How does Hyperspace travel work?

[Automission]

Now, I'm aware that to travel in hyperspace, you need to be within a hyper space window in sub space, where no physical objects exist.
But what I don't get is how a hyperspace window is formed. The ships have hyperdrive engines, but I doubt engaging them activates the window, it would surely just cause you to travel at a much higher velocity within our own space.

I have also wondered, how do you get two or more ships travelling within one hyperspace window? I always gathered a hyperspace window could be used by one ship only, nor entered by any others, otherwise it'd be easy to follow someone via hyperspace.

Where's Mckay? We need his expert knowledge here! ...Or perhaps Sheppard for some dry wit about my lack of knowledge.

[Andru10]

The Hyperspace window is a transition medium... it's like the event horizon of the Stargate, after you pass through it you end up from one place to another... in this case from normal space to subspace. How the window is created is unknown... it might be done by bombarding a region of space with a special kind of radiation that "punctures" it revealing subspace, or by using massive amounts of energy to curve space-time until it "brakes" open a window to subspace, or by amplifying quantum vacuum fluctuations until a rift in space that leads to subspace occurs etc. The size of the windows depends on the available energy. With sufficient power a window large enough for multiple ships to pass through can be created. The nature of subspace is also unknown which makes it difficult to say how the ships travel. It seems that more power allows one to travel faster through hyperspace. It normally takes a 304 18 days to travel from Earth to Atlantis, but with a ZPM powering the hyperdrive it only takes 4 days. Intergalactic hyperdrives are probably built so that they can handle massive amounts of energy that allow them to travel faster through hyperspace. Wraith Hiveships have the necessary power for an Intergalactic Hyperdrive but their hyperdrives probably aren't designed to handle that much power (that might be why, if properly modified, their interstellar drive can be converted to an intergalactic one).

[titan_hq]

Hyperspace travel works by moving the ship into a different region of space, in this case Hyperspace.
Hyperspace engines open the window and create and maintain a subspace bubble around the ship. The ships normal sub-light engines move it as normal.
In hyperspace the speed of light (C) is much much greater than it is in our space. so our ships never exceed C, but they do appear to be traveling many times faster than C in normal space.
For example, if our ships travel at 100,000 km/s normally. that is about 1/3 of C but in hyperspace C could be 900,000, our ships would still travel at 1/3 of C. In normal space it would appear that they were traveling at 300,000 km/s which is C and is impossible.
The difference in speed between different hyperspace engines is either, A) having enough power to power both the hyperspace engines and subspace engines at full power. or B) There are many 'levels' of hyperspace and in each one the speed of C is increasingly greater. Different engines move the ship to a different level and with enough modification (and extra power) can be modified to open a window to a different level. But as the speed of C increases, the levels get 'further away' from our normal space so more power is required.

[a6346]

See now my eyes glazed over after reading half the second post.

[Automission]

Hyperspace travel works by moving the ship into a different region of space, in this case Hyperspace.
Hyperspace engines open the window and create and maintain a subspace bubble around the ship. The ships normal sub-light engines move it as normal.
In hyperspace the speed of light (C) is much much greater than it is in our space. so our ships never exceed C, but they do appear to be traveling many times faster than C in normal space.
For example, if our ships travel at 100,000 km/s normally. that is about 1/3 of C but in hyperspace C could be 900,000, our ships would still travel at 1/3 of C. In normal space it would appear that they were traveling at 300,000 km/s which is C and is impossible.
The difference in speed between different hyperspace engines is either, A) having enough power to power both the hyperspace engines and subspace engines at full power. or B) There are many 'levels' of hyperspace and in each one the speed of C is increasingly greater. Different engines move the ship to a different level and with enough modification (and extra power) can be modified to open a window to a different level. But as the speed of C increases, the levels get 'further away' from our normal space so more power is required.

Hmm I was re-reading that and thought, sublight engines would have a constant top speed, so while the speed of light may indeed be faster in this level of sub space, the ships constant speed would still stay the same.

[Andru10]

I think it's related to how much energy the hyperdrive receives not the sublight engines. Think of it this way: if you put a baloon filled with air in water it will accelerate to the surface. If your baloon has more air inside it will travel to the surface faster. Similarly if a ships hyperdrive (baloon) has more energy (air) it will travel through hyperspace (water) faster.

