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Battle of Ragnar Anchorage

2007-02-11T15:54:20Z

DigitalDragon:

{{Battle Data
|image=Ragnar Escape.jpg
|description=''Galactica'' provides cover fire while the civilian Fleet escapes
|conflict=[[Cylon Attack|Second Cylon war]]
|date=[[Re-Imagined Series Timeline|Days 1-6]]
|place=[[Ragnar Anchorage]]
|result=Successful escape from Cylon-occupied Colonial space
|combatant1=Remnants of the [[Colonial Fleet (RDM)|Colonial Fleet]]
|combatant2=[[Cylons (RDM)|Cylons]]
|co1=Commander [[William Adama]]
|co2=[[Basestar command]]
|strength1=1 [[Battlestar (RDM)|battlestar]], 40 [[Viper (RDM)|Vipers]], [[Raptor]]s
|strength2=3 [[Basestar (RDM)|basestars]], associated [[Cylon Raider (RDM)|Raiders]]
|shiploss1=At least 8 Vipers
|shiploss2=Unknown, minimal
|casualties1=1,345 civilians
|casualties2=Unknown, dozens of Raiders
|prev=[[Fall of the Scorpion Fleet Shipyards]]
|next=[[Skirmish over the Red Moon]]
|rdm=y
}}

The '''Battle of Ragnar Anchorage''' is the successful breakthrough by [[Galactica type battlestar|battlestar]] ''[[Galactica (RDM)|Galactica]]'' from a Cylon blockade around [[Ragnar Anchorage]], and subsequent escape from its armada after being tracked and attacked for 5 continuous days ([[Miniseries]], "[[33]]").

''Galactica'' is the last [[Pegasus (RDM)|known]] surviving capital ship able to mount a counterattack against the [[Cylons (RDM)|new Cylon menace]] after the devastating attack that leads to the [[Fall of the Twelve Colonies]].

After getting telemetry that many battlestars, including flagship battlestar ''[[Atlantia (RDM)|Atlantia]]'' are destroyed, Commander [[William Adama]] assumes field command of the [[Colonial Fleet (RDM)|Colonial Fleet]] and orders any surviving units to rendezvous with his ship at a remote munitions depot, [[Ragnar Anchorage]], for a planned counterattack.

Orbiting within the tenuous upper atmosphere of the gas giant [[Ragnar]], the ammunition station holds critical ordnance needed by ''Galactica'', which had destroyed its own munitions earlier as part of its scheduled decommissioning<ref>The destruction of the battlestar's munitions occurs in a [[List of Deleted Scenes (RDM)#Miniseries|deleted scene]] of the Miniseries.</ref>.

The depot's location also offers effective cover against Cylon attack, as a particular form of electromagnetic radiation generated by the planet's upper atmosphere causes interference or damage to [[Silica pathways|Cylon technology]] with sufficient exposure, and also jams any [[DRADIS]] detection, making attacking within the cloud threshold problematic at best.

''Galactica'' is later joined by a convoy of faster-than-light capable civilian ships rescued from throughout the spacelanes near [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica|Caprica]] by new President [[Laura Roslin]].

Despite the overwhelming odds, Commander [[William Adama|Adama]] intends to proceed with a counter-offensive. However, after persuasion by Roslin, Adama realizes that the ship is in a no-win situation: the Colonies are destroyed, ''Galactica'' is massively outnumbered, the human race is near extinction, and he is surrounded by nearly 50,000 of its only known survivors.

Lieutenant [[Kara Thrace|Kara "Starbuck" Thrace]] discovers at least two Cylon [[Basestar (RDM)|basestars]] and their fighters outside of the cloud during a reconnaissance mission, further decreasing the battlestar's odds in any offensive plans.

Adama decides to take the new [[The Fleet (RDM)|rag-tag fleet]] away from the home solar system of the Twelve Colonies<ref>In the [[Re-imagined Series]], the home solar system of the Twelve Colonies is not named. In the [[Original Series]], the name "[[Cyrannus]]" is used inconsistently to describe either the name of its solar system or galaxy where [[The Twelve Colonies (TOS)|its Twelve Colonies resided]].</ref>, towards the [[Prolmar Sector]], never to return.

