Forum: Author Hangout

The ones I like the least, are hyperlanes and jump-gates.

Your formulation of hyperlanes implies that the lanes are some kind of artificial construct like the jump gates, not a natural phenomenon.

Unless you establish that the lanes/gates were created by a now vanished ancient alien civilization, you need some other method of FTL travel to explore new systems and construct new gates/lanes.

I'm a fan of going klepto and doing themes on all of the above. It also creates for "fun" first-contact scenarios if multiple options exist, but that they could potentially screw with each-other.

For example if a ship in a hyperspace lane happens to have really lousy timing and a warp-capable ship also happens to be in the right (wrong) place at the time, they could knock each other out of FTL. Which one or both parties may take to be an act of interdiction, which most would view as a hostile act....

Bonus points if one side or the other starts to re-initialize their respective FTL system and blows up critical components in the FTL drive of the other guy.

But that is a digression.

At least from one of the "Standard" views on "What is a hyperlane?" At least if you're going with a more Star Wars type-take, is that a Hyper Lane is a region of charted space that is free of obstructions likely to interfere with operation of a hyper-drive.

So in some respects, the hyperdrive is almost exactly like a warp drive, just capable of potentially faster speeds, but likewise far more twitchy about what is "in its path of travel." Which means navigators and pilots prefer to stick to known "proven" routes rather than blaze their own trail.

Or to go with an alternate example: Warp Drive propelled craft can "turn" to avoid hazards without needing to drop out of warp to do so. A Hyperspace vessel on the other hand will need to leave hyperspace, maneuver to a new vector and reenter hyperspace. That stop & turn aspect would probably be a big factor in preferences to stay on charted routes. As there are plenty of reasons that can be invented to account for why 22 known way points for a trip may be preferable to charting your own new route.

So in some respects, the hyperdrive is almost exactly like a warp drive, just capable of potentially faster speeds, but likewise far more twitchy about what is "in its path of travel." Which means navigators and pilots prefer to stick to known "proven" routes rather than blaze their own trail.

True, but trail blazing would be possible for those crazy or desperate enough.

Or to go with an alternate example: Warp Drive propelled craft can "turn" to avoid hazards without needing to drop out of warp to do so. A Hyperspace vessel on the other hand will need to leave hyperspace, maneuver to a new vector and reenter hyperspace. That stop & turn aspect would probably be a big factor in preferences to stay on charted routes.

Commercial travel in such a situation would generally prefer to stay on charted routes.

However, there would be a significant market for scouts to chart new routes and explore new systems. Also military ships, particularly in a war situation, would have strong reasons to go off the charted routes.

However, there would be a significant market for scouts to chart new routes and explore new systems. Also military ships, particularly in a war situation, would have strong reasons to go off the charted routes.

That depends on what the "penalties" are for entering/ exiting hyperspace. Particularly if those penalties differ based on how you enter/exit it.

There also are other "social considerations" to make. In the Star Wars setting, interstellar travel has been around for a very long time. If a route has been "lost" or otherwise "forgotten" there probably is a reason for that. Also relevant is if others have deliberately "gone off grid" they may prefer to remain that way. As such, those "high demand" exploration jobs are probably considered insanely high risk(best to be heavily armed--which is an expensive status to maintain), and likely to have little to no reward in and of itself. (It could be worthwhile for a smuggler or pirate however)

Of course there also is the matter of departing and/or arriving somewhere from "an unusual vector" which could also earn you some less than pleasant attention.

But getting back to the military side. Reference the "best done when heavily armed." Paired with the paradox that they're only likely to risk "scout craft" to such missions, and non-return may simply signify "don't send larger craft there."

and likely to have little to no reward in and of itself.

No, that is exceedingly unlikely. Outside of a very old galactic civilization where there is little to no uncharted space anywhere in the galaxy, new inhabitable worlds and new sources of major resources would be extremely valuable.

No, that is exceedingly unlikely. Outside of a very old galactic civilization where there is little to no uncharted space anywhere in the galaxy, new inhabitable worlds and new sources of major resources would be extremely valuable.

But you have to survive the round trip to benefit. The "core world" region is likely to have been fully explored and exploited. If a route was abandoned, it likely was because illegal activities made it too dangerous, or lack of sufficient economic activity means "lack of support" available along said route.

