Freighter

Image of the spacecraft Taris crash landed on the Island, and identical to the ships of Oma and Obsidian. This ugly duckling is a workhorse that is functional, like a six-wheel tipper truck.

It was used to ferry minerals and ore from Mars to Rhea, the planet which is now the asteroid belt. Fitted with a Boson Drive, it was also capable of reaching Proxima Alpha - a journey of just over twenty years.

The guns are not offensive, but used to clear space debris. The two under wing pods are for transporting hazardous materials.
 

Images

The freighter above clearly shows the Infinity Thrusters, especially in the high definition image.
 

Hunter-Killer

Jack loves the control room design, which is why he opted for the new configuration; he had no need of a warship ... back then.

He and Kay discover they have just enough rock plasma to initiate the transition, but work will continue for many days. Scanners are priority.
 

Docking

Once in service, Jack's ship manually docs with the International Space Station. The crew are taken for a ride around the earth and moon.
 

Introduction
The main spaceship has two propulsion systems: The Boson Drive for intra-galactic travel, and Infinity Thrusters, which are used within a solar system, to travel between nearby planets, to achieve stable orbit, planetary atmospheric flight, and landing.

Infinity Thrusters
The Ancestors had discovered a means to travel one light-year every ten years, the Boson Drive. What they had not discovered, was how to cover small distances in space, say from planet to planet. Some scientists were working on how to scale down the Boson Drive for shorter journeys and intra-solar system travel.

They were caught in a conundrum. The Boson Drive only worked for speeds approaching or equal to light; it could not be scaled down to usable inter-planetary speed without losing all propulsion. Theoretically possible, in practice the boson drive failed to deliver unless working within its optimal parameters; the range intra-galactic.

The breakthrough with inter-planetary engines was officially the result of disaster simulations. Mimicking expected war scenarios, one group disabled the main Boson Drive fusion reactor, expecting the secondary impulse regulating drive to maintain similar thrust. It did not. It was designed to stabilise the output of the main Boson Drive. On its own, it was much less effective.

One technician realised this secondary drive could be scaled down, tritium and -13Q providing distant-planet intra-solar speeds, and deuterium with negative pentaquark bombardment, finite and close proximity positioning to the nth degree. Combining both extremes within one module became a daunting task; like creating a microscope and a telescope as a single unit, not an easy thing to do.

After much experimentation, and greater theoretical study, the Infinity Thruster was devised. Originally, the name related to the diversity of subatomic particles that could be utilised to deliver thrust, their diverse combinations providing progressive drive from one millionth of an inch per sub-second, to millions of miles per hour: (from Earth) the Moon ten minutes distant; Mars, less than one week; Pluto months bordering on years.

Once in service, the Infinity Thruster became redefined, due to its unique ability to place a spaceship to within a nanometer, in any three dimensional direction. However, to avoid danger to life, or compromising the ship, all Infinity Thrusters are forbidden to fire anywhere near the ships hull; thus they must be paired at least, on opposite sides of the craft. All except the smallest craft (most Space Hoppers) have four, one at each theoretical corner of mass.

It was enough, when put together, to allow speeds from rest, up by minute increments, to several light-days. The diameter of our solar system, from the opposing extremes of Pluto, is 21.9 light-hours (including the diameter of the Oort Cloud [comet belt], 1.25 light-years). Velocities of light-months were possible, but the engine was not designed with those parameters in mind.

The practical outcome was the development of specific Infinity Thruster engines, which were relatively small in comparison to the Boson Drive. In Jack’s world, these would equate to small thorium reactors capable of powering a town or submarine, a ship at sea.

Infinity Thrusters are infinitely adjustable, hence their name. They are ideal for docking with other spacecraft, obtaining precise orbit, or propelling craft within planetary atmosphere. The reason why they did not work well when landing on Gaia, was because of Earth's great magnetic field; something previously unknown to the Ancestors. Their shields and drives used gravity wells to control atomic sub-particles, and these were severely disrupted by Earth’s magnetism, as was the Core to a lesser degree.

Each main craft has eight Infinity Thrusters. Smaller craft like the Command Module have four, as do attack fighters. Space Hoppers have only two, but that is all they need. When a spaceship is in cosmic flight, normally only the eight Infinity Thrusters of the main craft are used. Occasionally the four on the Command Module may be utilised, but this is rare, and used for space docking with another craft in orbit, especially un-powered satellites, like a space station.
 

Small Craft

The detachable Command Module, plus any space fighters or Space Hoppers (personnel landing craft), are only equipped with Infinity Thrusters.
 

Naming

These engines are called Infinity Thrusters because as a group, they can manoeuvre in any three-dimensional direction, with nanometric precision.
 

Placement

In design theory, each spacecraft is thought of a being a cube. One Infinity Thruster is attached to each corner. In practice, deployment is quite different, these engines being placed relative to the mass of the craft internals; but the effect is the same. The spaceship can be positioned precisely.
 

Mounting

These thrusters are usually positioned at edges of the craft, and are most often set on arms, that are themselves adjustable.

The aim was to provide the maximum arc of thrust, while not being fired at the hull or wings. In practice, most engines have a limited, three dimensional radius of activation.
 

Upgraded

Before flight, all spacecraft were upgraded to eliminate the effects caused by Earth's magnetic field.

The work was undertaken by Peni and Vela, with Kay and Ræm in close attendance.

Because of close proximity to the sun, solar flare radiation was also shielded from ship's systems.