Hyperspace/Legends



"Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy!"

- Han Solo to Luke Skywalker

Hyperspace was the alternate state of existence used by starships to achieve faster-than-light (FTL) travel. It was a phenomenon not completely understood by scientists; it was alternately described as a parallel universe, an extra 'dimension' of space and time, and an alternate mode of physical existence.

Technical Background
Normally, baryonic matter obeyed physical principles of relativity: they increased exponentially in mass as they approached the speed of light, requiring more and more energy to approach it, and thus always remained below this threshold. Tachyonic matter, on the other hand, existed solely above the speed of light, and could not pass below said threshold. Hyperdrive technology allowed sentients to break this barrier and allowed slower-than-light starships to leap past the barrier and reach speeds many thousands or millions of times that of light.

History
This principle was first discovered by the ancient Rakata, some 20,000 standard years before the Battle of Yavin (BBY). The Rakatan Force-enabled drives allowed them to create a galaxy-spanning empire. Some of the earliest hyperspace-utilizing artifacts (such as strange arches and matter transmitters found on ruined worlds) cannot be replicated by modern hyperdrive technology. Corellians and Duros were the earliest able to create technological versions of the Force-enhanced Rakatan devices, allowing them to build the first true hyperdrives. Consequently, despite common usage, relatively little is known about the true nature of hyperspace. Popular theories say that hyperspace utilized another dimension to 'sidestep,' per se., the light 'speed limit.' Others theorize that it phased matter directly into another universe, similar to otherspace or subspace, and thus gain superlight speeds. Whatever the case, there are many complex scientific principles known to modern hyperdrive engineers which allow for myriad different uses of this faster-than-light phenomenon.

Hyperdrive usage
A starship utilizing a hyperdrive had to go through a fixed, routine process. After the course was plotted in the navicomputer, the ship moved to a particular bearing and activated the hyperdrive. The ship then accelerated so rapidly that the passengers within the vessel seemed to see the stars stretched into parallel lines when they made the 'jump' to hyperspace. When entering hyperspace, the starship left conventional existence, or realspace. This phenomenon, known as pseudomotion, occurred as the massive acceleration resulted in a motion which rendered conventional notions of velocity irrelevant. At hyperspeed, the entire universe was compacted into a slue-shaded 'tunnel' of high-speed blur, effectively cutting off the ship from the normal methods of scanning and detection.

Hyperdriving of a ship (for example, the T-65 X-wing starfighter) was done by submitting coordinates to a navicomputer either manually or by being received by wireless transmissions; Rogue Squadron, among many others, used this kind of transmission so that everyone had the same coordinates during a mission. Coordinate calculation was a somewhat dangerous task, for if someone in hyperspace approached too many black holes or stars, they would be jolted out of hyperspace because of their gravitational attraction. Intrasystem hyperdriving was quite uncommon, but was sometimes used strategically to surprise the enemy.

Because hyperspatial navigation was difficult, routes often traveled close to inhabited systems. In the event of a problem, the possibility of communicating with a nearby planet was a great help in a difficult situation. Such problems were usually mistakes in calculating the coordinates or either not having very new data&mdash;such as of dead or newly-made stars&mdash;included in old databases. Trying to find a ship that has re-entered realspace at the wrong location is a nearly impossible task, as the many who sought the legendary Katana Fleet learned.

Hazards
When moving at speeds many times the speed of light, there were many dangers. While any collision or interference at this state was potentially fatal, the effects of gravitational pull on a starship could be particularly devastating, thus a course had to be plotted outside the 'mass shadow' or gravity well of large celestial bodies. This was exploited in many ways through the ages. Hyperspace courses were often plotted using a planet's mass as a backstop, with the hyperdrive's safety systems automatically stopping the ship as it reached the farthest point of possible travel.

Gravity generators could be used to create an artificial 'interdiction field' which stopped hyperspace travel in a particular area by mimicking the outer fringes of a celestial body's gravity, useful for both pulling ships out of hyperspace en route and preventing enemies from escaping to lightspeed during engagement. Less affluent groups, such as pirates dragged large asteroids into trade routes in lieu of the generator or starship method, providing them with both a means to stop shipping and a temporary base or shield against hostile fire.

