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--- drawingboard:components:propulsion:ftl:hyperdrives [2024/06/05 16:52] – created tailkinker
+++ drawingboard:components:propulsion:ftl:hyperdrives [2024/06/05 17:32] (current) – [Fuel] tailkinker
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 A hyperdrive is used to move a ship into an alternate dimension, where the laws of physics are different.  Maybe in this alternate dimension, points in space that are congruent to points in normal space are closer together.  Maybe there are odd shortcuts between places.  Maybe the alternate dimension is so thoroughly non-Euclidean that one can move in directions that simply don't exist in real space.  Or maybe in hyperspace, the speed of light is higher, or just isn't a thing.
-Hyperdrives need to hold the ship in hyperspace, or provide some degree of movement within hyper.  Because of this, hyperdrives require an initial activation cost, and a constant cost.  This cost might be in raw power, or in an exotic "hyper fuel".
+Hyperdrives need to hold the ship in hyperspace, or provide some degree of movement within hyper.  Because of this, hyperdrives require an initial activation cost, and a constant cost.  This cost might be in raw power, or in an exotic "hyper fuel".  It is not unusual for a hyperdrive to require hyper fuel to enter hyperspace, but power to keep it there, or vice versa.
 ===== Size =====
-A hyperdrive can transit one tonne of ship for every 5kg of hyperdrive---5% of the ship's total mass.  It occupies one cubic meter per every 750 tonnes it can transit, but this space requirement is //doubled// if the hyperdrive is located entirely externally.  Mind you, external hyperdrives like this cannot be worked on from inside the ship.  You have to land the ship, or go EVA, in order to fix it, and you certainly cannot work on it while it is in operation.
+A hyperdrive can transit one tonne of ship for every 5kg of hyperdrive---so your hyperdrive will occupy 5% of the ship's total mass.  It occupies one cubic meter per every 750 tonnes it can transit, but this space requirement is //halved// if the hyperdrive is located entirely externally.  Mind you, external hyperdrives like this cannot be worked on from inside the ship.  You have to land the ship, or go EVA, in order to fix it, and you certainly cannot work on it while it is in operation.
 Hyperdrives are rather expensive, at \[ce]400 per tonne of ship to which they are fitted.
+===== Power =====
+The power demands of a hyperdrive are fairly high when first engaged, but lower during constant use.  320 megawatt-seconds are required to transit one tonne of ship into hyperspace, but only 10 kilowatts of constant power are required thereafter.  Multiply these values by your ship's total tonnage.
+===== Fuel =====
+If you'd rather use an exotic hyperspace fuel, 5 kilograms of fuel will transit one tonne of starship, and 0.1 kilograms of fuel will keep it there for a week.  Again, multiply these values by the total tonnage of your starship.
+===== Speed =====
+//"No, light speed is too slow.  We need to go right to...ludicrous speed!" -- Rick Moranis, **Spaceballs**//
+The standard of two parsecs per week is a good fit for the hyperdrive.  However, if your universe allows you to install bigger hyperdrives to get more speed, then installing a proportionally large hyperdrive will get you more speed.  Such a drive will also probably need a proportionate increase in power and/or fuel.