Spaceship Speed Chart

[applejack]

Blastr

What's The Fastest Ship in Sci-Fi History? This Infographic Will Tell You!

Jeff Spry
Fri, Jul 17, 2015 4:28pm

Not only can no one hear you scream in space, but, apparently, there are no galactic speed limits, as well.

Check out this definitive infographic by Fat Wallet featuring 50 of the fastest rockets, probes, spacecraft, starfighters and interstellar battleships in the universe plucked from the realms of sci-fi films, TV shows, books, cartoons, videogames and real life.

Broken down into relativistic rocketships and faster-than-light vehicles, it includes such iconic craft as Lost in Space's Jupiter 2, Batlestar Galactica's Colonial Vipers, Star Wars' Millennium Falcon, Aliens' USS Sulaco, Star Trek's USS Enterprise, Halo's Pillar of Autumn, Spaceballs' Eagle 5, Boba Fett's Slave One, Futurama's Planet Express and The Last Starfighter's Gunstar.

Have a look at this comprehensive analysis in the gallery below and tell us if you think it settles the debate on which spaceship sits atop the high-performance podium. Wait, no Milano?!

(Via Geek Tyrant)

NOTE: To see the infographic as it was meant to be viewed, please click the "Stack" link in the media gallery below.

Nice to know a TIE Fighter goes at 4100g.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I was expecting the Planet Express ship (or should that be class, since there was a previous one as well) to be near the top, since it can do that whole "see the edge of the Universe in a morning" thing.

I hadn't expected the Daedalus from Stargate to be so damn fast. Presumably this is when they have the ZPM plugged in and do the Earth-Atlantis run in 4 days. Of course, you then have the Asgard ships themselves who can do that run in minutes if they want to.

Also kinda curious how they got such a high "speed" for the Galactica, since that moves in a series of instant jumps rather than continuous travel. Must be time-averaged or something, though I can't recall any stated distances in the show.

[applejack]

Also kinda curious how they got such a high "speed" for the Galactica, since that moves in a series of instant jumps rather than continuous travel. Must be time-averaged or something, though I can't recall any stated distances in the show.

Hmm.. The link to his blog says this:

The Galactica (BS-75) from Battlestar Galactica uses a FTL drive to achieve a top speed of 4,600 light-years in a day.

He has a large list of references at he bottom of his entry, which includes this article from Slate which states this:

Battlestar Galactica: Galactica travels through space skipping from one location to another in instant jumps of a few light-years. The maximum range of each jump is obscure, but seems to be about 16 “Colonial light-years,” which I’m going to equate to light-years over the objections of possibly hundreds of nerds. The duration of the cool-down period is similarly elusive, but it’s “brief,” so let’s say five minutes. That’s about 4,600 light-years in a day, which means, excluding any structural damage to the ship, Galactica can travel to center of the galaxy in about six days doing one jump after another, with Cylons on their heels the whole way.

So that's where he apparently got that number. I don't remember enough of the show to know if this is true or not... I recall though that the time between jumps is 33 minutes, not 5, so Galactica's speed in that chart is too fast.

[Terralthra]

Battlestar Galactica: Galactica travels through space skipping from one location to another in instant jumps of a few light-years. The maximum range of each jump is obscure, but seems to be about 16 “Colonial light-years,” which I’m going to equate to light-years over the objections of possibly hundreds of nerds. The duration of the cool-down period is similarly elusive, but it’s “brief,” so let’s say five minutes. That’s about 4,600 light-years in a day, which means, excluding any structural damage to the ship, Galactica can travel to center of the galaxy in about six days doing one jump after another, with Cylons on their heels the whole way.

So that's where he apparently got that number. I don't remember enough of the show to know if this is true or not... I recall though that the time between jumps is 33 minutes, not 5, so Galactica's speed in that chart is too fast.

No...the time between jumps in the episode "33" was set by how long it took Cylons to find them each time. It was not the fastest they could cycle the drives.

[Tribble]

I thought the 33 minutes thing was because in one episode that's how long it took the Cylons to track the fleet, get a fix on the fleet's location, and jump to their position. IMO it's not necessarily the Galactica's top speed, especially as it was escorting the rest of the fleet at the time.

