Jumpgate

In science fiction, "Jumpgate" (or "jump gate") refers to a device that creates wormholes, allowing fast travel between two points in space. Several works use this term extensively.

Babylon 5

In the Babylon 5 television series, a "Jumpgate" is an apparatus with the power to open a vortex that connects normal space with hyperspace, making interstellar travel a matter of days. Jumpgates also provide beacons that allow navigation within hyperspace. The origin of the technology is unknown; all extant races learned to make jumpgates by examining already-existing ones. For example, humans acquired jumpgate technology by purchasing it from the Centauri.Some ships are large enough to house jumpgate devices within them, enabling them to enter and exit hyperspace at will. Minbari warships have been known to exit hyperspace right next to enemy ships, destroying them in the backlash.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

In the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century television series a network of "stargates" has been set up for interstellar travel. In this context, stargates are the same concept as jumpgates. These stargates were shown as a diamond-shaped quartet of stars that shimmered when a vessel was making transit.

Doom

The DOOM series has their own jumpgates, called Anomalies, and placed on both Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars. In the Doom 3 games a true version of a stargate appears. In Doom 3, it offers a direct link to Hell, where two Hell Knights come out to try to kill the protagonist. In Doom 3 - Resurrection of Evil, another stargate is opened when the player faces the first Hunter. All the Anomalies in both classic and new Doom are used to travel in space at an instant speed by using an alternate dimension as a shortcut, where the hellish and demonic race dwells.

Eve Online

In the MMORPG, Eve Online, jump gates allow travel between star systems. Due to the complex nature of their construction and the physics that they are based upon, in the official lore of the game, a jump gate must be placed between two stars of a star system with at least two stars - this makes "approximately one in every three" star systems unsuitable. However, currently all solar systems in the game seem to only have one star.

Recently the largest capital ships (Titans) have been given the ability to forge a similar gate towards a cynosural field, allowing them to temporarily connect one system to another and jump support fleets through before jumping itself. In Revelations II, a player owned struture called the jump bridge was added that allowed a more permanent jump bridge to be made. With the Trinity expansion pack another ship type (black ops) appeared which could generate 'silent' jump portals not visible on the system scanner (although the ships still appear, as cloaks cannot be used along with generators).

Fading Suns

In the fictional Fading Suns universe jumpgates are the only means to travel between the stars. They are huge structures left behind by some almost unknown alien civilization called the Ur. The jumpgates are long ring-like structures that have a diameter of several kilometers across, they are opened by a device called jump engine, and the route is controlled by another device called the jump key. The civilization of the known worlds has very little understanding of the principles at work behind the gates.

Freelancer

In the Freelancer game by Digital Anvil, the jumpgate is an apparatus which provides travel from system to system. After the Liberty landed on Planet Manhattan and began exploring the New York System they came across the natural phenomenon known as the Jumphole. Ageira Technologies researched it and developed the Jumpgate, and in conjunction with Deep Space Engineering, provided the rest of the Houses with the technology- for a hefty fee.

Jumpgates form choke points through which traffic entering a star system must pass, making them favored ambush points for criminal groups such as the Outcasts and Corsairs. To guard against this, naval or military checkpoints are commonly situated near Jumpgates, who also take advantage of the opportunity to scan for contraband being smuggled into the system (although smart smugglers and criminals tend to make use of jump holes rather than risk detection and capture.) Jumpgates are also outfitted with defensive turrets in order to cover the immediate vicinity.

Nevertheless, a great many careers have been cut tragically short in Sirius by an unsuspecting convoy or fighter entering a system only to find a whole squadron of pirate vessels waiting for them and their valuable cargoes.

Jumpgate series

In the NetDevil MMORPGs and Jumpgate Evolution, the titular jumpgates are used to travel from sector to sector of space.

Marvel Comics

In the Marvel Universe, Jump Gates are used by the United States Government to connect each state superhero team of the Fifty State Initiative with the Negative Zone's Prison 42 and in turn the other states Jump Gates. However, State jumps wear down the point between positive and negative space so the jumps are used sparingly. [Avengers: The Initiative #2]

An alien race called the Shi'ar, use Stargates which can transport matter across intergalactic distances. There is a large Shi'ar stargate on the edge of our Solar System, but it requires a massive amount of energy to activate, and is hazardous to use since it has the potential to destabilize a star.

