The closest galaxy are 70,000 light-years away from the Milky-way. Just to get there would be a huge undertaking, even with the technology used in ED. The FSD are only able to jump max 50 - 60 LY in one jump, and it will need a star to make multiply jumps.
Our FSD works in the SC mode more or less like the Alcubierre drive.
"Rather than exceeding the speed of light within a local reference frame, a spacecraft would traverse distances by contracting space in front of it and expanding space behind it, resulting in effective faster-than-light travel. Objects cannot accelerate to the speed of light within normal spacetime; instead, the Alcubierre drive shifts space around an object so that the object would arrive at its destination faster than light would in normal space."
This would also explain why we don't get splattered all over the cockpit with these insane speeds.
When its time to make a hyper jump, the FSD work in a different way, I don't know if there is a technical explanation in the lore of Elite, however one explanation could be the Einstein-Rosen Bridge.
Our FSD works in the SC mode more or less like the Alcubierre drive.
"Rather than exceeding the speed of light within a local reference frame, a spacecraft would traverse distances by contracting space in front of it and expanding space behind it, resulting in effective faster-than-light travel. Objects cannot accelerate to the speed of light within normal spacetime; instead, the Alcubierre drive shifts space around an object so that the object would arrive at its destination faster than light would in normal space."
This would also explain why we don't get splattered all over the cockpit with these insane speeds.
When its time to make a hyper jump, the FSD work in a different way, I don't know if there is a technical explanation in the lore of Elite, however one explanation could be the Einstein-Rosen Bridge.