Faster than Light
General principles
Genuine faster than light travel is universally considered to be impossible, requiring various physics work-arounds in order to travel what would otherwise be uncrossable distances.Although the cosmic speed limit applies everywhere, it is observed that points on opposite ends of the visible universe are eventually moving away from one another at faster than light speeds. This occurs due to the expansion of space causing the distance between points to change at an increasingly large rate.
All modern FTL devices exploit this effect to generate paths of compressed space. A ship can travel along these paths at normal STL speeds, completing interstellar travels in weeks while only accelerating to a tiny fraction of light speed. To an outside observer it can appear the ship has traveled light years, though from the perspective of the ship it may have only traveled a distance of thousands of AU.
This manipulation of spacetime is currently only known to be possible through the use of Wofleonium, a material which generates a poorly understood electro-gravitational effect.
History
- 2070 First FTL effect isolated in labs
- 2090 First interstellar probes sent out
- 2102 Superluminal Engine Construction begins with plans to colonize New Texas in mind
- 2114 SLE engine completed, testing begins
- 2115 First human travel through SLE engine
- 2116 Colony founded in new Texas
- 2156 Smaller scale ship based FTL systems become practical
- 2190 Hawking colonists arrive / Ship based SLE systems developed.
The SLE
One of the most complex undertakings in both complexity and scale, rivaling the largest space colonies or geoengineering projects, is the Super Luminal Engine or SLE. These devices require large numbers of space-distortion-generating emitters, which in turn require large amounts of rare, exotic materials such as Negranite along with a massive power supply, cooling systems, and control devices.Even in the 2300s, SLEs are still massive. Much like the first SLE built into Pluto, the device requires a large scale emitter array many kilometers accross along with a huge power supply and cooling that is usually provided by sinking heat into the host-planetoid. These large structures are placed in such a way as to have the clearest lines of sight to other star systems which is why they are often placed out outer-planetoids. This positioning also makes these SLEs the perfect place to build FTL Communication systems that help link star systems together. All this technology in one place inevitably requires people to help maintain it which in turn often sees space-colonies being setup near the SLEs. Refueling yards, starship docks, and security forces inevitably are required to help monitor the space near the SLE which makes them hubs for local military forces.
SLEs, even the oldest ones in the sol system, are always major points of interest.
See: Super Luminal Engine