Some more creative uses of FTL technology?

[Strangelove]

As we know, many SARP reactor technologies generate a colossal amount of power. Most often for shields and weapons, but they're focused little else than destruction (of incoming attacks, or of the target). However, most FTL drives can successfully convert those huge sums of power into thrust (well, at least the ability to "move" an object, so to speak) without destroying very much. So that got me thinking about a whole new line of technology.

Hyperspace/CDD/Whatever shunt drives, perhaps even bombs. If you could somehow convert that tremendous power from moving a single ship FTL to moving larger objects more slowly, you'd have a fun new piece of tech on your hands.

Use them to drag a moon into planetary orbit, then use them to suck large quantities of atmosphere off a planet and instead move it to the moon. This would help eliminate the hostile atmosphere making terraforming easier. Or if it's habitable atmosphere you're hauling, you can convert your local moon into a nice vacation resort.

Of course, there is the other side of the coin. You could drag a moon onto a planet. Or strip an enemy planet of its atmosphere. Hurl some asteroid belts around. Throw an orbital planetary defense grid around like a kid knocking over building blocks. Turn an enemy fleet formation into chaos. And so on.

The main problem with this idea is I'm not familiar enough with the fictional (ahem, theoretical) quantum mechanics involved with the specific processes of most FTL technology. Would this be viable short of building a giant FTL drive? The idea after all is not moving giant objects at FTL speeds for long periods in a stable manner, as with ships, but simply to perhaps bend space/time/gravity in such a way you could move large chunks of matter around. Perhaps converting the FTL "fields" from a single, precise, high powered field into a larger, weaker, more unstable field? Combine the fields of larger vessels to move larger objects such as moons at slower "speeds." Perhaps moving larger objects in "bursts" by creating a field around it and giving it a large push before the field promptly collapses a nanosecond later?

 

[Doshii Jun]

The drives would have to be enormous, I think ... so viable, but not particularly sound as a military or civilian operation.

 

[Yangfan]

*nods* Even large capitol ships can only generate a subspace field large enough to engulf its escort ships, and certainly not an entire planet.

There is no simple more mass = less acceleration trade-off involved. FTL engines use tremendous amount of energy to tap into other dimensions, rather than generate "thrust" in the traditional sense. A capitol ship would not move any slower because it was "carrying" its escort ships when it went into subspace. (If that doesn't make sense, think of the escort ships as cargo.)

 

[Strangelove]

I'm not clear on how SARP FTL technology works, since some sci-fi universes prefer to blatantly ignore special relativity, absolute relativity, and causality, while others stick to them. Hence I had no idea whether the idea was viable in SARP. But once of the one of the most popular and basic sci-fi ideas is that hyperspace drives can bend spacetime, in order to punch a hole into subspace/hyperspace so the ship can travel FTL. So I'll go with that unless Wes says otherwise.

Now, when matter bends spacetime (like with planets) you get gravity. Therefore, by my logic (assuming I still have my knack for quantum theory), if you could bend spacetime in the same way a planet does, you can make artificial gravity. Now planets only dilate spacetime a bit. Since hyperspace drives have the power to rip straight through spacetime into hyperspace, they would be much more powerful when it comes to spacetime bending. Hence, if you used a hyperspace drive to bend spacetime the same way matter does, you could create a monstrous amount of artificial gravity.

And from that extreme gravitational force created, you'd be able to do things like shift the orbits of moons, and so on. Presumably the ship wouldn't get sucked into the extreme gravity since hyperspace drives seem to have the ability to manipulate spacetime without directly effecting the ship itself (ie, hyperspace fields.)

 

[Yangfan]

Hyperspace drives can shift the subspace "bubble" a bit so that it's not centered on the drive itself, but I'm not sure if you can actually move the bubble off the ship entirely.

Not smacking your ship right into whatever it is that you're trying to move would be the biggest obstacle, I'd imagine. Remember that the planet you're trying to move has its own gravitational field.

