[BoM Spoilers] Scadrian FTL

[VoltCruelerz he/him]

So in another thread I got to thinking about this, and I think I've figured out how the Scadrians are going to get their hands of FTL tech, but there's some very odd quirks to it.

 

As of BoM, we now know that when you suck the mass out of something, it accelerates to keep momentum constant.  If that's the case, then all you need for a ship that travels just below c is a ship with some thrusters to point it the right way and an ironmind to store its mass.  Store 99.999999% of its mass and you'll probably end up going a significant fraction of the speed of light.

 

Now, let's say you get good enough with this that you can go 99.99% of c.  This is obviously going to be useful for interplanetary travel.  I would not be surprised if the Scadrians of Era 2 have already sent astronauts to all other planets in their star system.  Going really really fast like this though can cause time dilation.

 

Let's say Scadrial and Roshar are 10 light years apart.  With an ironmind drive, you could get there in just over 10 years from the perspective of the crew, but from the perspective of the outside world, it would be far more than that.

 

Enter the second component of a Scadrian interstellar drive: bendalloy bubbles.  Now, the strange thing about bendalloy bubbles is that they speed up time for those affected by them so if you used a bendalloy drive to supplement an ironmind drive on your starship, you could in fact reach Roshar in less than 10 years from the outside world's perspective while the crew would perceive it as more than 10 years.  That's strange though.  Very very strange.

 

Bendalloy is expensive and burns quickly so I think we're liable to see starships use it, but sparingly.  Yes, you might be able to make a trip from Scadrial to Roshar in less than a year to the outside world's perspective, but you still have to pack a decade's worth of supplies on that rocket.  Not a whole lot of people would be willing to do that.  It would be horrendously expensive and would really only be useful if you were on some time-sensitive mission.  

 

That said, I can see the Scadrian equivalent of Air Force One using a high-performance bendalloy drive.  Missiles would also likely use bendalloy drives to make them nigh impossible to intercept.

 

As a final note, steelrunning could also be relevant to interstellar travel, but only if it actually impacts velocity/momentum/time and not just the body's metabolism, though this doesn't seem to be the case.

Edited January 31, 2016 by VoltCruelerz

[Irkutsk he/him]

Another theory I have seen for Scadrian FTL is the Alcubierre drive.

Wikipedia link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive

(Side note, how do I embed links in text? Newbie here)

Anyways, it works on a principle of creating an expanding region of space behind your ship and a contracting region in front. You then ride the "wave" of expanding space, with no relativistic effects.

This should theoretically be possible with Cadmium and bendalloy bubbles, which by contracting and expanding time would also expand and contract space.

[VoltCruelerz he/him]

Another theory I have seen for Scadrian FTL is the Alcubierre drive.

Wikipedia link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive

(Side note, how do I embed links in text? Newbie here)

Anyways, it works on a principle of creating an expanding region of space behind your ship and a contracting region in front. You then ride the "wave" of expanding space, with no relativistic effects.

This should theoretically be possible with Cadmium and bendalloy bubbles, which by contracting and expanding time would also expand and contract space.

Thought about that, but I don't think it would work.  Cadmium and bendalloy seem to hack time directly rather than just stretching spacetime.  Recall that Khriss said that they didn't cause redshifting.  They're not actually stretching space, just time.  Something weird is definitely going on at the border though.  My guess is that they actually somehow pinch off a piece of the universe and make that bubble of spacetime flow forward independently of the original universe.  Maybe you could make a wormhole or teleportation out of that, but I'm pretty sure warp drives are a no-go.

Edited February 1, 2016 by VoltCruelerz

[The Ninja Yodeler he/him]

Thought about that, but I don't think it would work.  Cadmium and bendalloy seem to hack time directly rather than just stretching spacetime.  Recall that Khriss said that they didn't cause redshifting.  They're not actually stretching space, just time.  Something weird is definitely going on at the border though.  My guess is that they actually somehow pinch off a piece of the universe and make that bubble of spacetime flow forward independently of the original universe.  Maybe you could make a wormhole or teleportation out of that, but I'm pretty sure warp drives are a no-go.

If it only effects time, how are projectiles entering/exciting Cadmium/Bendalloy bubbles thrown off? Unless it's just the edge of the speed bubble screwing where it is in time, causing a trajectory change. But then how would its angle change so erratically if its not effecting space as well?

[VoltCruelerz he/him]

If it only affects time, how are projectiles entering/exciting Cadmium/Bendalloy bubbles thrown off? Unless it's just the edge of the speed bubble screwing where it is in time, causing a trajectory change. But then how would its angle change so erratically if its not effecting space as well?

Rotation of the planet?  I don't know.  Like I said, something very strange is going on at the border, but it's not straight spacetime dilation as that'd cause the redshifting which we know isn't there.

