Welcome everyone, to the most amazing, comprehensive, and user-friendly guide to science to ever graze the Elite forums this side of Alpha Centauri.
Here in the forum, a lot of members have a real interest in science and the way the universe presented in the game would work. Especially for us older players, the interest for space comes hand in hand with our love of spacesims. However, the depth and complexity of the science involved and the leap necessary to connect present and future is too much for most to handle (and very easy to misunderstand), and after a lot of talks with other members of the ED community I decided to build a simple-yet-comprehensive guide to the science of Elite that would be both accessible and easy to read, as well as not boring. I really hope I have achieved that.
As a theoretical physicist and philosopher of science for nearly 15 years, I’m utterly in love with the universe and all its diversity, and I’ve always been fascinated by fictional universes that manage to build a coherent and rational set of rules and following them. Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek and Stargate have always been my favourite, both in regards to the amount of scientific thought given for the way their worlds works, and seeing David Braben and team talk about the development of Elite I had the impression that they have that same sort of drive capable of creating an believable universe.
As such, I’ve researched every single interview, posts and video I could find when assembling this. Every single fact used in the making of the Guide comes from canon sources, and every physical principle here presented is an actual part of modern day physics and quantum mechanics. I hope that the end result became entertaining and enlightening.
Some may argue that given how far into the future this is and the fictitious nature of the game, such a guide is an exercise in futility. To those, I must only remind you that six thousand years ago people were positing that the Earth was not flat and that people could fly up into the stars, and that your mobile phones and cars and helicopters were once too only a theory with no chance to become real in a lifetime. Yet, here they are now. Being “only” a theory is the first step to becoming reality, and not knowing something for certain is the fuel that drives civilization forward. It’s this thirst for knowledge, this curiosity, this unending journey in search of our boundaries and the power to break them that made humankind reach to the stars, and it’s that same inner fire that will someday spread from this solar system.
So strap yourself to your Cobra’s chair and bring out the thinking helmets. I deeply researched every single newsletter, every single staff post, every single video, every single interview, every single bit of information I could find in order to present you with the most accurate and comprehensive guide for the science behind this game that could be found, all in a manner that don’t require you a degree, an scholarship, or a PhD to understand. Also, there’s penguin jokes. This is:
The Science of Elite!
“If you'd like to know, I can tell you that in your universe you move freely in three dimensions that you call space. You move in a straight line in a fourth, which you call time, and stay rooted to one place in a fifth, which is the first fundamental of probability. After that it gets a bit complicated, and there's all sort of stuff going on in dimensions thirteen to twenty-two that you really wouldn't want to know about. All you really need to know for the moment is that the universe is a lot more complicated than you might think, even if you start from a position of thinking it's pretty damn complicated in the first place.”
Contents
-Chapter 1-
1. Frame Shift Drive (FSD)
1.1 Supercruise
1.2 Hyperdrive
-Chapter 2-
2. Ships and Space Stations
2.1 Ships
2.2 Space Stations
3. Equipment
3.1 Shields
3.2 Weapons
3.3 Sensors
3.4 Pilot Suit
-Chapter 3-
4. Extra
4.1 Stars, Fuel, and Fuel Scooping
4.2 Comms
4.3 Sound
4.4 Heat
4.5 Planetary Landings
4.6 Special Relativity, faster-than-light travel, and other points of content
5. Disclaimer
Spoiler buttons are scattered throughout the Guide and they hold in-depth discussions regarding the subject in question. You can safely skip those if you want, but read them all if you want a more fully comprehensive experience.
Chapter I
=Frame Shift Drive=
The Frame Shift Drive is divided into two main parts: the Supercruise drive, which compresses time and space for in-system travel, and the Hyperdrive, which enters Hyperspace for intersystem jumps. At first, I assumed they were both the same thing, with the FSD merely using a different form of compression for the system’s jump and that the interstellar travel was a scaled down version of hypertravel, which would simplify the process and use the same tech as basis.
However, the more I thought about it the less sense it made, both in causes and consequences, and over my research I discovered they were indeed intended to be different. Can’t say that did not disappointed me a bit, because the Hyperdrive has almost zero "real-world" scientific basis and that compromises their commitment to scientific veracity. Still, it’s a game set in the future, so we’ll just ignore that and go right ahead, as if hyperdrive science veracity was a bloodied woman wearing a wedding dress and carrying an axe on the side of a rainy road at night near Manchester.
---Supercruise-
“The aircar rocketed them at speeds in excess of R17.
