Inertialess drive
Encyclopedia
The inertialess drive is a fictional means of accelerating to close to the speed of light or faster-than-light
travel, originally used in Triplanetary
and the Lensman
series by E.E. "Doc" Smith
, and later by Robert A. Heinlein
,
Larry Niven
, and Alastair Reynolds
.
is the measure of the resistance of a material body to a change in state of motion (acceleration
) under the effect of an applied force
. This resistance is proportional to the mass of the body, and is usually expressed (in simplest form) as F = ma.
For a body to be rendered inertialess thus means that, in principle, its mass should be reduced to zero. In classical special
and general relativity
, massless bodies are constrained to always move at exactly the speed of light
(the speed of photons in a vacuum), and the term relativity in this context in fact implies that light is always measured to move at the same speed by an observer, no matter how rapidly the observer is moving relative to any body defined as fixed. This aspect of inertialessness is explored by the more exacting authors who have adopted the term after Smith's groundbreaking use.
In classical special relativity, in order to move faster than the speed of light, a particle must have not zero mass—and inertia—but mathematically imaginary
mass. This is, of course, as viewed by an external observer, and one can postulate that Smith's inertialess field is thus similar in form to a space warp that acts as a tachyon
when viewed by an observer in the external universe. Whether this formulation can be expressed self-sufficiently in the context of Smith's fiction is, of course, irrelevant to the enjoyment of it.
less travel was first suggested in Theoretical and Physical Chemistry,
published in 1912
by the Tellurian
chemist Samuel Lawrence Bigelow,
an alumnus of Harvard.
The first faster-than-light drive, which achieved only partial neutralization of inertia, was developed on the planet Nevia
. Soon thereafter, two Tellurian scientists, Lyman Cleveland and Frederick Rodebush developed the one-hundred-percent inertialess Rodebush-Cleveland drive, which traveled (and decelerated) much faster. (In contrast to accounts in later versions, there were no critical flaws with this drive, and no contribution by any scientist named Bergenholm
or by Arisia
ns.)
,
it seems likely that an engineer by that name was responsible for a key advance, but little is known for certain. Dr. Bergenholm is referred to as the “late Dr. Bergenholm himself” in the original, which suggests that he was a more recent figure than in the ret-con version, below.
’s Methuselah's Children
, Isaac Asimov
's short story
The Billiard Ball
, Larry Niven
’s Known Space
universe, Orson Scott Card
's Speaker for the Dead
, Arthur C. Clarke
's 3001: The Final Odyssey
, and
Alastair Reynolds
’ Redemption Ark
.
See the Lensman Technology article for details.
Faster-than-light
Faster-than-light communications and travel refer to the propagation of information or matter faster than the speed of light....
travel, originally used in Triplanetary
Triplanetary
Triplanetary was a science fiction board wargame published by Game Designers' Workshop in 1973. It was a simulation of space combat within the solar system in the early 21st Century. The game was designed by Marc W. Miller as part of a series to be named "The Stars! The Stars!". A second edition of...
and the Lensman
Lensman
The Lensman series is a serial science fiction space opera by Edward Elmer "Doc" Smith. It was a runner-up for the Hugo award for best All-Time Series ....
series by E.E. "Doc" Smith
E. E. Smith
Edward Elmer Smith, Ph.D., also, E. E. Smith, E. E. "Doc" Smith, Doc Smith, "Skylark" Smith, and Ted was a food engineer and early science fiction author who wrote the Lensman series and the Skylark series, among others...
, and later by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
,
Larry Niven
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
, and Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Preston Reynolds is a British science fiction author. He specialises in dark hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from St Andrews, Scotland...
.
The concept of inertia
InertiaInertia
Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. It is proportional to an object's mass. The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental principles of classical physics which are used to...
is the measure of the resistance of a material body to a change in state of motion (acceleration
Acceleration
In physics, acceleration is the rate of change of velocity with time. In one dimension, acceleration is the rate at which something speeds up or slows down. However, since velocity is a vector, acceleration describes the rate of change of both the magnitude and the direction of velocity. ...
) under the effect of an applied force
Force
In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a change in speed, a change in direction, or a change in shape. In other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity , i.e., to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform...
. This resistance is proportional to the mass of the body, and is usually expressed (in simplest form) as F = ma.
For a body to be rendered inertialess thus means that, in principle, its mass should be reduced to zero. In classical special
Special relativity
Special relativity is the physical theory of measurement in an inertial frame of reference proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies".It generalizes Galileo's...
and general relativity
General relativity
General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...
, massless bodies are constrained to always move at exactly the speed of light
Speed of light
The speed of light in vacuum, usually denoted by c, is a physical constant important in many areas of physics. Its value is 299,792,458 metres per second, a figure that is exact since the length of the metre is defined from this constant and the international standard for time...
(the speed of photons in a vacuum), and the term relativity in this context in fact implies that light is always measured to move at the same speed by an observer, no matter how rapidly the observer is moving relative to any body defined as fixed. This aspect of inertialessness is explored by the more exacting authors who have adopted the term after Smith's groundbreaking use.
In classical special relativity, in order to move faster than the speed of light, a particle must have not zero mass—and inertia—but mathematically imaginary
Imaginary number
An imaginary number is any number whose square is a real number less than zero. When any real number is squared, the result is never negative, but the square of an imaginary number is always negative...
mass. This is, of course, as viewed by an external observer, and one can postulate that Smith's inertialess field is thus similar in form to a space warp that acts as a tachyon
Tachyon
A tachyon is a hypothetical subatomic particle that always moves faster than light. In the language of special relativity, a tachyon would be a particle with space-like four-momentum and imaginary proper time. A tachyon would be constrained to the space-like portion of the energy-momentum graph...
when viewed by an observer in the external universe. Whether this formulation can be expressed self-sufficiently in the context of Smith's fiction is, of course, irrelevant to the enjoyment of it.
