Talk:FTL/Archive 1

Multiple Jumps in Cylon Raider

However, it is far more likely that Starbuck had to make a series of jumps back to Caprica (especially given the condition she was in upon arrival) witch would indicate that the Cylon Raiders FTL-range is not that extremely superior.

While plausible, that's clearly not the implication of the on-screen events, IMO. --Peter Farago 12:32, 27 September 2005 (EDT)

My Big Problem With FTL

I have a big problem with the FTL drives in the BSG universe and thats how many times they can jump before they refuel. In the episode 33, we see the fleet make over 250 consecutive jumps. Would it make sense for a 747 airliner to make that many consecutive flights w/o refueling? Fuel tanks would have to have a huge capacity to make that many jumps. Why would you design such a large fuel tank into a commercial transport like Colonial One. Every extra pound put into the vessel is one extra pound to push out of orbit. Jumping MUST require a considerable ammount of fuel or getting it wouldn't be an issue. I can understand a large fuel tank in something like a transport vessel or a mining ship, but not a starliner, its just not practical. I wouldnt normally complain about something like this, but given RDM's goal of making a 'realistic' sci-fi show, it bothers me. Are there any explinations for the capability to jump that many times?--Antagonist

I see no logical disconect in any of the things you've just stated. It all simply makes sense to me, as well as seems realistic. --The Merovingian 03:54, 18 February 2006 (EST)

It would be like designing a 747 with a un-refueled range of a hundred thousand miles or a car with a 500 gallon gas tank. --Antagonist 13:34, 18 February 2006 (EST)

Hmm i see your point here. However it has been stated that they do have a refinery ship, and refuels have been mentioned in prev eps. I choose to believe that unseen ships rushed around during the 33 mins..In other words, Im letting that one go with a la la la :) Also do FTL's use the same fuel as the sublight engines? Or something else? --Simmons 03:34, 19 February 2006 (EST)

Well, if the Cylons were tracking by radio signals from spies in "33," then the jumps are 33 light-minutes. Maybe the Colonials were intentionally making small jumps just to try to lose the Cylons. I don't really consider it likely though, if they were jumping 33 light-minutes, you would think they would notice the 33 minute attack intervals and change up the jump lengths. But if they were making short jumps in that episode, it might be the equivalent of a trip down the block, where it's conceivable to go 300 blocks without refueling. Either that or the fuel analogy being used is a poor one and we should be comparing the usage to a nuclear powered sea vessel which can go years without changing the reactor core, but that introduces problems such as the rate of reactor usage being more steady in a nuclear reactor.--Jeremias 19:14, 2 March 2006 (CST)

Tracking an FTL Jump

Im not sure its been mentioned anywhere in an ep, but I assume that ships can not be tracked through an FTL jump?--Simmons 03:39, 19 February 2006 (EST)

You can't track a Jump in progress, but you can discern its destination after. This happened to the Fleet as it was tracked, presumably with a hidden Cylon transponder on the Olympic Carrier in the events of "33," the first series episode. --Spencerian 09:24, 19 February 2006 (EST)

They said in the Miniseries it is impossible to track an FTL Jump. However, the Cylons have spies and stuff with transponders in the Fleet, and they can send signals which the Cylons can then detect and Jump to. --The Merovingian 13:15, 19 February 2006 (EST)

So has there been any mention of FTL communications (doesn't seem likely in light of "The Hand of God")? Otherwise, this might limit the length of the jumps to 33 light-minutes. 33 light-minutes when making jumps every 33 minutes is arduous leads to long times to cover interstellar distances. Also, it seems like something Adama or Tigh should have noticed. "We jump 33 light-minutes, they attack every 33 minutes...what a quandry." Maybe their detecting the gravitational waves a ships arrival might produce. This is dependent on gravity having a propagation speed different from c, which hasn't been adequately explored, though the assumption and indication by some preliminary experiments is that the speeds are the same. Alternatively, the Cylons have better probed FTL phenomena than the Colonials and discovered ways to track jumps. --Jeremias 19:06, 2 March 2006 (CST)