R is a velocity measure, defined as a reasonable speed of travel that is consistent with health, mental wellbeing and not being more than say five minutes late. It is therefore clearly an almost infinitely variable figure according to circumstances, since the first two factors vary not only with speed taken as an absolute, but also with awareness of the third factor. Unless handled with tranquillity this equation can result in considerable stress, ulcers and even death.
R17 is not a fixed velocity, but it is clearly far too fast.”
R is a velocity measure, defined as a reasonable speed of travel that is consistent with health, mental wellbeing and not being more than say five minutes late. It is therefore clearly an almost infinitely variable figure according to circumstances, since the first two factors vary not only with speed taken as an absolute, but also with awareness of the third factor. Unless handled with tranquillity this equation can result in considerable stress, ulcers and even death.
R17 is not a fixed velocity, but it is clearly far too fast.”
First things first: the FSD is not an Alcubierre Drive. Supercruise in Elite is more reminiscent of Star Trek’s Warp Speed than Star Wars Hyperspace – that means it works in real space, also known as our particular brand of spacetime continuum. Spacetime is the fabric of reality where time and space interwave, and it’s very different from time and space as two separate things – something that compress time may not compress space if they are dealing with different dimensions (or strings, depending of your favourite theoretical field of quantum physics).
On Supercruise, the FSD drive works by compressing spacetime around the ship in a bubble, shortening distances between two points while the ship moves at a normal speed. That means that your ship in Elite is not moving above relativistic speeds -- it is indeed flying just as fast as you do in normal space -- but the compression bubble pulling space around together makes you move much further than you normally do. Think of it as a penguin sliding on ice – the lack of attrition between the ice and the penguin’s belly allows him to move much faster than a penguin sliding on snow or a person walking on ground ever could. The FSD uses the same principle – by compressing time and space and removing that “attrition” caused by spacetime and the law of relativity, it allows you to move 10km instead of 10 meters and apparently breaks the speed of light. However, speed was never a factor – you’re moving faster than the speed of light only in regards to observers outside the ship – as far as the universe cares, you’re just a ship on top of a penguin sliding down a very dark ice waterfall. Except that penguin also moves backwards, sideways, and has a deflector shield.
The reason why Supercruise reduces and increases speed (apparently at random), mass locks you, generates escape vectors, and flat out pulls you out when you get too close to a major body is due to the gravitational force exerted by the large mass in spacetime itself, not exactly your ship. That's because both gravitational wells and compression bubbles effectively work by disrupting space, generating conflicting effects when they intersect and making the computer pull you out as a safety measure or simply reducing your overall speed due to a fluctuation in the integrity of your Supercruise bubble. Here, take a look:
That’s what gravity, mass and rotation does to the spacetime continuum. And speaking of rotation, we come to the reason why the Frame Shift Drive is called the Frame Shift Drive.
In Newtonian physics (also known as “the physics you learned in school” or “Classical Physics/Mechanics”), gravity is generated by mass. Rotation accelerates an object towards the centre of that mass, therefore creating gravity. However on quantum physics, the effect of gravity in spacetime is affected by much more than just mass and density, and the speed and direction of rotation affects the curvature of spacetime itself. This means that the effect of an object is felt in everything around it, even sometimes slowing light down.
Yes, light is not a constant -- the physical constant of the speed of light known as 299,792 kilometers per second is only applicable on vacuum. In fact, light on Earth moves at 299,700km/s (90km/s slower than normal) and goes through glass at only 200,000km/s. By the way, as far as letters go: speed of light = 1c. In the game, the max speed of the FSD in SC is 2001 times the speed of light: 2001c.
The Frame Shift Drive is based on an astrophysical process called Frame-Dragging. Frame in this context does not mean “single image captured by your eyes”, it is the "a basic structure that underlies or supports a system" concept of frame. This “frame” is used in Special Relativity to determine the position of an object in regards to 4 variables: time and 3 coordinates in space and time. The frame-dragging refers to the fact that this frame affects space around it and space affects the frame, in essence dragging each other. This happens because space is elastic, and every particle exchanges energy with it, exerting force – but the catch is, the moment that force is removed, space returns to its original shape and energy state. While frame-dragging usually works only in massive objects big enough to generate a strong gravitational field, the FSD works by generating that same kind of effect artificially by shifting that frame around Spacetime, compressing space and moving it’s particles around by the same principle of frame-dragging. But instead of dragging space around with it and exchanging energy, it shifts energy around the frame, essentially moving things and particles around the ship while the ship itself stays intact. This huge ballet of cosmic energy swinging around is also responsible for sensors picking up ships in SC from far away – the compression bubble greatly increases gravitational effects, and the distortion can be picked up from far away just as easily as a planet’s gravity well.
