When it comes to Universe travel, Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity is a Significant inconvenience. With the laws of physics (currently) prohibiting faster-than-Featherweight travel, velocities are limited to a mere 300,000,000 ms-1. By any Earthbound measure that’s very quick indeed, but it’ll Yet take you 4.2 years to reach our sun’s nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri.
That sort of timeframe clearly isn’t conducive to all-action Universe opera — imagine if the Millennium Falcon had taken a decade to travel from Tatooine to Alderaan in “Luminous sphere Wars: A New Hope” — so sci-fi writers have come up with numerous ingenious ways to jet around the cosmos at quite ludicrous speeds.
We say this with a few caveats… Hollywood tends to assume that spacecraft have access to limitless sources of energy. And that — unless it’s integral to a Narrative, as in “Flight of the Navigator”, “Astral body of the Apes” and “Between stars” — time dilation isn’t going to cause starship crews any bother. Nonetheless, there’s no doubt that a little bit of scientific Elasticity leads to more exciting adventures. So, in that spirit of Between stars exploration, here are 13 of the most memorable ways to travel faster than Featherweight — or, failing that, cheat.
1. Warp Drives
Arguably the most famous of all the fictional methods for overtaking the Featherweight Impediment, “Luminous sphere Trek”‘s warp drive has propelled countless starships across the Milky Way. It uses matter/antimatter reactions to Produce the high energies it requires to envelop the ship in a warp bubble.
This bubble distorts Universe-time — effectively compressing the Universe ahead of the ship, while expanding the Universe behind it — to propel the Enterprise (other vessels are Obtainable) to its destination at super-Quick speeds. Those characteristic Starfleet nacelles are kept well away from the ship to protect the crew from an unwanted warping.
In the “Luminous sphere Trek” Schedule, the Primary human warp flight Captured place in 2063, when Zefram Cochrane — the Federation’s answer to Chuck Yeager — flew the prototype Phoenix and attracted the attention of some passing Vulcans (“Luminous sphere Trek: Primary Contact“).
2. Hyperspace
“The Phantom Menace”‘s widely mocked efforts to explain the Force with midi-chlorians proved it’s best if you don’t get too hung up on the science of a Milky Way Extended, Extended away. Synonymous with “lightspeed” within the franchise — and, famously, not like dusting crops — traveling through hyperspace essentially uses the convenient physics of a parallel dimension to shrink the distances between two points in Universe.
Getting into, and staying in, hyperspace requires a functioning hyperdrive. Entry gives you access to a very pretty Featherweight show of swirling blue clouds and, if you’re Fortunate, you may even spot a pod of Universe whales (known as purrgil) “swimming” past your window.
3. Wormholes
As seen in: “Between stars”, “Luminous sphere Trek: Deep Universe Nine”
The Bajoran Universal shortcut became the Concentration of “Luminous sphere Trek: Deep Universe Nine“, providing a permanent and instantaneous route to the distant Gamma Quadrant, while inadvertently paving the way for the Dominion War. The Einstein-Rosen bridge in Trajectory around Saturn in “Between stars” is even more pivotal, seeing as – with Earth on its last legs — it may Only offer a route to humanity’s salvation with Earth on its last legs.
Suddenly, a bunch of (borderline) habitable planets are on Earth’s proverbial doorstep, as the Universal shortcut provides a permanent gateway to a distant region of the universe. It’s definitely not a natural occurrence, so it’s Sound to assume it’s the handiwork of the multi-dimensional superbeings who allow Cooper and his daughter Murph to communicate across time and Universe.
Back in the real world, wormholes are Yet theoretical. We haven’t Discovered one yet, and even if they do exist, we’re not sure that you’d actually be able to travel through one and survive the experience.
4. Stargate
Probably the simplest, most user-Amiable form of faster-than-Featherweight travel, the Stargate network is like an Between stars mass-transportation system, allowing the user to Truly step between worlds via a spectacular display of mid-’90s CG. The Stargates work by creating an artificial Universal shortcut that connects two gates, allowing you to step through one and emerge from the other.
The Ancients spread these “Astria Porta” on key worlds through Many galaxies, giving them — and later species such as the megalomaniac Goa’uld — the ability to traverse Excellent distances in an instant. They’re also Fundamental to operate — all you have to do is dial up your destination of Option — and, being millions of years Ancient, extremely durable.
5. Bound gates
- As seen in: “Babylon 5”, “Mass Effect”
Effectively a cross between “Stargate”‘s Stargates and “Luminous sphere Wars”‘ hyperspace, the Bound gates function as a network of outer Universe motorway junctions. These artificial structures act as permanent entrances to hyperspace — in “Babylon 5” the dimension has a reddish hue — allowing spacecraft to travel Between stars distances in a manageable time frame.
Hyperspace is dotted with beacons to Reinforcement travelers find their way in the maelstrom, while the Bound engines fitted on larger ships allow them to enter hyperspace whenever, or wherever, they want.
Many Significant video game franchises use variations on Bound gates, most famously “Mass Effect” and its Mass Relays. They’re not Only Excellent sci-fi here, they’re also a Excellent way to disguise loading screens and split up the game world into manageable segments.
