placement, when the grenade jumps after fired. A jump capable hand grenade could also be possible, but it isn't likely to be as accurate. A jump capable mortar might be interesting too. Aircraft defenses become less effective one can just jump a warhead right next to one.
3. Faster planetary resupply. Consider the idea of a jump mortar. The projectile is shot into the air, one or more jumps are made to increase the distance it travels and how fast it gets there. It would likely need to be able to adjust it's aim, but such a method could land a projectile anywhere in the world in minutes if not seconds if it can jump far enough fast enough. Now instead of a projectile, consider a supply create with a parachute. Instead of having to ferry supplies over land/sea/air, you just fling it into the air in the general direction of where it is supposed to go and it gets there in minutes or less. That being said, the higher the initial velocity, the easier it'll be to make accurate landings long distance. The reason being that once it's forward velocity gets too close to zero, then it likely can no longer get any more distance and more jumps just means that it falls to the ground faster.
Ok lets look on the non military side of things we know the jump drive works in atmosphere so why not come up with passenger shuttles that can move people around the planet better. Imagine how much better and quicker your emergency response teams could move if the could be jumped in to a fire or a crash. The first few minutes are always the deciding factor in emergency situations. More lives could be saved.
I know the jump drive works well for the military but why not look at some peaceful applications for it. After all that's what Abby's late father would have wanted. Let's honor his memory.
depending on the level of precision, imagine a jump subway. Enter a standard subway car filled with passengers. It leaves the Los Angeles station, picks up speed, and then BANG it is slowing down to approach the next station... in Paris!
Due to the Earth's curvature, it would have to be pointing downward at a pretty steep angle, in order to hit Paris, so people might have to be strapped in, or use artificial gravity to pull people into what seems like a normal direction. Things like that could be worked out, though.
@Kelly:
True, the resupply method could also be used for non-military purposes assuming it doesn't require too much power. Unless power generation is extremely efficient (perhaps via a ZPE), it'll probably be a fair while before it's economical to use commercial jump drives except for travel between planets, which again is currently only useful in the PC.
@Eric:
A jump subway does seem possible with the tunnel being a bit larger than needed to provide error tolerance, but making such a long tunnel would be rather expensive. That said, it's probably the only way to make a single jump. This seems best if it's better to make one big jump rather then a bunch of smaller jumps, and that's probably the case since that's how it's done in the book. Still the tunnel might be too expensive to justify especially when you consider how many people might be using the tunnel, it might require multiple lanes of traffic and that means a rather wide tunnel. This might make it more efficient to travel through the air using multiple jumps.
It might be rather dangerous if the calculations are wrong but the resupply mortar approach could be used with a train if it had fixed start and end points. Theoretically, you could add a jump drive to a train have it go up a ramp, jump it, then let the train arc downwards, jump again and have it land on a second ramp. The jumps would have to be just right so it comes down at the right angle and velocity. The only downside is that a jump train would have to have a jump drive on each car and would have to jump separately otherwise some of the cars would likely hit the ramp. Likely, each car would have a capacitor that would be charged by nuclear energy or ZPE at the train station for power the jump drives.
What if the emitters could be wireless? Think about mini drones that each have an emitter on them and a guidance system. You drop a cluster of them they surround the object and you can jump it. I know there is a calibration issue but maybe for a shorter duration jump.
Different topic. Could you jump an Asteroid? Do we need a traditional ship? Jump an entire base.
Frank - Brilliant! I knew there was some way to replicate the attack on the Jung battleship without risking the Aurora! Separate the ship carrying the emitters into a swarm of drones! Awesome weapon. Jump half of an enemy ship away, battle is over.
Even if the swarm of drones were still dragging cables, you wouldn't have to surround more than what, 10% of the ship before jumping, and causing massive damage to the enemy. Picture a space squid, reaching its tentacles out towards the enemy ship... lol!
That's about the direction I was thinking in terms of jump based demolitions, although on a larger scale. Although, I expected it to require wires. It would be interesting if it could be wireless. The only issue might be power requirements, seems like jumping something that big would be rather power intensive, even if the jump is a short distance.
Although I would imagine that jumping half the ship just means that most of the battle is over. Still need to deal with both halves but at least each have now has a rather vulnerable area where the split occurred. Therefore, it might be wise to jump the section so it'll fall into a star or crash into a lifeless moon/planet. Do that for each part of the enemy ship and problem solved. Of course, if you don't do it to all ships at once, those drones will become rather high priority on the targeting list.
Even if you can not use a drone jump swarm to surround and jump an object, I am surprised that no one has suggested jump mines. Have them jump inside the shield of an enemy ship and detonate. Basically following the initial attack strategy of the Aurora in the first few episodes.
