A jump drive is one of the speculative inventions in science fiction, a method of traveling faster than light (FTL). Related concepts are hyperdrive, warp drive and interstellar teleporter. The key characteristic of a jump drive (as the term is usually used) is that it allows a starship to be instantaneously teleported between two points. A jump drive is supposed to make a spaceship (or any matter) go from one point in space to another point, which may be several light years away, in a single instant. Like time travel, a jump drive is often taken for granted in science fiction, but very few science fiction works talk about the mechanics behind a jump drive. There are vague indications of the involvement of tachyons and the space-time continuum in some works.
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Jump drives were used in many science fiction universes for space vehicle movement, initially suggested in the The Foundation Series of novels by Isaac Asimov from 1942.[1] They next appear in the Deathworld 2 novel by Harry Harrison in the 1964 trilogy by the same name,[2] and Frank Herbert's Dune. The CoDominium series by Jerry Pournelle which begun publication in 1973 features the Alderson jump drive. However, their popularity exploded only over a decade later with the Alliance-Union universe series by C. J. Cherryh from 1976. The Traveller role playing game (by Marc Miller, first edition in 1977) uses something called "jump drives", but they're actually a kind of hyperdrive, with ships using it traveling through "jump space" (the game's term for hyperspace) for about a week, regardless of distance travelled, before re-emerging into normal space.[3]
In the novel The Forever Man (1984) by Gordon R. Dickson, starships use a jump-drive that makes the vehicle omnipresent for an instant before repositioning the ship in a pre-determined location. Several jumps are needed, because farther triangulations require more time to calculate, therefore a journey across the galaxy may take a few centuries to calculate all at once.
In the novel Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London by Keith Mansfield, various species described as "Owlein" (such as Plicans) fold space allowing for a form of jump drive. This Folding cannot exceed certain (unspecified) distances without damaging the structure of space-time.
In most fictional universes, the total distance per jump is limited and multiple jumps may be needed to reach the final destination. Jump drives often require significant power and many universes require time to "re-energize" the jump drive after a jump, thereby limiting the frequency at which jumps can be executed.
These factors can allow writers to build dramatic tension by showing characters struggling to reach a jump point, or to recharge their drive, before their foes reach them.
The Nights Dawn Trilogy novels by Peter F. Hamilton published in the 1990s, used under the name ZTT (Zero Temporal Transit) Drive has been the latest significant work in science fiction to use the jump drive concept. It is worth noting that with ZTT, momentum is conserved, so a ship might spend days synchronizing its normal-space relative velocity with its destination before or after jumping - a concept first used in E.E. 'Doc' Smith's Lensman series (1937–1948), albeit in connection with 'inertialess' FTL drives rather than jump drives, where it is referred to as "matching intrinsics".
Jump drives are also used in the Battletech series of games and literature. In the literature the drive is called the "Kearny-Fuchida Drive", or K-F drive. Named for the physicists that developed the equations needed for the drive to work. The jump takes only a few seconds, but is limited to a max distance 30 lys. There is a variable amount of time required between jumps to recharge the energy for jumping. Recharging is done by solar sails, or in developed systems there may be a recharge station. In rare cases a ship may have a "Lithium-Fusion" battery, this stores extra power for an additional jump between recharging. Warships are about the only ships to have these batteries. When a solar sail is used for recharging the type of star determines how long a recharge takes.
There are two main variants of jump drives commonly portrayed in computer games. The first requires a ship to travel through normal space to a specific jump point. Once at that point, the jump drive is used to move to another jump point. In some examples, such as the Capsule Drive in the computer game Independence War, the ship can travel to any other jump point. Others, such as the Wing Commander series, only allow transit from one jump point to a corresponding exit point (which may or may not allow travel in the opposite direction). The second variant allows a ship to execute a jump from anywhere in normal space and move directly to any other location. This variant is frequently subject to other limitations such as distance from strong gravity wells. Battletech uses this style of jump drive in its jumpships.
With the appearance of computer games, many have used jump drives, including:
The Stargate film and television series utilizes two different types of jump drive. Many space craft featured in the franchise have a type of "hyperspace" technology, while the stargates themselves employ a "wormhole" technology which is used for almost instantaneous travel from one point to another across many light years (including intergalactic travel). Similar wormhole technology was also explored in the season finale of Stargate: Atlantis as an alternative to Atlantis's hyperdrive, allowing the entire city to move from the outer edge of the Milky Way Galaxy to Earth in a matter of seconds. In the Stargate Universe series, the ancient spaceship Destiny uses a previously unknown type of faster-than-light-travel, simply referred to as FTL by characters in the television series.
The Babylon 5 television series describes jump drives as a way to jump to hyperspace through a jumpgate. While interstellar travel is not instantaneous, it is much faster than light travel.
The reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series utilizes a jump drive known as an FTL Drive. The technology allows a ship to instantaneously jump from one point in space to another, though the mechanics behind the drive are never explained beyond describing preparing the drive as "spinning up," implying some type of electromagnetism. A distance known as the "red line" is described as the threshold for a safe jump, as jumping beyond the line could result in a ship being unable to successfully navigate back to their point of origin.
The film Event Horizon features the eponymous ship using a jump drive. Harnessing the power of an artificial black hole, the drive was designed to project a focused beam of gravitons, folding space and allowing the ship to pass through and arrive immediately at the new location. The drive malfunctioned and opened, sending the ship through a dimensional gateway to hell, a place of pure chaos.