Atlantis Stardrive

[immhotep]

You realise the massive power requirements of atlantis on normal opperating status, with shield on permenantly, with interials and hyperdrive...3 ZPM's was what atlantis was built with so if that cant do it, nothing can.

[_Owen_]

I have to disagree, i think the stardrive is a hybrid engine system, we know the hyperdrive engine can be simply a window generator and that you still need sublight drives to proppell you through the window, see "grace" .
So my theory is that the stardrive is simply a sublight engine that can open and sustain its own hyperspace windows; so the sublight is a hyperdrive engine in the sense that the sublight itself creates the hyperspace window, instead of another drive altogether.

All a hyperdrive is a is a device that opens a hyperspace window and maintains a space-time bubble around your ship. Your sublight engines do the pushing.

@ NakedJehutyV2, Yes, McKay said it was a faster than light drive, a hyperdrive is a faster than light drive, but also that doesn't mean that Atlantis doesn't have subsystems to propel it at subluminal speeds, that would be highly illogical, you are supposed to jump to warp from underneath the ocean, or the middle of a desert, there is no way you can reach orbit or anything like that, you have have to make miniscule hyperspace jumps to get to the moon, I don't think so.

[NakedJehutyV2]

yeah does it say that in canon? AFAIK NO!


anyway no the normal sublight engines don't do anything. on prommie and 304s those turn off and lil blue ones activate

[Harekin]

Why did the Orion need to wait until the eruption to use its hyperdrive engines? Because it needs to be "pushed" into the hyperspace window. Whether it be by sublights or by a super-volcano...its the same idea.

[PG15]

I always though that that was because having a hyperspace window inside a building isn't a good idea.

[Harekin]

Nah sure they pass through things on a regular basis, for example when they passed through a sun in an episode of SG1.

[Auralis]

I think we can savely assume that atlantis does has sublight engines of some kind. Because in Risings prolog it did lift off from earth and flown on its own.

[PG15]

Nah sure they pass through things on a regular basis, for example when they passed through a sun in an episode of SG1.

Sure they pass through things, but isn't opening a hyperspace window in effect warp space (just guessing here)? I mean, with a tonne of rock above me, I really would not want to warp the space and destroy the building around me.

[O'Neil]

I think the stardrive is just another means of travel like a jumpdrive, warpdrive, or hyperdrive.

Perhaps the ancients experimented with different drives and found that a stardrive was best for the city.

[NATIK]

yeah does it say that in canon? AFAIK NO!


anyway no the normal sublight engines don't do anything. on prommie and 304s those turn off and lil blue ones activate

Actually according to the only real life theories we have that allows for hyperspace travel, the FTL/hyperdrive will only propel you into hyperspace and keep you there, any movement in hyperspace will be performed by sublight engines, the reason you can travel faster in hyperspace is that the rules of physics are different.

But they do not stick to this in Stargate as you could only build one quality hyperdrives, so the replicaters powering Apophis' Hyperdrive in season 4 would not change the speed. If they had said they were powering the sublight engines it would have been more correct (I use this term losely as the theories are not considered valid by general science yet).

Sure they pass through things, but isn't opening a hyperspace window in effect warp space (just guessing here)? I mean, with a tonne of rock above me, I really would not want to warp the space and destroy the building around me.

It is very, very different, warp drives warp normal space to make FTL travel possible without having relativistic problems where a Hyperdrive sends you into sub/hyper/something-space where you can fly faster and then when you shut it off you come back to our space.

[Harekin]

Actually I think the whole hyperspace thing is a plot hole, Sam said in an earlier episode about how dangerous it was to open a hyperspace window in the atmosphere of a planet yet they do it all the time now.

[NATIK]

Why did the Orion need to wait until the eruption to use its hyperdrive engines? Because it needs to be "pushed" into the hyperspace window. Whether it be by sublights or by a super-volcano...its the same idea.

Actually I think the whole hyperspace thing is a plot hole, Sam said in an earlier episode about how dangerous it was to open a hyperspace window in the atmosphere of a planet yet they do it all the time now.

It isnt a plothole it is explained in RL physics why it might be a problem, and they dont open hyperspace windows in the atmosphere.

Physicswise the idea is that a Hyperspace window is affected by gravitywells (no one knows exactly how this would be). There are also theories that a hyperspace window in the atmosphere could destroy it in various ways. The only 2 episodes that have featured Hyperspace windows in the atmosphere is
Atlantis S2 - Inferno E19
SG-1 S4 - Tangent E12
They have more then likely chosen to do this because the plots were unusable without intraatmosphere hypertravel.

[Harekin]

Anyways I dont think Atlantis would have a hyperdrive and not sublight engines. How would it land? On some kind of thrusters alone? Its a CITY ship, they'd have to be big thrusters!

[_Owen_]

yeah does it say that in canon? AFAIK NO!


anyway no the normal sublight engines don't do anything. on prommie and 304s those turn off and lil blue ones activate

You know it doesn't say a lot of things in the cannon, it's not always the best idea to assume because it doesn't say it it's wrong. Yes, it might not say that exactly, but it doesn't say what you think exactly. I'm not exactly sure what you are talking about either, so the hyperdrive is a faster than light drive, and if you are arguing that Atlantis doesn't have sublight engines, well, suffice it to say, logic prevails, I find it highly unlikely that the Ancients would make their city-ship capable of massive interstellar jumps but not able to move from Toronto to Buffalo with ease. Also there is no reason for the hostility, as far as I know, this is still a reasonable, conversation.

[carcatcher]

Its funny how I dont think the 3 ZPMs would have enough power to transport Atlantis from Earth to the planet it currently resides on. Did they have to stop to change the ZPM's? Everytime they've gone near the Stardrive it nearly overloads the one ZPM we have just from preparing the engines!

So far they have said that the powering up of the inertial dampeners is the single largest power drain, but it could be like turning on a light bulb, the initial startup of the bulb can use about 2 hours worth of power just to turn it on, but once it is on it uses very little power comparitivly to stay lit.