So too much chance of ending up stranded deep in a poorly traveled region of space. And/or encountering desperate survivors who found themselves in that state, who may be more than willing to take your stuff and strand you in turn.

Basically risk Vs reward makes remaining on the more traveled routes preferable. "Explorers" also likewise have to with stumbling upon "off grid" types that will forcefully maintain that status. As such "near space exploration" is likely to land you either somewhere worthless(whose charts were "forgotten" over time because "nobody goes there"), or somewhere that is likely to leave you either dead or stranded.

And the deep space exploration requires you to pass through a lot of space that is hostile(dead or stranded problems once more) or so far off the beaten path few ("people of means" that are trustworthy) will bother with the risks of going there, so once again, little to no reward.

so once again, little to no reward.

I disagree, the potential reward of finding a new inhabitable world or new source of a valuable resource would be astronomical, as in instant billionaire.

It won't matter how high the risks are, there will be no shortage of people willing to take those risks.

I disagree, the potential reward of finding a new inhabitable world or new source of a valuable resource would be astronomical, as in instant billionaire.

"Value" is a very subjective thing. If the cost of extraction + transportation exceeds the value obtained at the destination, it is a net loser.

And when you're balancing that far-flung world's available resources vs the potential costs of transiting "hostile space" in both directions and likely losses incurred on average. Well, cost/benefit may lead to your "sitting on it" rather than trying to do anything with it.

Sure, you could still make a go of it, but you're likely looking at decades if not centuries for a positive balance to occur. And as there is no indication that the "rank and file" in Star Wars are significantly longer lived than 20th Century Humans, the time frame on ROI makes it undesirable, and highly unlikely to benefit the person who discovered the world in any significant way. Their great-grandchildren might benefit hugely from their efforts but that's about it.

in Star Wars are significantly longer lived than 20th Century Humans, the time frame on ROI makes it undesirable

Star Wars is not a good comparison for the issue. That falls into the range of mature galactic civilization with little to no uncharted territory.

It's a very different issue when the whole of known space fits into less than 1% of the galaxy and there is lots of open uncharted territory to explore.

Even in the Star Wars universe, someone, at some point in the distant past had to take the risk and do the exploration into uncharted territories despite the risks.

"Value" is a very subjective thing. If the cost of extraction + transportation exceeds the value obtained at the destination, it is a net loser.

And when you're balancing that far-flung world's available resources vs the potential costs of transiting "hostile space" in both directions and likely losses incurred on average. Well, cost/benefit may lead to your "sitting on it" rather than trying to do anything with it.

Depends on the crowding of the space empire and the availability of resources. Planetary mining would be the least desired method until you are at a technological step to take apart a whole planet effectively. Scouring the Asteroid fields is cheaper and precious metals are easier to find.
If the space empire doesn't want to build a complete Dyson sphere (which can take up the complete resources from 3 to 5 Star systems, dependent on the needed "green-zone" distance of the Star) 99,9999% of any star systems mass is not desirable. So, to get those precious metals, you need to expand. This is a task in diminishing returns/rising costs to find/extricate of your charted systems and the easy availability of those ressources in new star systems. Like peak oil that gets pushed to later years because we can now afford fracking etc. We wouldn't do fracking if there was easier accass to oil elswhere.

Like peak oil that gets pushed to later years because we can now afford fracking etc. We wouldn't do fracking if there was easier accass to oil elswhere.

That one has a "funny" associated metric, and it is one we should be concerned about. We did push back "peak oil" but we're on the downslope in regards to net energy gains from oil extraction. It actually isn't uncommon for more Energy to be expended to extract the oil than is gained from the oil itself.

But with energy being comparably cheap in relation to the utility oil provides, it remains profitable at present.

patent rights

I am under the impression Patents last 17 years. Depending on transit times, that period seems rather short to make a significant amount of money for the discovery.

If a route was abandoned, it likely was because illegal activities made it too dangerous, or lack of sufficient economic activity means "lack of support" available along said route.

Abandoned routes would only be a major issue in the fully explored, no uncharted space left mature galactic civilization scenario.