EDIT: Terralthra beat me to it. Bastard

[applejack]

Battlestar Galactica: Galactica travels through space skipping from one location to another in instant jumps of a few light-years. The maximum range of each jump is obscure, but seems to be about 16 “Colonial light-years,” which I’m going to equate to light-years over the objections of possibly hundreds of nerds. The duration of the cool-down period is similarly elusive, but it’s “brief,” so let’s say five minutes. That’s about 4,600 light-years in a day, which means, excluding any structural damage to the ship, Galactica can travel to center of the galaxy in about six days doing one jump after another, with Cylons on their heels the whole way.

So that's where he apparently got that number. I don't remember enough of the show to know if this is true or not... I recall though that the time between jumps is 33 minutes, not 5, so Galactica's speed in that chart is too fast.

No...the time between jumps in the episode "33" was set by how long it took Cylons to find them each time. It was not the fastest they could cycle the drives.

Ah, ok. My mistake.

[Perseid]

Also I seem to recall that Galactica had two jump drives, while the civilian ships only had one... that might also slow down the time between jumps. Though I admit I'm not sure as the number of FTL drives might be due to ship size/mass, or it might be to give a military ship the ability to jump twice in rapid succession.

[Enigma]

How long does it take to cycle between jumps with the Improbability Drive?

To me (I have limited knowledge of HGttG), both the Tardis and the Heart of Gold travel instantly, but I'd give the Tardis the edge for bring able to travel just about anywhere in time and space. Can the HoG do that?

[The Romulan Republic]

No, the TARDIS doesn't travel instantaneously, or at least not always. Its been shown in flight in both space and time.

[TOSDOC]

How long does it take to cycle between jumps with the Improbability Drive?

To me (I have limited knowledge of HGttG), both the Tardis and the Heart of Gold travel instantly, but I'd give the Tardis the edge for bring able to travel just about anywhere in time and space. Can the HoG do that?

I would have given that to a Guild Heighliner. But then do you put it at the very top of the list or the very bottom?

[Irbis]

To me (I have limited knowledge of HGttG), both the Tardis and the Heart of Gold travel instantly, but I'd give the Tardis the edge for bring able to travel just about anywhere in time and space. Can the HoG do that?

Time and space?

To quote HGG - the drive "passes through every conceivable point in every conceivable universe almost simultaneously". So, you can say it does more than that

[Borgholio]

I couldn't help but chuckle at the Liquid Schwartz fuel source for the Eagle-5.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Battlestar Galactica: Galactica travels through space skipping from one location to another in instant jumps of a few light-years. The maximum range of each jump is obscure, but seems to be about 16 “Colonial light-years,” which I’m going to equate to light-years over the objections of possibly hundreds of nerds. The duration of the cool-down period is similarly elusive, but it’s “brief,” so let’s say five minutes. That’s about 4,600 light-years in a day, which means, excluding any structural damage to the ship, Galactica can travel to center of the galaxy in about six days doing one jump after another, with Cylons on their heels the whole way.

So that's where he apparently got that number. I don't remember enough of the show to know if this is true or not... I recall though that the time between jumps is 33 minutes, not 5, so Galactica's speed in that chart is too fast.

No...the time between jumps in the episode "33" was set by how long it took Cylons to find them each time. It was not the fastest they could cycle the drives.

While that is true, every time I watch that episode I think "why do they only jump once the Cylons arrive?" If they know they are somehow being tracked, then waiting for the Cylons to show up means they have to launch fighters, dogfight with Raiders for a bit and then recover fighters, seal up the launch bays and jump, which uses up fuel, ammunition and strains the pilots. If ~33 minutes wasn't the limit on how quickly they could jump, why bother staying to fight briefly at all?

[Borgholio]

It's possible that while they CAN jump more often than 33 minutes, the jump engines need time to cool off or something. Take Star Trek for instance, high warp can wear out the engines and make them require maintenance more often...so perhaps using the jump drive too often in BSG can cause damage.

[Eternal_Freedom]

It's possible that while they CAN jump more often than 33 minutes, the jump engines need time to cool off or something. Take Star Trek for instance, high warp can wear out the engines and make them require maintenance more often...so perhaps using the jump drive too often in BSG can cause damage.

