On 7/3/2015 1:06 AM, Richard Aiken
wrote:
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 5:51 PM, Kurt Feltenberger <kurt@thepaw.org>
wrote:
On
7/2/2015 5:04 PM, Grimmund wrote:
I am reasonably condfident that at some point in the series,
something
used FTL with the sublight drives out, damaged, etc.
I vaguely recall a Raptor stranded in deep space . . .
That was the bridge series of webisodes between the first and second
half of season 4 that put Gaeta's motivations for the mutiny in
perspective. The drive wasn't responding and one of the Eight's
aboard was actually the one that Gaeta was dating/having an affair
with on New Caprica that had him convinced she was on his side but
was funneling all the information back to the Occupation force.
It was twisted.
Presumably,
it's pretty low-power. I do not recall anything required
beyond spooling up the FTL (whatever that means; to me it
suggests
some sort of moving parts) and pushing the GO button.
When they're first notified of the Cylon strikes at the
colonies, Adama or possibly Ty orders, "Break out the jump
tables." So apparently whatever calculations are required can be
done WELL in advance and are thereafter fixed enough to be
printed in bound manuals.
[NOTE: The sound is a bit muddled just as this order is
given, at least to my ears. The first time I watched the pilot,
I thought the order was "Break out the jump CABLES." and I could
not help flashing on a vision of the poor crew deploying an
ENORMOUS jump rope into space . . .]
Prior to the Cylon attack, Galactica hadn't jumped in more than 20
years and basically just cruised around the Helios Alpha system like
a giant Travelleresque SDB. Once they brought the jump computers
back online and the navigation team adjusted to the older hardware,
they were able to plot jumps rather quickly...within minutes,
actually. The Raptors seemed to be a bit quicker, but their
hardware was probably a generation newer, too.
The moving parts, at least on a battlestar, can be rather
massive. It's almost like a flywheel or capacitor that they have
to spin up to build up enough energy that they can expend in one
burst.
I definitely remember that small-ship chase THROUGH the jump
engine!
Weren't there ENORMOUS pistons as well?
I believe. It definitely had a "Metropolis" vibe to it.