FTL capable fighters (B5)

> 2) doing the math the numbers don't quite work out right. In order to
<snip>

Mark, you are scaring me....take a deep
breath....exhale......whewww...now, isn't that better??;-)

> The new Kathryn Drennan B5 book seems to indicate that a large number

Good thought, but for two things:

1) the First Ones didn't build the Great Machine; it was the race who lived on
the planet long ago. And the Great Machine was built ~500 years ago, whereas
the First Ones [almost] all left for Beyond back 1000 years ago (granted,
maybe there was a renegade First One running about and had influence in on
this; can't say one way or the other there).

2) doing the math the numbers don't quite work out right. In order to move 2
light months in 500 years the Epsilon Eridani system would have to be
booking at a space velocity of ~61 miles/second.

2 light months ~= 965,685,888,000 miles.

31,557,600 seconds in a year

500 years -> 15,778,800,000 seconds

965,685,888,000/15,778,800,000 ~= 61 miles/second

The numbers given for Epsilon Eridani's X-Y-Z velocities are -4, +7, and
-21
(km/second, from the GJ91 catalog). This quickly is calculated out to be
~14
miles/second (~22.5 km/sec).

So the numbers don't work.

Plus with your hypothesis you now need to somehow explain how the jump gate
was prevented from being gravitationally locked to the system. Just be sure
you're internally consistent for other gates.  ;-)

Mk

> So the numbers don't work.

As is the case of many other number crunching done on B5.

Yes it's realistic, but there are also many errors, especially when you start
doing maths like this. For example look at the various discussions trying to
match the location of B5 with vareous homeworlds and spectral classes of stars
(less than convincing)

Or the gravity issue. Work out how fast B5 need to spin to give a gravity of
1G. We know it is 5 miles long, so we can take a guess at it's radius. I
forget the exact numbers, but I can tell you it doesn't work...

-Michael

> 2) doing the math the numbers don't quite work out right. In order to

Sorry; I'm in research-mode this week (woo!) and the earlier post (oh,
geez, now I can't remember who posted it!) kinda got me thinking...

:-}

Mk

> Brendan Robertson wrote:

What if the gates are "anchored" in place? Remember the episode in the first
or second season where the exploration ship got lost? Maybe if the gates
moved, it would make navigation more difficult. Maybe that distant gate was
close to the planet when built, but the planet has continued to move.

Another thought...What if the gate was built out there on purpoise. Someone
unannounced,or not allowed came through, they wouldn,t see anything. So they
could keep the great machine secrit.

> So the numbers don't work.

Point taken.  ;-)

> Or the gravity issue. Work out how fast B5 need to spin to give a

We did a back-of-the-envelope calculation on this way back when to
determine the radius of the station for a 1g field and it seemed to be pretty
close (iirc we came up with a ~1 mile diameter station). At least we were
happy
with the number we got (it was l-a-t-e at night here at the time, so
that may have something to do with it).

Ah, well, we will just try to keep our FT/B5 stuff as close to B5 as
possible and still fall in the realm of believability.  :-)

(speaking of, anyone have any ideas when the EarthForce Source book is
to come out for the role-playing game? I'm kinda out of touch on it,
what with everything else going on...)

Mk

> The new Kathryn Drennan B5 book seems to indicate that a large number
At a guess, that location could have been where Epsilon Eridani was located
when they built the great machine on the planet. The system could have kept
moving through space, but the jumpgate wasn't anchored to the system?

> On Tue, 15 Jul 1997, Donald Hosford wrote:

> What if the gates are "anchored" in place? Remember the episode in

There doesn't seem to be many landmarks in B5 hyperspace (none that I've seen,
at least); so when a ship loses contact with the navigational beacons there
isn't anything to tell it where to look for the gates. If the ship is also
unable to open its own jump gates, it is locked in hyperspace... not a very
nice thing when your supplies run out. In the episode you mention, an internal
explosion destroyed the jump gate generator; I'm not sure if it also caused
the ship to lose contact with the beacons, but since it was an explorer it may
well have strayed away on purpose. It had equipment and materials to build new
jump gates, but appearently they didn't have time enough to use those things
to repair their own.

Later,

> (speaking of, anyone have any ideas when the EarthForce Source book

Thanks; I'll see if I can't find it at Origins or something

Mk

> > (speaking of, anyone have any ideas when the EarthForce Source book

The web page for Chameleon Eclectic, the publishers of this game, says that
EarthForce Source Book will be available in July. The web
site is at http://www.blackeagle.com.

Enjoy,

> (speaking of, anyone have any ideas when the EarthForce Source book is

Oerjan Ohlson <f92-ooh@nada.kth.se> said:
> In the episode you mention, an internal explosion destroyed the jump

As I remember they lost contact with the becons due to the explosion knocking
out thier com section, (one reason the "furies couldn't just talk them back)
As for coming out of Hyper, I've noticed that there seems to be no "minimum"
distance for a gate to form. Could be iif you don't know where you are in
relation to the gates, (navigation refrences) you could pop out uncomfortable
close to a star, or planet. (Remember the White Star Jumping from in side
Jupiters atmoshpere?)

Randy