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* ''Literature/WWWTrilogy'': In the DistantEpilogue, [[spoiler:faster-than-light travel still has not been achieved '''five billion years''' into the future; humanity had to make do with slower vessels]].
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But some authors play this speed limit for [[PlayedForDrama drama]] instead. In these settings, faster-than-light travel remains impossible well into the future, or alternatively is impractical to use for whatever reason. You might have a SubspaceAnsible so people can at least ''communicate'' in real-time, but that's about it.
When you can't travel faster than light, and interstellar travel takes years or decades at a ''minimum'', it raises all kinds of interesting questions about how a spacefaring civilization would work. A centralized interstellar government [[UngovernableGalaxy likely won't be possible in this kind of setting]]; every planet, or at least every star system, would have to be able to provide for themselves without relying on {{Space Trucker}}s to deliver goods to them from elsewhere. Warfare might be far more indiscriminate as well, focusing on destroying infrastructure rather than toppling governments that might not even exist anymore by the time your fleet gets there. Interstellar voyages will likely be conducted aboard GenerationShips or {{Sleeper Starship}}s, or else fly close to lightspeed to take advantage of TimeDilation.
When you can't travel faster than light, and interstellar travel takes years or decades at a ''minimum'', it raises all kinds of interesting questions about how a spacefaring civilization would work. A centralized interstellar government [[UngovernableGalaxy likely won't be possible in this kind of setting]]; every planet, or at least every star system, would have to be able to provide for themselves without relying on {{Space Trucker}}s to deliver goods to them from elsewhere. Warfare might be far more indiscriminate as well, focusing on destroying infrastructure rather than toppling governments that might not even exist anymore by the time your fleet gets there. Interstellar voyages will likely be conducted aboard GenerationShips or {{Sleeper Starship}}s, or else fly close to lightspeed to take advantage of TimeDilation.
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But some authors writers play this speed limit for [[PlayedForDrama drama]] instead. In these their settings, faster-than-light travel remains impossible well into the future, or alternatively is impractical to use for whatever reason. You might have a SubspaceAnsible so people can at least ''communicate'' in real-time, but that's about it.
When you can't travel faster than light, and interstellar travel takes years or decades at a ''minimum'', it raises all kinds of interesting questions about how a spacefaring civilization would work. A centralized interstellar government [[UngovernableGalaxy likely won't bepossible possible]] in this kind of setting]]; setting; every planet, or at least every star system, would have to be able to provide for themselves without relying on {{Space Trucker}}s to deliver goods to them from elsewhere. Warfare might be far more indiscriminate as well, focusing on destroying infrastructure rather than toppling governments that might not even exist anymore by the time your fleet gets there. Interstellar voyages will likely be conducted aboard GenerationShips or {{Sleeper Starship}}s, or else fly close to lightspeed to take advantage of TimeDilation.
When you can't travel faster than light, and interstellar travel takes years or decades at a ''minimum'', it raises all kinds of interesting questions about how a spacefaring civilization would work. A centralized interstellar government [[UngovernableGalaxy likely won't be
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* The titular ''VideoGame/{{RimWorld}}s'' are isolated because of the lightspeed limit and the vastness of space.
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* The titular ''VideoGame/{{RimWorld}}s'' are isolated because of the lightspeed limit and the vastness of space.space, in most scenarios your starting colonists are survivors of a crashed SleeperStarship with no hope of rescue within their natural lifespans. One of the victory conditions is salvaging or constructing enough cryopods to build a new ship.
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* ''Literature/PostSelf'': By the 24th century humanity has only colonized the Moon and a space station at Lagrange Point 5 that primarily hosts a massive server storing billions of [[BrainUploading uploaded]] consciousnesses. In ''Toledot'' the Lagrange station launches two starships with uploaded crews and solar sails, which have only traveled thirty light-days twenty years later. In ''Nevi'im'' one of the ships encounters an alien craft that has been traveling for five ''thousand'' years and communications with Lagrange are delayed by a month.
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* ''Literature/PostSelf'': By the 24th century humanity has only colonized the Moon and a space station at Lagrange Point 5 that primarily hosts a massive server storing billions of [[BrainUploading uploaded]] consciousnesses. In ''Toledot'' the Lagrange station launches two starships with uploaded crews and solar sails, which have only traveled thirty light-days twenty sails. Twenty years later. In later in ''Nevi'im'' one of the ships have only traveled a light-month when one of them encounters an alien craft that has been traveling for five ''thousand'' years and communications with Lagrange are delayed by a month.years.
