FTL

FTL-Faster Than Light, is a term for when a spaceship goes into faster than light travel. It is mostly, or rather solemly, used to make ships travel faster throu space. There are many types of FTL:

"Classical" FTL (Warp speed if you'd like) - the ship travels faster than light in real space, "hitting" whatever gets in the way. Shrapnel Shielding takes care of any small objects and radiation problems on the way, though a general rule of thumb is that it can't safely block a rock 30% the size of the ship.
"Hyperspace" FTL - the ship enters into a space that is not fully understood, a different dimension of space if you'd like, and a general rule of thumb is that this type of travel is 1.5 times faster than 'classical' FTL. Also, there are no objects in this dimension, not even ships that enter at the same time and the same destination don't colide or aren't even detected, it's like a 'personal' dimension if you will. Odly enough, gravity still effects this area, so stars, planets and larger bodies need to be taken into account when planning routes. The drawback is that a drift of light years is more likely.
Slipspace - the ship, or rather any object, creates a wormhole, to exact coordinates and the desired size and goes throu it. This technology however, is illegal and is banned by the JSM for use in warfare and ship specific space travel. This leads me to the next 2 types.
Gate and relay travel - Gates are localized wormholes, basicaly ment for travel across a single planet or in the largest of scales, a gate network spanding across a single constalation of planets. The gates are usualy constructed to be able to transport humanoids and other sized cargo, though they are often constructed in mind to be able to let throu an object the size of a 21st century tank.
Relay travel however, is on a completely different scale - it is constructed to transport ships, throu again, localized wormholes, across to the next, adjacent relay. These relay are massive space station-like structures that can transport anything from dreadnoughts to corvetes, though anything smaller than that won't be able to "initiate" the 'jump'.

Utility

It is used for fast transport on spaceships. And it was discovered so that a traveller could be at their destination before their death.

Access & Availability

Nearly every ship has a FTL drive.

Complexity

For a trained space engineer the technology is completely unknown. They should know how to maintain it, thou not reapir any critical systems. As in the FTL industry it's pretty basic.

Discovery

Around the first half of the 22nd century.

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