Now since to initiate a jump you need (basically) two things; emitters to generate the field and a power supply that is strong enough for said jump. Now with modifications to the emitter, instead of generating the field from the inside, it should be possible to generate an exterior shield. Basically generate a field that will surround an object. This raises a couple of questions though:
1.) Is the field itself a protective shell that allows the jump and if that is the case, an externally generated field would not work since the field itself would not travel with the object in question. This is supported in part by the jump flash and the departure & arrival destinations if you consider it to be a discharge of excess energy from however the jump drive works. I base this on the fact that the jump technology originated from shield technology.
a.) If the field does not need to travel to complete a jump, how would you aim it without hitting one of your designated emitters? This could be done I suppose with a barrel, but what would happen to the projectile when it passed through the field?
2.) Setting up an external emitter field via wireless connection in theory should be doable, but extremely dangerous. If the number of emitters is based on the size of the object to jump (this is not including any backup emitters), then if you destroy one the jump would either fail to initiate or would only jump a portion of the object. Also, to use wireless, the emitters should be at the farthest point from each other at the most 1 light second to minimize problems in the calculations needed. Also you would need to know if the field jumps with the object or not since that would change the size & shape of the emitter array used.
Another thought I had was a jump laser. Basically use the radiation/jump flash has the base of a laser system. To generate you have a small jump continuously between two points in your weapon or just jumping to the same point in said weapon. Since the jump flash is described has blue/white in color that tells me it is in 450-490 wavelength. Jung weapons be described has a red would be in the 600-750 range. If I remember right, then a jump laser should be more powerful than a jung weapon if they are both at the same relative power level in watts.
For peaceful use, how about a jump gate system. In system A, a ship goes to a designated area in the system and into an open box/rectangle. This box/rectangle then jumps, with the ship inside to system B where the ship departs said box and goes to a planet in the system or to another box that might take it to system C. Another ship then goes into the now empty box and it jumps to System A. This would allow more trade and communication between the systems if you figure at minimum 1 jump between systems every few hours. Though it might be annoying if I am in System A and want to reach System K to jump through the intervening systems, it would generate more trade and revenue for those systems. Also since some systems are relatively close to each other, I am sure that a multi-jump system would be feasible (System D would have Jump Gates to System C, System E and System G) or midway stations could be setup in the void between systems.
-John
Another thought I had was a jump laser. Basically use the radiation/jump flash has the base of a laser system. To generate you have a small jump continuously between two points in your weapon or just jumping to the same point in said weapon. Since the jump flash is described has blue/white in color that tells me it is in 450-490 wavelength. Jung weapons be described has a red would be in the 600-750 range. If I remember right, then a jump laser should be more powerful than a jung weapon if they are both at the same relative power level in watts.
Now that sounds like a good idea. Especially if you use this laser not only as a weapon, but as a means of communication. Almost instant communication over hundreds of light years?
Another idea: "Jump me up, Scotty!" 😉 You might need a special jump suit (not the baby thingy) and an area of arrival that kind of guides your suit - but it might work.
Now since to initiate a jump you need (basically) two things; emitters to generate the field and a power supply that is strong enough for said jump. Now with modifications to the emitter, instead of generating the field from the inside, it should be possible to generate an exterior shield. Basically generate a field that will surround an object. This raises a couple of questions though:
1.) Is the field itself a protective shell that allows the jump and if that is the case, an externally generated field would not work since the field itself would not travel with the object in question.
Actually, it might work quite well as a weapon. Surround enemy warship with tiny drones that are hard to spot and even harder to shoot, create field, send enemy into next star/uninhabited planet/piece of rock/black hole/whatever. Of course, sending the ship merely a couple of meters in any one direction might be enough if the field itself is the protective shield - the ship would shatter anyway due to still having its mass and being accelerated beyond the speed of light. (Let's just not think of what the crew would look like afterwards. Bugs on a front screen, anyone?)
Actually, it might work quite well as a weapon. Surround enemy warship with tiny drones that are hard to spot and even harder to shoot, create field, send enemy into next star/uninhabited planet/piece of rock/black hole/whatever. Of course, sending the ship merely a couple of meters in any one direction might be enough if the field itself is the protective shield – the ship would shatter anyway due to still having its mass and being accelerated beyond the speed of light. (Let’s just not think of what the crew would look like afterwards. Bugs on a front screen, anyone?)
Just surround a part of the ship with it. Jump it in half. This has been done in the books before.
Now that I think about it, drones that jump in, attached to hull, jump out repeatedly. Every time it jumps, a section of hull jumps with it. If break for any reason, self destruct. Make the default mode self destruct to protect secret.
Just because you could jump a drone in and out of an engagement doesn't mean you have to, you could run the drone along beside an enemy ship and repeatedly micro-jump along the side of it.
Imagine a comm drone configured with a jump drive travelling slower then the target ship jumping in beside it, getting its barrings then micro jumping every second, 10-15 meters along the enemy hull. close enough to take out shield emitters, gun placements, sensors, etc. not only do you punch a hole you drop the hull pieces back in places which will undoubtedly annoy the enemy engineers.