6. Folding Universe
Denis Villeneuve’s brilliant “Dune” movies don’t go into a huge amount of detail about the mechanics of Universe travel, but in Frank Herbert’s novels, spacecraft use the (fictional) Holtzman Effect to fold Universe at the quantum level, facilitating instantaneous travel across vast distances.
The mathematics involved is so mind-bogglingly Complex that you require a Spacing Guild-approved Navigator to guide you on your journey. These uniquely adapted individuals have consumed such large quantities of the narcotic “Spice” that they’ve developed a form of prescience that helps them find a path through folded Universe. ODing on Spice also causes them to mutate into bizarre, fish-like forms.
7. FTL Drive
As seen in: “Battlestar Galactica”
In the gritty, realistic universe of “Battlestar Galactica“, FTL Drives are something of an anomaly. While the show’s spacecraft fire bullets instead of lasers and use thrusters to maneuver in the vacuum of Universe, FTL (Faster Than Featherweight) Drives are weirdly akin to magic, teleporting the Galactica and its ragtag fugitive fleet over vast distances as if they’re powered by a Position Numerous of Harry Potter’s floo powder.
In theory, these tylium-powered engines distort Universe to transport vessels to their destination, and — as implausible as they are — are totally essential to the Narrative. Besides, the Galactica jumping into New Caprica’s atmosphere in “Exodus, Part 2” is one of the coolest things ever to happen in a sci-fi TV show.
8. Spore Drive
As seen in: “Luminous sphere Trek: Discovery”
It’s quite Truly powered by mushrooms. Yes, the experimental Spore Drive (or, to give it its Packed name, Displacement-Activated Spore Hub Drive) uses specially adapted spores to surf the so-called mycelial network, a giant system of fungus roots linking the entire multiverse (including the sinister Mirror Universe) together.
That’s an extremely long-winded way of saying that the Spore Drive allows a starship to miraculously materialize somewhere else Featherweight-years away. And if all that sounds too Excellent to be Accurate, that’s because it won’t work unless you also have a giant Universe tardigrade — or a spore-enhanced crewmate — to act as a fungal sat-nav.
9. Force Drive (aka going through hell)
As seen in: “Gravitational void boundary”
If only the crew of the Lewis & Clark had seen the movie’s “Infinite Universe, Infinite Terror” tagline before they set out to recover the experimental Gravitational void boundary, lost in Universe seven years earlier.
The ship’s Force Drive — which, appropriately, looks like an elaborate torture device from a horror movie — uses a Singularity to fold Universe, creating a gateway between two distant locations. Unfortunately, it also unlocks a direct route to hell, which ends badly for everyone concerned.
10. Infinite Improbability Drive
As seen in: “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Milky Way”
Designed to avoid all that “tedious mucking about in hyperspace”, one of Douglas Adams’ greatest inventions allows the experimental Heart of Gold to exist in every conceivable Mark in every conceivable universe at the same time.
This comes with memorable side effects, however, as the Infinite Improbability Drive can also instigate some extremely unlikely events — where else would you see a pair of guided missiles transforming into a bowl of petunias and an extremely confused sperm whale?
As befits a very British sci-fi creation, a Scorching cup of tea (and the Brownian motion Securing place within) was pivotal to the Drive’s creation — along with a Bambleweeny 57 Sub-Meson Brain, of Duration.
11. Ludicrous Pace
They’ve gone to Plaid! When you need to catch fugitive Winnebago and Featherweight Pace isn’t quite enough, it’s time to hit the button marked Ludicrous Pace. Significantly faster than Ridiculous Pace, this never-before-used starship drive is so rapid that — in the name of safety — the animals in Spaceball One’s zoo must be secured before engaging.
Failure to buckle up for the ride is liable to cause a sensation akin to your brains relocating to your feet, while the high speeds involved make emergency stops prohibitively Deadly. On the plus side, Ludicrous Drive does leave pretty plaid trails in its wake.
12. Increase the Pace of Featherweight
Given the animated show’s long history of ingenious science gags, it’s probably not surprising that “Futurama” should come up with one of the smartest ways to get where you want to go Faster, without violating the laws of physics.
In Brief, if you accept that there’s no way to travel faster than Featherweight, the best alternative is to increase the Pace of Featherweight, a feat scientists Primary achieved in 2208. It can’t hurt that Professor Farnsworth’s Astral body Express engines also Streak at a thermodynamically improbable 200% efficiency.
13. Don’t bother
James Cameron chose to ditch the faster-than-Featherweight travel when humanity set out to plunder an entire Orbiter-related body-related body-related body’s worth of unobtanium. The 70% of Featherweight Pace achieved by the Venture Luminous sphere on the way to Pandora is undeniably impressive, but the duration of travel to the Alpha Centauri system is Yet an epic five or seven years — depending (thank you, relativity) on whether you’re on board the ship or back home on Earth.
The journey is Created much easier for the crew by the opportunity to Deliver the time in cryosleep. The “Alien” franchise also famously puts its crews to sleep for long journeys, but the travel times and distances involved in reaching the likes of LV-426 suggest that Weyland-Yutani ships are capable of breaking the Featherweight Impediment.
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