Space Travel

Deep space transport is widespread in Qhevak, with a variety of systems of systems in use. For a summary of military space technology in the Qhevak region, see here.

Propulsion
Due to FTL, propulsive requirements for most civilian starships are relatively low, only needing enough delta-V to move from the outer edge of the destination's protective FTLi (typically 1-3 light seconds for larger planets, more during wartime) into rendezvous or orbit, around 10-30 km/s for a one day mission time. Most interstellar civilian ships use fusion drives for this purpose, typically using ICF or Z-Pinch ignition, with specific impulses on the order of tens to low hundreds of kiloseconds and accelerations of a few meters per second squared. Nuclear thermal and VASIMR systems are occasionally also used, for a cheaper but less high-performance option. Fusion is also the mainstay propulsion of most surface-to-orbit craft, though with greatly increased propellant flow to lower specific impulse to kiloseconds while increasing acceleration to multiple gees. While not effective as a drive system in the deep Oort, plasma magnet drive systems are a common alternative to fusion drives for spacecraft operating within planetary systems. By generating an artificial magnetosphere to catch solar wind, fractional gee accelerations can be produced throughout a solar system without need for propellant. These are also the primary drive system of most interhab shuttles, though those make use of external particle beams arrays to match velocity with their destination rather than natural magnetospheres.

Smaller craft operating around habitats, moons and planetoids can get away with far less performance, typically using cheap chemical, (electro-)thermal or cold gas systems. Many are barely changed from Information Age space capsules, aside from avionics and the lack of reentry systems. Resistojets powered by SMES cells are the most common drive option for low performance shuttles and work pods, due to low cost and the ability to use water as a propellant. Electrothermal thrusters are also the primary option for rotational control on interstellar civilian vessels, though with access to fusion power more capable systems such as arcjets and VASIMR are frequently used over lower Isp resistojets.

FTL
Faster than light travel involves manipulation of the 10th spacial dimension to create dark matter, and riding on the ensuing wave of expanding spacetime within a so called "warp bubble". FTL is capable of high transit speeds, capable of crossing the galaxy in a year, but can be disrupted but high gravitational force - it becomes slower and less accurate closer to planetary wells, and FTLi spacetime metric disruption can block travel within a radius dependent on the generator size. FTLi interdiction radius increases proportionally to the square of the applied power, with ranges of a most a few light seconds for the largest warship mounted devices, and light minutes for the largest strategic interdictors. Tachyon based sensors can give larger warships fractional lightyear detection radii against other FTL craft, also precision of such sensors is rather low unless a large dedicated inferometer is utilized.

Theoretically FTL can be used to generate Closed Timelike Curves by performing significant relativistic frame shifts between FTL warp journeys. In practice, a starship moving at FTL speeds effectively "locks out" the possibility of FTL in a reference frame that would create causality violations - attempting to do so leads to immediate pileup of vacuum fluctuations around the spacecraft until warp bubble dissipation, often leading to the complete destruction of the spacecraft. As most FTL journeys are started and ended at relatively low velocities relative to the galaxy, this means that warp bubbles can only be formed by a starship moving at low realspace velocity.

Power and Heat
The primary power system for almost all long range craft is fusion, either MHD tapped from the drive for fusion propelled craft or generated via an internal reactor for others. These systems, while extremely efficient compared to earlier systems, still generate massive quantities of heat - large radiators are therefore needed. While military systems typically use Curie Point radiators that remove the need for highly-exposed vulnerable components, civilian graft typically still use diamondoid panel radiators for reasons of cost and simplicity, operating in the 2500-3500K range.

Secondary power storage, or primary power for many smaller short range craft, is provided by superconducting energy storage, which with molecular nanotechnology support structures can achieve energy densities on the order of 20-25 MJ/kg and power densities on the order of 100 MW/kg. This high density allows craft with electrical thrusters to run them in high thrust bursts when more acceleration is needed.

Spacecraft Design
Civilian spacecraft, most of which are typically built to operate purely in space, typically have very distributed designs when built for practicality, with habitats, cargo pods, power and propulsion systems mounted along a lightweight central truss. The primary fusion drive system and habitation modules are mounted on opposite ends of the truss, minimizing radiation exposure. The extreme specific impulse offered by fusion and long range mobility of warp propulsion dramatically reduces the tyranny of the rocket equation, however, and many civilian craft, especially personal ones, have very exotic, odd and customized designs - everything from gigantic metal birds to flying baroque palaces to Greek statues with fusion drive mouths can be spotted in Qhevaki space.

Habshuttles
Habshuttles are usually lightweight, relatively short ranged craft built to transport passengers and payloads between various habs in the Qhevak region. These are usually very simple designs, consisting of a cargo or passenger pod and plasma magnet attached to a warp drive system.

Cargo Haulers
These are longer ranged craft built to transport payloads across interstellar distances.

Passenger Transports
These are longer ranged craft built to transport payloads across interstellar distances.

Pods
"Pods" are a general term for sublight craft built to operate in the vicinity of small habitats or moons. These are generally very simple and low performance, usually relying on resistojets or hypergolic chemical thrusters for propulsion.

Orbital Shuttles
Short ranged craft meant to take payloads and/or passengers from a planetary surface to orbit. The only planets in widespread use by the Oortian Federation are gas and ice giants - most OortFed orbital shuttles therefore have very extreme performance and durability compared to shuttles of other starfaring nations.