Lost in Space (film)

In the year 2058, Earth will soon be uninhabitable after the irreversible effects of pollution. The United Global Space Force serves as the planetary government. Professor John Robinson, lead scientist of the Jupiter Mission, will lead his family to the habitable planet Alpha Prime to prepare it for colonization by building a hypergate in orbit. The Jupiter 2 is equipped with a hyperdrive that allows faster-than-light travel, which will eventually be employed to evacuate the citizens of Earth. However hypergates must be constructed on Earth and Alpha Prime to provide stable points of departure and arrival. The project is accelerated after Global Sedition terrorist forces send two armed fighters to destroy the hypergate under construction. Major Don West, a fighter pilot from the hypergate defense force, manages to destroy the enemy fighters and is unwillingly drafted as the new pilot of the Jupiter Mission, as the previous pilot has been assassinated.

Unfortunately, without a hypergate to warp to, the ship and its crew end up in a random (and apparently uncharted) part of the galaxy. They then go through a "hole in space" and presumably go to the future.The Space Family Robinson thus become lost in space,as they did in the tv series and various comic projects.

Prehistoric Park

See Prehistoric Park#Technology for more information.

Stargate

In the Stargate film & television series universe, "Stargates" are ring-shaped devices with 9 'chevrons' equally spaced around their circumference, and 39 symbols displayed on an inner ring. They were created by an extinct alien race known as the Ancients (or the Alterans), who scattered them on Earth-like planets throughout the Milky Way and other galaxies. They are occasionally collectively referred to as the "Stargate Network".

If given enough power, and "dialed" correctly, Stargates can be used to open wormholes from one gate to another, allowing nearly instantaneous travel between them. Matter can only pass in one direction between Stargates through a wormhole from the gate that "initiated" the connection to the gate that was "dialed". Matter in transit is broken down into its individual atoms and then reconstructed on the other side, but walking through a Stargate is superficially no different than stepping through a doorway. Communication from one end to the other of a wormhole can be conducted by using radio signal transmissions, which are able to travel in both directions through the wormhole. Because of stability issues with the wormholes that the stargates generate, the wormholes last only 38 minutes per dialing under normal circumstances, as seen in the Stargate Atlantis episode, Thirty-eight Minutes.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

In the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series, famous "dimensional portals" appear. These machines can within some seconds transport people from one place to another. Krang has one, and Donatello develops one later (during season three), however, Donatello's seldom work. Typically, Krang opens the dimensional portal in the Technodrome for transportation between Earth and Dimension X.

Transformers

The original "Transformers" cartoon featured the Space Bridge, which created a subspace tunnel from one point to another — typically, from an Earth station to Cybertron. The Earth station resembled a giant ring lying down, with an opening gate. When activated, the gate would close and sections of the ring would light up, the light spinning until a subspace tunnel was opened and whatever was in the ring was pulled in. The Cybertron receiving station was built into a large tower. Only one Space Bridge was ever shown, and it was under Decepticon control; but one station existing on Cybertron may be a hint that there were other Space Bridge stations on Cybertron. It was a key plot device in the first two seasons, phased out afterwards in favor of more standard space travel.

Unlike some examples (see Stargate above), matter is not broken down when sent through the Space Bridge — the objects stay intact inside the subspace tunnel.

The X Computer Game Series

The jumpgate in the X computer game series by Egosoft is a large device which uses a wormhole to connect itself to another jumpgate. These devices have changed in appearance through the series although this is accepted as a graphical enhancement, not actual gate altering.

The jumpgates create a web of connections to 163 known sectors within the X Universe. Within the sector the jumpgates are roughly located in the north, south, east and west. Not all sectors have 4 discovered jumpgates, some have slightly more, many have less.

The jumpgates and their current configuration are believed to be designed by ancient beings who are currently nowhere within the X Universe gate system. They are believed to be observing the sectors but direct contact has not occurred in generations. They are also blamed for the re-routing of some jumpgates every now and again, cutting off some sectors or connecting undiscovered ones.

The current intelligent biological residents of the X Universe, the Argon, Boron, Paranid, Split and Teladi do not understand the technology behind the jumpgates but the Humans of the Sol system successfully created their own jumpgates in the mid 21st century. The Earth jumpgate connected to the alien jumpgate system. The humans began colonising using the prearranged alien jumpgates although every sector they visited was strangely devoid of intelligent life. The Earth jumpgate was destroyed to trap the destructive terraformer fleet in the X Universe, away from Earth.

The only race in the X Universe to possibly understand the jumpgates are the Xenon, which are the “descendants” of the robotic terraformer fleet from Earth. They created a jumpdrive to get back to Earth to destroy it. The first jump-ship managed to jump close to the Earth system but it was badly damaged. The Kha'ak race also appear to have an understanding of jump systems, although they never use gate, preferring to use a jump system of their own design, which creates a momentary wormhole by joining several ships together and drawing power from all of them.

References

ee also

* Faster-than-light
* Jump drive
* Warp drive
* Interstellar teleporter
* Wormhole