Chances are if your using this tactic you have a number of them working in unison for maximum effect. (why waste 402's and lives) the likelihood of the drone being captured is low because the drone is moving slower then the ship so it should be able to out maneuver and evade attempts to capture or destroy it. Tractor beams (unless they effect the jump emitters) shouldn't work as your not there long enough to be locked onto, and grappling hooks are useless as you could jump them.
The drones would likely open a hole in the crafts shields with only a few hits.
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Another tactic could be to jump in, latch mines to the hull, then demand the ships immediate surrender 🙂
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As technically everything in space is moving, including galaxy's, shouldn't jump drives work without independent movement??? I would understand if it the jump drive was effected by local gravity being landed on a planet... but needing to be moving in a space to just move is dumb. Being stationary in comparison to the local solar system and then jumping could determine the center point of the universe... Which could be cool!
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I like the Jump drive as its simple and fast... and I really like how Josh and Loki raised the issue of just how dangerous it can be multi-jumping without proper shielding... Do we know if Jump drive tech is safe to use repeatedly, or will everyone on the aurora need to undergo nanite treatment eventually
The idea of a jump capable suit made me wonder what other uses there might be for a jump drive if it was possible to be able to make very small jump drives and power sources, accurate short distance jumps, and/or make things jump capable without too much difficulty. A number of applications would need the jump drive to destroy itself after jumping, perhaps using a cold burn or something or wait until the Jung have jump drives. For now just three concepts with a number of ideas within.
I think most notable are the Jump drive ability to extend communication and transport abilities. As well as specialized as jump/shielded munition, or such munition that cause targeted or limited damage.
But IMO, the biggest invention in the books isn't the jump drives, but the ability to generate manipulate fields for: gravity, inertia compensators, FTL drives, shields and jump drives. This would have applications in every fields from mining, transportation, manufacturing.. to medicine. But military wise how about sound dampening either for personal use to avoid someone overhearing your conversation, or for specop operation so you can blow your way in without waking up everyone. You can use portable shields to make directional charges stronger/safer. Use them to cancel outgoingincoming signals for facilities, or maybe cause soldiers to go semi-invisible. On ships you use extra shielding for critical components. iirc we had one directional shields, which can cause deck operations go much smoother (and avoid super soldiers knocking on the front door) etc..
I think I've got a good idea for jump technology advancement. What about jump gates?
On earth you could build a shielded and fortified warehouse with external emitters creating a jump field inside the warehouse, not outside like a ship. In this room you could build the large components of warships. In synchronous orbit above the earth you could have a relatively passive OAP consisting of only a simple frame with exactly the same dimensions. The actual jump drive could be below on the planet, and just jump sections up without the actual drive. Lasers comms could coordinate jump timing to "grab" the jump into the second array of emitters. You could build an entire warship in months that way. Build a hull section on earth, jump it up. Build the next, maneuver the first section back, and jump the new up. Mate the two and keep going. Obviously between each jump you'd have to drop shields and retract the roof.
To go even further, you could have a larger two-way series of jump gates between PC and Sol set on a standard schedule of one way jumps. Every 12 hours a new jump could come in from each direction. If a jung ship is detected using them, reroute to the singularity. Alternatively they could be rigged to blow in the event of major invasion.
To go further yet, you could use this to create larger asteroid bases. Inward facing emitters on the outside face of an asteroid. Set a depth for the shield, and then jump the internal mass a few light seconds away. Put a few auto miners on the core that was jumped, and feed the resulting resources into the newly created hollow asteroid. Create a few ports for access, and start fabricating bases. You could probably set up platforms in each held solar system in just a few months.
Sol/PC Jump gates... a gate structure that is filled with an energy field, powered by multiple strategically placed ZPEDs which also act as a focus point for incoming jumps. The Structure has shields to allow for self defence as well as to cancel the jump field of incoming traffic. (Plasma turret defense system, trusters to move/stabalize the structure also come as standard). Built in the PC and jumped to Earth... (probably jumped part way through the PC gate.)
When a ship with a Jump drive enters the field it overcharges the Jump drive's fields so that they can jump greater distances in a single jump. The Second Gate catches the Jump ship by way of its ZPED Gravity like fields and stops the Jump with its energy shields.
It works both ways. 15 minute windows of which side gets to jump, with overriding one way system in case of emergency / need for large convoys.
You need a working jump ship and careful timing to use it, otherwise your ship just gets hit by a wave of energy that could damage your ship...
Size wise I imagine it only needs to be big enough for Takaran Battleships for now (but it could be extended to fit mobile asteroid weapons platforms)... It could be in the Darvano system ala "Whats in the Darvano system" but I would prefer if Marcus Taggart heard about Nathan's suspicions on how they ended up in the PC the way they did. and just built a prototype to speed up for jump shuttles. And then Casmir see's it and is all like, "Build me one. Build it bigger and build two of them!!!