... in the fully explored, no uncharted space left mature galactic civilization scenario.

Really, DS? Were you trying to make that as difficult as possible for those reading it to understand?

It's things like this that make me appreciate the wisdom of the conventions about the use of hyphens and commas to clarify meaning when lengthy and complex adjectival expressions are used before a noun. For something like THAT! ... I would be inclined to use as many of those punctuation marks as those conventions allowed - just to make it clear what I was doing. I would have written that as:

... in the fully-explored, no-uncharted-space-left-mature, galactic-civilization scenario.

PS I am feeling unusually cranky at the moment. The local time is 4:30 AM. I have a broken tooth, the strongest painkillers I have on hand aren't working, and I am not looking forward to discovering tomorrow the quality of dentists in this god-forsaken hellhole I live in. I'm going back to bed now, hoping for some success this time in my attempts to get some sleep. :(

no-uncharted-space-left-mature

Get an editor ;)

What do you mean?
And please don't quote me out of context. You should quote a complete noun phrase if you are questioning its punctuation:

the fully-explored, no-uncharted-space-left-mature, galactic-civilization scenario.

It's possible you interpret the author's intended meaning differently than me [sic].
I interpret 'no uncharted space left' as functioning to modify 'mature'.
All the more reason the original author should have attempted to clarify their meaning to start with.

So in some respects, the hyperdrive is almost exactly like a warp drive, just capable of potentially faster speeds, but likewise far more twitchy about what is "in its path of travel."

I believe Han Solo said it perfectly:

Han Solo: Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?

Yeah, sorry, don't remember it in clear detail. The last time I read a BT book was, when the dark age nonsense began, must have been 15 years ago or so.

Yeah, sorry, don't remember it in clear detail. The last time I read a BT book was, when the dark age nonsense began, must have been 15 years ago or so.

FASA went bankrupt, several of the book authors never were paid for copies sold, not sure what happened to the Printing rights for Battletech in English/North America, I just know the only place those books still saw print after that is in Germany, and they didn't make any new ones. Would love to get my hands on legal Digital copies, or failing that, a copy of Decision at Thunder Rift(without paying obscene amounts for it) and one other title IIRC. I have all of the rest in paperback form. =P

Never got into their Mechwarrior "Reboot" set 70-some years later. Cue complaining about incomplete/abandoned stories here on SoL and apply in full to that situation. Ok, yeah sure, they can mention "what happened" as back story within the Mechwarrior setting, but really.... I was very unhappy with "The Final Resolution...70 years later" they came up with for everything that they had been building up for right until the bankruptcy. Sure, it probably is 90-some percent true to the outline that they were working within(I somehow doubt that much of an actual outline existed, other than the Federated Commonwealth was never going to be reunified after Katerina "Katrina" Steiner(-Davion) did her thing, and Victor was ultimately going to abdicate in favor of his "love interest") but seeing it actually play out likely would have sold it much better.

But then, I guess I also wanted to see Stackpole's Nameless Assassin cause some more mayhem. He's probably one of the most memorable characters I've encountered.

As their preferred/safest/most reliable means of recharging the drives was through the use of collection sails. They wanted to get as close to the system's sun as possible. Which made the "solar poles" (relative to the orbital planes) their preferred entry/exit points. So actually, they were typically the most in system of the FTL options, as they normally jumped from sun to sun.

The standard zenith/nadir jump points are actually a considerable distance above/below the orbital plane - exactly how far depends on the star class. Safe jump distance for a G2 like Sol is about 1.5 billion km, which is a little further out than the orbit of Saturn. Basically anywhere outside the sphere of that radius is okay; the reason the zenith and nadir specifically are used is to minimize interference from the gravity of large planetary bodies and so not have to factor them into the jump calculations.

"Pirate" points, like the star-planet Lagrange points, allow you jump to points well inside the normal safe jump limit, which can put you much closer to the destination planet, and incidentally to the star. They require you to have precise ephemerides for the system bodies, though, and being even slightly off with the calculations of their positions can result in drive damage or ship loss.

(cite: Dropships & Jumpships, the only RPG sourcebook I own where the game rules have you calculate square roots.)