The series uses wireless broadcasts, which are similar to our radio and are limited in range. There are no FTL communications mentioned in the show. Similarly, the concept of "gravity waves" is also not discussed in the show and so cannot be factored in. See Science in the Re-imagined Series for more on the limitations that the writers keep in discussing tech in the show. As noted before, transponders can be used to find a ship after its jump, but not during. Tracking the actual jump is pointless, anyway: the effect is an instantaneous move from one spot to another. See FTL for the theory. --Spencerian 10:10, 16 June 2006 (CDT)

New Sections: "Jump Calculations" & "What happened in "Scattered"?

hi all,

this is my second substantial contribution to battlestarwiki. i tried to make sense of what happened in Scattered, using good old wikipedia and my knowledge about sci-fi technology lore, especially from the works of [Asimov], to create something new. Please let me know what you think. --Rafale 10:30, 1. June 2006 (GMT +1)

Hiya. First off, if you want to do a direct html link, just use the one set of brackets and no pipe for renaming the link ([http://www.japanesepod101.com/ Japanese Podcast] renders Japanese Podcast). Second, When linking Wikipedia, you can pretend like Wikipedia is a namespace here and do this: [[Wikipedia:Isaac Asimov|Isaac Asimov]], which will render this: Isaac Asimov. Handy trick, that last. And, thirdly, there seems to be something odd going on with yout quotes (" and "), at least the way my computer renders them. Are you using some kind of international keyboard settings or something?

Anyway, on to the actual content. I liked it. I'm not super familiar with the BSG FTL theory, so someone else will have to double check the accuracy, but the general thrust of the additions were good. I think this illustraits one of the wonderful things about Wikis. A user like you can come in and dump content, even if it's a little rough around the edges, and others (like me) can come and polish a bit and then, viola (or cello, if you like), the article is shiney and has lots of good content. --Day ^{(Talk - Admin)} 03:40, 1 June 2006 (CDT)

Thanks for the tip! I´m still not completely hip to all the different sorts of syntax commands there are, and that wikipedia referencing command is definetly a gem! Of course I´ll try and make my future contributions as polished as possible, so other users can actually think about the content and not the style. Ad Quotes: I was using a german QWERTZ-keyboard, but i think the reason for the funny quotes lies in my using WORD97 to write the article and then copy-pasting it into the editor provided by battlestarwiki. that means that lower case quotes were pasted as well. Gonna use wordpad or textedit next time instead.--Rafale 11:33, 1 June 2006 (GMT +1)

I added a schematical diagram in "What happened in "Scattered"?" to illustrate the hypothesis. I know it´s ugly and it´s not exactly "BSG" Layout. Feel free to replace or delete if it hurts your eyes.--Rafale 12:25, 1 June 2006 (GMT +1)

I'm not sure I understand the idea behind the jump calculations in "Scattered", but this is how I interpret it: 1.) the Emergency Jump Coordinates given to the fleet weren't just an old set of correct coordinates, but outdated and wrong ones. Tigh said that jump plots need to be routinously updated for intertial drift (I assume he meant stellar drift). 2.) so even if they jumped back to where they were before, they don't know excactly where the fleet is. They might still have the coordinates given to the fleet, but those don't fit with the conditions of space at the moment of the jump 3.) somehow they have a way to make new starfixes and between those and the wrong coordinates, they can figure out where they really jumped --Serenity 13:11, 5 September 2006 (CDT)

Your idea seems generally correct, Serenity. Celestial objects move all the time, so new fixes are needed for where things are at that moment, or drift will cause a difference in the jump that would place Galactica closer, but still in the wrong place, despite the knowledge of the specific celestial objects used to do the initial calculation. --Spencerian 14:01, 5 September 2006 (CDT)

Replacing "systems" with "technology"

What would you say if we replaced the term "systems", as in "colonial FTL systems" with "technology"? I believe this more accurately reflects the fact that there is probably more to FTL flight than mere technological artefacts: navigational charts, surveyors, calculation algrithms, etc...

The term "technology" is more specific in the matter of hardware and software used to create a system (where technologies or processes combine to form a unified process, such as a pond, or a habitable spacecraft). FTL consists of the drives, the navigation controls, the drive controls, etc. I'd also remind you that we haven't seen everything of the FTL system, so we can't fully break it down to "technology." I'd leave it at "systems" for this reason--it's sufficiently general while being neither too vague or too specific. (Reminder: sign your comments.) --Spencerian 14:54, 1 June 2006 (CDT)