Effects on sensors and comms
In addition to navigational hazards, there was also the difficulty inherent in communicating with a starship traveling at hyperspeed. Since ships in hyperspace did not exist in a conventional sense, they were largely cut off from conventional radio or subspace communication, since wavelengths of any signal would be massively distorted if they even reached the vessel. Hypercomm signals could reach a vessel in hyperspace, however it was very difficult to communicate in even this fashion unless the signal was sent from one end or the other of the traveling ship's course, or between ships on the same course.

The same difficulties presented to communication also applied to sensors; it was nearly impossible to maintain sensor lock on a vessel in hyperspace, which made escape to lightspeed a very robust retreat option in most engagements. The only option available for pursuit was generally to plot several courses along the target's last known vector, and try to guess where the ship would come out of hyperspace for course corrections. This was generally a losing strategy, of course, since most ships wishing to avoid pursuit would plot a short jump, followed by a longer one to the destination at a different vector before enemies could arrive. The best option was to locate a homing beacon on the enemy ship, but at large distances only HoloNet-equipped tracking devices were useful, and these were fantastically expensive.

An interesting phenomenon associated with hyperspace travel was Cronau radiation. This was a short, but powerful burst of radiation which was generated when a ship entered and left hyperspace. It could be detected by properly aligned sensors from some light-seconds away, often well outside normal sensor radius. This was how the Rebel base on Hoth was able to prepare for the oncoming attack when Admiral Ozzel mistakenly took the Executor and her battle fleet out of hyperspace too close to the system, rather than approaching stealthily.

Navigation
Because of the danger of mass shadows (not to mention interdicting pirates), hyperspace courses had to be plotted with great caution. Very few beings other than powerful Jedi could react while traveling many times the speed of light, and in any case conventional sensors and communicators could not receive information faster than lightspeed. Even subspace sensors, which operate along an alternate dimension and propogate faster than light, couldn't keep up with the vast speeds of hyperspace travel. Thus, precise advance knowledge of the celestial bodies along the way was necessary, in the form of navigational computers. These devices, also known as nav comps or navicomputers by spacers, contained detailed star charts and the ability to make astronavigational calculations quickly from one point to another before a jump is taken. While pilots had to have a basic understanding of astronav skills to operate a nav computer proficiently, they didn't need to know the complex physical equations necessary for hyperspeed travel. The internal library charts had to be periodically updated, of course, as systems spiraled slowly around the galaxy, stars exploded and were born, and so on, and so a dedicated explorer and cartographer corps still existed millennia after the first star lanes were plotted. Most star travelers used preexisting, well-known trade routes. This guaranteed that interdiction by pirates and celestial bodies was kept to a minimum, help was close by in the case of a malfunction, and travel times could be reasonably predicted.

Communications
While hyperspace travel was the primary usage of this phenomenon which binded the modern galaxy together, it was by no means the only one. Hypercomm technology sent signal packets through hyperspace at greater speeds and distances than possible with more conventional subspace transmitters, and with much greater speed than hyperdrive-equipped starships. The HoloNet increased range still further, using an interconnected network of hyperspace beacons to rebroadcast enormous tracts of data over the entire galaxy, allowing instantaneous, full-holo transmission from virtually any subscriber to any other. Under the Galactic Empire, the HoloNet was rigorously controlled, and even under the New Republic, the network was fantastically expensive to maintain, and so direct two-way connection was usually limited to government personnel and the wealthy. News, entertainment, and other wide-reaching broadcasts were transmitted throughout the galaxy and repeated on local sector-based subspace networks, however, so every level of galactic society was touched by this communications tool, not simply those with expensive hypercomm systems.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * The Star Wars Holiday Special
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
 * Shadows of the Empire
 * Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine
 * Star Wars Legacy 1: Broken, Part 1