Alderson Drive - Astrogation With The Alderson Drive

Astrogation With The Alderson Drive

Interplanetary travel is still no small feat, even for a culture as advanced as the CoDominium and its successors. The location of an Alderson point is dictated by the balance of the fundamental forces, which for a Sol-like star leads to points that can be several astronomical units apart by direct line – even farther when orbital paths are taken into account. Even at constant high acceleration, crossing a system can take weeks. As a result, it may be faster to make several jumps through other systems with points in close proximity than to cross a single system whose points are far apart. Military ships usually travel under constant acceleration, which saves time, but consumes vast amounts of fuel. Commercial ships generally make use of efficient transfer orbits which can take several times as long.

As Alderson points can be difficult to find, even when their position is known in principle, human astrogators bring their ships to as near a complete stop as they can, enabling them to precisely determine their position before jumping. A ship approaching a point thus must decelerate, increasing travel time between points. A possible alternative, discussed in The Gripping Hand, is to reach the point at speed and activate the drive at precisely the right time. Human astrogators apparently lack the requisite instincts and precision, but Motie warriors are capable of this. However, in most alignments of Alderson points, the ship will have to significantly change direction upon arrival in the destination system, possibly requiring significantly more acceleration than after a jump at rest and in most cases wasting time.