FTL Theories

[Puddle-Jumper]

Well theres plenty of debate as to why the ancients used FTL on Destiny instead of hyperdrive, so lets try and get some theories together.

I personally don't buy the idea that FTL is some primitive light speed travel that could be cobbled together by cave men. So some theories that Ive managed to come up with are...

• That Destinys FTL was designed specifically for use with a 9 chevron address (possible for moving gates) that the gate can be kept tracked in FTL but not hyperdrive, not that it can connect a wormhole in FTL, but that it can recieved a signal to tell the ship to drop outta FTL.
  
  
• That Destinys FTL is actually a much more efficient method of faster than light travel, in terms of power utilization, apparently untrackable and possible speed (with enough power) hence why it was chosen for this mission, but it also has a major disadvantage, gravity from nearby stars can really mess with it (Faith) so detailed star maps are required for use (i.e. the data from the seeder ships in this case) so it was never used on most ships.
  
  
• That Destinys FTL is actually an experimental drive developed by the ancients and due to the sensitive nature of Destinys mission, it never became well used in ancient society.

The second one is my person favourite
You guys got any good ones?

[AquaGamer53]

I think it could be a combo of all three of your theories, but another reason could be that hyperspace travel is too dangerous. In the past shows, they talked about breaking apart in hyperspace if there is an explosion or you something happens to the hyperspace drive and you exit too early. Also, the Wraith had problems with the Radiation from hyperspace.

So, I think that this FTL had to be designed not only to be the most efficient, but the safest for a ship that was to be unmanned. The Destiny seems to have the ability to drop out of FTL at any time because it seems that its moving at faster than light in normal space, not in a pocket of subspace.

With having to slow from FTL to sub-light speeds in mind, the inertial dampener tech developed for the Destiny might have had benefits for all of Ancient society.

[thekillman]

hyperspace is an incredibly advanced and powerful system. however there is clear indication in SG that the hyperdrive is the MOST powerconsuming system present. the asgard require full power from their generators to get the max out of the hyperdrive, the Deadalus requires a ZPM, and what not. FTL is slower, but seems to allow accelleration of some sort. this makes it relatively slow on short distances but it becomes faster the longer the FTL drives are active. also it would require much less power than a hyperdrive

[Quadhelix]

I personally don't buy the idea that FTL is some primitive light speed travel that could be cobbled together by cave men.

Maybe, maybe not. Remember that there are "fast" hyperdrives and "slow" hyperdrives, so there could be versions of Destiny's FTL that are less advanced than what we see on the ship.

You guys got any good ones?

Some, mostly just conjecture though.

• Intragalactic hyperdrives produce a net output of power, and thus serve as both the ship's FTL drive and power core. Since intergalactic hyperdrives use mostly the same parts, it is easier to have two types of hyperdrive than two completely different types of drive.
  
• Hyperdrives require some sort of fuel beyond energy to function (for example, they use Naquada to keep the ship in hyperspace, but deplete the Naquada in the process), and this has not been mentioned in the show only because it has not come up. Destiny's FTL is far inferior to an intergalactic hyperdrive of its era, but does not have similar fuel concerns.
  
• Destiny's FTL has only one possible "speed" for any drive of that type, which may or may not be dependent on the environmental conditions around the ship. Intergalactic hyperdrives, on the other hand, can be made arbitrarily fast.
  
• Destiny's FTL is far faster than hyperdrives of its era, but has little room for improvement and is far more difficult to construct.

[Puddle-Jumper]

Maybe, maybe not. Remember that there are "fast" hyperdrives and "slow" hyperdrives, so there could be versions of Destiny's FTL that are less advanced than what we see on the ship.

True, but I just don't want them to be on Destiny for years and then come back to Earth and the X-305 is there and its just like... "oh.. FTL?.. really? thats kinda useless compared to the hyperdrives that Earth can build at a wim" ya know, its not a continuity thing, but from a viewers perspective it would kinda make the whole concept of the show seems a lot less epic if it turns out that they get nothing out of the years of work in the end, and really Earth would have been just as well off without it.

[Quadhelix]

True, but I just don't want them to be on Destiny for years and then come back to Earth and the X-305 is there and its just like... "oh.. FTL?.. really? thats kinda useless compared to the hyperdrives that Earth can build at a wim" ya know, its not a continuity thing, but from a viewers perspective it would kinda make the whole concept of the show seems a lot less epic if it turns out that they get nothing out of the years of work in the end, and really Earth would have been just as well off without it.

For some reason, I doubt that the FTL is the most significant contribution that the Destiny has. Remember that Earth already has Asgard hyperdrives, whose speed is at least similar to the FTL used on Destiny.

