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Slipstream space: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Ship3.jpg|thumb|Regret's Assault Carrier exiting slipspace near [[Installation 05]]]] | [[Image:Ship3.jpg|thumb|Regret's Assault Carrier exiting slipspace near [[Installation 05]]]] | ||
'''Slipstream space''' ('''Slipspace''' for short), otherwise known as '''Shaw-Fujikawa space''' or '''subspace''' by the [[United Nations Space Command]] or simply '''the void''' to the Covenant, is a collective term for the [[seven]] non-visible infinitesimal quantum dimensions used for faster-than-light travel. Making a transition from one place to another via slipspace is known as a "slip", or "jump". | '''Slipstream space''' ('''Slipspace''' for short), otherwise known as '''Shaw-Fujikawa space''' or '''subspace''' by the [[United Nations Space Command]] or simply '''the void''' to the [[Covenant Empire|Covenant]], is a collective term for the [[seven]] non-visible infinitesimal quantum dimensions used for faster-than-light travel. Making a transition from one place to another via slipspace is known as a "slip", or "jump". | ||
==Background== | ==Background== | ||
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The [[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine]] allowed human ships to tunnel into the Slipstream, Slipspace, technically called "Shaw-Fujikawa Space,"<ref>''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'', page 141</ref> after the scientists who proved its existence. Slipspace is a domain with alternate physical laws, allowing faster-than-light travel without relativistic side-effects i.e., the occupants do not "warp" time, despite their super-luminal speed. But however fast it may appear, faster-than-light travel is by no means instantaneous; "short" jumps routinely take up to two months, and "long" jumps can last six months or more; despite going faster than light, there is still a slight degree of Time Dilation, while a jump may last only a day or two, several weeks may have passed in real time, which is why most UNSC ships have cryo chambers, allowing their occupants to forestall the effects of aging, and minimize the need for crew supplies and quarters. | The [[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine]] allowed human ships to tunnel into the Slipstream, Slipspace, technically called "Shaw-Fujikawa Space,"<ref>''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'', page 141</ref> after the scientists who proved its existence. Slipspace is a domain with alternate physical laws, allowing faster-than-light travel without relativistic side-effects i.e., the occupants do not "warp" time, despite their super-luminal speed. But however fast it may appear, faster-than-light travel is by no means instantaneous; "short" jumps routinely take up to two months, and "long" jumps can last six months or more; despite going faster than light, there is still a slight degree of Time Dilation, while a jump may last only a day or two, several weeks may have passed in real time, which is why most UNSC ships have cryo chambers, allowing their occupants to forestall the effects of aging, and minimize the need for crew supplies and quarters. | ||
[[File:Covenant_Assault_Carrier_FanArt.jpg|thumb|A [[Covenant]] [[Assault Carrier]] opens a Slipspace vortex.]] | [[File:Covenant_Assault_Carrier_FanArt.jpg|thumb|A [[Covenant Empire|Covenant]] [[Assault Carrier]] opens a Slipspace vortex.]] | ||
Slipspace can be thought of as our detectable universe (which, technically, it is) but with a greater number of dimensions. Our plane of existence is thought to have four dimensions (up-down, front-back, side-to-side and time), but Slipspace is an eleven-dimensional spacetime.<ref>''[[Halo: First Strike]]''</ref> Slipspace is currently theorized (in [[2552]]) as a "tangle" of our plane's dimensions, rather like taking the classic "flat sheet" used to represent gravity and crumpling it up into a ball, thereby creating extra dimensions and shorter spaces between points. The slipstream also possesses different laws of physics than our "normal" universe, although some basic ones, such as energy transfer and momentum, remain the same.<ref>''[[Halo: Ghosts of Onyx]]'', pg 55</ref> | Slipspace can be thought of as our detectable universe (which, technically, it is) but with a greater number of dimensions. Our plane of existence is thought to have four dimensions (up-down, front-back, side-to-side and time), but Slipspace is an eleven-dimensional spacetime.<ref>''[[Halo: First Strike]]''</ref> Slipspace is currently theorized (in [[2552]]) as a "tangle" of our plane's dimensions, rather like taking the classic "flat sheet" used to represent gravity and crumpling it up into a ball, thereby creating extra dimensions and shorter spaces between points. The slipstream also possesses different laws of physics than our "normal" universe, although some basic ones, such as energy transfer and momentum, remain the same.<ref>''[[Halo: Ghosts of Onyx]]'', pg 55</ref> | ||