Note that the Battletech universe's FTL logistics don't really stand up to any close examination. They don't have enough jumpships, it takes too long for them to get anywhere, and their dropships don't have enough capacity. There's no way they could support the sort of interstellar civilization depicted in the setting.

Note that the Battletech universe's FTL logistics don't really stand up to any close examination. They don't have enough jumpships, it takes too long for them to get anywhere, and their dropships don't have enough capacity. There's no way they could support the sort of interstellar civilization depicted in the setting.

Well, that pretty much holds for every widely known SciFi setting that makes an attempt at hard numbers, or simply even hints at some.

Like the BattleMechs being huge force multipliers, to the point that a single Regiment is sufficient to pacify multiple worlds normally speaking. Which IMO only worked while in the "lost technology" pile, or only when dealing with a planetary population barely pushing into the 8 digit range.

Yes, mechs are technically complex machines with a whole lot of "logistics tail." (And the justification for rarity) But they also exist in a setting where both the technical capability to mass produce them exists, and fusion power is a common power source(as that's what the mechs use).

This ignores other practical considerations, which ironically, many of their own novel authors frequently pointed out in their novels when unarmored infantry were taking out mechs. (And as the United States discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan)

Having the biggest and baddest equipment around only matters when facing off against people who think their equipment is pretty big and bad(ass) as well.

Asymmetric warfare is an entirely different matter.

I envision a FTL drive such as a "warp drive," or whatever name you call it, something that removes the ship from Einsteinian space with it's 1C speed limit and places it 'elsewhere' where the laws of physics either do not exist or behave differently. This could be another dimension, etc. If the ship is not in 'normal space' then objects in normal space such as planets, asteroids, stars, other ships, etc. would not be a barrier or obstacle.

Star Trek has "Tech Manuals" and a whole host of other associated material that makes it clear they remain "anchored" in reality. That fancy deflector dish isn't just for use while on the Impulse Drive. It's "clearing the path" ahead of the ship of smaller space debris prior to the ship entering that area. Shields take care of some of the larger debris/objects that didn't displace quickly enough. But otherwise their sensors are looking for "larger hazards" so the ship can make "minor course corrections" to avoid them without leaving warp. Presumably the ships systems do this "automagically" so long as the course corrections remain within a specified set of parameters.

But this something where scale has to be appreciated, an issue even as large as a sun, or Jupiter for that matter, detected from over 1 light year away, can be "dodged" with only a relatively minor course correction. In terms of scale, it is probably (poorly) comparable to not passing your tires over a dime someone left on the street. (Both the dime, and the car tire are too big)

Is gravity taking into account? Just nearly dodging celestial objects isn't enough in Einsteinian space. So if the ship doing Warp-Travel has to account physical objects, it has to take gravity into account, too. Gravity is savage.

Is gravity taking into account? Just nearly dodging celestial objects isn't enough in Einsteinian space. So if the ship doing Warp-Travel has to account physical objects, it has to take gravity into account, too. Gravity is savage.

In the case of stars and planets, those are likely to have been accounted for when the course was plotted to start with. So the gravity wells of those would already be addressed. As to uncharted ones, for Starfleet, that would be grounds to exit Warp and investigate.

Which basically leaves asteroids and smaller interstellar objects. Most of which are unlikely to generate a gravity well of much significance over great distances. If they do, and are uncharted, you know Starfleet at least would stop to find out how/why.

Just imagine what type of gravity well VY Canis Majoris would have. I would like to know which types of planets could orbit this massive star or if the gravity has sucked up every matter in the vicinity in the birthing of this star.

Those are jump drives or natural Wormholes.

Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, and Dune are pure examples of this.

The German literature Series "Perry Rhodan" started with them exactly like you described, with time needed to calculate a safe course and then instant travel to the location, it wasn't without risk and was taking longer to calculate and riskier, the longer the distance.
Until they switched to Warp Travel, which was safer but not instantaneous. Also, there was no issue with distance 8as long as you had supplies).

Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, and Dune are pure examples of this.

Battletech was a pure example, since when a jumpship "jumped" it "punched a (worm) hole through space" that transitioned them from point A to point B with only a few moments in a hyperspace type limbo state. Objectively transit time was believed to be only seconds. Although some of the passengers may disagree.

