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Hyperspace

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In science fiction, hyperspace is any region or continuum of space co-existing with our own universe (in some cases displaced in an extra spatial dimension) which may be entered using some sort of energy field or space-altering method. While hyperspace is in some way anchored to the normal universe, its properties are not the same as normal space, so traveling in hyperspace is largely inequivalent to traveling in normal space. This makes for a very good explanation of faster than light (FTL) travel: while the shortest distance between two points in normal space is a straight line, hyperspace allows those points to be closer together, or a curved line in normal space to be straight, etc. Hyperspace is the most common device used for explaining FTL in a science fiction story where FTL is necessary for interstellar travel or intergalactic travel.

In many stories, a starship cannot enter or leave hyperspace too close to a large concentration of mass, like a planet or star; this means that hyperspace can only be used after a starship gets to the outside edge of a solar system, so the starship must use other means of propulsion to get to and from planets. The 'explanation' is that mass impedes movement through hyperspace sort of like a large object in front of a source of light, or (alternately) that the extreme curvature of space in the vicinity of a large mass makes movement through hyperspace extremely dangerous. Sometimes this is simply a plot device so that a starship can't easily escape by conveniently slipping into hyperspace, thus ensuring epic space battles. Other writers have limited access to hyperspace by requiring a very large expenditure of energy in order to open a link (sometimes called a jump point) between hyperspace and normal space; this effectively limits access to hyperspace to very large starships, or to large stationary jump gates that can open jump points for smaller vessels. The source of energy required for hyperspace travel is frequently taken for granted, unless it is a plot device.

Star Wars

In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a more substantial explanation is given of how Hyperspace travel works in the Star Wars universe. There are established safe hyperspace routes that were scouted out by an unknown species 250 centuries prior to the events in episode four. These routes made interstellar trade and eventually the establishment of the Republic possible. New routes are almost never scouted out, mostly due to the fact that the end coordinates might place the traveling ship inside some type of stellar mass, such as a star or planet. For example, the Core Systems are especially hard to navigate because of the high amount of stars in so small a place. A pilot's skill in hyperspace has a lot to do with how he navigates the tangled web of hyperspace routes that criss-cross the galaxy. According to Lucas, that's why Han Solo brags about the Millennium Falcon making the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs when a parsec is a measure of distance rather than speed: apparently, his real gift is as a navigator.

Dune

A notable exception to the usual depiction of hyperspace travel is that found in Dune. In the Dune milieu, space is folded using a complicated distortion technology. Travel is nearly instantaneous but very dangerous because of the extremely complex calculations required and computers are forbidden by religious decree. Mutated Guild Navigators megadose on an addictive substance called melange, the unique properties of which enhance the humans' nascent ability to see into the future and fully comprehend the underlying nature of the universe. It is this prescient ability that allows them to see a safe passage and guide the ships safely through foldspace. The Spacing Guild is a monopoly and wields incredible power as a result.

Star Control

Hyperspace is usually portrayed as either being completely empty, with a gray or black appearance, or as being full of shifting, luminous tendrils and clouds of... something; imagine a universe crammed full of nebulas. The visual interpretation of being in hyperspace is fairly open to interpretation, but is presumed to be remarkably different from the vacuum of normal space.

The Universe of Isaac Asimov

The concept of travelling between stellar systems via the hyperspace drive or "jump" is described or mentioned inter alia in several of Isaac Asimov's short stories and novels, both robot and non-robot stories. Although the timeline is not consistent, it starts with the development of a hyperdrive from a theoretical construct by The Brain, a positronic supercomputer built by US Robots. Interplanetary travel has already been developed, and in 2002, when US Robots demonstrates its first primitive positronic robot, it is intended to be used for mining operation on the planet Mercury.

