Your favorite FTL methods in Science Fiction?

I have thinking been about all the various methods ships use to get around the universe's speed limit, and I was wondering what everyone's favorite is? After giving it some thought, I think the FTL methods can be put into four categories.

Field drive:

The ship uses an engine that creates some kind of field that enables the ship to go FTL. Examples of this would be Star Trek's warp drive and the mass effect fields in Mass Effect.

Instantaneous drive:

The ship can instantly travel from point A to B. Examples of this would be the FTL jumps in the new Battlestar Galactica, and space folding in Dune. Also, the Alderson drive in The Mote in God's Eye.

Another Dimension:

The ship enters another dimension where the distance between A and B is shorter than in normal space. Hyperspace from Babylon 5 and Star Wars falls into this category.

Fixed Points:

Spacecraft can not travel FTL by their own means, and must use some kind of gateway. Examples of this are Wormholes, Jumpgates (Babylon 5), and the mass relays from Mass Effect. The previously mentioned Alderson drive would also fit into this category, because it can only be used at specific points in space. Edit: B5 Jumpgates and mass relays should probably be in their own subcategory, since ships in those universes can go FTL without them.

Also, I am sure there are some who prefer hard science fiction novels with no FTL at all. In this case, ships have to use the relativistic effects of time dilation and length contraction to shorten the trip, or else slowly crawl through space using cryosleep or generation ships. This can make for very interesting story telling.


I think that any of the above methods work as long as they have some kind of limitations and rules to make them a good plot device. For example, I didn't like that ships in BSG could jump into the atmosphere of a planet, or right next to a planet for that matter. I think this created a plot hole, because how are you supposed to defend a planet when the enemy can bypass every defense and drop nukes right on top of you? I think there should have been a rule that jump drives don't work inside gravity wells. For military science fiction, I like the idea of using fixed points such as wormholes, because it creates choke points and strategically important areas.

 

Cool analysis! Though I have to take issue with one point:

There were two reasons given for this. One was that capital ships are too simply massive to sustain ultra low orbits. The ONE time we saw a capital ship jump into an atmosphere, it felt like a huge event and it became instantly obvious why no sane person would ever do it.

The other reason is that FTL is, ironically, *not* a science. So you were just as likely to end up inside the planet.

I think 'Instantaneous FTL' is the most fun method btw, simply because it grants the writers the most license to drop characters into unexpected places. Farscape also used this to great effect, iirc.

 

I've always liked Slipstreeam as seen in Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda.

Here's how Robert Hewitt Wolfe described it:

At the very least, the explanation is entertaining.

 

After reading your post I realised that if BSG FTL didn't work inside gravity wells, we never would have gotten the Adama Maneuver, one of my favorite moments in the series. Taking that into consideration, I think I can overlook the whole jumping into atmospheres thing.

 

I think the point is that if a jump into a gravity well is possible, it makes no sense that the humans even have a fleet. It would be useless. The Cylons could build a million Predator-drone type ships with nothing but a jump drive and a nuclear payload and just jump them into the atmosphere over every Colonial planet. Poof. Humanity is gone, and the fleet can't do anything about it.

Instantaneous jump drives make just about every bit of military doctrine developed since Homeric times useless. In effect, they make all fixed points undefendable, so the only possible survival strategy is to distribute your forces and population as widely as possible and hide them. The day after a jump drive is developed by your enemy, your species has to abandon any planets it's on and hide in as many small, hidden habitats as possible, or be exterminated.

For the original post question, I like space sci-fi with no FTL at all: Forever War. The Sparrow.

 

Personally, my favourite FTL system is the Instantaneous Drive as used in Asimov's works. I guess it's the one that bothers less my physicist sense. I can more easily accept a moment of random craziness in the laws of the universe than a purposeful, prolonged one. Like when you have to pull out a tooth: the faster, the better.

 

the TARDIS

it just beats everything else, go anywhere in the universe and anywhen in the universe instantly

 

Geoffrey A. Landis broke it down into three main categories with numerous subcategories:

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3v.html#stardrives

And the Hub in my story "The Hub of the Matter" in the current issue of Analog.

 

The Alderson Drive is fixed point too, albeit the points are natural rather than constructed, associated with the stars of a particular system. Some stars have many links to other stars, some have few, and some are totally isolated. In combination with the lack of inertial dampening in the universe it makes for some great tactical possibilities.

Although Hyperspace is rather lame, I've always liked the Interdictor cruisers in the Star Wars EU which introduced some tactical possibilities to the system.

 

The Bloat Drive in Bill the Galactic Hero. See, the ship expands to super enormous size, then shrinks down to where it wants to go.

 

Don't forget the improbability drive either.

 

My favorite 'FTL drive' is probably the one in "The Mote in God's Eye" and "The Gripping Hand" by Niven/Pournelle, where the topology/location of stars create certain point where one can instantly travel to a point in a nearby star-system.

This still has travel time, since you have to traverse star systems to get to transfer points on the other side, and you are forced to make multiple 'skips' to travel large distances. It also creates choke points which are tactically important. Both these effects lend themselves to the greatest dramatic possibilities, IMO.

 

I just want to make a small correction on this one. Starships in Mass Effect can travel at FTL speeds without the use of mass relays. They create a mass effect field which reduces the mass of a ship to a point where faster-than-light speeds are possible. Using this method, a ship can travel about twelve light years in a day.

The mass relays coordinate to form mass-free corridors through space-time between one another, which allows them to propel a starship dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of light years (depending on the type of relay) almost instantly.

Sorry. ME2's about to come out, so all this stuff is fresh in my mind again.

 

Futurama's Planetexpress ship drive
Which moves the universe around the ship.

 

I think the most "realistic" FTLs from a scientific point of view are still wormholes and some kind of warp drive... not that this is saying much. You have to pretend that all the theoretical problems related to an Alcubierre drive don't exist or are somehow solvable.

 

You mean, like those lame furry aliens in that terrible novel, The First Adventure or something? Gah, I need brain bleach now. Again.

 

I'm going with Warp Drive. Because getting there is half the fun as they say and, to me, it feels more like traveling if there's travel time. Getting someplace instantly or traveling someplace and you look out the window and you don't see space (but rather whatever tunnel/effect you're using) would take some of the fun out of exploration or traveling great distances.

 

LUDICROUS SPEED!!!

 

Wow, that is a really detailed analysis.

Yeah, I actually do mention the mass effect field under the field drive category. I guess I should have split fixed points up into two categories, since in both B5 and Mass Effect ships don't need Jump Gates and Mass Relays to go FTL. In the case of B5 it is just smaller ships that need to use the gates.