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* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': There are some MegaCorp colonies on Mars and manned missions have been sent out to Jupiter, but everything uses sub-light engines so trips take months each way when the planets are at their closest. Also, it's ''really'' unpleasant to be outside of Earth's atmosphere if you're Awakened.
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* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': There are some MegaCorp colonies on Mars and manned missions have been sent out to Jupiter, but everything uses sub-light engines so trips take months each way when the planets are at their closest. Also, it's ''really'' unpleasant to be outside of Earth's atmosphere if you're Awakened. This is rarely relevant to 'Runners, who generally have no reason to leave Earth.
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* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': There are some MegaCorp colonies on Mars and manned missions have been sent out to Jupiter, but everything uses sub-light engines so trips take months each way when the planets are at their closest. Also, it's ''really'' unpleasant to be outside of Earth's atmosphere if you're Awakened.
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* In the ''Literature/ChildrenOfRuin'' series, refugees and explorers cross the stars as [[HumanPopsicle "cargo"]]. A jaunt to a neighboring star system takes decades - which is time for entire cultures to rise and fall, on planets and even ships!
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* In the ''Literature/ChildrenOfRuin'' ''Literature/ChildrenOfTime'' series, refugees and explorers cross the stars as [[HumanPopsicle "cargo"]]. A jaunt to a neighboring star system takes decades can take millenia - which is time for entire cultures to rise and fall, on planets and even ships!ships! Even after the discovery of FTL at the very end of "Literature/ChildrenOfRuin" sleeper travel is still being used in "Literature/ChildrenOfMemory".
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* The setting of ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' is (mostly) limited to slower-than-light travel.
* ''Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem'':
* ''Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem'':
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* The setting of ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' is (mostly) limited to slower-than-light travel.
* ''Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem'':''Literature/RemembranceOfEarthsPast'':
* ''Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem'':
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* The setting of ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' is (mostly) limited to slower-than-light travel.
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** The series revolves around the fact that the hostile Trisolarans of Tau Ceti have launched an invasion fleet to conquer and colonize Earth... a fleet that will take 450 years to get there, due to the lack of faster-than-light travel.
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** The series revolves around the fact that the hostile Trisolarans of Tau Ceti Alpha Centauri have launched an invasion fleet to conquer and colonize Earth... a fleet that will take 450 years to get there, due to the lack of faster-than-light travel.
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** The series revolves around the fact that the hostile Trisolarans of Tau Ceti have launched an invasion fleet to conquer and colonize Earth... a fleet that will take 450 years to get there, due to the lack of faster-than-light travel.
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* ''Literature/HouseOfSuns'': Countless millennia in the future clone-lines traveling the galaxy at near-lightspeed provide some continuity of civilization for the countless human and posthuman colonies across space.
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* ''Literature/HouseOfSuns'': Countless millennia in the future clone-lines traveling the galaxy at near-lightspeed provide some continuity of civilization for the countless human and posthuman colonies across space. [[spoiler:The existence of a wormhole allowing for faster-than-light travel to the Andromeda Galaxy is a major plot point, built by [[{{Precursors}} aliens]] and irreproducible.]]
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* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': Ten thousand years into the future humanity's descendants have only explored a small portion of the titular galactic arm thanks to a complete lack of FasterThanLight travel. Wormholes exist but each end has to be towed into position at less than 77% lightspeed so they don't count. While AlcubierreDrive can only ''approach'' the speed of light with a max speed just short of meeting it.
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* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': ''Website/OrionsArm'': Ten thousand years into the future humanity's descendants have only explored a small portion of the titular galactic arm thanks to a complete lack of FasterThanLight travel. Wormholes exist but each end has to be towed into position at less than 77% lightspeed so they don't count. While AlcubierreDrive can only ''approach'' the speed of light with a max speed just short of meeting it.
