How it works
Teleportation, which means instant travel regardless of distance, is achieved via wormholes. Wormholes are bridges connecting two points in space-time, which could be very far apart. They have an entry and an exit. Think of two dots on a sheet of paper that is then folded, so the dots overlap. That piece of paper is space-time, and that overlap is a wormhole. It allows matter to be transferred from dot A to dot B instantaneously, instead of traveling the long way across the sheet of paper. Black holes are entry points to a wormhole, while void holes are the exit.
Black holes
A black hole is an area in space-time with a huge concentration of mass, such that its volume is zero and its density is infinite. Black holes occur naturally in the universe, usually as a result of massive stars dying (i.e., running out of fuel). For most of a star’s life, gravity and pressure balance each other exactly, and so the star is stable. However, when a star runs out of nuclear fuel, gravity compresses material in the star’s core so much that it collapses under its own weight. A black hole’s gravitational force is so strong that nothing can escape from it, not even light (which means that back holes can’t actually be seen). This strong gravitational force causes space and time to distort up to the point where it rips apart at the black hole’s core, effectively opening a wormhole. Physicists hypothesized for many years what would happen to objects pulled into a black hole, without answers, until void holes were discovered.
Void holes
A void hole is the opposite of a black hole - an area in space-time where there is no mass, so its volume is infinite, and its density is zero. Void holes have not been observed anywhere in the known universe, although it’s believed that only void exists beyond the universe’s edge.
Void holes can be created using dark energy. While “normal” matter and energy are attracted to one another via gravitational forces, dark energy has the opposite effect - it repels matter. When a massive amount of dark energy is concentrated in one point, it causes matter to expand so much that it creates void, i.e. an area occupied with nothing. This is essentially an opening in space-time and the exit of a wormhole.
Objects that enter a black hole exit through the nearest void hole. For example, if two void holes are open where void hole A is closer to a black hole than void hole B, objects that enter the black hole will consistently exit through void hole A. This implies that wormholes are related to distance, although we don’t yet understand why. It’s impossible for objects to enter a void hole, since its repellent forces prevent matter and energy from approaching it.
Void gates
For objects to be teleported, they need to enter a black hole while a void hole is open at the intended destination. However, unlike black holes, void holes are very unstable and close as soon as there isn’t enough dark energy to keep repelling matter. Void gates are devices designed to create artificial void holes and keep them open for as long as it is needed to enable teleportation. They function by concentrating enough dark energy in a focused area to create a void hole. These devices need to overcome three significant challenges:
- They require enormous amounts of dark energy to generate a void hole.
- Generating dark energy requires normal energy to interact with substantial amounts of antimatter. Therefore void gates need to be able to carry and isolate antimatter, preventing it from interacting with matter and annihilating itself.
- They need to be built in a material that can sustain the incredibly strong repelling forces generated by a void hole. Osmium glass is currently the only known material with the combination of strength and toughness required for a void gate.
Structure of a Void Gate
After years of investment in R&D, SEV produced the first viable (small scale) void gate in 2128. Further developments led to the Titan Void Gate, currently used as the IOST exit.
IOST
The Inner / Outer Solar system Tunnel (IOST) is the first large-scale implementation of teleportation technology. It consists of the Vesta Black Hole as the entry point and Titan Void Gate as the exit, allowing unidirectional teleportation between Mars and Saturn. Since opening in 2141, over 30,000 spacecraft have crossed it in half the time it would previously take to reach Saturn and the Titan Colony.
Saturn is over 4x farther from Vesta than Vesta is from the Earth
Construction of the IOST required two massive engineering projects never attempted at the time. First was the creation of a black hole large enough to allow mid-sized spacecraft through. Vesta, formerly the second largest asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, was chosen as a target since it had enough mass to produce the gravitational force necessary to form such a black hole. In June 2140 a purpose-built device, the Vesta Collapser, exerted so much pressure on Vesta’s core that its mass collapsed under its own gravity, creating a black hole that consumed the entire asteroid, the Vesta Collapser and smaller asteroids orbiting nearby. Vesta became the Vesta Black Hole, entry point to the IOST. The Titan Void Gate was the second project. Construction was long and strenuous due to the time taken to ship raw materials from Earth and Mars; when it finally finished in September 2141, the IOST opened with the unmanned teleportation of Janus, a small space carrier named after the Ancient Roman god of gates and transitions. Janus is now displayed in Titan’s iconic IOST museum.
