History Main / HyperspaceLanes

* While it would not be faster than light, one proposed method of interplanetary of interstellar travel would be similar, [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/infrastructure.php#id--Solar_Power_Stations--Beamed_Power using lasers at both the launch point and destination to speed up and slow down respectively]]. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagBeam A similar idea]] would use plasma beams instead of lasers.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' featured hyperlanes as one possible method out of three, alongside [[AlcubierreDrive warp]] and [[PortalNetwork wormhole]]. All races that used hyperlane drives are restricted to moving along predetermined routes, and travel faster than warp (but slower than wormhole, which is instantaneous). Other races also don't initially know where the hyperspace lanes are - they have to research it.
** With 2.0 warp and wormholes were stripped out as options so as to enforce the limitations of hyperlanes, with the late-game Jump technology nerfed to work somewhat but not quite like old warp and wormholes turned to a natural PortalNetwork that can be supplemented by constructed gates.

!!!Examples

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'': Hyperspace in Cowboy Bebop is used for high-speed travel between planets in the solar system without momentum or orbital mechanics getting in the way. However, because of the way the hypergate infrastructure is designed, it is required that you go through a tunnel or chain of linked hypergates in order to not fall back into normal space. As a result, you can only travel along fixed paths, which have to be built and maintained in deep space and they must follow special orbits to maintain a consistent link between two planets as their relative positions in the Solar System change. When two planets are opposite the Sun, the hyperspace route is blocked. The hyperspace route between Mars and Jupiter, two hubs of civilization, is known as "Route 66" in reference to the long interstate highway running across most of the southern United States.

* In Literature/TheSiranthaJaxSeries, travel through grimspace requires following beacons and nodes created by [[{{Precursors}} the Makers]] in ancient times. The beacons are the only way of navigating in grimspace, as normal GPS systems don't work in it and maps are useless while inside thanks to it's strange properties. Problem is, only people born with the "J-gene" (called jumpers) can still perceive the beacons while making grimspace jumps. Grimspace travel is like a addictive drug for jumpers, giving them a orgasmic high. It's also highly destructive to the mind and body of jumpers, ultimately leading to either a mental breakdown or jumpers developing brain lesions that eventually cause them to make a jump and come out of it brain dead (this is called "navigator burnout syndrome" and means that most jumpers don't make it past thirty).

** Ships can only jump from a given system to certain other (usually) nearby systems without stopping in other star systems along the way. Ships can enter hyperspace so long as they're far enough from the system center and at a full stop and can jump to any linked system from anywhere far enough from the system center. A consequence of this is that, broadly speaking, ships can leave any direction but enter from a predictable direction, making entering a system more dangerous than leaving as entry points make a great place for a HyperspeedAmbush. The engines of the fire two games allowed unidirectional links, but neither official scenario used it, leaving it for mods, while Nova's engine automatically adds reciprocity.

** Ships can only jump from a given system to certain other (usually) nearby systems without stopping in other star systems along the way. Ships can enter hyperspace so long as they're far enough from the system center and at a full stop and can jump to any linked system from anywhere far enough from the system center. A consequence of this is that, broadly speaking, ships can leave any direction but enter from a predictable direction, making entering a system more dangerous than leaving as entry points make a great place for a HyperspeedAmbush.

* ''Starforged'', the sci-fi standalone expansion for TabletopGame/{{Ironsworn}}, features ships equipped with Eidolon drives that allow the ship to travel at FTL speeds in short bursts. When crossing uncharted territory, this may take several jumps, each represented by a separate dice roll based on a character's skills; if the course is already established i.e. the equivalent of a hyperspace lane, it only takes a single roll against how many supplies the ship has remaining.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film]]

So, you have FasterThanLightTravel, and you want to travel to Rigel, but first you have to stop through Tau Ceti, even though you don't have any business there, and stopping there makes the journey longer. Why is this? Whether due to some law of physics, some artificial regulation, or simply because HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace, you have to follow the Hyperspace Lanes.

Hyperspace Lanes allow space to have choke points and pace the story in space since you have to make stops along the way between jumps anyway. These lanes typically connect only the closest systems to each other. Not as silly as might be expected, as the stars of a galaxy are always in motion and even the tiny pull of distant stars may bring a ship seriously off course at great distances. Having a few lanes for which the movement and gravity of nearby stars is extremely well mapped out might be a lot safer than just [[ShortCutsMakeLongDelays blazing straight through a star cluster whose gravitational effects are only reasonably well estimated]].

** Ships can only jump from a given system to certain other (usually) nearby systems without stopping in other star systems along the way. Ships can enter hyperspace so long as they're far enough from the system center and at a full stop and can jump to any linked system from anywhere far enough from the system center. A consequence of this is that, broadly speaking, ships can leave any direction but enter from a predictable direction, making entering a system more dangerous than leaving as entry points make a great place for a HyperspaceAmbush.