With an avoidance of attack made impossible since an [[FTL]] jump within the cloud would likely distort the FTL calculations with fatal results, ''Galactica'' leaves the Anchorage and positions itself at Ragnar's storm's threshold, orienting itself as a shield for the remainder of the Fleet to safely jump from behind the battlestar and to their new coordinates. With her weapons now fully armed, ''Galactica'' creates a defense perimeter against two basestars while her Vipers engage any [[Cylon Raider (RDM)|Cylon Raiders]] that attempt to move around ''Galactica'' and to her fleet. A third basestar soon appears to pummel ''Galactica'' with successive missiles.

Once the last civilian ship is away and the last of the Vipers return to the [[flight pod]], ''Galactica'' jumps away to escape the onslaught. The Cylons enter the station shortly after the battle, and retrieve a suspected [[Cylon agent]] left there by the Colonials, a [[Number Five]] copy posing as a man named [[Aaron Doral]].

After the battle ends at Ragnar, approximately one day later, the Cylons continue tracking and pursuing the remnant of the Colonial Fleet, appearing every 33 minutes for five consecutive days and over 240 jumps.
A passenger liner, the ''[[Olympic Carrier]]'', fails to join the Fleet after the last jump. However, the Cylons don't appear in the next 33-minute interval.

When the ''Olympic Carrier'' reappears a short time later, a suspicious Commander Adama commands the 33-minute countdown to resume immediately. Adama's fears about the vessel are confirmed when the Cylons appear 33 minutes after its return, indicating it was used to track the Fleet throughout that time.

When ''Galactica'' detects a [[Radiological Alarm|radiological signature]] from the ''Olympic Carrier'', suggesting it was boarded by Cylons and now carries a nuclear warhead, Vipers are dispatched to destroy the the ship.

After the Fleet jumps once more, the Cylons can no longer immediately track their movements ([[33]]).

==References==
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{{Battles (RDM)}}

[[Category:A to Z]]
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[[es:Batalla del Ancladero Ragnar]]
[[de:Schlacht bei der Ragnar-Anlegestelle]]

Navigation in the Re-imagined Series

2007-01-31T10:22:19Z

DigitalDragon: minor language changes

{{cleanup}}
{{RDM science series}}
In the Re-imagined Series, the principles of flight are taken with greater seriousness in that all ships have as logical a process to move in all through axes of movement, and at reasonable speeds and methods that don't necessarily duplicate the fantasy flight principles seen in space fantasy, such as ''Star Wars''.

==Reaction Control Systems==

In addition to their [[Propulsion in the Re-imagined Series#Sublight propulsion|sublight engines]] used for interplanetary travel within a solar system, all ships (except, perhaps, for [[Basestar (RDM)|basestars]]) have a centralized way to move the ship to port or starboard, and to yaw and rotate the ship. This requires the use of an RCS, or a reaction control system<ref>In the movie, ''Apollo 13'', you can see the Apollo command/service module's reaction control jets violently activating to control the spacecraft after the famous oxygen tank explosion, which creates an uncontrolled jet for which the RCS tries to compensate.</ref>.

The reaction control system is designed to provide a spacecraft with guidance and steering. It has two main functions:

* Delivering small amounts of thrust in any desired direction or combination of directions
* Providing torque to allow control of rotation (pitch, yaw, and roll).

Reaction control systems are typically used for:

* Attitude control during entry into an atmosphere until such time as conventional aerodynamic surfaces can be used
* Stationkeeping in orbit
* Close maneuvering and/or docking
* Orientation control (pointing the nose of the vehicle).

All [[Colonial Fleet (RDM)|Colonial vessels]] utilize RCS for maneuvering and station keeping, although the scale of the systems varies widely.

