The Red Line is an imaginary sphere enclosing a vessel which denotes the maximum safe limit for an FTL jump.[1] It is described in an early draft of the script for the Miniseries as follows:
- "There are computational errors in every jump. The further out you jump, the greater the error. Jump past the Red Line and it may be almost impossible to find your way back."
Jump limits are most likely the result of a combination of factors including:
- The computational power available for jump calculations.
- The power available to a vessel to maintain a stable wormhole.
- Local gravitational forces (such as nearby planets, stars etc.) which must be compensated for at either end of the jump
- The overall mass of the vessel itself
- The accuracy and detail of data concerning the emergence zone at the far end of the jump
It is possible to exceed this limit, but there is no guarantee as to the accurany of jump plots beyond that point. A ship could easily materialize within a stellar body or end up far off course.
When attempting to escape the Cylons after their devastating attack on the Twelve Colonies, and with the future of 50,000 survivors on his hands, Commander Adama orders a jump "beyond the Red Line" to the Prolmar Sector. Given the nature of Colonial technology and vessels, it is probable this particular limit reflectes the overall capabilities of the Fleet as a whole, and not just Galactica itself.
Cylon FTL jump technology is more advanced than Colonial technology. As such, the Red Line for jumping with a Cylon ship (from the small Raider to the gargantuan basestar) has a much greater margin for error, enabling the Cylons to accurately plot jumps for much longer distances. While the actual distance between Kobol and Caprica is not specified, Kara Thrace is able to take a captured Raider from the vicinity of Kobol to Caprica in a single jump (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I). The range advantage of the Cylon FTL systems however, does not lie within the drive units themselves, but the navigational computers used to calculate the jump plots. When installed aboard a Colonial Raptor, the computer from a captured Heavy Raider enabled the vessel to increase its jump distance by a factor greater than ten (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I).
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