So I'm watching Heavy Metal 2000 the other day (which doesn't hold up as well as the original Heavy Metal IMO) and what caught my attention was the method of ships going faster-than-light (FTL). In short, the ship is placed in a giant tube at a space station and then the space station launches the ship to achieve FTL. The effect, including the visual shown, is that the ship is essentially shot out of the tube like firing a bullet out of a gun. 
That is a method that I don't recall seeing before in sci-fi movies/TV/books. It got me thinking then of other methods usually depicted.
The most common method, of course, is the ship itself being able to go FTL under its own power. This is seen in Star Trek, Star Wars, and various shows like Andromeda. Think of almost any movie, tv show, or book and the odds are pretty good that the method of FTL used is the ship itself.
Then there is the 'jump' method where a ship jumps from one point in space to another. This can been seen in the SyFy series Dark Matter where an experimental "blink drive" allows them to jump to different points. The science behind these types of drives usually aren't explained but I would suspect they follow the basic principle of folding space. In space folding think of the usual example shown where you take a piece of paper and place two dots on it on opposite sides, Point A and Point B. The traditional method of connecting the two dots would be traveling in a straight line between the two points but in space that could be pretty slow. Instead take the piece of paper and fold it in the middle so now the two dots are touching each other; if you were traveling in a ship you would have just arrived near instantly.
Dune is great example of ships using space folding to travel though the method shown is a bit more complicated than a electronic gizmo you can install in your ship like on Dark Matter. Wormholes, like shown in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would fall under the 'space folding' method as well. In the Stargate verse multiple methods are used. There are ships capable of FTL and then there are the stargates themselves that act as a portal to create an on-demand wormhole.
As shown on screen the TARDIS in the Doctor Who verse also uses on-demand wormholes but when you take time into consideration as a factor I'm not sure if that would fall into the space folding category as well or if that'd be its own branch.
I'm not sure what category omnipotent characters like Q from Star Trek would fall into. Being able to snap your fingers and go anywhere you want is certainly convenient but the science behind it would be interesting to find out. I suspect somebody could find a way of explaining his powers at the quantum level which kind of takes back to space folding.
So, we have assisted launches, self-powered launches, space folding, and omnipotence. Do you recall coming across other methods?
That is a method that I don't recall seeing before in sci-fi movies/TV/books. It got me thinking then of other methods usually depicted.
The most common method, of course, is the ship itself being able to go FTL under its own power. This is seen in Star Trek, Star Wars, and various shows like Andromeda. Think of almost any movie, tv show, or book and the odds are pretty good that the method of FTL used is the ship itself.
Then there is the 'jump' method where a ship jumps from one point in space to another. This can been seen in the SyFy series Dark Matter where an experimental "blink drive" allows them to jump to different points. The science behind these types of drives usually aren't explained but I would suspect they follow the basic principle of folding space. In space folding think of the usual example shown where you take a piece of paper and place two dots on it on opposite sides, Point A and Point B. The traditional method of connecting the two dots would be traveling in a straight line between the two points but in space that could be pretty slow. Instead take the piece of paper and fold it in the middle so now the two dots are touching each other; if you were traveling in a ship you would have just arrived near instantly.
Dune is great example of ships using space folding to travel though the method shown is a bit more complicated than a electronic gizmo you can install in your ship like on Dark Matter. Wormholes, like shown in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would fall under the 'space folding' method as well. In the Stargate verse multiple methods are used. There are ships capable of FTL and then there are the stargates themselves that act as a portal to create an on-demand wormhole.
As shown on screen the TARDIS in the Doctor Who verse also uses on-demand wormholes but when you take time into consideration as a factor I'm not sure if that would fall into the space folding category as well or if that'd be its own branch.
I'm not sure what category omnipotent characters like Q from Star Trek would fall into. Being able to snap your fingers and go anywhere you want is certainly convenient but the science behind it would be interesting to find out. I suspect somebody could find a way of explaining his powers at the quantum level which kind of takes back to space folding.
So, we have assisted launches, self-powered launches, space folding, and omnipotence. Do you recall coming across other methods?