[titan_hq]

Hmm I was re-reading that and thought, sublight engines would have a constant top speed, so while the speed of light may indeed be faster in this level of sub space, the ships constant speed would still stay the same.

In theory the sub-light don't have a top speed as long as they have enough energy to power them. In reality they do however. If it is 30%C then it is always 30%C regardless of what C is.

I don't have enough of an understanding of physics to explain my point any further. or provide any theorectical evidence, sorry.

[Automission]

In theory the sub-light don't have a top speed as long as they have enough energy to power them. In reality they do however. If it is 30%C then it is always 30%C regardless of what C is.

I don't have enough of an understanding of physics to explain my point any further. or provide any theorectical evidence, sorry.

Not a problem, none of us are physicists, just Sci Fi fans! Thanks for trying!

[jonos101]

Now, I'm aware that to travel in hyperspace, you need to be within a hyper space window in sub space, where no physical objects exist.
But what I don't get is how a hyperspace window is formed. The ships have hyperdrive engines, but I doubt engaging them activates the window, it would surely just cause you to travel at a much higher velocity within our own space.

I have also wondered, how do you get two or more ships travelling within one hyperspace window? I always gathered a hyperspace window could be used by one ship only, nor entered by any others, otherwise it'd be easy to follow someone via hyperspace.

Where's Mckay? We need his expert knowledge here! ...Or perhaps Sheppard for some dry wit about my lack of knowledge.

that questions easy, first, the captain say "engage hyperdrive", then the ship go wooosh into a hyperspace window, then the captain says "drop us out of hyperspace", then the ship slows down, see easy

[Andru10]

In theory the sub-light don't have a top speed as long as they have enough energy to power them. In reality they do however. If it is 30%C then it is always 30%C regardless of what C is.

I don't have enough of an understanding of physics to explain my point any further. or provide any theorectical evidence, sorry.

Please allow me to explain. E = ( mv^2 )/2. So v = sqrt (2E/m) . So for a certain energy there is a certain speed even if you are in Hyperspace or in normal space. This is classical Newtonian energy. If the speed is comparable to c then E = (m-m0)c^2 , where m0 is the rest mass of the ship and m is the relativistic mass, and we have m = m0 / sqrt ( 1- v^2 / c^2 ) ; So you will again have a constant velocity for a certain amount of energy. If the ship is traveling at 30% the speed of light in normal space it will not travel at 30% of the new speed of light in Hyperspace, it will always have a constant speed for a constant amount of energy.

[lord groovy]

Please allow me to explain. E = ( mv^2 )/2. So v = sqrt (2E/m) . So for a certain energy there is a certain speed even if you are in Hyperspace or in normal space. This is classical Newtonian energy. If the speed is comparable to c then E = (m-m0)c^2 , where m0 is the rest mass of the ship and m is the relativistic mass, and we have m = m0 / sqrt ( 1- v^2 / c^2 ) ; So you will again have a constant velocity for a certain amount of energy. If the ship is traveling at 30% the speed of light in normal space it will not travel at 30% of the new speed of light in Hyperspace, it will always have a constant speed for a constant amount of energy.

So it would rather make sense that hyperspace is smaller than normal space. With the same velocity you can get to your destination faster than if you did it the old fashioned way.

But what bothers me is why would be called then HYPERspace.

A little analogy with squares and cubes :
2D : square -> 3D : cube -> 4D (and more) : HYPERcube

So Hyperspace should contain our own space, yet be smaller????

[Guest750]

sometimes they call it subspace...

[EternalAlteran]

I have also wondered, how do you get two or more ships travelling within one hyperspace window? I always gathered a hyperspace window could be used by one ship only, nor entered by any others, otherwise it'd be easy to follow someone via hyperspace.

Yes you can. It is seen regulary on the show. Though it only happens with ships of the same kind i.e. multiple hives, ha'tak.

[Jack_Bauer]

See now my eyes glazed over after reading half the second post.

Indeed, maybe i should study for my exam..... which is tomorrow....

[Automission]

I think I'm going for the theory that hyperspace does travel within subspace, where the distances between two locations is alot smaller than it is in regular space. I do agree on whether to call it hyperspace or not, but at least I've got a basis on how it works now.