How many years in the future is freelancer?

[Zygoeths]

I've been thinking, and I think I've gotten something...

From 2003 (year freelancer was made) to lets say, 3,000, just guessing how long in the future we were before A.S., so that's 997 years already, then add the time it took the sleeper to land, not sure how fast they were traveling, but even at the speed of light it would take a mighty long time, so I'm going to add 5,000 years, so now were at 6,000 years, plus the 816, so 6,816 years from 2003. Maybe even more, it really all depends on the amount it took the sleeper to reach Sirius..

This is all depends on my guessing, comments or thoughts?

Years to travel (from this moment before comments): 6,816

After Discussion:

[Ximen_Benitez]

Sounds about right to me. If people say sooner than that, remember the movie Back to the Future? They thought everybody would use flying cars, and you'd play video games with your mind- by now. I bet your predictions are pretty close.

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[Zygoeths]

*Retarded post here* Yes, I forgot sirius was the closet star to us...

[Lux]

I doubt it would be billions of light years away, otherwise they'd probably choose something a bit closer. After all, the sleeper ships would be most likely on auto-pilot for the trip, since everyone is frozen, so if I were one of the technicians taking care of 'em, I'd be afraid that the longer the trip, the more chances the material has of degrading in functionality.

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THEY TOLD ME I COULD BE ANYTHING SO I BECAME A SIGNATURE PLS HLP

[Banza]

8000 years in future. I do not think so.
Sirius sector is 8.6 +- 0.4 light years from Milky.
So,if you travel at speed of light,it would take you max 9 years. Lets...say that sleeper ships could traval at 1/4 of Light speed. Then you would need max 36 years to Sirius.
In intro movie,it says,it was 23rd century. 816 + 200 + 9-36 = 1025 - 1052
816 as..I think,present year,200 as 23 century, 200 years from now, and min 9 years,max 36 years for sleepers to travel to Sirius.

[dr lameos]

what year is starlancer set in? that'll give a clue as to when the sleeper ships left. As to the Sirius system, i don't think it'd actually be around the sirius star which we know, that seems too close. As you say it'd take only 36 years-ish to get there... i always viewed the cryo sleep as hundreds of years.

6000 years away seems too long to me though

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[Klaw117]

The laws of physics prevent superluminal speed travel, so I would say that the sleeper ships were traveling at about 1/2 the speed of light, making the travel time about 20 years. It was already the 23rd century in Sol, so I would say the year was 2200 C.E., when the 23rd century first started and about 197 years after Freelancer came out. Now it's the year 816 A.S., so 2003+197+20+816=3036. Freelancer would take place in the year 3036 C.E., or 1,033 years after 2003 C.E.

I personally believe that the Sigma-19 System is the Sirius System and that no one ever had any desire to make a jump gate to Sol, as they believe it is controlled by the Coalition while in reality it was destroyed.

EDIT: Re-worded to fix my math.

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Carlos Rivera: Corsair Brotherhood Pirate - Retired, shifted to Tripoli Shipyard's Research and Development engineering teams
Anthony Cameron: Guild Core Bounty Hunter - Killed in Action, committed suicide after being trapped in Omicron Minor following its destruction
Juan Ruiz: Outcast Ghost of Razgriz Pirate - Killed in Action, killed by the Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army during Bretonian piracy raid
Michael Winchester: Liberty Security Force Agent - Missing in Action, likely killed during Rheinland espionage mission or trapped in Rheinland Space
Eric McCormick: Order Pilot - Retired, shifted to planetside training of new recruits

Liberty and Nomad Backstory, Very interesting - read it!

[TDLdark]

Klaw, you have a error in your Math. You did essentially the same thing that Banza except, you made a error, you added 2000 (the current year) so you eneded up with 3028. By your account, freelancer would have taken place in 3028 A.D., not 5028 A.D.

I agree with the roughly 1030 years part however.

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TDL Dark pretty much hit the nail on the head..

Ypsilantis Family

[Derkylos]

Well, it's actually impossible to pin down an exact date.

"It was the 23rd century..."

"...and headed for the Sirius sector..."

(Intro movie)

So, we know it's some time after 2200AD.

Also, it's the year 816 AS, ergo, add 816 to the date.

3016

However, where did the Sleeper Ships end up?

Now, there are lots of "we might not actually have reached/may have overshot Sirius" theories.

BUT...5 ships all arrived in the same place, within about 50 years? Sounds like more than coincidence to me.

So, lets assume we DID reach Sirius...how fast did they go?

In the intro movie, you see the ships cruising through the debris and laser blasts at a regular, fairly slow, speed. Then, suddenly, they speed up dramatically. They even seem to be pushing the light barrier.

But, we have no accurate data on their speeds, we can only guess.

But, what we DO know, is that we are at 3016AD plus time taken to reach sirius from earth.

Personally, I think 816 AS is a good enough time stamp as any.

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[Coin]

Sirius, our CLOSEST neighbour is 8.6 light years away, or 86 trillion kilometres, or 5,879,000,000,000 miles

lets assume einstein was right, and that travelling faster than speed of light is impossible.

so if they have travelled at 99.9% of light speed - took them 8.6 years.

remember, you want to go as fast as you possibly can - there are HUMANS IN THE DEEP FREEZE (according to the intro) who might not want to pass their 'sell by date'. The reason why they were in cryogenic stasis was to make the ship as compact as possible - very important when slinging something across the universe - to all intents and purposes the ship becomes a light-speed torpedo.... which can get destroyed/shot off course by colliding with a rock the size of a grain of sand.

if they travelled at half light speed - 17 years. If you can freeze a man for 8 years, 17 is not to much of a stretch.

After 100 years, you get problems. The humans that were awake shuffle off this mortal coil, and if the succeeding generation of technicians miss out an important step..... oops!

Furthermore, cars have trouble lasting 25 years.... fridges last about 10. Don't think i would trust zanussi to make my people-fridge.


propulsion is another problem - we need something that will push the ship along without the fuel taking up all the room on board.
Navigating is important. Step up to pluto, and the whole constellation changes. the computing power required to calculate all of this at the speed of light would be tremendous.
now, you've gotten your ship to light speed, and the electronic abacus is ticking away quietly. How do you stop the ship when you get to sirius? slingshot Sirius B?

One solution to these problems is generational ships, where you get on and your Childrens' children get off. these have tecnical problems, such as food production and waste disposal, becoming in effect self-supporting cities, but dont have the propulsion problems (interstellar hydrogen, solar sails) navigation problems (space is big... lots o time to do the maths) and slowing down problems are solved as your really not in a rush. But firing off generational ships when the enemy is on your neck is pointless - they'd just get popped immediately.

Happily, the point is moot. We're stuck on this rock. We're hemmed in by the asteroid belt, the kuiper belt and the Oort sphere. Attempting light speed through that lot would be like trying to run through a blender (humanity, does it blend?). The solution? Hyperspace. We'd need to be able to create a worm hole from where we are, to where we want to go in order to get off this rock that we have polluted with our industry. Ironically, it is industry that will be creating the computers that the scientists work the answers out on to the problems created by industrialisation.

As such, hyperspace would take no time at all.

So, to answer your question - from present day to a point in the future where we can manipulate space-time. Large hadron collider anyone?

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