Stargate had the Stargates which were controlled artificial wormholes. But it also boasted Hyperspace drives that acted a lot like Warp Drives, only without that related theory of movement(which gives it its name).

The "problem" in Sci-fi is that "Warp Drive" is so strongly linked to Star Trek that it seems writers are afraid of using the term. "HyperDrive"/HyperSpace is the widely accepted "generic" alternative.

So discussions on "how hyperspace works" gets weird in relation to fiction because in many cases its basically Warp Drive by another name, or it becomes some form of "wormhole drive" for lack of another term.

In even more cases its simply technobabble the Author threw in to "explain" the rules of movement in their setting, and has more bearing in regards to story/game mechanics vs any relation to actual Science.

the upper speed limit is the SOL

Stories on Line. Do Stories off Line move faster?

Stories on Line. Do Stories off Line move faster?

All depends on your point of reference...

My problem is how could any integrated communications system like that function if communications between worlds are limited to light speed? Updates to "the internet" on one world would not take hours or days to reach other worlds, they'd take months or years! Likewise, no central government could function if discussions between officials on different worlds were impossible.

Does anyone have any ideas for any vaguely plausible explanation to get over that problem?

Hmmm, I read about that problem in a novel and the author solved it somewhat by using FTL-capable message drones with all data stored and when arriving in the target system after some hours or even days or weeks – depending on the distance – the messages get tight beamed or broadcasted with lightspeed to its recipients.

Sorry don't remember where I read it.

HM.

the planet-bound Wormholes are nearly always active and communication can travel through those wormholes.

This was how Babylon 5 and a number of other settings dealt with it. The Jump Gates/Jump Drives(on capable ships) never completely closed, and they would beam their light-speed communications through hyperspace (relays) to overcome that limitation.

Ansible Communication (theory) is, IIRC, an offshoot of some Quantum Mechanics theories. (Quantum Entanglement is closely related, if I am not mistaken) So that wasn't even a "whole cloth invention" by Sci-Fi writers.

And then of course there are the FTL messenger ships and/or drones/torpedoes. If FTL travel is possible, but communications is not, then it stands to reason that couriers of some form specialized in moving information would exist.

They still exist on earth after all, and that's with the telegraph, the telephone, satellite communications, fax machines, and the internet. So unless you make FTL travel obscenely expensive in general, there is no reason to expect such FTL courier services to NOT exist even with FTL comms at hand.

And then of course there are the FTL messenger ships and/or drones/torpedoes.

One example of that method of FTL communications is used in Al Steiner's Homebodies.

https://storiesonline.net/s/16328/homebodies

As well as Flight of the Code Monkey, The Swarm Cycle, and Lordship Mayhem's (what happened to him anyway?) Spica II series off-hand. Although in the case of Spica, they do seem to have FTL comms as well, the high security stuff still tends to be transported physically.

C. J. Cherryh, in her Company/Merchanter/Foreigner Universe, part of the cargo every ship transports is the information update from each place they stop. There's a flat fee associated with said transport, and the penalties for altering the data are draconian.

I remember a series of books with FTL messenger drones, but can't for the life of me rememeber which series.

The lack of FTL communications has been the justification for neo-feudal heirarchies within Intersteller Hegemonies for a number of authors, especially when FTL travel is not all that FTL, as it were, or so expensive that only a small number of individuals can afford to travel that way; authority and responsibility needing to be delegated longterm to trusted individuals.

I'm coming in late to the conversation, but I've tackled this topic numerous times using multiple strategies, and my favorite is the expanding-space idea. This is where, just like the expanding universe, a ship (with a MASSIVE power supply) expands space ahead of it, while simultaneously shrinking it behind them. Thus you'd have a push/pull with no real change to the space between planets.

The key to this idea, is that the ship nears light speed (since you can never actually travel as fast as light due to relatively), and they'd continue traveling just that fast, but they're effectively traveling multiple times the speed of light. Think of it as being on the very edge of the expanding universe and being "sucked" along with it, despite only traveling at your normal speed.

Well, other than being the exact opposite, that is Warp Drive theory in a nutshell. It "warps" space around the ship, causing the space in front of it to "shrink" while expanding the space "behind" it so it can basically "ride the wave" across the cosmos.

