Questions tagged [faster-than-light]
For questions about settings in which superluminal travel and/or communication is a possibility.
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What could be used to explain the visual effect of the ‘Blackout Flare’ phenomena described?
As stated on a work-in-progress document for the phenomena I’m referring to as “Blackout Flares”:
A Blackout Flare is a short-lived, instantaneous warping of shadows produced by an object moving ...
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5,000 years from now — The Best valuable for wealth & trade? [closed]
Humans using faster than light-speed (FTL) travel have found and begun populating other planets, planetoids, asteroids, etc. Local societies farm; they ranch and mine; they are bootstrapping light ...
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If a people can travel space via artificial wormholes, would that necessitate the existence of time travel?
The primary mechanism of “faster than light” travel in my story is via artificially formed wormholes that can be created to transport a craft to a reasonably precise location. Would the existence of ...
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Where can a non-clarkean civilisation find an FTL Space-drive?
So, this is the deal. In this scenario, humans are unable to create an interstellar civilisation. They have tried colonising exoplanets the slow way, at about a quarter of the speed of light, but this ...
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Would a living being moving at 99% the speed of light see time stop, or would it see time move faster?
Let's say I want to write about a living thing that can naturally go to 99% the speed of light in just one second of acceleration.
I would like to write what this being would experience at such speed ...
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How do we create an interstellar communications system?
In my science fiction project, humans have settled in a new Galaxy, known as the Novan Cloud. In order to communicate information to other alien races humans require, alongside superluminal travel, (a ...
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What would the launch and explosion of FTL-missiles look like?
In Effects of being hit by an object going at FTL speeds, the effects of a spear going at FTL speeds are debated in detail.
For my setting, humanity's last hope of stalling an alien invasion comes ...
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A device to negate time dilation believability [closed]
In this setting spacecraft are able to approach the speed of light and are equipped with a device to negate the time dilation, this allows things to go horribly wrong if this device fails plot wise.
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How would the laws of physics need to be adjusted if there really were a preferred frame of reference for FTL?
I am considering how to implement faster-than-light (FTL) travel in a sci-fi setting without the attendant problems with causality. One of the ways I've been thinking about for this is establishing a ...
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FTL gates and drives used simultaneously without redundancy?
This world has 3 forms of faster-than-light travel:
Warpdrives don't require destination coordinates. They can be activated and deactivated at any time to move continuously through space. But they ...
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What would be more realistic for a universe where FTL is possible?
I am working on my own project with applying science to Star Wars. I try to meld the fantasy with as much real science as possible, but I am having a problem with the size of the universe. I am ...
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Is it radio silence between 2 Alcubierre drives?
Suppose we grant a 1 time scientific miracle for exotic matter to power Alcubierra wrap drive, then could two such drives communicate with each other? The drive discharges exotic matter particles ...
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Negative mass and Dark matter in Alcubierre Drive?
I am writing a science fiction novel therefore I am using the idea of the Alcubierre drive for warp travel which involves some handwavium but has roots in theoretical physics (which is my goal). While ...
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How to form a space government with only communication?
Long ago, Prime Minister Bob created the [insert name here], a government organizing Space in a peaceful, lawful, and orderly way. This story is taught in classrooms around the [insert name here], ...
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How would a radar work while inside a FTL dimension?
In my universe FTL drives are easily mass manufactured and most citizens own them and use them.
The FTL drives work by compressing a certain powder which then explodes, ripping open a wormhole which ...
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Could galactic tides power FTL travel?
I came across galactic tides while trying to find a new concept for FTL travel for a SF novel. Further research suggests it was just a coincidence, that nobody has ever suggested any possible ...
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What is your fuel consumption when traveling at relativistic speeds?
For a given distance of travel, your fuel consumption can be calculated by running hours instead of distance. This is common when you're traveling by boat for instance. You don't typically say "I ...
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With FTL technology is it possible to leave after another and yet arrive before it?
There's a plot point in my script that has been bothering me for a while. My story has faster-than-light travel thanks to distortion engines, which re-purpose the artificial gravity inside the ships ...
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What would the local effects/affects be of a ring spinning near luminal velocity?
To better solicit more inline with what I'm trying to imagine, I'm editing my question, the original question is left below and removing the hard science tag, as that just seemed to cause issues, ...
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Is it plausible for FTL travel to be made easier to achieve through universal pure axial movement?
A bit of a strange concept that's been floating around in my mind. We all know how grid-based movement works. Moving in a straight line along any direction of X, Y, and Z requires only one step/...
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How to interpolate between the physical, material universe with relativistic reference frames and a spiritual objective reference frame?
I'm new here and I assume that it might be weird to have souls in a science-fiction question but hear me out. While souls in my setting do have some magical unexplainable supernatural properties, it ...
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What might stop people from destroying navigation satellites that are used for FTL plotting?
The idea is that a number of satellites have been deployed throughout the galaxy and ships use them to plot their FTL jumps. If that's the case, the thought occurs to me that someone could try and ...
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What’s better than a hyperdrive for intergalactic travel? [closed]
I’m trying to write a Star Wars story about someone who figures out a way to travel FTL between galaxies. Hyperspace doesn’t work in the Intergalactic Void, and there is a hyperspace disturbance at ...
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If a lightspeed impactor "clipped" the Earth, would the resultant valley remain stable for geological timespans?
Let's say that some aliens fling a hyper-super-duper-lightspeed impactor at the Earth.
They barely hit it.
Instead of a direct hit through the center of mass, the impactor "clips" the Earth ,...
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How long can it really take to calculate a hyperspace jump?
It is a common trope in sci-fi that engaging a vessel's faster-than-light travel requires performing some complicated mathematics that takes a non-trivial amount of time.
I want to know to what extent ...
