Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine
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- "The Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine became a reality in April 2291 due entirely to the vision, persistence and dedication of these two pioneers in quantum engineering and applied hypothetical physics. They have opened a path to the stars for all of us."
- — Tobias Fleming Shaw, ScD, QeD, FRS January 30, 2220 - November 10, 2317, Wallace Fujikawa ScD, QEnD April 20, 2215 - February 18, 2318[1]
The Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine (sometimes abbreviated to SFTE, usually known merely as a "Slipspace Drive") is a Human spacecraft propulsion system capable of faster-than-light travel through Slipspace.
History
The Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace Drive was developed secretly by a group of military researchers, Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa in 2291. The engine is capable of Slipspace jumps of over a thousand astronomical units to other Colonies in months. "Short" jumps routinely take up to two months, and "long" jumps can last six months or more. Shaw-Fujikawa engines allowed UNSC ships to leave normal space and plow through a dimensional subdomain colloquially known as "Slipstream space" (Slipspace for short) or "Shaw-Fujikawa Space." The invention of the "Slipspace Drive" has been rated as the most important invention in human history since it allowed Humans to colonize other planets and jump outside the bubble of their Solar System.
Background
Shaw-Fujikawa engines work by making ruptures between normal space and the alternate dimensional plane known as Slipspace, and then forcing the mass of a spacecraft through. They do this by creating quantum black holes with particle accelerators. Hawking Radiation prevents these microscopic black holes from existing for more than a nanosecond, but in that time the drive is able to manipulate them into forming a coherent rupture between normal space and the slipstream[2].
It is unclear whether Shaw-Fujikawa engines have any role in actually propelling spacecraft through the Slipstream, or whether a ship's sublight thrusters are used. It's known that the drives do remain active for the duration that a spacecraft is in Slipspace, but their function here is unknown.
The Shaw-Fujikawa drive of the Humans "punches" its way into Slipspace by using brute force. The Covenant, on the other hand, create small, precise ruptures and then delicately enlarge them. This is the reason that Covenant Slipspace engines are far more accurate than Human drives. Captured Covenant Engineers made the UNSC Gettysburg the fastest ship in the UNSC fleet by upgrading its Slipspace drive to near-Covenant specifications. Covenant engines are also more flexible than their Human-made counterparts; atmospheric Slipspace transitions have twice been seen with them[3], and an underpowered slip was successfully accomplished with a Covenant ship[4].
An active Shaw-Fujikawa drive emits Alpha and Beta particles, necessitating heavy radiation shielding. It is also stated that early models were prone to requiring many manual adjustments (which was a dangerous procedure). One can assume that a greater understanding of Slipstream physics has eliminated this requirement.
Trivia
- The emissions of a damaged Shaw-Fujikawa drive were used by ONI to make the armor of Spartan-051 malfunction and send him flying into unknown space, so that he could be secretly rescued, and then repurposed to train the new Spartan-IIIs.
- Covenant Slipspace Drives are seemingly much more advanced than Human ones, as Cortana performs the first atmospheric transition in Halo: First Strike, and Spartans Fred-104, Linda-058, and William-043 manage an underpowered jump using a captured Covenant destroyer in Ghosts of Onyx, which was said to have been attempted twice by UNSC ships, both times resulting in the ship transitioning "into atomized bits".
- The Spirit of Fire's Slipspace Drive was used as an improvised explosive to destroy The unnamed Shield World's internal sun, resulting in the star going supernova; destroying both the Shield World and its contigent of Forerunner Warships's in order to prevent those ships from falling into Covenant hands.
