Gate travel

Discovery

Coming from a physical concept emitted by the physicist Tebogo Rautenbach following the mastery of the Star Drive in the 2160s, the government began to take a serious interest in it only in the 2180s to begin plans and construction from 2194 with a goal of connecting Alpha Centauri. This project will be carried out through a partnership with several members of the Confederation including the most powerful states and the federal government.

Finally, in 2199, they managed to complete the first gate with which several tests will be carried out with unmanned probes, the vast majority of them being successful, the project leaders will be reassured in the possibility of carrying out a test with a real ship. However, due to the political situation, it was not until 2200 that the first passage of a ship took place without incident with Rachida Laouri's FRS Sangan. The gate will finally open to the public two years later after additional tests to ensure its reliability.

Complexity

The operation of the gate is quite simple, it is in fact about creating a tunnel in space which propels a ship using its Star Drive to create a bubble allowing it to reach phenomenal speeds. Coupled with another gate which allows the ship to decelerate, this makes it possible to connect two precise points in space-time in delays of around ten minutes depending on the distance traveled. The capacity of a gate can be around ten ships, but most of the time commercial convoys do not exceed two or three. Indeed, the energy required is quite significant and this functionality is mainly used in times of war for attacks on enemy territory.

Utility

This technology effectively enables interstellar travel by drastically reducing travel times to make them reasonable for lifeforms and making interstellar governance possible in terms of defense, economy, commerce and society. In war, even if the gates connecting opposing systems are disabled for return trips, it is still possible to send these ships through a single gate. However, this means that upon arrival, they cannot have the guidance of the arrival gate, which forces them to deaccelerate by themselves and arrive at an undetermined point in the system.

Manufacturing

Almost all of the final assembly of the gates is done by the federal government of the Republic or those of the sectors via, mainly, the agencies of the Department of Transports of the different levels of government. However, the components are nearly all produced by private companies which are specialized in this field and the same goes for the raw materials at the base of the production chain. This pattern repeats for just about every entity in the galaxy since they too rely on the gate system to move around the galaxy.

Social Impact

This technology has had a cataclysmic impact on the development of humanity and on the galaxy in general by allowing the first to begin its interstellar expansion as well as to meet other alien species, the same goes for other entities in the galaxy. As a result, it is this invention which really enabled galactic civilization with trade, the exchange of information and the complex games of alliances that we know today.

Inventor(s)

We cannot really place a single person who made this achievement possible other than Tebogo Rautenbach who invented the concept and Rachida Laouri whose participation in the tests is important, it is rather a collective work spread over several years.

Access & Availability

Given the essential aspect of this technology for galactic civilization, it is freely accessible within the Republic and considered not to require patents to produce it. The components of the gates, which are made up of very resistant composite materials with good superconductive properties. Many companies work in this field and most governments in the galaxy have expertise since they all work with this type of equipment.