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Post by Sojourner on Jul 3, 2004 7:15:40 GMT -5
Erm...The closest star to Earth is in the order of thousands of light years...
I think, anyway. More than 7.5 to be sure.
And I don't think 'speed' really makes any sense for warp journeys. The ship isn't crossing space, it's navigating energy currents which take as long as they take, basically. The distance in realspace has some bearing, but I would have thought it's mostly to do with the difficulty of catching the currents. Think of it as 'depth' for a very simplistic solution. Real distance is based on the x,y plane, while 'difficulty' is represented by the z-axis. A world in an easily accessible warp route will be very shallow, while warp storms are so deep you can't plunge that deep without getting hopelessly lost.
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Post by zholud on Jul 3, 2004 10:23:09 GMT -5
Erm...The closest star to Earth is in the order of thousands of light years. No, much closer. Closest star is Alpha Centauri and it is about 4.3 l.y. away. More exactly, Alpha Centauri is a triple star, the faintest component of which, Proxima Centauri, red dwarf, invisible to the unaided eye is the closest star to the Sun. The two brighter components, about 1/10 light-year farther from the Sun, revolve around each other with a period of about 80 years, while Proxima circles them with a period probably of millions of years. The brightest component star resembles the Sun in spectral type, diameter, and absolute magnitude. However, IIRC the system has no planets. The closest star with (supposed!) planets is about 12 l.y. away. As for sub-light inter-system flight, I have it in my version of Imperium, used mainly by grain freighter moving to nearby (up to 10 l.y.) Hiveworld. Their main advantage is regularity... no warpstorm – exact timing.
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Post by Kage2020 on Jul 4, 2004 2:26:51 GMT -5
Proxima Centauri is closer than Alpha Centauri, hence the name... I think that rates 3.9 light years from Sol IIRC.
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Post by CELS on Jul 4, 2004 4:32:33 GMT -5
ANYWAY...... The point is that whilst it is unlikely that the Imperium would send a ship to this system on conventional drives, it is perhaps possible. If Brusilov wants that to happen, we just need to calculate how fast the ship would have to travel if the journey is to take a given period of time, and then compare this with the fluff.
While zholud's "version of Imperium" has freighters with sub-light speed, I do not personally think that this matches the fluff. This should perhaps be discussed elsewhere, however, since it applies to the Imperium as a whole.
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Post by Kage2020 on Jul 5, 2004 5:43:14 GMT -5
Well, I think that warp storms can be localised not to impede the movement in other inhabited systems. It seems that IMO they can be small enough to affect only a few system (the only inhabited one being Urelsk. Well, they can be small enough to affect only a single system, at least according to the 'fluff'! As to calculated jumps, while they may be possible through warp storms, Urelsk would be too far away to be reached Any form of warp travel is - or should - be possibly through a warp storm. Guess it all depends on the severity of that storm... Remembering, of course, that the adeptus mechanicus was able to get - if you believe the common interpretation of the 'fluff' - vast numbers of 'forgeworld fleets' out of Terra during the Age of Strife. Anyway, the point being that I would personally say that a calculated warp jump is less likely to get you through a full warp storm unless it is in a lull. Indeed, calculated warp drives are more susceptible even to disturbances in the local warp given the limited 'skill' of the computers when balanced against the way in which a jump is made (see that thread in Meta). The point is that whilst it is unlikely that the Imperium would send a ship to this system on conventional drives, it is perhaps possible. But definitely improbable given all the other considerations... If Brusilov wants that to happen, we just need to calculate how fast the ship would have to travel if the journey is to take a given period of time, and then compare this with the fluff. Depends on the drive system... standard plasma engines/fusion drives would have to be fairly big with an iddy-biddy 'human' component to be able to accelerate to a significant enough fraction of c to make such journeys possible. Within the context of the universe it makes more sense for them to wait for a lull in the warp storm and then go in through conventional means. Of course, getting out can be a problem, but at least once in you can send information back out... assuming that you want to. And, of course, you can send information back in as well... This should perhaps be discussed elsewhere, however, since it applies to the Imperium as a whole. Never really bought it myself, either.
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Post by Brusilov on Jul 5, 2004 8:26:07 GMT -5
Actually I might be interesting to throw in anothe group of people coming there on their own using sub-lightspeed propulsion during the EoT, although I would have to figure out why they'd come but that's definitely interesting, if they're not a bunch of Imperial fanatics (The Urossians do that nicely enough thank you).
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Post by Kage2020 on Jul 5, 2004 10:51:44 GMT -5
Again, given the fact that superluminal propulsion is present, one would have to question the viability of sublight interstellar travel...
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Post by KeirLeslie on Jul 5, 2004 21:07:33 GMT -5
It would be possible to send a ship to the edge of the storm through the warp then come in to the systems on a conventional drive, correct? This could cut down the time to only a few decades which wouldn't be that long for the Imperium. Or was this the model you were all working on and I'm just being plain slow?
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Post by Brusilov on Jul 8, 2004 6:34:27 GMT -5
This is possible, but again it would also depend on the situation within the Anargo sub during the AoS and straight after, maybe the local powers and later the Imperium had bigger fish to fry (I'll have to check the history of the AS if it goes as far back as this).
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Post by Kage2020 on Jul 11, 2004 1:14:07 GMT -5
Problem is that any subluminal ship is going to require a significant dedication of resources which might not have been deemed appropriate for this world...
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Post by Brusilov on Jul 13, 2004 0:15:50 GMT -5
We were talking about the possibility for other worlds to send subluminic vessels across interstellar distances.
Personally I don't carte either way, I have no real proposal to make as far as how those people would fit into this story, so we might just want to drop the matter entirely
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Post by Kage2020 on Jul 13, 2004 0:29:17 GMT -5
We were talking about the possibility for other worlds to send subluminic vessels across interstellar distances. Well, since that has been reasonably shown to be untenable... fair enough. Keep on with the world creation and Standard Representations...
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Post by Brusilov on Jul 13, 2004 23:24:40 GMT -5
I'll try to get this done ASAP but I don't know exactly when I'll be able to becaus I'm in the middle of writing my article for the next issue of the Oracle
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Post by Kage2020 on Jan 17, 2005 14:57:05 GMT -5
I am, at present, going to be working on the principle that this thread is now defunct... Darn. On the bright side it does free up a G-class star with a modified UWP to make Ureslk fit! Yay!
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