ZTT & Astrogation - Adamist Starships

Overview

All Adamist starships capable of interstellar travel must be spherical in design because the jump field produced by an Adamist starship forms a perfect sphere around the ship. Sensors and other protruding portions of the ship must be stowed inside the spherical hull prior to jump, failure to do this would result in the destruction of those items. If some equipment components have become damaged or have malfunctioned and cannot be stowed, they can be jettisoned before the jump commences.  

Adamist ships use solid-state nodes to enable them to travel the great distances between the stars. This method of travel is called ZTT or Zero Temporal Transit and was first invented in 2115 by scientists based at the New Kong asteroid.

Jump Nodes / Energy Patterning Nodes

ZTT jump nodes (or Energy Patterning nodes as they are also called)  form the heart of any Adamist starship, and they function by generating a worm hole through which the ship travels. The Energy Patterning  nodes produce the wormhole by distorting space-time around the ship, which is achieved by focusing energy density in the node until it becomes infinite. The nodes themselves are arranged in a lattice around the ship, just below the hull. As a general rule  the more nodes a ship has in relation to it's size and mass, the further it can jump.  Average Adamist starships can travel around 10 light years with each successful ZTT jump, although warships are generally capable of more than this.

The ZTT jump nodes are charged prior to jump by the onboard fusion engines, and when engaged they produce a spherical distortion field around the ship. Because the event horizon must be spherical and exists just a few centimeters above the hull, anything above this will be cut off and/or destroyed, for this reason sensors and other external components must be stowed inside the hull prior to jump.

The nodes must be placed equidistantly around the hull so that the force exerted on the starship is perfectly balanced. The nodes must also discharge at exactly the same time as well. If the nodes do not energize at exactly the same instant, or the symmetry of the distortion field is not maintained, the starship will be ripped apart by the resulting forces. Energy Patterning nodes are lenticular in shape.

Nearby gravitational sources (such as planets or stars) will also effect the symmetry of the distortion field, meaning ZTT jumps cannot be initiated when the ship is too close to the surface of a planet or star. When in this type of situation the captain must first climb to a higher orbit before engaging the ZTT jump.

ZTT Jump

This is the procedure that is followed when a ZTT jump is initiated :-

1. The Patterning Nodes are fully charged with energy from the fusion drives
2. The Thermo Dump Panels and Sensor arrays are retracted into the hull and the fusion drives are shut off
3. The command is given to energize the patterning nodes
4. Inside each node the stored energy is focused until in becomes infinite, this takes a fraction of a second and distorts the space-time around the ship
5. A perfectly spherical event horizon envelops the starship as in falls into a newly formed wormhole
6. The wormhole terminus expands almost instantly at the destination, taking .005 seconds to reach it's maximum size. As the terminus expands the original wormhole collapses.
7. The starships has arrived at the destination

When an Adamist starship performs a ZTT jump it will always travel along it's orbital / course vector. Any velocity the ship has when it jumps is maintained after the jump has ended

Astrogation

As mentioned above Adamist starships will always jump along there course vector. In order to jump to the desired location the starship must change it's vector so that it aligns with the desired target system. This maneuvering can cost the ship a great deal of fuel and time, and generally more time and fuel is spent altering the course vector in preparation for the jump, than is used by the actual jump itself. If a starship leaves an asteroid or space station whose relative course vector is very different from the destination the captain must expend a considerable amount of fuel to insert the starship into an orbit that will intersect the target destination star.

The total performance of an Adamist starship is measured in Delta-V, which is the total amount by which the starship can change it's course vector. Delta-V has nothing to do with speed or acceleration,  as a freight ship equipped with large amounts of fuel will have a much higher delta-V reserve than a smaller and faster private Yacht.  The Yacht will probably get to the first destination much quicker, as it is likely to have more powerful Fusion drives, but the freight ship will be able to continue it's journey without refueling for a much greater period.

In order to save a considerable amount of delta-V and time, Adamist starships will often use the gravity of a nearby planet to align themselves with the target destination. This procedure will save a prudent captain  much of the fuel expense of the jump. 

Astrogation usually follows the this method. (CONSIDER THE DIAGRAM ABOVE)

1. After leaving an asteroid settlement, or space station, an initial course vector is set to align the ship with a nearby planet.

2. A first jump is initiated that inserts the Adamist starship into an orbit above the planet

3. The ship uses it's drives to align it's orbit to an inclination that will align the ships vector with the target star. This alignment will happen once every orbit of the planet

4. As the starship swings around the planet and is perfectly aligned with the target star, the jump is initiated. This jump must be timed precisely  as even a small error will lead to a big discrepancy in distance.

5. Most Adamist starships can travel around 10 light years of distance with each ZTT jump. A typical  journey will see the Adamist starship jump several times through interstellar space until in gets close to the target star system. Every time the ship jumps it will fix it's position by using it's Star Tracker arrays, (see Sensors)

6. When the starship is about a half a light year from the target star system a precise vector alignment must be made on the target system. Considerable care must be taken during this operation.  This last vector alignment is the most crucial of the entire flight and must be exact or the ship will not emerge in the correct place

7. After the final vector alignment is made, the starship performs it's final ZTT jump and arrives in the target planet's emergence zone. (Hopefully)

Emergence Zones

Every habitable planet within the confederation will have designated emergence zones around them. These zones are the only places that starships are allowed to jump to. Failure to arrive in a designated planets Emergence Zones will more than likely result in the errant ship being targeted by nearby Strategic Defense platforms that are orbiting the planet, failure to comply with traffic control in these situations will often lead the starships captains arrest or even the destruction of the ship.