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Does a ship traveling faster than c0 (speed of light in a vacuum) emit Cherenkov radiation?
A Space Whale has been traveling from point A (let it be Sirius) to point B (let it be Vega) faster than light (FTL). Did it emit Cherenkov radiation while traveling?
Cherenkov radiation is radiation ...
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It would be possible to enter and exit a black hole using a Warp Drive? [closed]
Well, a Warp Drive expands and contracts space, passing it through you, technically allowing faster than light travel.
And so, it would be possible to actually enter a black hole and thus, exit it?
I ...
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Using transfinite numbers in a scifi story
I have been bandying about some exotic mathematics ideas as the basis for a hard scifi setting, and I wonder what technology/alien life would "make sense," here, given the physics arising ...
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Why are certain spaceships capable of warp at a moment's notice while others require some preparations?
After seeing an advert on my holo-watch about the latest fleet of interstellar spaceships capable of going into warp at the press of a button, I was both amazed and dumbfounded by it
Conventional warp ...
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I come out of hyperdrive as far as possible from any galaxy. How isolated am I and what do I see?
I come out of hyperdrive as far as possible from any galaxy. How isolated am I and what do I see?
My purpose is to carry out a top-secret experiment where space is as flat as possible. For this ...
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How fast could a Path Optimization Drive travel through Non-Euclidean/Discrete Space?
I have an idea is for an FTL drive based on the theory that our universe is both Non-Euclidean and Discrete at the Planck Scale, but is instead better represented as a series of interconnected nodes. ...
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Crew member overboard! Interstellar Space Edition [closed]
I am just curious what would happen to those poor souls whom are thrown overboard while the spaceship which is enveloped in a warp bubble, does the bubble acts like a firewall similar to the black ...
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Effects of being hit by an object going at FTL speeds
This will be a question that I am fine with having less realism in. I was thinking of a weapon, like a spear, that can go at FTL (faster than light) speeds. To be clear, the spear is FTL due to ...
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Does my concept for light speed travel pass the "handwave test"?
Basically my idea for a light speed travel concept (not faster than light) is the Zero Mass Field. I am aware that as far as we know this is impossible, but want to know if this makes logical sense ...
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FTL Drive Reality Check
Inspired by this article, which refers to two other articles. (article 1) (article 2)
These articles suggest that the permittivity of free space ($\epsilon_0$) might be adjustable by changing the ...
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What if the speed of light was based off wavelength?
Im making a sci fi story (first part here) and I needed a cool and interesting way to make ftl communication possible, at first I thought, make the speed of light infinite but thats kinda boring so I ...
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Ways to make the time travel aspect of FTL to be as hard as possible? [duplicate]
As I understand it, thanks to the General Relativity it is absolutely impossible to have both relativity and FTL without the latter opening you a way to get into your past thanks to the relativistic ...
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Selling real-estate in space. How can it be allocated and how can it be marked out?
Space is useful for storage. In the future there is a thriving space real-estate market. Generally speaking, space in orbit is more desirable than outer space but both have a market value.
How can ...
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Exploiting Time Travel FTL Mechanics to Create FTL Without Time Travel
A while back, I asked if FTL drives mandated time travel, and I was referenced this previous question:
Are there any ways to allow some form of FTL travel without allowing time travel?
Where the top-...
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Which hypothetical faster-than-light drive is more realistic?
I'm beginning to put together ideas for a science fiction story featuring interstellar travel. I want to put an emphasis on the "science" in science fiction for it though. In that I'd like ...
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What are plausible faster than light methods for a far advanced civilization that aren't a warp drive
Hopefully the title sums it up well, but I'm looking for potential faster than light travel (hoping for real or pseudo-real science here, as much as possible) that doesn't involve a warp drive, which ...
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A plausible explanation for the "ansible?" - FTL communications
I need FTL interstellar communication in my story. Ursula K. Le Guin first used the idea of the "ansible" as a fictional device or technology capable of near-instantaneous or superluminal ...
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Can FTL travel be achieved with mid-20th century technology? [closed]
Let's say that the FTL system is based upon that of Star Trek, but deviations can be made. FTL technology was discovered through the reverse-engineering of a starship that crashed on the civilization'...
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How can I justify a Type III civilization using planetary jump drives instead of FTL starships for galactic commerce and travel?
I have this idea for a science fiction story (It actually came to me in a dream.). In the distant future, the inhabitants of the Milky Way have formed a galaxy-spanning civilization similar to the ...
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Is it feasible to use light as a transmission vehicle?
Let's just say I'm no scientist, so my understanding of these things is all surface. Having said that, I don't write hard science fiction. But I'm not quite as "magic-like" as Star Wars.
My ...
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Military strategy in a world of fixed opaque wormholes [closed]
(This is based on the old wargame Starfire... but don't bother providing answers based on newer versions of said game.)
Spacecraft travel by inertialess drive -- that is, beyond mere reactionless ...
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What would the gravitational wave signature of an Alcubierre drive look like?
I can imagine the proliferation of Alcubierre drives in the distant future, which would distort space so it takes the shape of a Mexican hat in 4D map. I am wondering, what would the gravitation wave ...
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Could Kerr Metric Black Holes hypothetically be used for Interstellar Information Transfer?
Kerr Metrics should (extremely hypothetically) allow travel into "mirror" universes. However, I have heard that some theories estimate the time-swapped black hole on the other side of the ringularity ...
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What FTL models are appropriate given my constraints?
I'd like to have faster-than-light travel (and communications) be an late-game option for a video game I am working on. The extent of the playable universe is approximately 4 million light years in ...
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Would Alcubierre Drive Technology Allow for Artificial Event Horizons?
So, my understanding of how Alcubierre drives would theoretically work is not particularly complete. I know it involves compressing and expanding space, but I don't really have an intuitive grasp on ...
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