* Vipers, Raptors and all smaller craft appear to use "cold" RCS systems, most likely utilizing either an inert gas or possibly a high specific-impulse [[Wikipedia:Hypergolic fuel|hypergolic fuel]] mixture
* Very large vessels such as [[battlestar]]s use strategically-mounted sets of very large fuel-burning thrusters, relying on the brute force of such systems to overcome inertia during maneuvers.

[[Cylons (RDM)|Cylon]] manuevering technology for their small craft use RCS systems that are similar in form and function to Colonial systems. The episode "[[Scar]]" clearly depicts a [[Cylon Raider]] using RCS jets for attitude control.

[[Basestar (RDM)|Basestars]] don't appear to have ''any'' RCS features. In fact, it is unknown if a basestar has any kind of propulsion other than its FTL drive. This may be an inherent design, as its Raiders and missile systems can be deployed in a 360-degree arc--that is, the basestar can deploy its offensive elements from any direction of the ship.

==Distances and speeds in the Miniseries==

* '''''Battlestar ''Galactica'' was approximately 335,540,340 miles from one of the Colonies, ostensibly [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica|Caprica]], at the start of the [[Miniseries]].'''''

To reach this number, we needed clues from [[Billy Keikeya]], on ''[[Colonial Heavy 798]]'', enroute to the battlestar for its decommissioning ceremony. In the Miniseries, Keikeya tells [[Laura Roslin]] that he had sent a copy of her ceremony speech to President [[Richard Adar|Adar]] for review, but warns that there is a time delay of 30 minutes between ''Galactica'' and Adar's actual location, which is [[Epiphanies|confirmed]] as Caprica City, the apparent seat of the Colonial [[Government]] <ref name="jack">President Adar's office on Caprica was confirmed in the second-season episode, "[[Epiphanies]]." Reinforcing this information, Roslin speaks by [[wireless]] to "[[Jack]]", a fellow secretary or government official. Jack tells Roslin of the devastation near his location and Adar's speculated whereabouts and actions. Given that wireless transmission ranges in real-time conversation would limit Roslin to be able to speak only with Caprica (the nearest colony), Jack must be on Caprica, and likely in Caprica City to give him any ability to discuss the president's whereabouts.</ref>.

The ''Battlestar Galactica'' universe sticks to the same speed of light constant as real-world Earth (and the universe, of course): 186,282 miles per second. If President Adar sent a [[wireless]] message from Caprica to ''Galactica'' in an attempt to correct Roslin's speech, how long would it take the message to get there? Keikeya gives this answer: 30 minutes. This allows us to determine the complete answer we need if we use the equation: ''d = s(t)'' (or, ''distance=speed x time'')

::(3 x 10^8 m/s) ''(the speed of light)'' x 1800 s ''(30 minutes * 60 seconds/minute)'' = 5.4 x 10^11 meters ''or'' '''335, 500, 000 miles'''

Simplfied, the wireless message travels over 335.5 million miles in 30 minutes to ''Galactica''. This is approximately 3.5 astronomical units, or three times the distance between our Earth and our sun.

* '''''Colonial Heavy 798'' is travelling at a sublight speed of over 61,000,000 miles per hour to get to ''Galactica'' for the decommissioning ceremony.'''''

Right after Billy Keikeya's conversation to Laura Roslin on her speech, the captain of ''Colonial Heavy 798'' speaks on the public address intercom of the [[Intersun|starliner]], telling the passengers how long their trip to ''Galactica'' will take: 5.5 hours. Assuming that the starliner has just left the neighboring space of Caprica and has reached its cruising speed, and given that we know ''Galactica's'' distance from Caprica, we can determine ''Colonial Heavy 798's'' cruising speed with the same formula as above, now adjusted to calculate speed:

:5.4 x 10^11 meters ''(the distance in meters)'' / 19800 ''(5.5 hours x 3600 seconds/hour)'' =
:2.7 x 10^7 meters/sec, ''or'' '''61, 000, 000 MPH'''

While ''Colonial Heavy 798'' is making a very serious clip across space at 61, 000, 000 miles per hour on its [[sublight]] engines, this is only approximately 11 percent of the speed of light, so passenger liners do well in getting from place to place, or colony to colony. To give a real-world comparison, ''Colonial Heavy 798'' could fly from our sun to the Earth in about 90 minutes. The light from the sun takes only 8 minutes to arrive on the Earth's surface.

