This is Part 1 of a blog series dedicated to the scientific concepts I use within my science-fiction novels Embassy and Resonance, Books 1 and 2 of the Recovery Series
TPEU #1: The Barrier Law
I’m not gonna lie: I didn’t think up the Barrier Law until
halfway through writing Resonance, Book 2 in the Recovery Series. But when it
comes down to it, Barrier Law is my favorite concept of the entire series (tied
for first, actually. There’s one big concept that’s yet to be introduced…)
The Barrier Law (as it’s called in Resonance) is what allows
space stations to travel in FTL (faster than light speed). In the novel, dark matter acts as a non-Newtonian substance.
What’s a non-Newtonian substance, you ask? Have you ever seen what happens when
you mix cornstarch and water? When you run or jump on the mixture, nothing
happens! Except maybe your feet get a bit gooey. But when you stop moving, you
sink right through! (and it’s VERY difficult to get out).
A non-Newtonian fluid is a substance that has variable
viscosity. Put simply, it acts like a solid under certain conditions, and a
liquid under others.
So how does this relate to the Barrier Law?
As I said, the Barrier Law allows certain massive spacecraft
to travel in FTL to achieve interstellar travel between planets. In my book
series, dark matter acts as a non-Newtonian substance, meaning, under most
conditions, spacecraft will travel through it and not interact with it at all….but
under certain conditions, spacecraft are able to use dark matter both as an
energy source AND as a “highway” to another star system.
What ARE those conditions?
There are a number of conditions that must be met in order
for spacecraft to interact with dark matter.
First, and most obvious: there needs to be dark matter to
interact with. DUH!! Luckily for the characters in my books, dark matter is
pretty much everywhere….outside of a solar system. For sake of the physical
laws in the Recovery Series, dark matter is not massively present within solar
systems due to the influence of each solar system’s sun.
To reach a spot that has dark matter, spacecraft must fly
outside the heliosphere – the area of solar wind influence for any given star –
before they find a patch of dark matter stable enough to interact with and be
propelled into FTL.
The spacecraft in my books have engines that can accelerate
them to 61.8% light-speed within the heliosphere…but outside the heliosphere,
they aren’t much use.
But that’s okay!! Because traveling at 61.8% light-speed is
the velocity required to interact with dark matter – our non-Newtonian
substance. Any slower, and the spacecraft would pass right through. (And the
engines physically can’t accelerate spacecraft to faster than 61.8%. In fact,
they deliberately adjust for gravity assist, slowing the craft to prevent it
from traveling any faster).
What happens now?
When spacecraft interact with dark matter, as I described,
it acts as a “solid” substance. Imagine some sort of low-density cosmic goop.
You’re still traveling through space-time, but now you’re pushing through this
gel of dark matter.
And that's where stuff gets weird.
Another set of the spacecraft’s engines can now “inhale”
dark matter and use it as fuel. The thrust provided by this dark matter fuel
accelerates the spacecraft to approximately 166x the speed of light, or a
little less than 1 light-year every 2 Earth days (just about 53 hours, to be
exact. In fact, the galactic calendars in my books are measured in hours, not
days, because hours are measured the same on all planets…but that’s a post for
another time. Hehe, time).
Dark matter fills up most of the galaxy, so running out of
an energy source (soon, at least) isn’t a problem. What IS a problem is general
relativity – the relative motion part.
I’ll get to that in a second, but let’s take a quick step
back: when the spacecraft enters the dark matter, it begins to “drag” the dark
matter with it, and, inevitably, there’s a “barrier” that forms a sort of
cosmic tunnel (wormholes, anyone?).
No, not a wormhole…not exactly. Don’t think of the Barrier
in my books as a wormhole. No stargates here.
The Barrier starts out wide, but shrinks in diameter as the
spacecraft pushes forward and stretches out the length of the tunnel. So
non-stop trips across the galaxy are impossible. The maximum distance any
spacecraft can travel is roughly 20 light-years…so a bunch of pit stops are in
order.
Back to General Relativity.