Historical claims
In the late 1990s one Michael Pedler claimed to be developing an inertialess drive. His Inertialess Drive Corporation Limited was established in New Zealand in 1995, and obtained more than $6.8 million from 1,200 investors, mostly New Zealanders. However the company was placed into liquidation in 2001, and struck off the Companies Office register in 2004, without having produced a workable drive. Pedler also established Inertialess Drive Incorporation USA.Triplanetary Universe
The possibility of inertiaInertia
Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. It is proportional to an object's mass. The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental principles of classical physics which are used to...
less travel was first suggested in Theoretical and Physical Chemistry,
published in 1912
by the Tellurian
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
chemist Samuel Lawrence Bigelow,
an alumnus of Harvard.
The first faster-than-light drive, which achieved only partial neutralization of inertia, was developed on the planet Nevia
Nevia
Nevia is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Cancellariidae, the nutmeg snails....
. Soon thereafter, two Tellurian scientists, Lyman Cleveland and Frederick Rodebush developed the one-hundred-percent inertialess Rodebush-Cleveland drive, which traveled (and decelerated) much faster. (In contrast to accounts in later versions, there were no critical flaws with this drive, and no contribution by any scientist named Bergenholm
Bergenholm space drive
In E.E. "Doc" Smith's fictional Lensman series, the Bergenholm generator is the key to faster-than-light transportation. It functions by rendering an object inertialess so that it instantly takes on an analogue of terminal velocity: that is, the speed and direction of motion in which frictional...
or by Arisia
Arisia
Arisia is a Boston-area science fiction convention, named for a planet in the Lensman novels by E. E. "Doc" Smith. The name was chosen as an homage to an older Boston-area con, Boskone, which took the typical ending for a convention—con—and then altered the spelling to match the name of an...
ns.)
Physiological effects
- The Nevian faster-than-light drive apparently had no noticeable physiological effects even to an observer as well-trained as Conway Costigan. An alternative explanation is possible, however. There is no mention of the neutralization of inertia until the third installment; the physics in the first two installments seems consistent with that of the SkylarkThe Skylark of SpaceThe Skylark of Space by Edward E. "Doc" Smith was written between 1915 and 1921 while Smith was working on his doctorate. Though the original idea for the novel was Smith's, he co-wrote the first part of the novel with Lee Hawkins Garby, the wife of his college classmate and later neighbor Carl Garby...
universe, in which faster-than-light travel is possible without even partial neutralization of inertia. So it is possible that Dr. Smith did not come up with the inertialess drive until writing the third installment. - The Rodebush-Cleveland drive, in contrast, causes “a sensation akin to a tremendously intensified vertigo” which was completely incapacitating until Cleveland’s “indomitable force of will” overcame it.
Lensman Universe
Galactic Civilization developed for a long period using only the semi-inert drive, which was presumably similar to Nevian partially-inertialess drive discussed above. The exact duration is not known, but even as late as the Third Galactic Survey it still “took years to cross the galaxy.” Because the key piece of inertialess technology is known as the BergenholmBergenholm space drive
In E.E. "Doc" Smith's fictional Lensman series, the Bergenholm generator is the key to faster-than-light transportation. It functions by rendering an object inertialess so that it instantly takes on an analogue of terminal velocity: that is, the speed and direction of motion in which frictional...
,
it seems likely that an engineer by that name was responsible for a key advance, but little is known for certain. Dr. Bergenholm is referred to as the “late Dr. Bergenholm himself” in the original, which suggests that he was a more recent figure than in the ret-con version, below.
Physiological effects
- The fully inertialess drive in Galactic Patrol, even for Worsel, who had never experienced it before, apparently has no noteworthy ill effects.
Triplanetary/Lensman Ret-con Universe
In the revised book versions of Triplanetary and the core Lensman novels, the partially-inertialess drive was given by Arisia to Nevia, and the fully inertialess drive was developed by Rodebush and Cleveland, but these achievements are apparently forgotten, and the semi-inert drive is never mentioned. All apparent credit, and the name of the principal component of the fully inertialess drive, is due to the Tellurian scientist Nels Bergenholm, activated by the Arisian Drounli, who “made the drive safe and commercially practical.”Other authors’ universes
Inertialessness, though not for faster-than-light travel, is discussed in Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
’s Methuselah's Children
Methuselah's Children
Methuselah's Children is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction in the July, August, and September 1941 issues. It was expanded into a full-length novel in 1958....
, Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
's short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
The Billiard Ball
The Billiard Ball
"The Billiard Ball" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov, written in September 1966 and first published in the March 1967 issue of If. It appeared in Asimov's 1968 collection Asimov's Mysteries, in his 1973 collection The Best of Isaac Asimov in his 1986 Collection Robot Dreams and in...
, Larry Niven
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
’s Known Space
Known Space
Known Space is the fictional setting of some dozen science fiction novels and several collections of short stories written by author Larry Niven. It has also in part been used as a shared universe in the Man-Kzin Wars spin-off anthologies sub-series....
universe, Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...
's Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card and an indirect sequel to the novel Ender's Game. This book takes place around the year 5270, some 3,000 years after the events in Ender's Game...
, Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
's 3001: The Final Odyssey
3001: The Final Odyssey
3001: The Final Odyssey is a science fiction novel by Sir Arthur C. Clarke. It is the fourth and final book in Clarke's Space Odyssey series.-Plot summary:...
, and
Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Preston Reynolds is a British science fiction author. He specialises in dark hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from St Andrews, Scotland...
’ Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark is a 2002 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It is the second book in the Revelation Space series , and it continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial"...
.
See the Lensman Technology article for details.