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Counter-Mass Propulsion
In October of 2045, the first gravitron mass was collected and contained at the CERN institute. The following year, anti-gravitron particles were collected at CERNs sister facility in the United States. Over the course of the next couple years, research in harnessing graviton and anti-graviton power progressed alongside research into inertial dampening technology. In 2080, the United Nations Space Administration, UNSA, launched the first Mass-Drive vessel, which successfully accelerated to a sustained velocity of .58c. Two years later, the same test-bed vessel was equipped with inertial dampeners and completed an 180g acceleration to .6c. This marked a huge change in the way man dealt with space - intrasolar travel was an hours long affair rather then days or months.
Mass-Drive Tech in Sublight
Mass-Drive engines are the way which all human vessels achieve high velocity sublight propulsion along with FTL travel. These engines work by using graviton and anti-graviton particles created by mass accelerators powered by either fusion or zero-point energy cores. In the case of positive accelerations, anti-graviton particles are streamed and accelerated through a ship’s counter-mass impellers. These impellers accelerate the anti-gravitons using mass field coils - dense field coils that attenuate the anti-gravitons using string level influences. These coils then focus the accelerated particles into a location behind the ship known as the “element point”. The focused anti-graviton particles create a negative mass field – or mass wall - that repels the ship and creates positive forward motion. Because anti-gravitons do not have any mass, the mass wall will both push the ship and follow it. In the case of deceleration, a graviton stream replaces the anti-graviton stream. This results in the formation of a positive mass wall that attracts the moving vessel and causes negative-g deceleration.
In addition to z-axis accelerations and decelerations, this technology is used in the ship’s reaction thrusters, allowing the vessels high maneuverability despite their size and mass. However, Mass-Drive tech has its limitations. Currently, the maximum velocity a ship can achieve without tearing itself apart is at or around 0.8c (or eighty percent the speed of light). Furthermore, this velocity must be built up to and currently the maximum acceleration a ship can achieve is 2000g, with most warships maxing at 1000g. These two figures translate to a total transit time of 8 hours from earth to the FTL limit just beyond Jupiter’s orbit (including time for deceleration into earth’s p-limit which will be discussed later)
Mass-Drive Tech in FTL
Mass-Drive technology, when further amplified, is used to achieve faster then light (FTL) travel. Continued strengthening of an anti-graviton counter mass field will result in a literal folding of normal space around a ship. Formation of a normal space bubble results in a transition into K-Space, or gravity space. Gravity space is a sub dimensional plane where spatial distance is defined by the mass of objects existing in normal space. As a result, deep space between stars is not represented in K-space and ships traveling between stars in K-Space experience a huge shortening in travel times.
Figure 1: Illustration of Normal Space Compression Within the Effective Levels of Transition and K-Space
K-space is far from a singular dimensional plane outside of normal space. On the contrary, K-Space is layered gravity energy space that defines gravitational interactions in normal space. As a result, K-space has a number of energy layers which are determined by the degree of compression which is experienced in that level. Usually, the varying degree of spatial energy levels is what determines the degree of gravitational strength over shorter and longer distances. However, these energy levels can be tapped into using mass-drive engines allowing various interstellar velocities to be achieved.
The first two levels of K-Space are in fact transition energy levels that allow for velocities ranging form just slightly faster than light speed to something equating many times faster than light speed (Figure 1). However, normal interstellar operations exist at two lower levels of K-space (illustrated in Figure 1). Normal space travel occurs at K-Level 1, in which ships experience an effective velocity of 4 light year per hour. However, during wartime, the Alliance Navy has authorized military ships and ships carrying military related cargo to enter an even lower level of K-Space known as K-Level 2. Ships traveling in K-Level 2 experience a maximum velocity of 8 light years per hour. Any attempt to accelerate beyond this velocity has resulted in a string-level breakdown of the ship’s structure as mass and energy fuse to what is defined simply referred to as the energy boundary. Given the danger and relative ease of “falling into” the energy boundary within K-Level 2, this energy level of K-Space is highly restricted and any ship traveling in K-Level 2 without military grade systems and controls does so at extreme peril.
Gravity Termini
In addition to K-Space FTL travel, ships can also travel through folds in gravity space called gravity termini. Gravity termini are corridors in gravity space that develop when gravity-space compression within a certain region reaches a critical value and results in the rapid fold of gravity-space to avoid a collapse. While ships can still travel across the fold in a conventional manner, requiring it to ride “up and then back down” the fold, they can also interface with the fold and punch through the termini. This is done by an expansion of the counter-mass field at the exact interface point of the fold such that when the ship drops from normal space into gravity space, it falls through the fold and to the other side before exiting back into normal space.