Remember how I said that traveling slower than 61.8%
light-speed means you can’t interact with dark matter? Well, in my books, there
are theories that say describing how something vastly different will happen if
you exert more force on the Barrier (physicists and engineers in the books are
still unsure, but they’ve run models to make predictions).
If an object, say, a Molter (equivalent of a fighter jet in
space) were to depart from the spacecraft’s hangar and accelerate (thus
traveling with stronger force relative to the spacecraft), theories predict
that the dark matter barrier would rupture in a sort of explosion. Maybe the
Barrier would collapse. Maybe the energy would rip apart everything inside the
barrier. Maybe, with enough force, it could cause an explosion with all the
energy that’s being channeled into powering the spacecraft.
Basically, physicists are in agreement: DO NOT. BREAK. THE
BARRIER.
Put simply, pilots free-flying outside a spacecraft during
interstellar transit have a specific range they’re allowed to fly in, and
flying too close to the edge of the Barrier is definitely frowned upon. It’s
never happened, and nobody is eager to find out if the theories are true
(because the only way to measure interactions with the Barrier and dark matter
is to be inside it at the same time).
How do you drop out of the Barrier?
Dropping out of the Barrier is easy! The spacecraft
decelerates, the force interacting with the dark matter lessens, and it returns
to its “fluid” condition, the non-interactive condition.
Remember how a spacecraft cannot interact with dark matter
until it breaches the heliosphere of a star? Well, the same is not true in
reverse. A spacecraft can drag the dark matter barrier into a heliosphere. The
Barrier, of course, will gradually weaken under these conditions, but it’s
possible.
That being said, it’s standard protocol to drop out of the
Barrier well before entering a heliosphere – for a number of reasons:
First and foremost, you don’t want to smash into a star,
planet, or asteroid field. Cruising at 166x light-speed isn’t exactly
maneuverable, even at large distances within a solar system. Adjusting course
on a large scale within the Barrier would generate too much force to remain
contained.
Second, remember, normal matter can interact with the
Barrier in this condition. That means it has a significant amount of gravity
and a significant amount of energy, which would be devastating to stars and
planets, not to mention massively disrupting the orbits of planets and debris.
It just wouldn’t be a happy ending for anyone.
It would go boom…probably…and that would be bad.
So by decelerating a spacecraft well before entering a
star’s heliosphere, you harmlessly slip through the Barrier, the dark matter
returns to its normal state, and everybody avoids having a bad day.
So let's recap:
- In my books, dark matter acts as a non-Newtonian substance
under certain conditions.
- Barrier Law refers to how a spacecraft interacts with and
manages interstellar travel within a “barrier” of dark matter.
- The spacecraft must be traveling at 61.8% light-speed, and
exit the heliosphere to generate a barrier.
- Once within the Barrier, it’s theorized that exerting
substantial extra force/attempting to achieve a greater velocity will cause the
Barrier to collapse, rip, or explode.
- Traveling inside the Barrier allows a spacecraft to reach a
peak velocity of 166x light-speed, or 1 light-year every 53 hours.
- The diameter of the Barrier decreases over time, so a spacecraft
must drop out after 20 light years. In order to travel from Artaans to Belvun
(the furthest travel distance in my books), a spacecraft would need to drop out
of the Barrier 2x before reaching its final destination.
- Drop outs must occur near a solar system so the spacecraft
can use the energy from the nearby star to accelerate back to 61.8%.
- Dropping out too far away is essentially a death sentence.
- Dragging the Barrier into a solar system will obliterate the
stability of that solar system due to its gravity and the energy contained
within it.
- To drop out, a spacecraft need only decelerate back to below 61.8% light-speed.
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So there you go! The first of what will hopefully be several
posts about the science and physical concepts in my books, Embassy and
Resonance.
I hope you enjoyed reading about this! At some point in the
future, I plan to compile all of these into a book/ebook that you can add to
your collection!
If you have any questions regarding Barrier Law, just ask!
I’m open to all questions and will explain whatever you need me to.
If this piqued your interest, please check out my books!
Sincerely,
S. Alex Martin
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