This frameshifting bubble created by the FSD is what allows the ship to move so fast but also turn direction and reverse speed – the compression field works the same way all around you, shifting space around the ship. This ability to change course mid-flight and even reverse direction is the main indicative of the FSD being a different kind of tech than the ones currently known. For an in-depth look at the differences between the FSD and other superluminal forms of travel found in science fiction, please check the spoiler section below.
As described above, the FSD compresses spacetime via a shift of the ship’s frame. While the effect appears to be the same to a layman (ship moves faster than light), the actual effect in regards to the universe is much more complex.
The Alcubierre drive is a present day theory (which is at least 20 years old) of making a pre-warp drive, and does not work the exact same way a hypothetical warp drive would. It involves the usage of negative mass in order to move a quantity of space that’s in front of the vessel behind it, creating a gap in front of the ship then occupies. The Alcubierre accomplishes this by creating a flat normal space area around the ship and utilizing the negative mass in order to “lower” the space behind the ship and repel it towards the back. This takes a larger amount of time in direct proportion to the length of the travel, and is unleashed at once when the process is finished, bolting the ship forward. The effect of that is the Alcubierre drive creates a “tidal wave” of space and matter behind it and the ship “rides” that wave toward the destination in front of it. The same way the sea pulls the water before a wave crashes into the beach, the Alcubierre drive pulls space in front of the ship and then uses it to push the ship forward. The issue of that is that, elementary, every single particle found in the space in front of the ship is swept along for the ride, and once the ship arrives at the destination and space normalizes, the particles are unleashed forward and obliterate whatever’s ahead of them due to inertia. Newer designs have reduced the transfer of celestial energy by changing the “warp drive” shape and a simple energy shield would be enough to deflect most of the particles out of the way instead of taking them along for the trip in the pre-charging stages. Energy shields which by the way don't exist here right now, but do exist in Elite a thousand years in the future.
The Warp Drive is actually something different all together – it also warps space, but it’s done very differently. It folds space in front of the ship like a towel, bringing two separate points in space closer together. It then generates a warp field that envelopes the ship in a subspace bubble that allows it to cross the empty space between those two points via an alternate part of the spacetime continuum called the subspace. That had the effect of reducing the inertial mass of any object in the warp field and also allowed the ship to accelerate or decelerate inside the subspace tunnel, while at start and end of warp, the ship was mostly stationary.
In both of these forms, it is impossible for a ship to change directions or revert, and they effectively enter a “separate dimension” in regards to real space, being partly cut off from it – the Alcubierre due to the tidal wave, and the Warp Drive due to the subspace tunnel (however, it is possible to re-chart a course mid-warp and recreate the warp field’s distortion, connecting it to the new end of the subspace tunnel). The FSD does not restrict you from doing either, and also keeps the ship grounded (heh) in real time.
The Alcubierre drive is a present day theory (which is at least 20 years old) of making a pre-warp drive, and does not work the exact same way a hypothetical warp drive would. It involves the usage of negative mass in order to move a quantity of space that’s in front of the vessel behind it, creating a gap in front of the ship then occupies. The Alcubierre accomplishes this by creating a flat normal space area around the ship and utilizing the negative mass in order to “lower” the space behind the ship and repel it towards the back. This takes a larger amount of time in direct proportion to the length of the travel, and is unleashed at once when the process is finished, bolting the ship forward. The effect of that is the Alcubierre drive creates a “tidal wave” of space and matter behind it and the ship “rides” that wave toward the destination in front of it. The same way the sea pulls the water before a wave crashes into the beach, the Alcubierre drive pulls space in front of the ship and then uses it to push the ship forward. The issue of that is that, elementary, every single particle found in the space in front of the ship is swept along for the ride, and once the ship arrives at the destination and space normalizes, the particles are unleashed forward and obliterate whatever’s ahead of them due to inertia. Newer designs have reduced the transfer of celestial energy by changing the “warp drive” shape and a simple energy shield would be enough to deflect most of the particles out of the way instead of taking them along for the trip in the pre-charging stages. Energy shields which by the way don't exist here right now, but do exist in Elite a thousand years in the future.
The Warp Drive is actually something different all together – it also warps space, but it’s done very differently. It folds space in front of the ship like a towel, bringing two separate points in space closer together. It then generates a warp field that envelopes the ship in a subspace bubble that allows it to cross the empty space between those two points via an alternate part of the spacetime continuum called the subspace. That had the effect of reducing the inertial mass of any object in the warp field and also allowed the ship to accelerate or decelerate inside the subspace tunnel, while at start and end of warp, the ship was mostly stationary.
