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Old 07-03-2022, 08:03 PM   #1
Coinage
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Default Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?

Hello everyone, I was reading up on the TV Tropes page on the "Alcubierre Drive", I was wondering how to incorporate into a relatively hard Sci-fi space warfare setting, but I am at a snag.

Let us assume that in the future, scientists figure out how to make viable Alcubierre-like warp drives. However, thinking about it, how exactly would space warfare work with such a warp drive? I'm not good with math, but wouldn't a starship moving FTL would be virtually impossible to detect, and be essentially a planet killer? Even a practical wall of super-advanced military drones would not be able to protect a planet and detect and intercept a starship using warp-drive.

Personally, my own thinking would probably to incorporate something like the "Slow Zone" effect as seen in The Expanse. Basically, a godlike alien race creates a "portal network" that allows for FTL travel, but attaches an upper-speed limit in the surrounding space.

Maybe I am missing something. If so, please let me know. Thanks for the replies.
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Old 07-03-2022, 08:22 PM   #2
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Coinage View Post
Hello everyone, I was reading up on the TV Tropes page on the "Alcubierre Drive", I was wondering how to incorporate into a relatively hard Sci-fi space warfare setting, but I am at a snag.

Let us assume that in the future, scientists figure out how to make viable Alcubierre-like warp drives. However, thinking about it, how exactly would space warfare work with such a warp drive? I'm not good with math, but wouldn't a starship moving FTL would be virtually impossible to detect, and be essentially a planet killer? Even a practical wall of super-advanced military drones would not be able to protect a planet and detect and intercept a starship using warp-drive.

Personally, my own thinking would probably to incorporate something like the "Slow Zone" effect as seen in The Expanse. Basically, a godlike alien race creates a "portal network" that allows for FTL travel, but attaches an upper-speed limit in the surrounding space.

Maybe I am missing something. If so, please let me know. Thanks for the replies.
A vessel using an Alcubierre-type drive wouldn't interact with the real universe and you couldn't steer it or see out of your bubble. It would basically be a jump drive if you could figure out how to get out of your bubble at the destination.
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Old 07-03-2022, 08:43 PM   #3
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?

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A vessel using an Alcubierre-type drive wouldn't interact with the real universe and you couldn't steer it or see out of your bubble. .
Yep, and noticing the uselessness of a drive that wouldn't allow you to interact with the real universe old SF creators had there be ways to interact with ships using such drives.

On Star Trek these are those generic "sensors" that obviously function faster than light too.

<shrug>Alcubierre gets attention not because it actually has a functioning scientific theory but because it has internally consistent math behind it and too many people confuse the second with the first.
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Old 07-03-2022, 09:36 PM   #4
Coinage
 
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Default Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
Yep, and noticing the uselessness of a drive that wouldn't allow you to interact with the real universe old SF creators had there be ways to interact with ships using such drives.

On Star Trek these are those generic "sensors" that obviously function faster than light too.

<shrug>Alcubierre gets attention not because it actually has a functioning scientific theory but because it has internally consistent math behind it and too many people confuse the second with the first.
Okay, so basically I should just make up what I think is necessary for an entertaining setting. I was just hoping for something with some current scientific backing, but that's okay.
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Old 07-03-2022, 10:15 PM   #5
Coinage
 
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Default Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
A vessel using an Alcubierre-type drive wouldn't interact with the real universe and you couldn't steer it or see out of your bubble. It would basically be a jump drive if you could figure out how to get out of your bubble at the destination.
Right, so I guess there would be "jump points".

However, there would still be the issue of the Planet Killer. As far as I can tell, there seems to be no way, according to the contemporary physics, to detect an incoming ship and stop it. This effectively creates a massive problem.

One way to get around it is to have FTL limited to specific "jump points". This would create "chokepoints" that would allow for some kind of space battles.
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Old 07-03-2022, 10:25 PM   #6
Dalin
 
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Default Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?

I haven’t run sci-fi in a while, but I seem to recall that a common explanation for FTL without gates was that you couldn’t warp when you were near a significant gravity well. This means ships must use sub-light drives to get far enough out from a sun to warp away. Arriving ships similarly couldn’t arrive closer than this safe radius.
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Old 07-03-2022, 10:39 PM   #7
Coinage
 
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Default Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?

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I haven’t run sci-fi in a while, but I seem to recall that a common explanation for FTL without gates was that you couldn’t warp when you were near a significant gravity well. This means ships must use sub-light drives to get far enough out from a sun to warp away. Arriving ships similarly couldn’t arrive closer than this safe radius.
Right, that is very common in Sci-fi. However, I was wondering how it would be based on the actual current scientific theories.
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Old 07-03-2022, 11:49 PM   #8
Refplace
 
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Default Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?

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Originally Posted by Coinage View Post
Right, that is very common in Sci-fi. However, I was wondering how it would be based on the actual current scientific theories.
Any FTL is superscience at this point so I would just make up what I wanted.
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Old 07-03-2022, 11:55 PM   #9
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Default Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?

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Any FTL is superscience at this point so I would just make up what I wanted.
Very much this. You get to create whatever limitations you want.

For example, 2300AD had the stutterwarp drive that lost efficient based upon the gravitational field strength. Hell, arguably Warhammer 40,000 did this with it's warp drive back in the days where it wanted to be gameable rather than just "grimdark".
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Old 07-04-2022, 01:54 AM   #10
Johnny1A.2
 
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Default Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?

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Any FTL is superscience at this point so I would just make up what I wanted.
But if you want it to 'feel' believable, you need to decide what it can and can't do and stick with that. Make your fictional tech fairly consistent. That is, if you can warp closer to Earth (or an Earth-like world) than one diameter out, then stick with that, or if you don't, note why it changed and what the change can and can't do.

Otherwise you end up with 'speed of plot', which tends to undercut believability pretty quickly.
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