 

[Strangelove]

Hyperspace drives can shift the subspace "bubble" a bit so that it's not centered on the drive itself, but I'm not sure if you can actually move the bubble off the ship entirely.

Not smacking your ship right into whatever it is that you're trying to move would be the biggest obstacle, I'd imagine. Remember that the planet you're trying to move has its own gravitational field.

To the first point: You could simply bend spacetime in such a way that you are effectively a mobile gravity well (ie, bending space time to simulate something with an incredibly high density). You wouldn't really need to move your bubble anywhere, since the bubble doesn't need to be on top of whatever you're pulling. Just move your ship close enough so that your gravitational pull is strong enough to move the object, or maybe just crank up the amount of spacetime you're bending to increase your pull.

To the second problem, as you know gravity doesn't really have a maximum range. It just decreases as you move away. So you could just back away from the planet a safe (non-crashing) distance and crank up your gravity field until the planet starts moving. If it starts moving too fast or you start getting too close, just turn down the amount of spacetime you're bending. No worries.

And since the SARP universe seems to have a really good understanding of gravity (based on how many races have mastered artificial gravity aboard starships), you could probably even do something as complex as directional gravitational fields, like giant tractor beams. That way other nearby free floating objects wouldn't go flying into your face.

 

[Icra]

On another note, since the mastery of antigravity seems viably present, imagine the effect of placing an anti-gravatic field in something solid. If that visual is not enough, generating an anti-gravatic field in the molten core of a planet, and the resulting 'natural' catastrophe.
However, I haven't yes seen evidence of projective antigrav fields (manifesting outside and away from the source) so that might not be viable.

 

[Yangfan]

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The mass of a starship is negligible compared to the mass of a moon, much less to that of a planet. I haven't done the math, but even accelerating a moon by, say, 1 cm per second per second, might entail some sort of suicidal dive toward the planet. The moon is pulling back at your ship as much as you're pulling on the moon. As you move away, your ability to affect force on the moon via gravity is diminished as well.

I suppose you can stop the process after a second, pull out of the dive, and repeat the process as much as you want, but this seems like a painfully slow way to move celestial bodies. Even if you move a moon into a decaying orbit, it's going to take its time before crashing. And your intended victim would have amble warning and enough time to evacuate the system, if not simply blast you out of the sky.

The main cannons carried by most modern warships seem like a much easier way to commit atrocities.

But hey, I can see a mad scientist doing this.

 

[Icra]

Imploding a drive system in effort to create a singularity might work, now that it's 2am... To create a gravity well between the moon and the planet greater than either of the other gravities would make for some interesting mayhem, I'd think, let alone manifesting something like that within atmosphere. I have no idea how many Gravities it would take to do something like that efficiently, but imploding your drive seems like a good way to avoid being shot out of the sky and having your plans foiled.

 

[Strangelove]

The mass of a starship is negligible compared to the mass of a moon, much less to that of a planet. I haven't done the math, but even accelerating a moon by, say, 1 cm per second per second, might entail some sort of suicidal dive toward the planet. The moon is pulling back at your ship as much as you're pulling on the moon. As you move away, your ability to affect force on the moon via gravity is diminished as well.

I suppose you can stop the process after a second, pull out of the dive, and repeat the process as much as you want, but this seems like a painfully slow way to move celestial bodies. Even if you move a moon into a decaying orbit, it's going to take its time before crashing. And your intended victim would have amble warning and enough time to evacuate the system, if not simply blast you out of the sky.

However, as I've previously mentioned -- Hyperspace drives seem to have the ability to manipulate spacetime without warping or distorting the ship itself. Like when the punch a hole straight through normal space into hyperspace without putting a scratch on the ship. This is probably because they project some kind of local field, hyperspace bubble, or something.