The shrinkage ahead of the ship "pulls" the ship along(as it shrinks/retreats from the ship), and also serves to make the distance traveled shorter, while the expansion behind the ship "pushes" the ship along(as it expands back to its normal dimensions) and basically "resets things back to normal" after they pass.

edit to add: The "subspace bubble" they often reference the ship as being in is a pocket of protected space surrounding the ship keeping it safe from what the Warp Engine is doing, and thus keeps things "normal" within the ship.

The "subspace bubble" they often reference the ship as being in is a pocket of protected space surrounding the ship keeping it safe from what the Warp Engine is doing, and thus keeps things "normal" within the ship.

It's also used in some as a mechanism to prevent/cancel time dilation effects.

That's interesting, as I need to address that in my book. You can limit the time dilation effect, since you aren't actually traveling faster-than-light yourself, but it's assumed that you're nearing light-speed

Under the Star Trek version of warp drive, the subspace bubble is a bubble of normal space surrounding the ship. The warp field is actually pushing on that bubble rather than the ship itself, so the effective relativistic velocity of the ship is what ever sub-light velocity it had when it entered warp.

The shrinkage ahead of the ship "pulls" the ship along(as it shrinks/retreats from the ship),

I don't recall exactly what story it was but many years ago (pre-internet) I read about a ship that projected a singularity ahead of it which pulled the ship towards it. This of course moved the projector resulting in the singularity being projected further away, thus pulling the ship forward. The drive could not be used within a system of course. I seem to recall that at the end of one book, somebody witnessed a ship using this drive rising out of a lake or ocean.

I don't recall exactly what story it was but many years ago (pre-internet) I read about a ship that projected a singularity ahead of it which pulled the ship towards it. This of course moved the projector resulting in the singularity being projected further away, thus pulling the ship forward.

Sounds like the probable inspiration for the "Mass Effect Drive" in the video game series "Mass Effect"

It basically projects a field of extreme gravity in whatever direction they want the ship to go(preferably the front) and project it just outside the ship's hull. The ship will then proceed to "fall" in the direction desired.

Edit: They're able to alter internal gravity independent of that, so the crew doesn't (normally) feel anything during maneuvers.

Edit 2: Which reminds me, I might want to revisit The Foundation series at some point to revisit how Asimov described the operation of a ship equipped with a gravity drive.

Sounds like the probable inspiration for the "Mass Effect Drive" in the video game series "Mass Effect"

I am pretty sure that is not where I saw it having never played the game. I'm pretty sure I read this back in the late 70s or early 80s. I think it was referred to as a 'kk' or 'double-k' drive. (I almost said Quantum-II hyperdrive, but that's from Niven's 'Known Space' and 'Ringworld' stories.)

am pretty sure that description of how FTL travel works in Mass Effect is wrong. Isn't the whole point that eezo can manipulate effective mass, thereby negating a large chunk of relativity?

The gravity drive is for propulsion in general. FTL is via relays that basically "capture" and then launch the ship across space on a predetermined vector. Larger ships have a limited range FTL ability of their own, but they don't get into that.

But as they're basically playing with gravity to accelerate, from the little bit I do remember from Asimov, the only speed limit at that point is physics itself and how long you're willing to accelerate and decelerate.

I though sublight was taken care of with "conventional" propulsion,

True "sublight" propulsion can but does not need to use advanced versions of currently used propulsion technologies.

Some authors have used the term sublight erroneously based on the distance traveled and time taken to reach a destination. When they are consistent, I would consider that term to refer to a short range and relatively slow FTL system compared to their main FTL system.

I though sublight was taken care of with "conventional" propulsion, which is why there are thrusters on the back of the Normandy (and other ships) and why fuel is a resource you have to manage.

Uh, in the first ME they explicitly mention(in the Codex) that the Normandy has no thrusters because the ME field it can generate is more than adequate for the task.

And if you watch the animation really close, there is no "glow" from thrusters on Normandy's backside the few times you get to see it.

As to ME2, that's a different(larger) version of the ship. I assumed the "fuel" was reaction mass for whatever they're using to make power so they can manipulate the Mass Effect field, among other things(in reality it was a "gameplay element" to give you both a resource to manage, and a money sink). But I'll also agree the art team DOES seem to show thrusters being used in ME2. I haven't played through ME2 completely yet(years behind), so cannot speak to later iterations.

