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Space
Travel
Hyperatomic Motivators
Hyperatomic motivators were developed in parallel with
the hyperatomic drive in Imperial pre-history, during the time that the Earth and Spacer
worlds were in conflict.
The motivator is the heart of Hyperatomic physics;
literally, it shifts the ship out of U0 into H0. It
does so by collapsing a virtual singularity around the ship. By definition, all life
within ceases before the virtual singularity breaks down. The energy required for
this singularity is then re-radiated. The nature of the radiations is both an
emittance and an absorption of the motivator crystal - a 99.99999% pure iridium crystal
housed in a zero-gravity super evacuated tube.
The motivator is critical. To perform a jump,
around 20 GW of work is required to move the smallest ship through a jump. This
power would move a vessel approximately 10 light years. With a small, classical
nuclear power plant, fuel would be exhausted within a year. Micro-fusion plants fare
no better and need overhaul in less than two years. Imperial engines utilized
super-efficient, adiabiatically-transparent collecting shells to gather as much energy
from the cores of starships. The shielding required, due to the radiations emitted,
is, consequently, huge. Imperial war vessels of the Line were known to have at least
12.5% of their overall mass devoted to shielding of the crew. Warships intending a
more stealthy appearance were known to have a shielding of not more than 35% of their
mass.
Surprisingly, starships did not suffer from the
problems of moving a large mass across the Universe, rather, energy was the prime concern
when performing the hyperspatial jump.
Martin La
Grange
  
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