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Title Posted
The basis for Manticoran inventiveness Jul 2005
Education reform in the Republic of Haven Jul 2005
Technical improvements in the Talbott Cluster Jul 2005
Locating new Manticoran shipyards Jul 2005
Mesan assassin nanotech Jul 2005
The rationale behind when to reveal Apollo's existence Jul 2005
Refitting to the Keyhole-II standard Jul 2005
Expanding upon the Eridani Edict Dec 2005
Manticore's relationship with Beowulf Dec 2005
Power of the Manticoran Monarchy Dec 2005

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Pearls of Weber

A collection of posts by David Weber containing background information for his stories, collected and generously made available Joe Buckley.

Grav pulse comm and the detection of hyper footprints

  • Series: Honorverse
  • Date: November 01, 2002

The Manticoran FTL com and, for that matter, gravitic sensors in general, do not function solely in normal-space. Or, to put it more precisely, they do not detect solely n-space phenomena. The grav pulses of an FTL com, like an impeller wedge, distort local n-space. They also produce an echo in hyper-space--a sort of ripple or cascade effect--which is what the gravitics actually detect and measure. In theory, any gravity field--even that of an itty-bitty meteor--produces the same sort of ripple or cascade; in practice, only a very powerful gravity field produces on which present-generations gravitics can detect and/or measure. A hyper footprint, on the other hand, is detectable at far greater distances than any impeller wedge simply because the "ripple" a starship produces as it actually enters or leaves hyper is much more of a roaring cataract. The real trick for the FTL com was developing the ability to produce finely controlled pulses (ripples), and the RMN has been steadily improving that ability.