Why Faster than Light?

In Science Fiction (Sci-fi or SF) writers almost always give a method of faster than light travel. This is because most SF takes place outside of our little solar system; but if we are going to have a story about events happening in another (or more likely several) solar systems than we can't have to wait years between chapters while character shuttle around on well, shuttles. Faster than light travel allows the whole genre of science fiction to exist. Most writers give at least some explanation of how characters are breaking the accepted laws of physics, even if they don't explain all of the technology behind it. Here are a few of the accepted means of breaking the speed of light¹ and the shows and books that use them.

Hyperspace

The most common method of faster than light(FTL) technologies hyperspace takes several forms and is similar to a number of other methods. I will give two of the forms here and the stories that use them.

Hyperspace normally allows FTL travel by being either two things:
An area where points are closer together or a place where the speed of light is higher than normal

Point to Point Hyperspace

This allows ships to move as speeds lower then the speed of light but have the appearence of FTL travel as when they leave hyperspace after arriving at their destination they have travelled further than the light caused by their "hyperspace jump" has because it has had further to go.

A number of books use this method such as: David Weber's honor harrington series; the Babylon 5 series; the game Star Control II and many other SF games.

In this method of FTL travel the distance between points can often be shortened, thus increasing the ship's apparent speed. The distance can be shortened by increasing the power of the hyperdrive, quite a rare way of doing things, or by entering a different layer of hyperspace, which is preffered because it allows the writers to add in an additional set of difficulties to FTL travel

Normally there are a number of conditions on entering this hyperspace and then an additional set of problems for each layer of hyperspace that must be entered and sometimes a set of problems to be overcome when exiting hyperspace.

The requirements for entering and exiting hyperspace are common to both the "standard" methods of using hyperspace and so can be shared while the changing levels is just linked to point to point hyperspace travel.

Conditions for Entering Hyperspace

• The rather obvious requirement of possesing a hyperdrive, in whatever shape is required, for example a device capable of manipulating gravity. Occasionly this requirement is ignored and replaced with another condition for example reaching lightspeed

• Correct position, the vast majority of Sci-fi requires ships to reach certain positions, often with the wording a reasonbly flat gravitational area. This normally means that ships must travel far away from any large celestial body such as stars or planets and even estoric bodies like black holes. This can also be achieved by entering a langrange point.²Other positional requirements are sometimes needed that are even more drastic such as being in a sun or if short of a sun in a quasar.

• Calculations, most writers require the route to be taken to be pre-calculated. If this does not take place ships tend to "hit" stars, planets and occasionly a ship and be pulled out of hyperspace or destroyed. It also has the literary advantage of ships having to hover at a vulnerable place while crunching numbers, meaning that space ambushes can take place.

• Other requirements, while a full list of requirements cannot be added here due to length a few of the more significant or common problems can also be added.
  Velocity - In DAvid Weber's books ships must be travelling at less than .3c³ to enter hyperspace or they are destroyed. In many other books and games such as Sins of a Solar Empire ships must come to a complete halt before jumping.
  Control - In the andromeda series control of the ship must be handed over to a living organism as computers are for some non-sensical reason incapable of controlling an FTL ship
  Passenger State - In "an apocalypse troll" passengers must be in stasis before entering hyperspace, whether or not required ships will often place their passengers into either artificial sleep or stasis in order to avoid the problems of screaming babies and drains on a ship's life support

Conditions of changing layers in Hyperspace

• Power, often ships require additional power to enter a higher level of hyperspace such as in Star Trek where Captain Janeway says that with more power ships could travel as quickly as their FTL messages. A lack of power can limit the number of waves that can be traversed, thus giving a speed limit to smaller ships.

• Turbulence, believe it or not there are currents in hyperspace that are inevitably linked back to "pre-space air turbulence" so that less intelligent reader/viewers are able to understand the concept. The "walls" between hyperspace layers become harder to cross the "higher" they are⁴. This means the ability of the navigator and their computers are tested and so tends to create the upper speed limit of hyperspace.

• Despite (or perhaps because of) authors ripping the laws of relativity apart authors add in additional laws that govern how hyperspace can be used. This normally comes in the form that there is a layer that cannot be breached because at that stage all matter is compressed into a single point similar to before the big bang. Another consequence of trying to breach this barrier is time travel as in the Apocalypse troll.

Conditions of exiting Hyperspace