Whats to stop one from making a similar field to protect the ship from spacetime (and therefore gravity, since gravity is merely curved spacetime), like when they're hyperjumping? Or perhaps using the drive to manually create a "flat" spacetime region around there ship, therefore making a gravity-free zone? Perhaps even two seperate drives, one simply for external use, one for protection the ship.

Imploding a drive system in effort to create a singularity might work, now that it's 2am... To create a gravity well between the moon and the planet greater than either of the other gravities would make for some interesting mayhem, I'd think, let alone manifesting something like that within atmosphere. I have no idea how many Gravities it would take to do something like that efficiently, but imploding your drive seems like a good way to avoid being shot out of the sky and having your plans foiled.

Actually, you've sparked an interesting idea. A black hole is simply when gravity is so incredibly powerful that light can't escape. Since a Hyperspace is actually powerful enough to rip though normal space, whats to say they can't simply bend it enough to create enough gravity to simulate a black hole? Though I imagine it'll put some heavy strain on the FTL drive to maintain something so powerful. You'd likely need a much bigger than normal system.

And I don't think imploding a FTL drive would work, since as soon as the FTL drive is destroyed it stops bending spacetime. Otherwise ships preparing to jump would still jump out even if they've received a killing blow just moments before.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Whats to stop one from making a similar field to protect the ship from spacetime (and therefore gravity, since gravity is merely curved spacetime), like when they're hyperjumping? Or perhaps using the drive to manually create a "flat" spacetime region around there ship, therefore making a gravity-free zone? Perhaps even two separate drives, one simply for external use, one for protection the ship.

The fact that OOCly we don't want to explore the tech past the point of "Hey, it works, and it works fast!"? *smiles innocently, for he is no techhead*

 

[Icra]

I'd hazard a guess that if you pushed a gravatic drive system to the point of implosion, the result would likely be self sustaining. Honestly, I don't really have anything to back that up, though it would make for some interesting suicide missions.

 

[Yangfan]

However, as I've previously mentioned -- Hyperspace drives seem to have the ability to manipulate spacetime without warping or distorting the ship itself. Like when the punch a hole straight through normal space into hyperspace without putting a scratch on the ship. This is probably because they project some kind of local field, hyperspace bubble, or something.

That doesn't sound right. I'm pretty sure the weird stuff happens inside the bubble. Hyperspace drives do some very perverted things to space-time (like punching holes) in a localized area, not everything outside the localized area. A ship might look weird in hyperspace when it goes FTL, but human eyes can't perceive that dimension anyway.

So you can get yourself stuck in a bubble universe if you're not careful, but there is no chance of screwing anyone outside the bubble. Such a calamity would have already happened in the early days of experimental FTL travel if it were possible.

 

[Strangelove]

Again, I'm unfamiliar with the specific theoretical/fictional mechanics behind the specific drives SARP use, so what I'm about to say might me wrong. But, in theory, shouldn't totally localized spacetime manipulation (controlled) be "harder" than uninhibited manipulation and letting the nasty aftereffects run loose? So if you could build something complex enough to tightly control spacetime ruptures, something uncontrolled should be a breeze.

On a semi-related note, what about FTL interdiction? Interdictor fields don't seem to attack hyperspace drives themselves, but the mechanism they use, spacetime manipulation. So it sounds like they're in effect long-range spacetime manipulators (they seem to operate outside the tiny hyperspace bubbles that ships use), forcefully keeping spacetime in it's original flat form to prevent enemy ships from curving it and escaping. They seem like they would operate on a very similar principal as the theoretical shunt drives.

 

[Icra]

You could simply bend spacetime in such a way that you are effectively a mobile gravity well

I just had a thought, one that I've actually had before. What about bending spacetime in the way it's not supposed to be bent, the opposite of a gravity well? I'm sure that would have some -extremely- interesting implications, and may be worth looking into as a defense measure. That is, assuming it doesn't tear the ship apart.

 

[Zakalwe]

That's pretty much anti-gravity.