Based on the discovery of Tannhauser Gate in the wake of my Wolf 259 entry...
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Jump Gates
An early attempt of recreating the handwavium technologies that make up the Tannhauser Gate Stargate lead to the creation of the Jump Gates.
Being funded by just about everyone in Fenspace interested in these Gates, there was a lot of trouble getting a shape to build them. After a large amount of haggling it was decided to build a 4 kilometer diameter ring with four struts intersecting it as a sort of guidance system. Some Fen see a resemblance to the Acceleration Gates of 'X3: Terran Conflict'.
However the handwavium based circuicy contains a quirk that quickly became apparent after activating it the first time.
Without a station on the other end, the wormhole only became active for a time measured in Plank Time, while consuming an extreme amount of energy.
For testing purposes another station was established in Alpha Centauri A and the wormhole activated for a second time. This time the wormhole established for a second before becoming unstable and nearly destroying both Gate structures.
A reason was quickly found. The gates needed to be placed in a gravitationally stable position in or near a Lagrange Point of a planet to create a gravimetric anchor.
Moving to the Sol side to the L4 of the Jupiter-Sol gravity system and the other end into the L4 between Alpha Centauri and Epimetheus, the experiment was repeated, leading to a stable wormhole.
Again problems arouse. The wormhole could not be disengaged, neither could it be moved or the Jump Gate removed without destroying both the Gate and the wormhole.
As such the Earth Pandora Jump Gate remains a permanent fixture and links Sol to Alpha Centauri. Later it was seen as a good idea to keep them open, as they allow faster trafic and permanent comminication between systems.
Known Quirks:
'Only so many': Depending on the size of the Star and the size of its largest planets only a number of Jump Gates can be places in a given system. The current max number is Sol with four Jump Gates at the L4 and L5 point of Jupiter and Saturn.
'Those Gates are not cheap, ya know?': Hard to impossible to close a wormhole again. Doing so would destroy both the wormhole and the gate on both sides.
----------------------------------
Jump Gates
An early attempt of recreating the handwavium technologies that make up the Tannhauser Gate Stargate lead to the creation of the Jump Gates.
Being funded by just about everyone in Fenspace interested in these Gates, there was a lot of trouble getting a shape to build them. After a large amount of haggling it was decided to build a 4 kilometer diameter ring with four struts intersecting it as a sort of guidance system. Some Fen see a resemblance to the Acceleration Gates of 'X3: Terran Conflict'.
However the handwavium based circuicy contains a quirk that quickly became apparent after activating it the first time.
Without a station on the other end, the wormhole only became active for a time measured in Plank Time, while consuming an extreme amount of energy.
For testing purposes another station was established in Alpha Centauri A and the wormhole activated for a second time. This time the wormhole established for a second before becoming unstable and nearly destroying both Gate structures.
A reason was quickly found. The gates needed to be placed in a gravitationally stable position in or near a Lagrange Point of a planet to create a gravimetric anchor.
Moving to the Sol side to the L4 of the Jupiter-Sol gravity system and the other end into the L4 between Alpha Centauri and Epimetheus, the experiment was repeated, leading to a stable wormhole.
Again problems arouse. The wormhole could not be disengaged, neither could it be moved or the Jump Gate removed without destroying both the Gate and the wormhole.
As such the Earth Pandora Jump Gate remains a permanent fixture and links Sol to Alpha Centauri. Later it was seen as a good idea to keep them open, as they allow faster trafic and permanent comminication between systems.
Known Quirks:
'Only so many': Depending on the size of the Star and the size of its largest planets only a number of Jump Gates can be places in a given system. The current max number is Sol with four Jump Gates at the L4 and L5 point of Jupiter and Saturn.
'Those Gates are not cheap, ya know?': Hard to impossible to close a wormhole again. Doing so would destroy both the wormhole and the gate on both sides.