[BomB191]

Earth already has Asgard hyperdrives, whose speed is at least similar to the FTL used on Destiny.

where has that been proven? Or stated

[Chevron999]

About the speed/powerusage of Destinys FTL Drive:

Destiny would need "alot" of power to accelarate in(to) FTL, but once its gotten up to speed, it does not need to use as much power, but only a little, to maintain the speed its already gained, and as such, it would be far less powerconsuming, traveling in FTL, rather than Hyperspace, since in hyperspace, you would use the same amount of power all the time, to both accelarate, and maintain speed.

Another:

What is fastest, traveling in a straight line, or taking "massive" detours, inorder to avoid stars and the likes?

Since Destiny is a long term experiment, its not really an issue, but for the single reason that you could travel faster, at a little more powerconsuming engine, i would chose to abandon my old car, and get a new one, with alot more horsepowers that could travel through the stars, and accelerate alot faster, with no need for detours.

[Quadhelix]

What is fastest, traveling in a straight line, or taking "massive" detours, inorder to avoid stars and the likes?

Well, "Faith" established that the Destiny's FTL could bring it within a few AUs of a star without being forced out of FTL. There are 65,700 AUs in a single light-year, and most star systems are several light-years apart.

The fact that we can see the Andromeda galaxy indicates that it is possible to have a path through the Milky Way of at least a few thousand light-years without passing all that close to a star*. This would seem to indicate that the Destiny's FTL can travel long distances in a straight line without being forced out from gravitation.



* I am aware that Andromeda is several million light-years away; however, only a few thousand or a few tens of thousands of light-years of that path is through the Milky Way.

[Puddle-Jumper]

For some reason, I doubt that the FTL is the most significant contribution that the Destiny has. Remember that Earth already has Asgard hyperdrives, whose speed is at least similar to the FTL used on Destiny.

Ya but thats my point.... if Earth has technology that is already vastly superior to that aboard Destiny... it would deminish the value of Destiny and just make the whole show less epic ya know. But thats looking at from an outside the universe perspective, as opposed to taking the continuity into account. Even if one piece of the ships key technology is less advanced then what Earth can make...

Well, "Faith" established that the Destiny's FTL could bring it within a few AUs of a star without being forced out of FTL. There are 65,700 AUs in a single light-year, and most star systems are several light-years apart.

Well that would really depend on the type of star, size, age etc

The diameter of our Star is something like 0.01 AU right? and it can disrupt it for a few AU's... so a red giant thats more then 2 AU in diameter could disrupt it for an area thats 200 times bigger, which I know isn't a massive area relative to that which the Destiny can travel when in FTL but if it were to happen, Destiny could spend years travelling away from the star in sublight. So its a potentially huge problem.

[Quadhelix]

Ya but thats my point.... if Earth has technology that is already vastly superior to that aboard Destiny... it would deminish the value of Destiny and just make the whole show less epic ya know. But thats looking at from an outside the universe perspective, as opposed to taking the continuity into account. Even if one piece of the ships key technology is less advanced then what Earth can make...

For some reason, I suspect that the Destiny's technology is nigh irrelevant compared to its purpose.



Maybe the IOA and the Lucian Alliance are both attempting to use the Destiny to unite all human souls into one Super-Ascended divine being, with themselves as the controlling influence.

Well that would really depend on the type of star, size, age etc

The diameter of our Star is something like 0.01 AU right? and it can disrupt it for a few AU's... so a red giant thats more then 2 AU in diameter could disrupt it for an area thats 200 times bigger, which I know isn't a massive area relative to that which the Destiny can travel when in FTL but if it were to happen, Destiny could spend years travelling away from the star in sublight. So its a potentially huge problem.

If the issue is gravitational effects, then you should remember that the strength of a gravitational field is proportional to the mass of the source, not the volume, surface area, or radius. The sun will, itself, become a red giant at some point in the future, but its mass will obviously not increase at this point.

[Puddle-Jumper]

If the issue is gravitational effects, then you should remember that the strength of a gravitational field is proportional to the mass of the source, not the volume, surface area, or radius. The sun will, itself, become a red giant at some point in the future, but its mass will obviously not increase at this point.

Touché..... still though, Im hopeful that Destiny will lead to massive changes to Earth and its technology, and just how we see the universe in Stargate in general

[Quadhelix]

still though, Im hopeful that Destiny will lead to massive changes to Earth and its technology, and just how we see the universe in Stargate in general

There's more to life...and more to science than technology. The mere existence of Destiny's FTL presumably reveals new and important physical principles that may never have any practical significance.

Moreover, I strongly suspect that the Destiny's technology is of only tangential significance compared to its purpose.

[jwillis84]

I've thought a bit about the Destiny FTL - and agree it's not something they've come across before.

I think its somehow based on "Reverse" Quantum Entanglement.. in fact I've had some suspicion for a while now that the Ancient's Shield technology was based on a form of Quantum Entanglement.