Given the velocities involved, extremely high accelerations must be used to attain them in reasonable (usable) time frames involved for in-system transportation. Such G forces would kill any humans involved unless some means of dampening them were employed. Given that the technology to perform "space-folding" FTL jumps is also available, the technology to manipulate gravity would lie in the same area.

* '''''Colonial Heavy 798'' and it's passengers would ''lose'' about 1 minute and 19 seconds during their trip to Caprica (relative to the time observed on Caprica), if they had completed their trip as planned, due to [[Wikipedia:Time dilation|time dilation]].'''''
:T = T0 / sqrt(1 - v^2/c^2)
::*T0 = 5.5 hours. (as observed by ''Colonial Heavy 798'')
::*d = 335,540,340 miles.
::*v = d/T (as observed by Caprica)
::*c = 670,616,624.4 mph
::*'''T = 5.52 hours. (1:19 longer observed on Caprica)'''

Of course, this assumes that ''Colonial Heavy 798'' took the same path to Caprica that its transmission would take. This isn't likely, for various reasons, so the distance is probably off ''a little''.

==Alternate calculations for distances and speeds in the Miniseries==

This is an alternative to the above which assumes a thirty light minute distance.
A time lag <ref>{{cite_web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lag_time|title =time lag defintion on wikipedia}}</ref> or delay , in the case of a communication signal is both ways. A thirty minute time lag in
communication implies that the signal would take fifteen minutes to travel between the two creating a total lag of thirty minutes. In short: It takes thirty minutes for person one to send a message and get a reply
back. This would alter the calculations made to the following.

-''Galactica's'' distance from Caprica would be: 167,500,000 miles

(3 x 10^8 m/s) (the speed of light) x 1800 s (15 minutes * 60 seconds/minute) = 2.7 x 10^11 meters or 167,500,000 miles

-The speed of ''Colonial Heavy 798'' would be 305057.07 mph

2.7x 10^11 meters (the distance in meters) / 19800 (5.5 hours x 3600 seconds/hour) =
13,636,363.64 meters/sec, or 305057.07 mph

-This makes the same asumptions as to the route of ''Colonial Heavy 798'' as the initial proposal.

==FTL jump calculations==
Based on deduction from information gleaned in "[[Scattered]]", a set of jump Coordinates used to execute an FTL jump "tells" the Jump drive to fold space along a vector of three dimensions:

*Elevation
*Rotation
*Distance

Here, the dimension of distance would represent more than just a straight line, plotted through three-dimensional space but the amount of space curvature that the jump drive would have to fold.

A possible algorithm for jump calculations would therefore necessitate first and foremost the figuring out of the exact location of the ship, relative to its intended point of arrival after the jump. This is done by identifying, fixing and triangulating several stars. <ref name="tigh">This much is explained by Col. Tigh to his wife Ellen in "Scattered".</ref>

Next, the ship's position relative to the intended point of arrival would be [[Wikipedia:Point plotting|plotted]] on a three-dimensional [[Wikipedia:Cartesian coordinate system|Cartesian coordinate system]], using the ship as its [[Wikipedia:Origin (mathematics)|point of origin]], i.e. (0/0/0).

Then, the positions of any known stellar bodies and other obstacles would have to be plotted on that coordinate system as well, in order to establish where to jump and where ''not'' to jump.

Finally, the point of arrival would likewise be plotted. The hard part in making a single jump over long distances, like to [[Ragnar Anchorage|Ragnar]] in the Miniseries, would therefore lie not so much in getting the jump drive to fold space correctly, as in correctly figuring out where possible obstacles, such as a sun or a black hole, are located and then adjusting the direction of the jump accordingly, so as to land the ship in a clear volume of space.