Edited February 1, 2016 by VoltCruelerz

[nervousnerd he/him]

Yeah. It may have something to do with rotation of the planet because it was said that bendalloy bubbles move with you if you are on very large objects (ie the planet). But you would think that would mean that the refraction would be something that is fairly easy to understand but from how it is described, it seems more random.

[yafeshan he/him]

I believe scadrian FTL is about making an artificial wormhole by increasing mass of small amount of matter, so it can create a hole in space-time. It could create some problems in the solar system so it should be attempted a little bit far from main planets.

 

We need 2 exits for a wormhole so we need to create another exit in the destination system. We have 2 mass increase machines, they will create a hole in fabric of space time. Before start we need someone with ferruchemist powers to go destinaton planet and charge a connection metalmind device powered by ettmetal.  When our FTL ship is about the create wormhole tunnels, one of the wormhole creating machines will be outfitted with the connection metalmind device of destination planet. When 2 machines work, they will create a wormhole 1 exit near scadrial system and the other in destination system.

 

All the mechanism can be put in a speedbuble to prevent harmfull effects during creation of wormhole.

Edited February 1, 2016 by yafeshan

[The Ninja Yodeler he/him]

Yeah. It may have something to do with rotation of the planet because it was said that bendalloy bubbles move with you if you are on very large objects (ie the planet). But you would think that would mean that the refraction would be something that is fairly easy to understand but from how it is described, it seems more random.

That's what I was thinking. Maybe they can predict it, but they just don't know the rotational speed of Scadrial, so it just seems random. But volt is right, if their is no redshift then its not effecting space, not even at the edges. Man this is gonna drive me crazy. Can't wait to see what Brandon comes up with.

[Asperity he/him]

I hope someone posts that one snippet/WoB about redshifts and bubbles because I don't even know where to begin looking for it, and I don't remember if that was a personal decision (to not have bubbles show redshift) or it held some ulterior motive. All I remember is something about Peter reminding Brandon about redshifts but I don't know much else. Whatever it is, hopefully it'll help you guys out.

[KidWayne he/him]

I hope someone posts that one snippet/WoB about redshifts and bubbles because I don't even know where to begin looking for it, and I don't remember if that was a personal decision (to not have bubbles show redshift) or it held some ulterior motive. All I remember is something about Peter reminding Brandon about redshifts but I don't know much else. Whatever it is, hopefully it'll help you guys out.

It is in chapter 12 of the Bands of Mourning during the scene where Wax is interrupted by a dark-skinned woman on the dance floor.

[Asperity he/him]

It is in chapter 12 of the Bands of Mourning during the scene where Wax is interrupted by a dark-skinned woman on the dance floor.

Nah, I was talking about something completely different.

[Shardbearer he/him]

I know the WoB you're talking about. Basically, Peter told Brandon he'd microwave everyone if there was redshift in the bubbles.

[PudgyNinja]

I hope someone posts that one snippet/WoB about redshifts and bubbles because I don't even know where to begin looking for it, and I don't remember if that was a personal decision (to not have bubbles show redshift) or it held some ulterior motive. All I remember is something about Peter reminding Brandon about redshifts but I don't know much else. Whatever it is, hopefully it'll help you guys out.

 

This might be relevant:

 

http://brandonsanderson.com/annotation-the-alloy-of-law-chapter-twelve/

Edited February 1, 2016 by PudgyNinja

[Stormgate he/him]

I am interested in your idea of mechanical Feruchemy. I am not opposed to it existing, in fact it could lead to some interesting situations, but do you have any WoB, in-book reference, or anything else suggesting evidence of such? If it does, it makes a lot of other things a lot easier and more awesome.

[Master_Moridin he/him]

This might be relevant:

 

http://brandonsanderson.com/annotation-the-alloy-of-law-chapter-twelve/

 

I actually brought this up in another thread.  If we extrapolate bubbles absorbing (and for Cadmium presumably injecting) kinetic energy to doing so for the energy of light, it would fix the redshift problem quite efficiently.

[aeromancer he/him]

...(I started a thread on redshifts)...

 

Bendalloy bubbles have been juggled around for as long as I can remember. There definetly is something there, but Brandon's RAFOed a lot of questions that would tell us more.

 

Um, wormholes won't work. For a lot of reasons. Event horizon. Spaghettification. Seriously, Interstellar is so off the mark with that stuff it's ridiculous Ignore my rant.

 

Event horizon + Bendalloy bubble, hmmm. No, terrible screw-with-spacetime idea.

[Seonid he/him]

...(I started a thread on redshifts)...

Bendalloy bubbles have been juggled around for as long as I can remember. There definetly is something there, but Brandon's RAFOed a lot of questions that would tell us more.

Um, wormholes won't work. For a lot of reasons. Event horizon. Spaghettification. Seriously, Interstellar is so off the mark with that stuff it's ridiculous Ignore my rant.

Event horizon + Bendalloy bubble, hmmm. No, terrible screw-with-spacetime idea.

What was so wrong with Interstellar? If you don't want to drag this thread off-topic, feel free to move your answer into a PM