Grapeship
A Grapeship
approaches the vortex of the traversable wormhole from Arkab Prior A
to Medius
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GrapeshipA Grapeship
approaches the vortex of the traversable wormhole from Arkab Prior A
to Medius |
Most traffic between stars in the Inner Sphere and Middle regions involves at least one passage through a traversable wormhole. The smallest part of the space inside a traversable wormhole is a spherical region called the Throat. The size of the Throat dictates the maximum size of any vessel transiting the wormhole. If a vessel is larger than the diameter of the Throat in any dimension (length, height, width) it will come into contact with the walls of the Throat and be destroyed. The largest possible ship which can pass through the 'hole is a sphere, filling the region of space within the Throat. Although the so-called Transition Region around a wormhole is very large, many wormhole throats are only a few tens of metres in radius; this severely limits the size of the vessels passing through.
Note this diagram is not to scale; the
Transition region extends for a distance of about 3 Astronomical units
from the 'hole, while
the Throat may be only a few tens of
metres in radius.
Grapeships are the most common wormhole nexus passenger and cargo liners in the Inner Sphere and along the main wormhole routes. The ship consists of a "stem" onto which spherical shuttles are attached (giving them their name due to their similarity to grape bunches). The spherical units are each the maximum permissible size for the smallest wormhole throat en route. These spheres undock from each other during the passage through the smallest part of the wormhole, then reconnect during .passage out of the wormhole mouth. The connected 'grapes' are then propelled by a single powerful drive system safely out of the 'hole. This drive system itself collapses into a roughly spherical volume during transit.
Grapeships travel along fixed routes on a regular schedule. As a rule, as they enter a system they exchange a few shuttles with the local terminal or other grapeships and then continue to the next wormhole. This maximises throughput and avoids having to dock at terminals in every system (often a slow process). Of course, delays and mishaps do occur, and many speak highly of the Negentropy Alliance where the grapeships always go on time.