The inertialess drive is a fictional means of accelerating to close to the speed of light or
faster-than-light
Faster-than-light (also FTL, superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light (). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero ...
travel, originally used in ''
Triplanetary'' and the ''
Lensman
The ''Lensman'' series is a series of science fiction novels by American author E. E. "Doc" Smith. It was a runner-up for the 1966 Hugo award for Best All-Time Series, losing to the ''Foundation'' series by Isaac Asimov.
Plot
The series begins ...
'' series by
E.E. "Doc" Smith, and later by
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
,
Arthur C. Clarke,
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven (; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His best-known works are '' Ringworld'' (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards, and, with Jerry Pournelle, '' The Mote in God's E ...
, Julian May and
Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Preston Reynolds (born 13 March 1966) is a Welsh science fiction author. He specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle University, where he s ...
.
Appearances in fiction
''Triplanetary'' Universe
The possibility of
inertia
Inertia is the idea that an object will continue its current motion until some force causes its speed or direction to change. The term is properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his first law ...
less travel was first suggested in ''Theoretical and Physical Chemistry,''
published in 1912
by the
Tellurian chemist
Samuel Lawrence Bigelow,
an alumnus of
Harvard.
The first faster-than-light drive, which achieved only
partial neutralization of inertia, was developed on the planet
Nevia. Soon thereafter, two Tellurian scientists,
Lyman Cleveland and
Frederick Rodebush developed the one-hundred-percent inertialess
Rodebush-Cleveland drive, which traveled (and decelerated) much faster.
[''Amazing'' March 1934, p. 28.] (In contrast to accounts in later versions, there were no critical flaws with this drive, and no contribution by any scientist named
Bergenholm or by
Arisia
Arisia is a Boston-area, volunteer-run science fiction convention, named for a planet in the Lensman novels by E. E. "Doc" Smith. The name was chosen in response to an older Boston-area con, Boskone, which took the typical ending for a conve ...
ns.)
Physiological effects
* The Nevian faster-than-light drive apparently had no noticeable physiological effects even to an observer as well-trained as
Conway Costigan. An alternative explanation is possible, however. There is no mention of the neutralization of inertia until the third installment;
the physics in the first two installments seems consistent with that of the ''
Skylark
''Alauda'' is a genus of larks found across much of Europe, Asia and in the mountains of north Africa, and one of the species (the Raso lark) endemic to the islet of Raso in the Cape Verde Islands. Further, at least two additional species are ...
'' universe, in which faster-than-light travel is possible without even partial neutralization of inertia. So it is possible that Dr. Smith did not come up with the inertialess drive until writing the third installment.
* The Rodebush-Cleveland drive, in contrast, causes “a sensation akin to a tremendously intensified vertigo” which was completely incapacitating until Cleveland's “indomitable force of will” overcame it.
Lensman Universe
Galactic Civilization developed for a long period using only the
semi-inert drive, which was presumably similar to Nevian partially inertialess drive discussed above. The exact duration is not known, but even as late as the Third
Galactic Survey it still “took years to cross the galaxy.” Because the key piece of inertialess technology is known as the Bergenholm space drive,
it seems likely that an engineer by that name was responsible for a key advance, but little is known for certain. Dr. Bergenholm is referred to as the “late Dr. Bergenholm himself” in the original, which suggests that he was a more recent figure than in the ret-con version, below.
Physiological effects
* The fully inertialess drive in ''Galactic Patrol,'' even for
Worsel, who had never experienced it before, apparently has no noteworthy ill effects.
''Triplanetary''/''Lensman'' Ret-con Universe
In the revised book versions of ''Triplanetary'' and the core ''Lensman'' novels, the partially inertialess drive was given by Arisia to Nevia, and the fully inertialess drive was initially developed by scientists Rodebush and Cleveland, but the early drive was considered to be a "man-killer."
Progress was made when the Triplanetary scientist
Nels Bergenholm, activated by the Arisian
Drounli, came up with a "hunch" which solved the phasing problems of the original Rodebush-Cleveland drive. This made the drive safe and commercially practical, and in recognition of his achievement, the drive was thereafter called a Bergenholm.
[''Triplanetary, by E.E. "Doc" Smith]
Other authors' universes
Inertialessness, though not for faster-than-light travel, is discussed in
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
's ''
Methuselah's Children
''Methuselah's Children'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. Originally serialized in '' Astounding Science Fiction'' in the July, August, and September 1941 issues, it was expanded into a full-length novel in 1958. ...
'',
Isaac Asimov's
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
The Billiard Ball
"The Billiard Ball" is a science fiction short story by American author Isaac Asimov, written in September 1966 and first published in the March 1967 issue of '' If''. It appeared in Asimov's 1968 collection ''Asimov's Mysteries'', in his 1973 coll ...
,
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven (; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His best-known works are '' Ringworld'' (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards, and, with Jerry Pournelle, '' The Mote in God's E ...
's
Known Space
Known Space is the fictional setting of about a dozen science fiction novels and several collections of short stories written by Larry Niven. It has also become a shared universe in the spin-off ''Man-Kzin Wars'' anthologies. The Internet Spe ...
universe,
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and (as of 2022) only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both ...
's ''
Speaker for the Dead
''Speaker for the Dead'' is a 1986 science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, an indirect sequel to the 1985 novel '' Ender's Game''. The book takes place around the year 5270, some 3,000 years after the events in ''Ender's Game ...
'',
Arthur C. Clarke's
3001: The Final Odyssey, and
Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Preston Reynolds (born 13 March 1966) is a Welsh science fiction author. He specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle University, where he s ...
’ ''
Redemption Ark
''Redemption Ark'' is a 2002 science fiction novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds set in the Revelation Space universe. It continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories " Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial".
Plot
The novel t ...
.''
Inertialess drive was the means of FTL travel used by the Necron warships of the
Warhammer 40,000
''Warhammer 40,000'' is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987, ...
universe. Though assumed to have been retconned out of existence by the 5th edition codex description of sublight torchships used for Necron colonisation, the later Shield of Baal: Exterminatus confirmed the continued use of Inertialess FTL drives. Presumably the Necrons developed Inertialess drive technology some time after their initial colonisation waves.
See also
*
Reactionless drive
A reactionless drive is a hypothetical device producing motion without the exhaust of a propellant. A propellantless drive is not necessarily reactionless when it constitutes an open system interacting with external fields; but a reactionless ...
*
Dean drive
References
{{Spacetime in fiction
Faster-than-light travel in fiction
Lensman series