A
jump drive, hyper jump or a
Jump (with a capital J) is one of the speculative inventions in
science fiction, a method of traveling
faster than light (FTL).
Related concepts are
hyperdrive,
warp drive and
interstellar teleporter. The key characteristic of a jump drive (as the term is usually used) is that it allows a
starship to be instantaneously
teleported between two points. A jump drive is supposed to make a spaceship (or any matter) go from one point in space to another point, which may be several
light years away, in a single instant. Like
time travel, a jump drive is often taken as a granted thing in science fiction. Very few science fiction works talk about the purported mechanics behind a jump drive. There are vague indications of the involvement of tachyons, space-time continuum, etc. in some of the science fiction works.
There are two main variants of jump drives commonly portrayed. The first requires a ship to travel through
normal space to a specific jump point. Once at that point, the jump drive is used to move to another jump point. In some examples, such as the Capsule Drive in the computer game ''
Independence War'', the ship can travel to any other jump point. Others, such as the ''
Wing Commander'' series, only allow transit from one jump point to a corresponding exit point (which may or may not allow travel in the opposite direction). The second variant allows a ship to execute a jump from anywhere in normal space and move directly to any other location. This variant is frequently subject to other limitations such as distance from strong
gravity wells. ''
Battletech'' uses this style of jump drive in its
jumpships. In the re-imagined 2004 TV series ''
Battlestar Galactica'', the ''
Galactica'', which uses jump drive technology, does not appear to have any restrictions on the use of its jumpdrives. It can be used in the gravity well of a planet (indeed ''Galactica'' jumps in and out of a planet's atmosphere in the episode "
Exodus, Part II") with no long term adverse affects on living matter or ships structure or engines.
In most fictional universes, the total distance per jump is limited and multiple jumps may be needed to reach the final destination. Jump drives often require significant power and many universes require time to "re-energize" the jump drive after a jump, thereby limiting the frequency at which jumps can be executed.
These factors can allow writers to build
dramatic tension by showing characters struggling to reach a jump point, or to recharge their drive, before their foes reach them.