Hyperspace travel, how does it work?

[Automission]

This has bugged me recently. We know a hyperdrive is used to open a hyperspace window. This allows for entry/exit of hyperspace. But what propels the ship within hyperspace? Is there another form of engine/thrusters that propel it, or do they simply use sublight engines?
I'd assume Sublight engines as they can still power it, only in hyperspace they propel the ship at a much faster rate due to the altered speed of light within subspace.

Though if that's the case, how do ships jump into hyperspace travel when their sublight engines are down, as I'm sure we've seen it occur before.

[Crazy Tom]

The short answer is it doesn't, the science doen't exist.

The long answer is as follows:

The hyperspace window generator teears a hole in space/time through which the ship passes and seals it behind, while in subspace, the ship is protected from the weird susbspace enviroment by it's hyper field, which miantains traditional physics around a ship, in subspace, the speed of light is faster, this ration can be manipulated (faster hyperdrives vs. slower ones), but actuall motive power is provided by the sublight engines (which include both inertialess maneuvering ssytems and VASIMr engines) which actually propell a ship. If it's engines weren't working in hyper, it would just... sit there.

[Mclean]

The hyperspace window generator teears a hole in space/time through which the ship passes and seals it behind, while in subspace, the ship is protected from the weird susbspace enviroment by it's hyper field, which miantains traditional physics around a ship, in subspace, the speed of light is faster, this ration can be manipulated (faster hyperdrives vs. slower ones), but actuall motive power is provided by the sublight engines (which include both inertialess maneuvering ssytems and VASIMr engines) which actually propell a ship. If it's engines weren't working in hyper, it would just... sit there.

Green for the explanation

[Splitsecond]

It's quite possible that the hyperspace bubble is the thing that moves and the ship remains stationary (just like warp).

[Morrolan]

I thought the idea of warp travel and hyperspace was to fold space on itself to create a shorter distance. In essence, instead of traveling to your destination, the destination is brought to you.

There would be some movement involved, which I would think would be handled by sub-light engines.

[123NotIt]

I thought the idea of warp travel and hyperspace was to fold space on itself to create a shorter distance. In essence, instead of traveling to your destination, the destination is brought to you.

There would be some movement involved, which I would think would be handled by sub-light engines.

if you're thinking what i think you're thinking, that would be more like folding space as involved in a wormhole, or on a smaller scale BGS FLTs where you're here one second and there the next.

classic hyperspace travel is more along the lines of you open a window into subspace, and then travel within it until you jump out of it, arriving at your destination. within subspace, you travel much greater distances, relative to distances in realspace.

think of it this way. space is layered in 2 concentric circles. you start off on the larger circle, but then you move onto the smaller circle. you move around that smaller circle for say 60 degrees, which still corresponds to 60 degrees on the larger circle. then you move back to the larger circle. you've moved the same radii around the circles, but the circumference you've travelled is far different. by jumping onto that smaller circle, travelling along it a time, and then jumping back onto the larger one once you'd gone as far as you needed to go, you saved yourself a considerable distance to travel. hyperspace travel is like that: move a certain distance in subspace which corresponds to a much greater distance in realspace.

if i remember correctly, warp travel is more like pulling yourself through space. within the bubble you don't go anywhere, but ahead off the bubble you collapse space in on itself. consider it sorta like a short distance wormhole that perpetuates itself for as long as the field is active.

[Crazy Tom]

It's quite possible that the hyperspace bubble is the thing that moves and the ship remains stationary (just like warp).

But the engines are on in hyper, so they must do something.

[jonos101]

This has bugged me recently. We know a hyperdrive is used to open a hyperspace window. This allows for entry/exit of hyperspace. But what propels the ship within hyperspace? Is there another form of engine/thrusters that propel it, or do they simply use sublight engines?
I'd assume Sublight engines as they can still power it, only in hyperspace they propel the ship at a much faster rate due to the altered speed of light within subspace.

Though if that's the case, how do ships jump into hyperspace travel when their sublight engines are down, as I'm sure we've seen it occur before.

Well first Caldwell says "Engage Hyperdrive", then the ship flys through a blue tunnel, then it arrives at it's destination.

The short answer is it doesn't, the science doen't exist.

I'd just like to point out that just because it doesn't exist now, doesn't mean it won't exist in a few hundred years. No matter how much we think we know about science, we don't know everything.

[General_Finley]

Well basically it works like a Heim Drive only it uses subspace ocilations instead of a gravity flux to open up a hyperspace window. To answer your first question they could use there normal thrusters while in hyperspace to prople them but they would have to be shielded the entire trip to protect the ship from radiation and the extreme stresses of traveling in a higher dimmension.