** Ships can only jump from a given system to certain other (usually) nearby systems without stopping in other star systems along the way.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Naev}}'', a fan made SpiritualSuccessor to ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity'', hyperspace works much the same as in ''Escape Velocity'', but with the caveat that hyperspace travel is limited to specific jump points in the system.

* A [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasnikov_tube Krasnikov Tube]] would be an interesting version, as while not truly allowing faster than light travel, combined with incredibly advanced drives or the beam-riding near-light travel mentioned above would have similar effects. A Krasnikov tube is a kind of wormhole where the ends are [[TimeMachine displaced in time as well as space]]. A ship travelling or laying down down a 1000 lightyear-long K-tube, starting at our solar system, at sufficient c so it only experienced 1 year of subjective time would arrive at the other end a little more 1000 years after it left, nothing unusual so far. However, if the ship immediately travelled back the tube at the same speed, it would arrive back home only two years after it left our solar system. [[MindScrew Since it doesn't arrive at our solar system or the other end before it leaves, it may not violate causality]]. If they are possible to make, it could be possible for a galactic civilization to act as if they are all a few years apart from each other, despite being spread over 100000 lightyears and hundreds of millennia.

* ''VideoGame/ConquestFrontierWars'' has static wormholes connecting systems. The [[EnergyBeing Celareons]] have the technology to make temporary wormholes to any system. The first mention of this is when they use it to [[spoiler:save Captain Thomas Blackwell's corvette from falling into a black hole]]. This is the main reason why the [[BeePeople Mantis]] are attacking them: they want the technology. And some Celareons are willing to deal with the Mantis in the hope that the bugs will leave them alone after this.

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' also encountered a network of underspace corridors maintained by the Vaadwaur. As Voyager is a ''long'' way from home, they're naturally interested in using them, and as per usual hostile aliens would prefer that they don't.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'' took their cue from ''StarWars'' on this one. Humans were still quite new to hyperspace travel, and there were a lot of things that could go seriously wrong (and did in-series) if your calculations were off or your drive was malfunctioning.

* Some interpretations of the theoretical AlcubierreDrive limit its possible range through particles that accumulate on the warp bubble and may result in catastrophic releases of energy. This may lead to an Alcubierre drive having a practical range of, say, 10 LY. Since it cannot stop in the middle of nowhere and has to be "popped" from outside at the target star system, this will result in FTL travel taking form of series of warp jumps through close-by stars. If there's less than 10 LY to the next star along the lane, the way is clear; if it's more, you've reached a dead end.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' features hyperlanes as one possible method out of three, alongside [[AlcubierreDrive warp]] and [[PortalNetwork wormhole]]. All races that use hyperlane drives are restricted to moving along predetermined routes, and travel faster than warp (but slower than wormhole, which is instantaneous). Other races also don't initially know where the hyperspace lanes are - they have to research it.

* ''Franchise/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', which began on radio with exactly this premise: the ostensible reson for obliterating the planet Earth is to clear an obstacle from a proposed intergalactic hyperspatial bypass to be built, for your comfort and convenience, through your star-system. Regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. [[note]] OK, so this could also be Literature, Live-Action TV, Computer Game, Comic-Book and then Film. But it began on radio...[[/note]]

* In [[{{Literature/Voidskipper}} Voidskipper]] while a Voidskipper can - strictly speaking - bash its way through to wherever it wants to go through sheer brute force, they can go vastly faster if they don't have to worry about running into stuff in the way. To facilitate this, chains of laser armed space stations have been built in interstellar space to clear specified travel corridors of errant dust and gas. The net effect of this is to create an artificial network of lanes.

** The gravity planets, stars, and other celestial bodies project a "mass shadow" into hyperspace; if a vessel crashes into the shadow, it will be ripped back into Realspace, usually too close to the celestial body in question for there to be much hope of evading it. Planets struck by vessels from hyperspace have suffered everything from millions dying to complete shattering of the planet. To decrease the likelihood of this, modern hyperdrives automatically drop a ship into realspace when approaching a mass shadow (which is only of limited help if the shadow belongs to a star or a black hole), and nearly all hyperspace travel uses already plotted routes.

** Planets, stars, and other celestial bodies project a "mass shadow" into hyperspace; if a vessel crashes into the shadow, it will be destroyed. Planets struck by vessels in hyperspace have suffered everything from millions dying to complete shattering of the planet. To decrease the likelihood of this, modern hyperdrives automatically drop a ship into realspace when approaching a mass shadow (which is only of limited help if the shadow belongs to a star or a black hole), and nearly all hyperspace travel uses already plotted routes.

* ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'' uses jump gates to travel between systems. In addition, Titans (large, capital-level ships) can create their own jump gates.

*** In the ''Clone Wars'' episode "The Citadel," the Jedi lead a rescue mission to save the captive Tarkin and a Jedi Master as a result of this. It is apparently simple enough that it is something that a person can memorize. Each of them has half of it, which leads to a problem when Ashoka ends up having the Jedi half. She will only give it to the Jedi council, while Tarkin will only give his half to the Chancellor's office.