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speed of space travel


Emperor Harkonnen

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I believe it isn't really mentioned by Frank Herbert what space travel was like without Navigators. But both the Dune Encyclopedia and the prequels mention Space Travel by Folding Space without Navigators, and the problems it brought along.

The fast space travel in the prequels is based on some kind of warp speed like in Star Trek, since they are really talking about travel distances.

And pre-Guild space-travel in the DE is done by computers, and after the Butlerian Jihad, the empire sort of collapsed due to disabled space travel, until the Guild was formed (And more events, like the Battle of Corrin)

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I disagree with you there Timenn.

Foldspace was used in the prequels, but instead of navigators, they used thinking machines to calculate the futurep ossibilities of foldspace. Just like what was used largely after the scattering, though the guild still did use navigators, machines also could be used as well. That is what was used in the prequels from what i can surmise.

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In the prequels Norma Cenva was forbidden from installing advanced navigation machines on the folding ships, it was left to much less sophisticated equipment, and a lot of chance. There was a 10% chance that the ship wouldn't make it, or something like that. There were never any thinking machines controlling the ships.

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Foldspace was used in the prequels, but instead of navigators, they used thinking machines to calculate the futurep ossibilities of foldspace. Just like what was used largely after the scattering, though the guild still did use navigators, machines also could be used as well. That is what was used in the prequels from what i can surmise.

Then be more specific. :P

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I disagree with you there Timenn.

Foldspace was used in the prequels, but instead of navigators, they used thinking machines to calculate the futurep ossibilities of foldspace. Just like what was used largely after the scattering, though the guild still did use navigators, machines also could be used as well. That is what was used in the prequels from what i can surmise.

I dissagree with you on that one. In the Legends of dune (when foldspace was developed) they were piloted by humans to a desination (thus re-assurting the fact that it is the engines that fold space and not some person/thing).

it was 1 in 10 (10%) loss rate. To improve the odds Norma developed a fast calculator to adjust the craft in a nano second (which really isnt that fast and is one of the many little notes i didnt like abt the legends). It was not a thinking machine as such since she argued its installation but the league didnt want it.

These calculation machines were only briefly used until they were stopped. the remaining one was installed in Vorians foldspace ship for the last battle. All other ships had to jump on chance. And as the league went round all the syncronised planets irradiating them they lost ships every jump.

It wasnt until Norma saturated herself in spice gas and was able to see into foldspace and she demonstrated this ability did they somehow "find" volenteers to also bee transformed into navigators

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I was talking about the DE. I am not aware of what the prequels say, as I dont feel like reading the rest of them.lol so damn crappy hehe

Yea, with prequels I mean the books written by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. I've only read the first book of the Legends of Dune, and I concluded that from it. I'm not surprised if it is described in more detail in the next 2 books.

I rather stick to the idea of the Dune Encyclopedia (computers calculating the route through folded space, then after the BJ there was chaos, until the Guild was formed) except for one important point. The DE suggests that space-folding ships travel with a certain speed, instead of moving to a place instantaneously. I prefer the second option, so the words "travelling without moving" make more sense. The delay in space-travelling would probably be the long loading times of the Heighliners (considering the amount of ships they carried)

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Think of folding space like moving from point A to point B

A-----B

------ Repersents the distance to travel.

Now think of the Holtzman engines as creators of REALLY good shortcuts. These shortcuts cuts down the distance to travel fromĀ  point A to point B to absolutely zero. So instead of

A------B

We have

AB

You move from A to B without traveling any distance at all. Speed is not a factor here. Speed is distance traveled divided by the time of travel. If you have no distance traveled, how do you define speed?

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