Because of the size limits of the gravity-termini interface unit, the smallest ship that can implement these systems is a frigate-sized vessel (150m). Consequently, many private vessels will piggyback inside specially designed merchantmen. Tucked neatly inside their hulls, these private vessels ride with the larger vessel as it transitions through the termini out the other side.
Limits to Mass-Drive Tech
Mass-Drive technology is not without its limits. At the edge of every star-system is a gravity limit. This gravity limit defines the point at which a ship must exit k-space as gravitational forces reach a level of complexity that modern computing techniques, ship designs, and hull technology simply cannot protect the ship. Furthermore, deeper within each star system, surrounding each stellar body, is a region of normal space called the planetary gravity-limit, or p-limit. The p-limit of a stellar body defines a region in space where a ship must reduce its velocity to around .05c (0.15c max) to avoid the effects of gravity shear. The p-limit of a stellar body is determined by taking its stellar radius and multiplying it by the dube of the SI unit power of the stellar body’s mass. (ex: the earth has a radius of 6,356.8km and a mass of 5.9736 x 10^24 kg: It’s p-limit would be 6,356.8km * 24 * 24 * 24 = 87,865,344 km)
Counter-Mass Weapons
Whenever technology is mastered for the positive of benefit of man, it isn’t long after that it is adapted to serve as a weapon. Counter-Mass drive technology benefited starships by providing a reaction-less drive systems that could easily propel a starship at high-g accelerations and to unfathomable faster-than-light speeds. However, it wasn’t long until scientist and engineers, at the bequest of the military, began looking at ways of utilizing this new technology. It was in the Star Kingdom of Sagittarius where the first mass-driver weapon was constructed and tested and before long every Royal Sagittarian Navy ship constructed was fitted with these new weapons. Even today, Mass-Drivers are the weapon of choice in close range combat for any Navy.
Design
Mass-Drivers come quite literally in almost any size though their shape remains largely the same, and the concept of their function is beautifully simple. Large scale mass-drivers work by creating a huge counter-mass field at the back end of the driver, usually behind a high density projectile – commonly referred to as the “slug.” As the anti-gravity energy builds up, the slug itself is shielded from its influence until the last moment when the full of the anti-gravity effect is released. The result is a violent directional expulsion of the projectile usually at a top velocity of around .15c. At this velocity, and with slug masses maxing out at around 2000 tons on starships and 6000 tons on planetary weapons, mass-drivers can deliver unfathomable amounts of kinetic energy on target effectively tearing apart a ship’s counter-mass shields. In the case of smaller weapons (smaller than 10-inch guns all the way to hand weapons), mass-drive coils are used. In this case rings around the projectile alternate between postive and negative gravity fields which result in a explusion force that is akin to early 21st century concepts of a 'rail gun.' In this case however, maximum velocities begin to decline rapidly. While 10-inch guns can effectively maintain the .15c muzzle velocity of their wall-based counterparts, smaller fire arms (hand guns on up to planetary based artillerly) can barely achieve 3s (or 3 times the speed of sound). This is simply becaues the amount of graviton energy coupled with the weight limits of the devices prohibits the amount of energy that can be transferred to the projectile.
Uses and Limitations
Mass-Driver weapons – while being the weapon of choice for the Navy in close range conflicts – are not without limitations. First, because of the high velocities ships can achieve outside the p-limit of a stellar body (see mass-drive technology), gun-range duels are almost never seen in this area of space. Within the p-limit, however, where ships must slow to around .05c, ships can more effectively enter gun range and engage one another. For most modern purposes, gun-range is effectively described as two million kilometers. Beyond this range, the relatively high maneuverability of modern warships means vessels can effectively dodge the incoming projectiles. In fact, ships can even dodged projectiles within gun-range. However, the chance of dodging has fallen below 50% and declines rapidly once within the two-million kilometer envelope.
Second, because mass-drivers required huge focusing coils and large capacitor series, many larger caliber guns are limited to stationary man-made objects (such as starbases) where large guns can be accommodated, or are fixed internally, in an axial mount, on modern starships requiring that vessel to orient towards its target. Consequently, most warships are limited in gun-size though the Alliance has made great strides to increasing mass-driver efficiency, allowing for larger calibers in smaller gun housings.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, large scale mass-driver weapons are strictly prohibited in uses against habited, planetary bodies. Because of the scarcity of habitable worlds, all star-nations have signed and adhere strictly to the “Gaia Accords.” Under these accords, star-nations will not use capital-grade mass-drivers on habited world given the degree of decimation these weapons can cause; and star-nations are extremely vigilant in upholding these accords. In fact, most nation’s do not partake in the active bombardment of planetary bodies during wartime simply for the fact that such an act would unify their enemies as well as other neutral parties (and perhaps even their allies) against them in order to secure the integrity of the Gaia Accords.