nBSG FTL question

[Teleros]

I've been watching the nBSG series on DVD, and one thing that always bothered me was how worried they were about hitting things when using their FTL (eg Admiral Cain's blind jump). Given how empty most of space is, I'm wondering if anyone can remember if an explanation on this is ever given (eg, are jump drives "drawn" to gravity wells?), or if it's just one of those things. I can't remember seeing anything in Series 1-3 etc, but I haven't seen Series 4 and of course may have missed something.

[Patrick Degan]

I would assume that they don't have charts for the areas of space they're now traversing on that quest for a shining planet, known as Earth, and without complete information, any hyperjump is a risky proposition. Not that they have much choice in the matter, of course. I don't watch the series regularly but that's the way it usually is explained in SF.

[SirNitram]

I've been watching the nBSG series on DVD, and one thing that always bothered me was how worried they were about hitting things when using their FTL (eg Admiral Cain's blind jump). Given how empty most of space is, I'm wondering if anyone can remember if an explanation on this is ever given (eg, are jump drives "drawn" to gravity wells?), or if it's just one of those things. I can't remember seeing anything in Series 1-3 etc, but I haven't seen Series 4 and of course may have missed something.

It all sounds routine until the end of the miniseries, where Adama gives the 'Abandon Colonies' order, and Tigh's response is a somewhat-shocked 'Way beyond the Redline'. Given the episode 33 minutes had them performing well over a hundred jumps with minimal downtime in that fleeing run, I'm guessing the redline isn't referring to limits of the drive, but of maps. Regularly travelled areas will always be safer to traverse than distant and often unknown territory.

[Thanas]

A simple explanation would be that although space may be pretty empty, there still is the chance of hitting something. If people would tell you: "If you do this, there is a slight chance you might die" one would be very reluctant to take that chance.

[Coyote]

I'd put my money on maps as well. Even going into 4th season they are anal about mentioning long-range advance scouts going out all the time; I'd wager they are scouting ahead to formulate some kind of basic star chart for future emergency jumps.

[Dark Lord of the Bith]

The Battlestar Wiki mentions that the FTL works by folding space, though it doesn't cite any episode or dialog for it. If this is the case, we might suppose that it is similar to foldspace from Dune, where a major concern in FTL travel (and hence the need for the Spacing Guild and navigators in Dune) is that if there is anything along the path of travel, then the ship would instantaneously and catastrophically collide with it.

[Ohma]

I'd put my money on maps as well. Even going into 4th season they are anal about mentioning long-range advance scouts going out all the time; I'd wager they are scouting ahead to formulate some kind of basic star chart for future emergency jumps.

Yeah, that's probably it. Jumping into a star isn't much of a worry, jumping into a completely uncharted, probably extremely distant area of space and being unable to find your way home on the other hand.

[Teleros]

A simple explanation would be that although space may be pretty empty, there still is the chance of hitting something. If people would tell you: "If you do this, there is a slight chance you might die" one would be very reluctant to take that chance.

I'd wager that I was in more danger on my last trip SCUBA diving than I would be doing a blind jump in the nBSG universe. The ships aren't noticeably affected by jumping into gravity wells (unlike say most 40K ships), so you could even get unlucky and well inside a star system and be fine. Atmospheres also seem to get displaced at the very least when jumping into them (otherwise what would happen to various Raptors when on rescue missions to planets?)... it just doesn't seem rational*.

*It might be if, like Han Solo, they were about to fly halfway across the galaxy or something but from what I've seen they're not. The BSG Wiki seems to show a distance of a little over ten thousand LY from the Colonies to Earth - more, if they could travel that far, they could hide from the Cylons very easily, given the size of the galaxy.

If this is the case, we might suppose that it is similar to foldspace from Dune, where a major concern in FTL travel (and hence the need for the Spacing Guild and navigators in Dune) is that if there is anything along the path of travel, then the ship would instantaneously and catastrophically collide with it.

Which would require very long scout trips to check the whole route between any two jump co-ordinates. More likely, they're sending out scout ships to catalog the positions and velocities of all major objects in target solar systems, so that when they do jump they know where not to end up*.

*This would make it riskier to jump if you're always heading for a star or solar system, but even so look how much of our own star system is empty...

Yeah, that's probably it. Jumping into a star isn't much of a worry, jumping into a completely uncharted, probably extremely distant area of space and being unable to find your way home on the other hand.

Nonsense - all you need to do is work out how far you travelled, and in what direction, and voila - you can work out where you are in relation to where you just came from. In that episode where they lost the fleet, they were able to jump back to their previous position easily enough too, so I doubt that this is a real problem.