Well we saw towards the end of the series that exact problem, the drives were wearing out.

Still, the fact that they chose to make a fighting retreat after the Cylons arrive clearly suggests that they have a very good reason for doing so, whether that is "the drives can't cool off/recharge faster" or "the drives can't keep up that pace for very long." Either way a sustained ~30 minutes between jumps seems to be the best she (or the other ships in the Fleet) can manage.

[Terralthra]

It's possible that while they CAN jump more often than 33 minutes, the jump engines need time to cool off or something. Take Star Trek for instance, high warp can wear out the engines and make them require maintenance more often...so perhaps using the jump drive too often in BSG can cause damage.

The engines need time to cool off (not 33 minutes, but still), using them too often in rapid succession can cause a breakdown (which would be catastrophic in those circumstances), using them at all has chronic fatigue effects on the ship's superstructure, and they also cause nausea and discomfort in people. These are all evidenced throughout the series.

[Crazedwraith]

In the episode itself it was specifically calculations that were cited as limitation. When Adama devises a plan involving nine jumps. (split the fleet in three, Jump three times in different directions and rendezvous on the third. ) Tigh responses that their busting their humps just calculating one jump for the fleet in 33 minutes.

[Starglider]

The listed speed for the ship from Flight of the Navigator is the time-dilated subjective speed experienced by ship and passengers. The actual speed as observed by the rest of the universe is about 100c. Of course the ship also has the ability to time travel and thus reduce the apparent journey time to zero.

[Enigma]

To me (I have limited knowledge of HGttG), both the Tardis and the Heart of Gold travel instantly, but I'd give the Tardis the edge for bring able to travel just about anywhere in time and space. Can the HoG do that?

Time and space?

To quote HGG - the drive "passes through every conceivable point in every conceivable universe almost simultaneously". So, you can say it does more than that

But it doesn't end up everywhere.

[Enigma]

No, the TARDIS doesn't travel instantaneously, or at least not always. Its been shown in flight in both space and time.

It has more than one method of traveling. Also it depends on which version of the Doctor is piloting. I believe Capaldi's Doctor takes the least time to travel between destinations.

[Parallax]

On one hand, there are instances wherein it took the TARDIS days or weeks (from the perspective of the occupants) to get to its destination.

OTOH, we've seen pretty much instantaneous travel on more than one occasion. IIRC, in City of Death the Doctor travels from modern France to the very beginning of life on Earth more or less instantly. I seem to recall the 4th Doctor a possible future to Sarah-Jane just as quickly.

Most times, it does seem to take the TARDIS time to get from A to B. Sometimes it's a vortex only trip, sometimes space only, sometimes both. Why? Need of plot, I guess.

One explanation I've heard is that TARDIS' travel along the Web of Time imposed on the Universe by the Time Lords (anchored by fixed points, hence why the Doctor goes on about them so much). Some strands of the web are short and have a direct connection so travel time is very quick. Sometimes you have to travel along a strand, get to an junction, turn a corner, go down another strand, etc to get where you wish to go ... so travel is longer.

We've seen the TARDIS go from the modern day to the very end of the Universe itself very, very quickly as it tried to throw Captain Jack off. We know the TARDIS can go faster if the pilot "opens the engines up". We know the TARDIS gains extra power/thrust/whatever by jettisoning portions of the TARDIS interior.

It does make me wonder, though, if the State of Temporal Grace system is working ... do TARDIS occupants age?

[mr friendly guy]

So they put the TARDIS at 1 x10^16 C eh?

Well lets dig up my previous uber geekiness. In the classic Tom Baker story (Planet of evil) the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith travelled from earth to the edge of the known universe (in the future) in a few seconds of screen time. We know this because the previous story was Terror of the Zygons and the Doctor was going from some place in Scotland to London, but missed it by a couple of thousand years (not kilometres). They somehow receive a distress call from a planet on the edge of the known universe and travelled there in a few seconds of screen time. Now people could argue he was actually travelling for hours, but Sarah hadn't changed any clothes, so I am going to round it to 10 seconds between receiving the distress call and arriving on the planet Zeta Minor (it was actually less in screen time). Zeta Minor was located at the edge of the universe which was a plot point because of something from a nearby universe.