But focusing on D-FTL.

The Universe essentially wouldn't exist without existing beams of light linking all its different parts together.. how would we even know of its existence? So we can see stars in the sky, galaxies in the distance.. suppose we could "beam" a person or ship along that line of sight.. not forward in time.. but into the Universe as it was when we received that beam of light.

Then you wouldn't actually be traveling Faster Than Light.. but kind of "Re-constructing" along the beam of light.. altering the "history" of the Universe as you went along.. sort of messing with causality itself.. this would explain the fury over the Atlantis scientist scaling this down.. bringing it local perhaps increasing the risk of catastrophe.. on the "big scale" mistakes get compensated for.. on the small scale they could snuff out a civilization. Want a jet engine in your living room? An Xbox is fun for a little while.. but geez

Once a "path finder" like the Destiny passed through a region or Galaxy it kind of "builds" a solid map of that region of space that's safe to travel.. the gates drift out of alignment and maintenance could have been an on going problem.. who knew two Galaxies collided wiping out all of the gates on the far side of the Universe? I suspect a large network manager "out there" perhaps a hub.

Destiny might be only one of "many" path finders that were sent out.. but it could be the most successful.. or the last.. perhaps of all the ships out there it just happen to travel in the truest direction of the Universe.. in which human compatible Universal laws prevail.

Anyhoo.. the Asgard, Wraith and Goauld developed their own "type" of FTL something that kept them in the same time space without causing time paradoxes.. or maybe that's what they have in common.. other types of FTL developed by other civilizations might keep them effectively isolated.. that would make an interesting story.

So the Destiny FTL would be a kind of "offroad" rough and tough variety with a lot of risk and danger.. a real roller coaster.. a pathfinder.

Meanwhile the Asgard, Wraith and Goauld versions would be more street legal luxury models.

For this reason I tend to believe the Destiny is on its way home.. its battle scarred and way out of warranty.. with all the tinkering and poking going on its barely holding it together.

I still have a problem with nothing being in the Atlantis database regarding its operational manual.. seems Daniel should be finding all kinds of interesting tips to relay to them.

But maybe Destiny's value is precisely its earlier age in time from the Atlantis.. perhaps it could act as a Rosetta stone for the more advanced technology on Atlantis.. and that's its true value.

It might be even more valuable to the Lucian Alliance if for some reason.. none of them have the ancient gene.. what a revelation that would be.. they can't use any of the technology recovered from Atlantis.. not now.. not ever.. cool..

[Quadhelix]

The Universe essentially wouldn't exist without existing beams of light linking all its different parts together.. how would we even know of its existence?

These two ideas are unrelated. Indeed, there are many distant galaxies that were too far away to be seen several million years ago because the light from them had not yet reached us.

So we can see stars in the sky, galaxies in the distance.. suppose we could "beam" a person or ship along that line of sight.. not forward in time.. but into the Universe as it was when we received that beam of light.

If you are going to allow FTL travel of any kind, you have to admit the possibility of using that FTL to travel back in time in a manner similar to the one you describe.

Then you wouldn't actually be traveling Faster Than Light.. but kind of "Re-constructing" along the beam of light.. altering the "history" of the Universe as you went along.. sort of messing with causality itself..

Not really: if you were to affect causality, you would have to arrive before the light was emitted, not when it was emitted.

Once a "path finder" like the Destiny passed through a region or Galaxy it kind of "builds" a solid map of that region of space that's safe to travel.. the gates drift out of alignment and maintenance could have been an on going problem.. who knew two Galaxies collided wiping out all of the gates on the far side of the Universe? I suspect a large network manager "out there" perhaps a hub.

Galactic collisions take millions upon millions of years to occur. Unless the Destiny is millions of years behind the seeder ships, such collisions should not be a problem.

Destiny might be only one of "many" path finders that were sent out.. but it could be the most successful.. or the last.. perhaps of all the ships out there it just happen to travel in the truest direction of the Universe.. in which human compatible Universal laws prevail.

We can see roughly 13.6 billion light-years in all directions. As far as we can tell, the laws of physics are the same in every direction.

For this reason I tend to believe the Destiny is on its way home.. its battle scarred and way out of warranty.. with all the tinkering and poking going on its barely holding it together.

Except that it is still following the 'Gate seeders, so it has not aborted its mission.

I still have a problem with nothing being in the Atlantis database regarding its operational manual.. seems Daniel should be finding all kinds of interesting tips to relay to them.

Joseph Mallozzi has apparently noted on his blog that the Ancients had some reason to keep the details of Destiny's mission a secret.

But maybe Destiny's value is precisely its earlier age in time from the Atlantis.. perhaps it could act as a Rosetta stone for the more advanced technology on Atlantis.. and that's its true value.

Perhaps.