[Skylon]

It all sounds routine until the end of the miniseries, where Adama gives the 'Abandon Colonies' order, and Tigh's response is a somewhat-shocked 'Way beyond the Redline'. Given the episode 33 minutes had them performing well over a hundred jumps with minimal downtime in that fleeing run, I'm guessing the redline isn't referring to limits of the drive, but of maps. Regularly travelled areas will always be safer to traverse than distant and often unknown territory.

The uncut version of Pegasus (found on the season 2.5 DVD) refers to the "redline" as a distance in an FTL jump where the risk of navigational error starts to become higher. It essentially sounded like a term used to describe the limit of reliably calculating an FTL jump.

[Sarevok]

I always thought the danger arose from ships being attracted towards large masses such as stars when they jump. They never confirmed it as far as I know but it is the only way to explain it.

[Omeros]

I think part of their anxiety is due to the fact that when they perform FTL jumps, they are generally aiming to arrive pretty close to a planet or other large object. This means an incorrectly programmed jump runs a real risk of transporting them into the middle of something painful, hence their keenness about sending Raptors to scout new systems. In the episode 33, they were just performing jumps to stay ahead of the Cylon fleet, so they could afford to jump fairly blindly into interstellar space as there would be almost no chance of 'hitting' anything.

[Venator]

It all sounds routine until the end of the miniseries, where Adama gives the 'Abandon Colonies' order, and Tigh's response is a somewhat-shocked 'Way beyond the Redline'. Given the episode 33 minutes had them performing well over a hundred jumps with minimal downtime in that fleeing run, I'm guessing the redline isn't referring to limits of the drive, but of maps. Regularly travelled areas will always be safer to traverse than distant and often unknown territory.

The uncut version of Pegasus (found on the season 2.5 DVD) refers to the "redline" as a distance in an FTL jump where the risk of navigational error starts to become higher. It essentially sounded like a term used to describe the limit of reliably calculating an FTL jump.

Quoted for truth; all the jumps in 33 could have been relatively short-range jumps, making it a different matter.

We know that there are limits on jump distance imposed by navigational technology, hense why they installed a Cylon FTL "computer" on the lead Raptor to calculate the jumps back to Caprica (forgotten the episode).

[Teleros]

I always thought the danger arose from ships being attracted towards large masses such as stars when they jump. They never confirmed it as far as I know but it is the only way to explain it.

Yeah, I've been wondering the same, but wanted to see if there were any other reasons for this.

I think part of their anxiety is due to the fact that when they perform FTL jumps, they are generally aiming to arrive pretty close to a planet or other large object.

Doesn't explain the reaction to Admiral Cain's blind jump though, although it might make sense for the Galactica's fleet if they're also trying to conserve fuel: jumping right next to a planet is far more efficient than jumping a few AU away and having to travel the remaining distance at STL speeds (and is probably more efficient than doing a 2nd jump too).

[Patrick Degan]

I always thought the danger arose from ships being attracted towards large masses such as stars when they jump. They never confirmed it as far as I know but it is the only way to explain it.

Yeah, I've been wondering the same, but wanted to see if there were any other reasons for this.

or other large object.

Doesn't explain the reaction to Admiral Cain's blind jump though, although it might make sense for the Galactica's fleet if they're also trying to conserve fuel: jumping right next to a planet is far more efficient than jumping a few AU away and having to travel the remaining distance at STL speeds (and is probably more efficient than doing a 2nd jump too).

If momentum is conserved, as it should be, a ship coming out of a jump would be going along at the same velocity it had before making the jump. Most of STL flight is simply coasting between worlds or in orbit. It would burn extra fuel to have to make multiple jumps, so the importance of conservation enters the picture at that point.

[Darth Nostril]

In 33 I got the impression they were doing short hops in interstallar space merely to evade the pursuing Cylons, no maneouvering was done thus eliminating expenditure of delta-v, it was simply a series of short jumps.

[Sarevok]

If momentum is conserved, as it should be, a ship coming out of a jump would be going along at the same velocity it had before making the jump. Most of STL flight is simply coasting between worlds or in orbit. It would burn extra fuel to have to make multiple jumps, so the importance of conservation enters the picture at that point.

I think momentum is indeed conserved. Adama jumped the Galactica right into New Caprica's upper atmosphere in Exodus. The Galactica was surrounded by the fiery halo of burning gas that seems typical of an object entering the atmosphere from space at high velocities. I don't think an object falling like a rock through the air would immediately build up such incredible speeds. The Galactica must have still been traveling at orbital velocities when it materialized inside the planet's atmosphere.