Re: Star System Attack

That Sprayform chap wrote:
> Just a question to gamers/astophiles (I think thats the term ! And I
> don't mean the green stuff!!) When in Sci-fi (or FT) you jump into a
> system , it always appears that you are beyond the outermost planet.
> Hence the 'defenders' have time to muster a defence and come out to
> meet you (Cut the last jump close as the KV did in a MT senario and
> you shorten the muster). What I want to know is why is it always on
> the solar plane? I would have thought that jumping in over the poles
> of star would mean you could be 'in system'. The solar wind (Correct
> me please) is concentrated along the plane so polar jumps would be
> safer (same with debris)? What gravitationally would the difference
> be ? (fast spiral as opposed to a drag orbit?) On a gravity
> space-time distortion map I would have assumed no distinction
> between planear and polar 

As 99% of a systems mass in usually concentrated in the primary, 
there will only be tiny differences in the gravity fields caused by 
the planets. So yes, jumping in on or off the plane will put you 
about as far out from the star. 

But you don't wnat to get to the star, you want to get to a planet
somewhere.

Assume you can appear anywhere on a sphere of radius R. Now you want
to get to a planet with orbital radius r. The shortest distance you 
can travel is R-r. Which requires you to appear on the same radial as 
the planet. It's simple vector addition! ;-)
Anyway, that's one reason why you might want to jump in on the plane.

The plane is more cluttered with dust, micro-asteroids and so on. 
Also there are those planets and planetoids. They may slow you down a 
bit, but only in SciFi movies are asteroid belts dense enough to be a 
naviagtion hazard. NASA hasn't lost a single probe in the asteroid 
belt as far as I'm aware. (Okay so the number of probes going beyond 
it is in single figures, but you get the point.)
If you can buy that this clutter will slow you down, you must also 
buy that the clutter will help to prevent your detection.

>From a non-military point of view, rescue in an emergency will 
probably be another factor. You jump into our system and are heading 
for Earth when something goes wrong. If you are on the plane then 
help from Titam, Europa, Ceres, Mars or whateber _may_ be nearby. If 
you are off the plane, then help will definitely not be nearby.

> How the hell are we assuming H-space works anyway RE FT II ? 

I don't think FT has a hyper-space like Star Wars or Babylon 5. I 
think jumps are instantaneous, but limited in range and you need to 
spend time recharging between them. Yep, checked More Thrust and that 
seems to be the case. There's some PSB on page 34 of MT.

	Cheers,
		Steve

--
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...
 Attack ships on fire, off the shoulder of Orion...
 I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. 
 All those moments will be lost, in time...  Like tears in rain." - Roy
Batty.