History Main / FTLTestBlunder

* ''Literature/TheShipWho'': The Federated Sentient Planets have a well established FTL drive, but they're never able to use its full capacity due to a lack of sufficient fuel. Then they encounter the Corviki, a species with expertise in stabilising unusual isotopes, which opens the possibility of building a fuel source that will really allow ships to cut loose. However, the system needs some refinement; the first test sends a ship so far away from known space before they can disengage the drive, that it will take ''years'' for them to fly back. Which is why Helva is sent to meet with the Corviki and try to get their help in improving human implementation of the technology.

* ''Literature/TheShipWho'': The Federated Sentient Planets have a well established FTL drive, but they're never able to use its full capacity due to a lack of sufficient fuel. Then they encounter the Corviki, a species with expertise in stabilising unusual isotopes, which opens the possibility of building a fuel source that will really allow ships to cut loose. However, the system needs some refinement; the first test sends a ship so far away from known space before they can disengage the drive, that it will take ''years'' for them to fly back. Which is why Helva is sent to meet with the Corviki and try to get their help in improving things.

* In ''Film/{{Lightyear}}'' when Buzz tests a method of FTL that could get them home, he returns to the planet and finds that TimeDilation has made four years pass for everyone else. Due to Buzz doing a new test flight every day (from his perspective), he has to keep watching his friends aging and eventually dying.

* ''Series/TheExpanse'': Downplayed. The series has a SubLightspeedSetting, but it features so-called "Epstein drives", which allow rapid transit within Solar system that would take decades with modern tech. However, the first time an Epstein drive was test-run, its inventor and test pilot Solomon Epstein died from the resulting high-G acceleration and was forever lost in space (though he wisely left his designs and patents with his wife before taking off, hence why the engine bears his name). Several scenes show the crew being injected with a drug cocktail in order to withstand the G-forces associated with Epstein drive use.

** Series/StarTrekVoyager: In episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E15Threshold Threshold]]" Paris figures out transwarp travel, which might get the ship back to the Alpha Quadrant. After a seemingly successful test, he has an allergic reaction to water and starts de-evolving into a salamander/lizard/catfish creature. And then things get ''very'' weird.

-->--'''Dr. William Weir''', ''Film/EventHorizon''

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': The Zariman 10-0 was an Orokin colony ship with the intention of using the power of [[EldritchLocation the Void]] to, in essence, teleport to the nearby Tau star system. Unfortunately, a catastrophic error occurred, leading to the loss of the vessel within the Void, now known as the Void Jump Accident. The only people aboard the Zariman that survived the incident were the children. Most adults died from Void exposure, and those who weren't were driven insane and murdered by other passengers. A select few turned into apparitions of the Void, protecting the Zariman and fighting against the Void's melody, lest they become one of the Void Angels. [[spoiler: [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom You can probably thank]] [[GeniusDitz Archemedian Yonta]] for disabling the safeties to try and make it in one jump]].

* ''Series/TheExpanse'': Downplayed. The series has a SubLightspeedSetting, but it features so-called "Epstein drives", which allow rapid transit within Solar system that would take decades with modern tech. However, the first time an Epstein drive was test-run, its inventor and test pilot Solomon Epstein died from the resulting high-G acceleration and was forever lost in space (though he wisely left his designs and patents with his wife before taking off, hence why the engine bears his name). Several scenes show the crew being injected with a drug cocktail in order to withstand the G-forces associated Epstein drive use.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': The Zariman 10-0 was an Orokin colony ship with the intention of using the power of [[EldritchLocation the Void]] to, in essence, teleport to the nearby Tau star system. Unfortunately, a catastrophic error occurred, leading to the loss of the vessel within the Void, now known as the Void Jump Accident. The only people aboard the Zariman that survived the incident were the children. Most adults died from Void exposure, and those who weren't were driven insane and murdered by other passengers. A select few turned into apparitions of the Void, protecting the Zariman and fighting against the Void's melody, lest they become one of the Void Angels.

%% Please see thread to discuss a replacement.

* ''Series/TheExpanse'': Downplayed. The series has a SubLightspeedSetting, but it features so-called "Epstein drives", which allow rapid transit within Solar system that would take decades with modern tech. However, the first time an Epstein drive was test-run, its inventor and test pilot Solomon Epstein died from the resulting high-G acceleration and was forever lost in space (though he wisely left his designs and patents with his wife before taking off, hence why the engine bears his name).

* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': While hyperdrive was already known for centuries at that point, Dr. Joseph Buckley believed that his newly invented reactionless gravitic impeller drive could make travel through it both a lot faster ''and'' safer. With the fortune earned from his numerous patents he built a test ship and took it on its first journey. That was how humanity first learned about [[StuffBlowingUp what happens]] when an impeller wedge makes contact with a standing gravity wave. It took one of Buckley's surviving colleagues making significant modifications to his design to make impeller-powered hyper travel feasible and Buckley's fate has remained proverbial as an object lesson in "look before you leap" ever since.

[[quoteright:1000:[[VideoGame/{{Warframe}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/angels_of_zariman_cutscene_sshot_edit_crop_1024x539.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:1000:And this is why you never trust [[EldritchLocation The Void]].]]