FTL (Battlestar Galactica)

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An FTL, or "Faster Than Light", Drive is a fictional propulsion technology from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series that allows space ships to achieve superluminal travel. They are fuelled by a refined version of the fictional ore tylium.

The verb jump is commonly used to describe the process of travelling via FTL drive. Dialogue implies that the drive itself consists of large spinning electromagnetic coils in combination with other more exotic technology.

The term FTL is never used in the original Battlestar Galactica film and television series, instead the term "light speed" is used, in context, this appears to be standard acceleration based travel, although the Galactica and its fleet move at sub-light speeds as a norm as the fleet is unable to travel at "light speed"

Physics
The exact nature of the FTL drives remains unexplained in the show; what information exists has been extrapolated from on-screen dialogue.

Little time appears to pass on a ship during a jump and objects within a ship do not appear to exhibit the signs of momentum/inertia associated with acceleration/deceleration. Nausea is a noticeable side effect noted in some Humans, for example Specialist Cally.

According to producer interviews in the season one DVD release of the series, the special effects director indicated that the FTL is a dimensional transport effect, where the ships instantaneously teleport from one place to another. This method of travel was one of several FTL ideas the production crew had in mind for the show, however to keep things simple and focused to the story, (as well as staying within budget restraints), producers David Eick and Ronald D. Moore chose the straightforward dimensional jump effect over more complex ideas. Because of this however, the term "FTL" used to describe this dimensional transition is used erroneously as the ships technically do not move faster than light, but rather instantaneously relocate to a new position in space without a change in speed.

Navigation
Owing to difficulties navigating while using an FTL drive, ships wishing to make an FTL jump must calculate their speed, trajectory and jump duration prior to activating their FTL drive. Failure to do so can lead to ships jumping into poorly charted areas where sub-light navigation is difficult, or into dangerous areas such as those containing asteroid fields, gravity wells, or even inside a planet's atmosphere.

A ship making a properly calculated jump can arrive safely in planetary orbit, or alongside other ships or spaceborne objects. Ships using the same calculations can also safely jump together. Non-calculated jumps (known as a "blind jump") are possible, as is allegedly risked by Admiral Cain aboard Pegasus during the Cylon sneak attack of the Picon Shipyards in the season two episode "Pegasus".

Because little is known about the physics of the FTL drive, it is not clear whether ships must plot a course around large physical objects, such as suns and gas giants, or if they have to adjust their course to take local gravitational variations into account, although the Galactica is shown in episode "Exodus" to be capable of making a successful jump whilst travelling through the atmosphere at immense speeds towards the surface of the planet New Caprica. The series does not reveal whether a ship can correct its course mid jump.

Jump co-ordinates must be constantly updated to allow for changes in a ship's position, and for stellar drift.

Limitations
Large drives (fitted for example within a warship, such as a Battlestar and the larger civilian transports) allow them to travel greater distances than smaller craft, such as Raptors. A small ship, or ship with a less-capable FTL drive, must make several jumps in order to travel the same distance as a larger ship. This approach can leave the craft vulnerable to detection or attack. Unlike the Raptors, Vipers are not fitted with FTL drives.

The Cylons are capable of calculating more accurate jumps. In "Lay Down Your Burdens", a Cylon Heavy Raider can make ten jumps in comparison to the Galactica ' s 500 to jump to Caprica. Because of this, smaller Cylon ships (for example a Cylon Raider) can make longer jumps than Colonial craft of a similar size.

The safe limit of FTL travel for the Twelve Colonies is known as the "Red Line". A ship jumping beyond this line risks running into unknown navigational hazards, or going off course due to compound errors in its jump calculation.

Cylon technology
The Cylon FTL technology operated within the series is stated to be much more advanced than that operated by the Colonials, the superiority in FTL technology enables them to make much more accurate jumps of a longer range. Much like Colonial FTL technology the Cylons also make use of refined tylium ore as their fuel source.