Ersetian Space Sails

Ersetian Space Sails are the primary means of conveyance for ships built in the Constitutional Dominion of Ersetu. Nodes set within a ship's masts project a trans-dimensional energy field called a Spacial Distortion Mesh. These are the sails. Powerful and nearly unpredictable surges of Aether flow through these meshes and create force against the rigging, and consequently the vessel itself.

This effect was first observed during failed experiments to create teleportation devices. The Ersetu were unable to understand what caused their machines to violently throw themselves through bulkhead and laboratory blast doors, and shelved the project. Decades later, the technology was dug up and proposed for use as a propulsion device for starships. The first vessels fitted with this technology were often destroyed as a result of the powerful forces acting upon them, but valuable data gathered from the foundered craft enabled researched to develop a more fine-tuned technology that allowed for modulating the trans-dimensional energy field through altering the attunement of the nodes on the rigging itself. This gave birth to the ability to 'reef' the space sails, a task which required powerful computers and numerous hands constantly keeping an eye on the force generated by the sails themselves. Over the years the process has been simplified in many ways, but the officer and hands in charge of setting and reefing sails on an Ersetian vessel is still considered a valuable member of the crew– for both their necessary service in keeping the vessel adrift and for their obligatory talent with mathematics and three-dimensional navigation.

Ersetian space sails function by either trapping or redirecting aether winds to propel the ship along at the desired speed. The entire system is a complicated combination of several key components. The sails themselves, which are a powerful projected energy field that reacts to the aether winds, The projector nodes, devices built into masts that projects and tunes the trans-dimensional energy field, using raw power from the ship's reactor or generator systems.

There are two ways sails propel Ersetian ships through space. When sailing in the direction of the wind (i.e. downwind), the sails can be set to trap the wind as it flows by and thus propel the ship in the direction of the wind. The second way, when the ship is sailing across or into the wind, by redirecting wind from the side towards the rear and producing force to propel the ship, acting much as an airfoil generating lift.

There are two types of rig employed to propel Ersetian ships, square rig and fore-and-aft rig. Square rig ships have their sails set “square” to the masts, at right angles to the ships keel. Alternatively a fore-and-aft rig ship, the sails are set parallel to the keel and are secured to the fore and aft of the ship rather than side to side.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_sail

Type: STL Drive
Designers: The Ersetu
Manufacturer: The Royal Navy of Ersetu, various civilian manufacturers
Production: Mass Production
Civilian Purchase: Yes
Cost: Varies

Lifespan: Sails: 1 year, Nodes: 5 years
Refit Cycle: Sails: Weekly, Nodes: Every port visit.

Gunsight1 created this article on 2015/11/06 00:25.