===What happened in "Scattered"?===
[[Image:jump calculations.jpg|thumb|left|Schematic Diagram showing the three different sets of Jump Coordinates]]
In "[[Scattered]]", [[Galactica (RDM)|''Galactica'']] and the [[The Fleet (RDM)|Fleet]] executed jumps according to different sets of coordinates. As a consequence, ''Galactica'' had to jump back along its original jump vector, to the former point of origin of the two jumps, reacquire the former starfixes and calculate a best-fit solution given the Fleet's current position.

At first glance, this seems counter-intuitive. Since presumably both sets of jump coordinates were known to ''Galactica'', a simple triangulation of the two jump vectors would have produced an alternative third set of jump-coordinates which should have allowed ''Galactica'' to jump to the Fleet directly.
A possible explanation for the complications that arise in such a case may lie in the [[Wikipedia:General Relativity|"Curvature" of space]] and the fact that ships retain their initial velocity through a jump. This can be seen in the Miniseries immediately after ''Galactica'' jumps to Ragnar. The battlestar leaves the Jump, still moving at its sublight velocity before the Jump occurred.

Space is not flat, but distorted by stellar masses, especially [[Wikipedia:Sun|Suns]] and [[Wikipedia:Black holes|Black Holes]]. Assuming that FTL Jumps cover enormous distances, the two different jumps would place lots of unknown stellar bodies between ''Galactica'' and the Fleet, distorting space and thereby screwing up the dimension of "Distance" in the above mentioned third set of jump-coordinates.

Furthermore, the [[Emergency Jump Coordinates]] given to the civilian fleet weren't just an older set of correct coordinates. According to Colonel Tigh jump calculations need to be regularly updated to compensate for stellar drift and the movement of the ships themselves. The fleet jumped with a set of coordinates that didn't fit the local space-time conditions. That might have placed them in an unknown location.
It's possible that Galactica was able to calculate their real location from the fleet's Emergency Jump Coordinates as well as the newly acquired starfixes. This unusual procedure could also explain the abnormally long duration (several hours) of the calculations on the initially unnetworked computers.

==Triangulating the Colonies' "Actual Location" ==
[[Image:Lagoonnebula.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Lagoon Nebula]]
In "[[Home, Part II]]," the [[Wikipedia:Lagoon Nebula|Lagoon Nebula]] appears in a holographic map in the constellation of Scorpio<ref>In the show, the nebula is placed in the wrong constellation. On Earth, the nebula actually appears in the constellation Sagittarius. The production team has acknowledged this as an error.</ref> in the [[Tomb of Athena]].

Some fans have deduced ''Galactica's'' location and the rough location of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol from the aired data with simple but brilliant logic.
[[Image:Locations in BSG galaxy.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Possible locations]]
The nebula is shown from the same vantage point as it would appear to an observer on Earth, yet the characters are able to recognize it. This suggests that the Colonies are on a line of sight "behind" Earth's Solar System. Otherwise, the nebula would appear in a different shape and size as it is not a symmetrical object. The effect is similar to two people, both facing the same direction and standing in a row, looking at the face of a person standing in front of them.

If one were to follow a straight line from the Lagoon Nebula to Earth, continuing the line through space would place ''Galactica'', and likely the Colonies, somewhere in the [[Wikipedia:Cygnus Arm|Cygnus Arm]] of the Milky Way galaxy.

To calculate the approximate distance between the Colonies and Earth, using the map to the left, one must first get the distance between the Lagoon Nebula and Earth, 4,100 light-years. One must then determine the distance between the point labled 'Earth' and the point labled 'Lagoon Nebula.' Then, one must use this scale and measure the distance between the Colonies and Earth. Then convert it to light years. The approximate distance using this method is 10,250 light-years.
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==References==
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[[Category:A to Z]]
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[[Category:Technology]]
[[Category:Technology (RDM)]]
[[Category:Terminology]]
[[Category:Terminology (RDM)]]