In both of these forms, it is impossible for a ship to change directions or revert, and they effectively enter a “separate dimension” in regards to real space, being partly cut off from it – the Alcubierre due to the tidal wave, and the Warp Drive due to the subspace tunnel (however, it is possible to re-chart a course mid-warp and recreate the warp field’s distortion, connecting it to the new end of the subspace tunnel). The FSD does not restrict you from doing either, and also keeps the ship grounded (heh) in real time.
Finally, the speed indicator in-game represents your current speed, which is a scalar quantity of distance over time and completely relative in regards to observer and observed. Therefore, it doesn’t mean that your body and molecules are accelerating above the speed of light in regards to realspace around you – it just means the distance you’re moving is faster than the speed of light. This again returns to the area of Special Relativity, which can be a bit difficult to understand. Just remember that relativity is the main focus here – what is observer and who is observing is more important than what is observed.
Fun fact: the breaking of the bubble and the reality normalization is what causes the "bang" when you exit Supercruise. It's literally space decompressing and throwing you forward.
---Hyperdrive-
“Their minds sang with the ecstatic knowledge that either what they were doing was completely and utterly and totally impossible or that physics had a lot of catching up to do.”
Hyperspace in Elite is based on interdimensional travel, not unlike Star Wars' Hyperspace. It is not an scaled up version of the Supercruise system, since some pretty weird effects appear outside the window and you see a lot of dots that resemble stars flashing by, even if you’re jumping to the only star in that direction – things that would not appear if it used the same compression mechanism behind the FSD. Also, there is no acceleration and deceleration involved, which hints at some sort of absolute state drive.
As mentioned, the Hyperdrive has almost zero "real-world" scientific basis. The only workable theory that fits (and that in present day Earth has absolutely zero chance of becoming reality in the next 500 hundred years unless humans meet an alien race who’s feeling very charitable for Christmas) is the use of an interwoven alternate part of the spacetime continuum similar to subspace, where the laws of relativity do not apply.
The most reasonable explanation for this is in regards to the composition of the dimension itself: Baryonic matter (normal matter in our dimension) can't get above the speed of light, or even reach it. However, the Hilbert space concept in quantum mechanics indicates that quantum spacetime is composed of infinite dimensions, and as such at least one of them is composed of tachyonic matter. Tachyonic matter, contrary to baryonic matter, can move faster than light -- but it cannot move slower than it. As such, baryonic matter can not cross over to Hyperspace, and tachyonic matter can not cross over to realspace, creating in effect a sort of “highway dimension”.
In order to access Hyperspace, the Hyperdrive would need to envelope the craft in a protective shield that could blend with the tachyonic field on the other side at the same time it generates a distortion in spacetime strong enough that allows a connection to be made between both dimensions. The ship then slips into the distortion and is immediately accelerated to many times the speed of light. When it reaches its destination, the craft would need simply to “drop down” from hyperspace in the inverted way it entered it, creating a distortion connecting both dimensions again and deactivating the protective tachyonic bubble, returning immediately to realspace well under relativistic speeds.
That means the system itself has absolutely no restrictions regarding "you must drop out at the biggest mass in the system" -- that is done from a purely pragmatic point of view. Travelling at Hyperspeed, it is much easier for your on-board computer to detect the biggest mass in the system on approach and disengage than a smaller body – the also is also valid when plotting a course (we would need an autopilot for pretty much everything in hyperspace. The calculations for hyperspace jumps are just too complicated to be done "on the fly" without disintegrating your ship) and it’s the reason why we must align the ship’s vector before making the jump.
As such, nothing forbids you from scanning other stars in a system (or even planets, really) and making microjumps in their direction. So yes, at the end, the "no jump allowed in-system" is always gonna boil down to a gameplay decision.
As such, nothing forbids you from scanning other stars in a system (or even planets, really) and making microjumps in their direction. So yes, at the end, the "no jump allowed in-system" is always gonna boil down to a gameplay decision.
Please be aware that along with chat communication, this is the single most fictional entry in the whole Guide. Hyperspace remains for all intents and purposes remarkably and uniquely fictional. While I’ve done the best of my ability to provide a rational and coherent functionality to the mechanic found in gameplay within the constraints of the game lore and developer’ statements, this technology is completely made up.
I can’t stress this enough.
-End of Chapter I-
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