At a conservative number, I will use the size of the observable universe, ie a radius of 14 billion LY from Earth. The real universe is most probably bigger and someone more knowledgeable can tell me the estimated size based on expansion or some such method.

So lets assume the TARDIS covered 14 billion LY in 10 seconds.
That's 1.4 x10^9 LY per second
And 1.4 x 10^9 x 9.46073047 x 10^12 km per second

And C is 299 792.458 km / second
So that's 44180639987947928.963576528666375 C or 4.4 x 10^16 C, ie around 4 times faster than what they give.

There are a few qualifiers of course. One as mentioned is the size of the universe vs the observable universe. The other is whether the few seconds of screen time translates into "real time."

But nevertheless, one conclusion is inescapable. The TARDIS is fast.

BTW - they forgot the non canon story of VOY (Threshold) where the team somehow goes to warp 10, causing Janeway and Paris to "evolve" into stupid lizard creatures, who then copulate. Cringes.

[Tribble]

BTW - they forgot the non canon story of VOY (Threshold) where the team somehow goes to warp 10, causing Janeway and Paris to "evolve" into stupid lizard creatures, who then copulate. Cringes.

Well, Threshold was officially kicked out of canon when Tom Paris remarked in a latter episode that Warp 10 was an impossibility and that they had never traveled that fast. Either that or Janeway erased the crew's memories after the episode so that she could torment them for a few more years. Pick whichever explanation works best for you.

Voyager is a unique case because it used multiple methods of travel. You had the Caretaker's array, Kes's magic wave, slipstream drive, the Borg trans-warp coil and the Borg trans-warp conduit (apaprentely two different techs where the ladder is faster). It would have been neat to compare those.

[Bedlam]

So they put the TARDIS at 1 x10^16 C eh?

Well lets dig up my previous uber geekiness. In the classic Tom Baker story (Planet of evil) the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith travelled from earth to the edge of the known universe (in the future) in a few seconds of screen time. We know this because the previous story was Terror of the Zygons and the Doctor was going from some place in Scotland to London, but missed it by a couple of thousand years (not kilometres). They somehow receive a distress call from a planet on the edge of the known universe and travelled there in a few seconds of screen time. Now people could argue he was actually travelling for hours, but Sarah hadn't changed any clothes, so I am going to round it to 10 seconds between receiving the distress call and arriving on the planet Zeta Minor (it was actually less in screen time). Zeta Minor was located at the edge of the universe which was a plot point because of something from a nearby universe.

At a conservative number, I will use the size of the observable universe, ie a radius of 14 billion LY from Earth. The real universe is most probably bigger and someone more knowledgeable can tell me the estimated size based on expansion or some such method.

So lets assume the TARDIS covered 14 billion LY in 10 seconds.
That's 1.4 x10^9 LY per second
And 1.4 x 10^9 x 9.46073047 x 10^12 km per second

And C is 299 792.458 km / second
So that's 44180639987947928.963576528666375 C or 4.4 x 10^16 C, ie around 4 times faster than what they give.

There are a few qualifiers of course. One as mentioned is the size of the universe vs the observable universe. The other is whether the few seconds of screen time translates into "real time."

But nevertheless, one conclusion is inescapable. The TARDIS is fast.

BTW - they forgot the non canon story of VOY (Threshold) where the team somehow goes to warp 10, causing Janeway and Paris to "evolve" into stupid lizard creatures, who then copulate. Cringes.

Well the fact it's a time machine adds a few twists to that, the universe is expanding so you have to ask when it was the edge of he universe go back to the very beginning of the universe and the edge of the universe isn't very far away at all. The exploration team were humanoid at least but not necessarily human so the story could set in the far past.

On the other hand there is also the fact they might have travelled in time which may take subjective time i.e. travelling 10 million ly and 2 million years may take longer than just 10 million ly, which would make the Tardis even quicker.

[Thanas]

Disappointed that the Andromeda is not on there, slipstream is ridiculously fast depending on the route. Crossing from one galaxy to the next in a few minutes is something special.