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Space Travel Hyperatomic Motivators
Hyperatomic motivators were developed in parallel with the hyperatomic drive in Imperial pre-history, during the time that the Earth and Spacer worlds were in conflict. The motivator is the heart of Hyperatomic physics; literally, it shifts the ship out of U0 into H0. It does so by collapsing a virtual singularity around the ship. By definition, all life within ceases before the virtual singularity breaks down. The energy required for this singularity is then re-radiated. The nature of the radiations is both an emittance and an absorption of the motivator crystal - a 99.99999% pure iridium crystal housed in a zero-gravity super evacuated tube. The motivator is critical. To perform a jump, around 20 GW of work is required to move the smallest ship through a jump. This power would move a vessel approximately 10 light years. With a small, classical nuclear power plant, fuel would be exhausted within a year. Micro-fusion plants fare no better and need overhaul in less than two years. Imperial engines utilized super-efficient, adiabiatically-transparent collecting shells to gather as much energy from the cores of starships. The shielding required, due to the radiations emitted, is, consequently, huge. Imperial war vessels of the Line were known to have at least 12.5% of their overall mass devoted to shielding of the crew. Warships intending a more stealthy appearance were known to have a shielding of not more than 35% of their mass. Surprisingly, starships did not suffer from the problems of moving a large mass across the Universe, rather, energy was the prime concern when performing the hyperspatial jump.
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