The drive could not be used within a system of course. I seem to recall that at the end of one book, somebody witnessed a ship using this drive rising out of a lake or ocean.

Alan Dean Foster. His Humanx Commonwealth universe. The KK Drive: It can't be used in the near vicinity of a planet without causing catastrophic effects to that planet, so doing so is banned. His Pip & Flinx series, a subsection of his Humanx Commonwealth: Flinx ends up with a ship which a race of geniuses has modified such that it can operate that drive anywhere at all, with no adverse effects; thankfully, he didn't turn that into a deal breaker, it was mentioned very rarely; the scene you recalled was one of the few times.

Alan Dean Foster. His Humanx Commonwealth universe.

Thanks JohnBobMead. That's it. Pip was an Alaspin Minidrag that attached itself to Flinx. I'm going to have to find and read that series again.

That's it

The whole Universe is still in print, I think, with new novels appearing periodically. Pretty much all of them are now available as eBooks. Definitely all the Pip & Flinx stories are.

Not hard to find used copies at reasonable prices, and your local library should have some of them, as well.

He's put a fair amount of work into filling out the background of the Humanx Commonwealth, including a series dealing with first contact and the following events; given how well integrated the two species are in the Pip and Flinx stories, it's kind of interesting just how rocky the beginning of the relationship was; the physiological differences caused negative reactions on both sides, and took some getting over; trying to avoid spoilers, but let's just say other events at the time led them to realize that outward appearance was much less important than inner character.

I'm a little behind on them, myself, I don't think I've read the last couple, but I started reading them in the early 1970s. That they still interest me says something about his skill as a writer; while not the best out there, you can depend upon him for a good story, pretty much every time.

They've created quantum pairs in a lab—in Japan, of all places—and they recorded the speed at which the communications travel. It's light speed.

I read about that experiment. As I recall, they sent one of pair up into orbit. The primary purpose of the test was to determine if quantum pairs could potentially be used to alert the recipient of an electronic transmission that it had been tampered with or inspected en route.

"Battletech is not Logi(c)tech" was a very often used phrase. The tonnage was idiotic (bridges that couldn't even hold 50 tons? Most of today's military vehicle weigh more than those mechs.)

Should read as "some" but yeah, the M1A2 weighs over 60 tons itself. But as a truck driver, I can tell you a number of Interstate Highway bridges are only rated for 40 tons. ("per vehicle") Of course there are weight displacement games that can be played, by spreading it across more axles and/or distance.

And logistically, that 40 ton limit? That was assuming a 40 ton truck in every lane, and potentially running nose-to-tail with each other across the entire bridge. So if you run one Tank in place of two big rigs side by side, you're probably safe enough.

That said, even the Army had to acknowledge weight was getting out of hand, it ultimately is what killed the Crusader gun platform, IIRC. The thing just simply weighed too much, and that weight only made it viable for fighting in "set piece battles" as might be expected against say, the Soviet Union... Which wasn't much of a threat 15 years ago. =P

Edit to add: And the bridge considerations in Battletech have to consider hovercraft are in common use within the setting. Which in comparison to mechs means "flying car" for all intents.

Because the hover-vehicle spreads its weight across the entire under-carriage of the vehicle, meaning it is often putting only negligible amounts of "weight" on any given square inch of ground. Kind of like the guy in snow shoes vs the guy in normal boots negotiating several feet of powdered snow.

The moment that mech moves onto "unimproved ground" that has any kind of moisture content, the mech might as well be walking through mud. Truckers have the easiest examples of what that entails. The difference between the ~30 psi of pressure a car applies on the ground(where they think the ground is "rock solid") vs the ~100 psi a heavy truck can potentially apply, where they promptly sink several inches into the ground and heaven help them if they should stop moving.

That said, even the Army had to acknowledge weight was getting out of hand, it ultimately is what killed the Crusader gun platform, IIRC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM2001_Crusader

According to the Wikipedia article on it, the Crusader was lighter and faster than the M109A6 Paladin it was intended to replace. Cost was the issue that killed it.