The SFTE ([[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine]]) generates a resonance field, which when coupled with the unusual physics of the Slipstream, allows for dramatically shorter transit times between stars; however, scientists note an odd "flexibility" to temporal flow while inside the Slipstream. Though no Human scientist is sure why travel time between stars is not constant, many theorize that there are "eddies" or "currents" within the Slipstream — there is generally a five to ten percent variance in travel times between stars. This temporal inconsistency has given military tacticians and strategists fits, hampering an uncounted number of coordinated attacks. Shaw-Fujikawa engines allow ships to leave normal space and plow through Slipspace. Slipspace drives use particle accelerators to rip apart normal space-time by generating micro black holes. These holes are evaporated via [[Hawking Radiation|Hawking radiation]] in a nanosecond. The real quantum mechanical "magic" of the drive lies in how it manipulates these holes in space-time, squeezing vessels weighing thousands of tons into Slipspace.<ref>''[[Halo: Ghosts of Onyx]]'', page 53</ref> | The SFTE ([[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine]]) generates a resonance field, which when coupled with the unusual physics of the Slipstream, allows for dramatically shorter transit times between stars; however, scientists note an odd "flexibility" to temporal flow while inside the Slipstream. Though no Human scientist is sure why travel time between stars is not constant, many theorize that there are "eddies" or "currents" within the Slipstream — there is generally a five to ten percent variance in travel times between stars. This temporal inconsistency has given military tacticians and strategists fits, hampering an uncounted number of coordinated attacks. Shaw-Fujikawa engines allow ships to leave normal space and plow through Slipspace. Slipspace drives use particle accelerators to rip apart normal space-time by generating micro black holes. These holes are evaporated via [[Hawking Radiation|Hawking radiation]] in a nanosecond. The real quantum mechanical "magic" of the drive lies in how it manipulates these holes in space-time, squeezing vessels weighing thousands of tons into Slipspace.<ref>''[[Halo: Ghosts of Onyx]]'', page 53</ref> | ||
The | The Covenant have a very finely tuned version of this technology, far superior to the UNSC Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace Drive. Instead of simply tearing a hole into Slipspace, Covenant Slipspace drives cut a very fine hole in the fabric of space-time and slips into Slipspace with precision (much like a scalpel compared to a butcher knife). It exits with the same pinpoint accuracy, takes less time during travel, and is able to plot a course with error not exceeding an atom. This is why in battle Covenant ships are able to slip by human defenses by using slipspace.<ref>''[[Halo: First Strike]]'', page 86</ref> | ||
Gravitational fields of significant size, such as those generated by a planet, affect the superfine quantum filaments that the [[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine]] must use to calculate an entry point to the slipstream, and UNSC calculations are unable to offset this effect.<ref name="numbers">''[[Halo: First Strike]]'', page 85</ref> Covenant drives, in turn derived from Forerunner technology, have a much higher resolution of the filaments, and use more accurate calculations, and though the Covenant do not use this ability, are capable of making slipstream transition in and out of a planet's gravity well. Indeed, while using the captured [[Ascendant Justice]] to make a Slipspace jump within [[Threshold]]'s atmosphere, [[Cortana]] remarked that "It was as if she was blind before."<ref name="numbers"/> After observing this innovation, a Covenant [[AI]] managed to leak the data out to the rest of the Covenant in a transmission. During the first days of the [[Battle of Earth]], the [[Prophet of Regret]] uses this newfound knowledge to transition into Slipspace while directly over [[New Mombasa]] in Earth's gravity well, damaging the city and causing the weakening and eventual collapse of the [[Orbital Elevator]] [[New Mombasa Orbital Elevator|there]].<ref>''[[Halo 2]]'', level [[Metropolis (Level)]]</ref> These events are further proof that the Covenant are imitative rather than innovative. | Gravitational fields of significant size, such as those generated by a planet, affect the superfine quantum filaments that the [[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine]] must use to calculate an entry point to the slipstream, and UNSC calculations are unable to offset this effect.<ref name="numbers">''[[Halo: First Strike]]'', page 85</ref> Covenant drives, in turn derived from Forerunner technology, have a much higher resolution of the filaments, and use more accurate calculations, and though the Covenant do not use this ability, are capable of making slipstream transition in and out of a planet's gravity well. Indeed, while using the captured [[Ascendant Justice]] to make a Slipspace jump within [[Threshold]]'s atmosphere, [[Cortana]] remarked that "It was as if she was blind before."<ref name="numbers"/> After observing this innovation, a Covenant [[AI]] managed to leak the data out to the rest of the Covenant in a transmission. During the first days of the [[Battle of Earth]], the [[Prophet of Regret]] uses this newfound knowledge to transition into Slipspace while directly over [[New Mombasa]] in Earth's gravity well, damaging the city and causing the weakening and eventual collapse of the [[Orbital Elevator]] [[New Mombasa Orbital Elevator|there]].<ref>''[[Halo 2]]'', level [[Metropolis (Level)]]</ref> These events are further proof that the Covenant are imitative rather than innovative. | ||