Simultaneously, the spacewarp theories are developed by a research project under military control, with the assistance of positronic robots, until the first hypership is built at Hyper Base on an asteroid. Once perfected however, the drive is little used, as it is fearfully heavy in energy use and still very risky. But once the existance of habitable planets around the nearer stars to Earth is established (also with robot help), the drive is further developed and over centuries, colonies are established with eventually become independant of Earth, populated by a people that come to be known as Spacers.

The collection of more and more data on stellar systems and the analysis of stellar spectra allows the compilation of what becomes the Standard Galactic Ephemeris, which which hyperspace navigation becomes less of an art and more of a science.

==Star Control II== has an example of the latter, in it, hyperspace has a strange red glow, indeed everything in it turns red (including your starship), and various strange patterns of flashes and shooting stars are in abundance. According to the Star Control version, Hyperspace ends at places of high gravity, such as stellar systems, and if two spaceships come into distance within each others fields of gravity, both will tumble out of hyperspace.

The Voyage of the Star Wolf

An idea similar to hyperspace, called hyperstate, was introduced by David Gerrold in The Voyage of the Star Wolf. In this setting starships used artificially-produced gravitational singularities (the space-time distortions found at the center of black holes) to transition between normal space and so-called irrational space, where faster than light travel was possible. The primary limitation of hyperstate was that the resulting gravitational distortions could be easily detected by other starships, so stealthy movement at faster-than-light speeds was effectively impossible.

Star Trek

The Star Trek universe equivalent of hyperspace is known as subspace. Although similar in concept to hyperspace, subspace plays a slightly different role in FTL travel. When a starship is traveling at FTL speeds (commonly known as "warp speed" in the Star Trek universe), the ship itself does not enter subspace. Instead, the ship is surrounded by a field of energy, a warp field. It is the warp field that extends into subspace, allowing the starship to travel at FTL speeds while it remains in normal space. This concept of FTL travel is limited by the idea that if the warp field is too strong, the ship itself will be completely submerged in subspace and thus travel at infinite speed, which has negative genetic effects on living things. In addition, at high warp factors (each factor being a subspace field layer surrounding a ship) the energy required to sustain the field grows exponentially. A majority if not all technologies unique to Star Trek are based on subspace in one way or another. Among these is using subspace as a medium for propagating audio/visual signals at FTL speeds, thus allowing realtime communication across distances of several light years (a feat standard radio cannot perform.) Similar interstellar communication methods using hyperspace is frequently assumed to function in a convenient way in other science fiction works, but the technology is generally taken for granted.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

In Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," there is a brief description of the effects of hyperspace between the characters Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent:

Ford: "...It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
Arthur: "What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
Ford: "You ask a glass of water."

It is also stated that one of the reasons for the development of the Infinite Improbability Drive is to allow people to cross vast interstellar distances quickly "without all that tedious mucking about in hyperspace".

Xenosaga

In the video game series Xenosaga for the Playstation 2 console, people routinely travel long distances in space through hyperspace. Hyperspace in the Xenosaga universe is a realm of alternate space that looks like a long tube or column similar to a wormhole. In this space a starship can accelerate to faster than light speeds without experiencing the time dilation effects normally experienced when approaching the speed of light in normal space. Only spaceships equiped with a special force field can enter hyperspace, because exposure to hyperspace even for short period of time is hazardous to unprotected humans. In order to enter hyperspace a ship must go to a specific area in space known as a Column Area. Column Areas are places where ships can safely gate into and out of hyperspace. They can be found all over the universe and are separated by less than a day's travel at sub-light speeds. Navigating hyperspace requires entering a Column Area and finding a corresponding point within the universe-spanning navigation network known as the Unus Mundus Network (U.M.N.). The U.M.N. Transportation Gate management facility controls the use of Column Areas, and clearance must be granted before hyperspace can be entered.

Fictional works featuring hyperspace

References

  • Hyperspace by Michio Kaku (Anchor)
  • Surfing through Hyperspace: Understanding Higher Universes in Six Easy Lessons (Oxford University Press) by Clifford A. Pickover

See also

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