Intergalactic Summit

The simple truth is that we can't possibly know. We could jump into a mausoleum, a grave of the ancients. We could jump into the true Sleeper home systems, not those isolated as a cancer. We could find fabled, mythical Terra, full of gods and ancient powers.

Odds are, though, there will be plenty of hydrogen. And rocks. One can't forget the rocks.

It's useless to theorize unless or until we're able to escape the boundaries of New Eden.

One never knows what lies in the abyss until they take the plunge therein. My mind fills with some pretty fantastic images, but who can say what we'd find? I, for one, would be intrigued and worried at the same time, especially at the notion of finding Terra. If we've come as far as we have after rising from ashes, how much farther along would they be... But, it's all supposition and wild imaginings right now.

Rocks and hydrogen.... wars have been fought over less. I am sure wars will be fought over whatever we find as we press our expansion even farther.

Hmmm, maybe someone with more experience can answer this. I know a jump drive can lock on to a cyno field or generator, but can they also, even theorhetically, lock on to planetary or a sun's gravity well for jump calibration?

To get any further from our own cluster, we almost certainly will have to have long distance exploration vessels capable of the task, and/or vessels also capable of constructing stargates to link back to New Eden. Something quicker than slowboating it (relatively speaking)

And by the same token, never send a drone to do a human's job.


Anyway, yes. Hydrogen and rocks.




No, they can't. You see, a cynosural field isn't just a fancy and high-powered way of saying "coo-ee! over here!", it's actually a vital component in the creation of a stable artificial wormhole, designed to do three things:

1: the cynosural field generator creates a localized quantum field fluctuation which forms one end of a wormhole. This distortion "tunnels" through extra-dimensional spacetime to meet the other end of the wormhole which is being generated by the jump drive or bridge.

2: By modulating certain harmonics in the distortion and communicating the precise encryption of those harmonics to friendly ships via the fleet software and communications relay, the cynosural field is forced to pair only with those incoming wormhole signatures that match its own harmonic - in other words, it stops hostile ships from jumping to the same beacon.

3: The field stabilizes the wormhole connection long enough for a ship, or several ships, to come through.

This last one is the important part in answering your question. It's a common misconception that the wormholes that our ships, titans and stargates create have zero internal length. This can be disproven just by looking out a window whenever you jump, though - you can actually watch distortions in the quantum field emit photons as they flicker around your ship, shooting past you at relative velocities. The effect is rather like shooting through a stormy tunnel of black cloud.

The reason for this has to do with how you stabilize a wormhole. The "natural" wormholes used to get into and navigate Phase Two Space genuinely do have zero internal length, which is why they look so much different, and also why they're unstable, and collapse within a day or so of their formation, or are disrupted by matter passing through them. Artificial wormholes are given some internal length to give the fluctuations that build up with time and matter transit the chance to dissipate. The effect's not perfect and stargates need to close and re-open their wormholes periodically, but doing so is the work of seconds.

Anyway, because they have internal length, these wormholes need stabilizing at both ends, otherwise end B collapses very quickly, with disastrous consequences for anything attempting to traverse the internal length of the bridge at the time, as well as for anything that was near to End A at the moment when the remains of the traversing object are squeezed out of the collapsing event horizon as a burst of gamma radiation and high-energy particles. Cynosural fields provide that stabilization.

Micro Jump Drives are about as far as you can safely push single-ended artificial wormholes. Because the distance between their end-points in real spacetime is so short (relatively speaking), their internal length is non--zero but sufficiently close to zero that a ship can safely traverse that distance before the distortion field collapses, and even then they have to travel at warp through the bridge. No graceful acceleration to warp,either - they need to slam up to at least 2au/s instantly. Hence all the charging and fuss of an MJD. It's a masterpiece of precision timing - the ship has to pass the event horizon almost to the femtosecond of its formation,every time. You can see why it took so long to become the reliable and safe bit of tactical hardware we have today.

The only bit of technology that provides a single-ended transit option like you described would be an acceleration gate. The downside to those being, of course, that if you don't take everything you need with you to make the return journey, then you've just stranded yourself out there.

EDIT:



Of course, there's always ONE person who wouldn't pass a cynosural theory exam...

that was a simple statement of fact, nothing more. The question was "could a jump drive make it to distant systems without a cynosural field?" you answered "theoretically, yes." which is incorrect. Had this been an exam, you would have failed.

No insult was deliberately given, though that you feel insulted is understandable and I apologise for it. I often make the mistake of being too blunt, and should have been more tempered in my reaction. I am sorry.

you do realise that the article you linked is completely wrong in several important particulars, right? It always amazes and perplexes me why anybody would cite it as a source when very little of what It says is even remotely accurate, and completely contradicts the everyday experience of any pilot who bothers to undock.

I quote:



There is not a single binary pair anywhere in New Eden. Luminaire certainly isn't a binary system. Amarr isn't. Pator, Rens, New Caldari, Oursulaert, Korama, Seyllin, Rancer, Colelie, Dodixie, Sarum Prime... not one of them is a binary system, which according to that "article" means they couldn't have a stargate built in them at all, and ALL of them have more than one stargate, which according to that "article" is impossible



I have never encountered even one of these mythical multi-gates. To my knowledge, every stargate in New Eden is a pair of gates with a single connection, and if you want to travel to a different system, you have to warp to a different gate. Warfare and manoeuvring would be a much different affair if our civilization was arranged in a manner consistent that article's description.

it does get this bit right, however:



It then rambles on the same nonsense about mass boson spheres and so on, so what we have there is a classic case of a rare diamond gleaming in the muck.

I'll try to remain civil, but if you're going to cite as authoritative an article which is so flagrantly at odds with the reality you experience on a daily basis as an active pilot flying around New Eden, then you may as well just give up and become a missionary of Amarr.

*yawn*

Scientist fiiiiigh... oh wait, no one cares.




To answer the initial query, expansion is a sensible thing to think about when the base area runs out of useful, or in this context, habitable space and resources.

I think we're years or even decades away from either of those becoming an issue in the capsuleer sense, and centuries and millenia from either of those becoming a baseliner one.

Pilot, I could claim that stargates work because a team of invisible space pixies pick up the ships and throw them really hard and I'd have said something more realistic than that article.

The science behind interstellar travel is founded in quantum mechanics (which nobody understands), relativity (which nobody understands), and sprawling expanses of mathematics which I can't adequately transcribe on this message board. The energies involved are negative, the numbers virtual, the vectors imaginary and the constants are irrational. I use the science we're discussing daily, on a professional basis, to build ships that can fling themselves five light years in a heartbeat, and the more I learn about it the more confusing and arcane I find it all to be. Anybody who claims to know exactly how it all works is either a damned liar, or else overconfident to the point of delusion.

But if you point me to an article which claims that there can only be one stargate per system and that said stargate links to every other stargate within two parsecs, and that by the way stargates can only be built in binary systems (all of which statements are disproven by undocking and looking at one's overview) and then claim that this article is somehow the unchallenged and unquestionable authority on interstellar travel, then the most civilized response I can honestly give is bemusement.

I'm mentally appending 'with current technology' to virtually every point made in this thread. The Syndicate explosion remains noteworthy given its apparent similarity to the collapse of an artificial wormhole, which implies that new, potentially ground-breaking research is being performed outside the auspices of CONCORD and secure space. If there are developments from this research, it's entirely possible that our understanding of jump drives and interstellar travel will be upended.

That said, Hakatain-haan: do Sansha's wormholes require a cynosural beacon? Because I believe the answer is 'no,' but if I'm mistaken and you could provide a citation...?