Kit Fernel

Kit Fernel(A.Y. 121-1110) was a high-energy physicist who did prominent work for the Unity Earth Sphere Alliance in the early part of the Golden Age. He was one of the first scientists to be awarded a research grant by the newly-formed Alliance and was sited many times by Uther himself for his distinguished work.

Kit and FTL

Though faster-than-light propulsion did exist well before Kit, including the Python Reactor common in most types of FTL, he is still typically credited with making it possible. What Kit did was invent the science that allowed others to understand FTL. He also performed a series of experiments involving the warping effects, making FTL safer and allowing ships to go faster.

The Fernel Limit

The Fernel Limit is a set of theories and observations regarding starships and FTL propulsion within a solar system, or more precisely the effective gravitational pull of a star. The Fernel Limit explains how and why the star’s gravity affects the ships engines, acceleration, and the warping of space-time created by relativistic velocities achieved using the ship’s drive field.

The most important aspect of the Fernel Limit has to do with why ships cannot form FTL energy mantles while on a planet's surface.

Questionable Relationship to Johan Fernel

Kit Fernel often claimed to be a decendant of Johan Fernel, the father of modern physics, a man who lived and worked well over three millenia earlier.