Opening the Titan Void Gate takes vast amounts of resources and requires careful coordination, which is why teleportation windows only happen once every Earth-month. 36 million gallons of standard antimatter (enough to power all existing antimatter-propulsion spacecraft at full power for 5 days) are loaded in magnetic isolation tanks. 5 billion gallons of hydrogen fuel, produced on Titan Outpost factories, are then loaded in preparation for ignition. All this antimatter and hydrogen fuel is consumed to keep the void gate open for 30 minutes, providing passage to the many spacecraft entering the Vesta Black Hole.
Teleportation is a highly controlled process since the fate of objects entering a black hole when there is no void gate open is unknown. It is theorized that these objects will exit at the edge of the universe, and we don’t know what happens to matter in the presence of pure void.
Plans to make the IOST bidirectional were discussed but quickly abandoned. This would require creating another artificial black hole near Saturn, and a void gate near the Sun. However, most material and goods transportation happens from Mars to Titan, which means the potential benefits of bidirectional travel are currently not sufficient to justify the investment. Budget was re-allocated to construct the S2PT instead.
S2PT
The Sun to Proxima Tunnel (S2PT) is the upcoming teleportation route between the Solar system and Alpha Centauri. More precisely, the S2PT's entry point will be the Vesta Black Hole, while the exit is the planned Proxima Void Gate. Proxima's gate will be more than twice the size of the Titan Void Gate. IOST teleportation capacity is capped by the Titan Void Gate size, which in turn is limited by the amount of hydrocarbon-based energy available in Titan. Vesta, however, can handle more input. A wider void gate in Alpha Centauri will allow larger spacecraft through, and therefore more materials to carried per teleportation window. But it will also require a lot more energy to operate, so the gate will be positioned next to Proxima Centauri and extract energy directly from the star. Each teleportation window is estimated to consume as much as 5,000 years worth of the star's fuel. Although that sounds like a lot, it's irrelevant when considering that Proxima Centauri has 8 trillion years of life left.
The future Proxima Void Gate drawing energy directly from Proxima Centauri
Human expansion
SEV's strategy to expand outside the Solar system consists of opening teleportation routes leading to destination star systems, which in turn places humanity closer to expanding even further. For example, one possible expansion target (after Alpha Centauri) is Luhman 16, a star system 6.5 light years away from the Sun, but only 3.5 light years away from Proxima Centauri. Once humanity can launch spacecraft from Proxima, expansion to Luhman 16 will be far faster than if we had to travel from the Solar system. Expanding to another star system follows roughly these steps:
Find a suitable terrestrial planet in the destination star system.
Transport settlers and materials in a long, spacecraft-based journey.
Establish an outpost capable of exploring the planet’s resources.
Build a void gate.
With an operational void gate, teleportation can happen from the nearest black hole. At present the only available black hole is Vesta, but additional ones can be created when bidirectional travels become necessary. It is very likely that a black hole will be created in Alpha Centauri to enable teleportation back to Titan.
The S2PT is the first step in bringing SEV’s expansion strategy to life. When it opens, it will reduce 40 years of spacecraft-based travel to an instant, opening up trade routes between Earth, Mars, Titan and Proxima b. This is humanity's most complex and ambitious mission ever - the culmination of over 160 years of technological advances that made expansion beyond the solar system a possibility. We still have enormous challenges ahead of us, though: reaching Proxima b, establishing an outpost and building the Proxima Void Gate.
This is where you come in. With Noah-1 en route to Proxima b, there are still many life pods reserved for adventurous explorers to become the first humans to land on an alien planet. If you are interested in participating in a one in a lifetime experience, register here to get a seat in Noah-1.