Hyperspace/Legends

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

- Han Solo to Luke Skywalker



Hyperspace (called Darkspace by the alien Yuuzhan Vong) is the alternate state of existence used by starships to achieve faster-than-light (FTL) travel. It is a phenomenon not completely understood by scientists; it is alternately described as a parallel universe, an extra 'dimension' of space, an alternate mode of physical existence, or simply the universe viewed traveling faster than the speed of light.

Technical Background
Normally, baryonic matter obeys physical principles of relativity: they increase exponentially in mass as they approach the speed of light, requiring more and more energy to approach it, and thus always remain 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 50,000 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 utilizes another dimension to 'sidestep,' per se., the light 'speed limit.' Others theorize that it phases 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 a myriad different uses of this faster-than-light phenomenon.

Hyperdrive usage
A starship utilizing a hyperdrive has to go through a fixed, routine process. After the course is plotted in the navicomputer, the ship moved to a particular bearing and activated the hyperdrive. The ship then accelerates 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 leaves conventional existence, or realspace. This phenomenon, known as pseudomotion, occurrs as the massive acceleration results in a motion which rendered conventional notions of velocity irrelevant. At hyperspeed, the entire universe is compacted into a blue-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) is 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 close to ablack hole or star, they would be jolted out of hyperspace because of their gravitational attraction. Intrasystem hyperdriving is quite uncommon, but is sometimes used strategically to surprise an enemy.

Because hyperspatial navigation is difficult, routes often traveled are close to inhabited systems. In the event of a problem, the possibility of communicating with a nearby planet can be a great help in a difficult situation. Such problems are usually mistakes in calculating the coordinates or either not having very new data&mdash;such as of dead or newly-formed 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
"Without precise calculations... we'd fly right through a star, bounce too close to a supernova, and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?"

- Han Solo to Luke Skywalker while they are being pursued by Imperial Star Destroyers

When moving at speeds many times the speed of light, there are many dangers. While any collision or interference at this state can be 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 are 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 can be used to create an artificial 'interdiction field' which stops 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 drag large asteriods (or planetoids) 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.

Black holes are a constant menace. At least a few vessels each year are destroyed by the several "wandering" black holes in real space. Their near infinite gravity wells can be catastrophic to nearby craft, that pass too close.

Effects on sensors and comms
In addition to navigational hazards, there is also the difficulty inherent in communicating with a starship while traveling at hyperspeed. Since ships in hyperspace do not exist in a conventional sense, they are largely cut off from conventional radio or subspace communication, since wavelengths of any signal would be massively distorted even if they reached the vessel. Hypercomm signals can reach a vessel in hyperspace, however it is 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 applies to sensors; it is nearly impossible to maintain sensor lock on a vessel in hyperspace, which makes 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 place a homing beacon on the enemy ship, but at large distances only HoloNet-equipped tracking devices were useful, and these are fantastically expensive.

An interesting phenomenon associated with hyperspace travel was Cronau radiation. This is a short, but powerful burst of radiation which was generated when a ship entered and left hyperspace. It can 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 from outside the system.

Navigation
Because of the danger of mass shadows (not to mention interdicting pirates), hyperspace courses have to be plotted with great caution. Very few beings other than powerful Jedi can react while traveling many times the speed of light, and in any case conventional sensors and communicators can not receive information faster than lightspeed. Even subspace sensors, which operate along an alternate dimension and propogate faster than light, cannot 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, contain detailed star charts and the ability to make astronavigational calculations quickly from one point to another before a jump is taken. While pilots have 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, although some species, such as the Givin and Siniteen, are able to calculate these equations in their heads and thus did not require the help of a computer. The internal library charts have to be periodically updated, of course, as systems move slowly around the galaxy, stars explode and are born, and so on, and so a dedicated explorer and cartographer corps still exist 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 is the primary usage of this phenomenon which bound the modern galaxy together, it was by no means the only one. Hypercomm technology sends signal packets through hyperspace at greater speeds and distances than was possible with more conventional subspace transmitters, and this was done so with much greater speed than hyperdrive-equipped starships. The HoloNet increased the 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
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina
 * Allegiance
 * Star Wars: X-wing
 * The Star Wars Holiday Special
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars: TIE Fighter
 * Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter
 * Shadows of the Empire
 * Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
 * Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine
 * Assault at Selonia
 * Young Jedi Knights: Return to Ord Mantell
 * Star Wars Legacy 1: Broken, Part 1
 * Star Wars Galaxies: an Empire Divided