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* ''Literature/SchildsLadder'' and other far-future works by Creator/GregEgan have a [[GalacticSuperpower galaxy-spanning civilization]] with all kinds of [[ClarkesThirdLaw Sufficiently Advanced Technology]] but no faster-than-light travel. Most interstellar "travel" consists of transmitting a [[BrainUploading copy of your mind]] via gamma-ray beam, often [[DestructiveTeleportation destroying the original]], so people only travel to distant worlds when they're ready to abandon their current lives forever.
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* ''Literature/SchildsLadder'' and other far-future works by Creator/GregEgan have a [[GalacticSuperpower galaxy-spanning civilization]] with all kinds of [[ClarkesThirdLaw Sufficiently Advanced Technology]] but no faster-than-light travel. travel or communication. Most interstellar "travel" consists of transmitting a [[BrainUploading copy of your mind]] via gamma-ray beam, often [[DestructiveTeleportation destroying the original]], so people only travel to distant worlds when they're ready to abandon leave their current lives forever.
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Contrast CasualInterstellarTravel, where FTL capability is accessible to everyone.
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Contrast CasualInterstellarTravel, where FTL capability is accessible to everyone. A common element of MundaneDogmatic settings and works on the harder end of the SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness.
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[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]
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[[folder:Film - -- Live-Action]]
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* ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'' takes place upon a slower-than-light SleeperStarship that has been traveling for several years, long enough for the descendants of the earliest waking colonists to evolve into feral cannibals.
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* ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'' takes place upon a slower-than-light SleeperStarship that has been traveling for several years, long enough for the descendants of the earliest waking colonists to evolve into feral cannibals.
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* In Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/{{Hainish}}'' novels, there's a light-speed limit on travel, but there is a way to transmit messages instantaneously over interstellar distances.
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* In Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/{{Hainish}}'' novels, ''Literature/{{Hainish}}'', there's a light-speed limit on travel, but there is a way to transmit messages instantaneously over interstellar distances.
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* PlayedForLaughs in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "A Clone of My Own". When Professor Farnsworth brags about the engines on the Planet Express ship allowing it to traverse entire galaxies in mere hours, Cubert points out that this is impossible, as nothing can exceed the speed of light. The Professor agrees, claiming that scientists had somehow ''increased'' the speed of light some years ago.
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* PlayedForLaughs in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "A "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E10ACloneOfMyOwn A Clone of My Own".Own]]". When Professor Farnsworth brags about the engines on the Planet Express ship allowing it to traverse entire galaxies in mere hours, Cubert points out that this is impossible, as nothing can exceed the speed of light. The Professor agrees, claiming that scientists had somehow ''increased'' the speed of light some years ago.
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->186,000 miles per second: it's not just a good idea, it's the law!
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[[/folder]]
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----
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!!Examples:
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!!Examples
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* ''Film/{{Passengers2016}}'': The voyage of the ColonyShip ''Avalon'' to the colony planet Homestead II takes over a hundred years. Thirty years in, the ship has a ''Titanic''-esque collision with an asteroid which lodges chunks of rock in the bowels of the ship, causing a hibernation pod containing one of the traveling colonists to open. Now he's trapped alone on the ship since it's still decades away from its destination and he can't even call for help since it would still take years to get a response to it.
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* ''Film/{{Passengers2016}}'': ''Film/Passengers2016'': The voyage of the ColonyShip ''Avalon'' to the colony planet Homestead II takes over a hundred years. Thirty years in, the ship has a ''Titanic''-esque collision with an asteroid which lodges chunks of rock in the bowels of the ship, causing a hibernation pod containing one of the traveling colonists to open. Now he's trapped alone on the ship since it's still decades away from its destination and he can't even call for help since it would still take years to get a response to it.
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[[foldercontrol]]
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->186,000 miles per second: it's not just a good idea, it's the law!
-->-- '''Common nerd saying'''
To the best of our knowledge, the speed of light in a vacuum -- 299,792,458 meters per second, or ''c'' -- is a cosmic speed limit. Nothing with mass can reach or exceed it, as detailed on our page on UsefulNotes/{{Relativity}}. While that's very fast by human standards, the limitations add up pretty quickly once you start to calculate distances in space. At that speed, it takes about eight minutes for light from the sun to reach the Earth, hours for it to reach the outer planets, and ''years'' to reach the nearest stars outside our solar system. Consequentially, sci-fi writers tend to come up with some form of FasterThanLightTravel to enable CasualInterstellarTravel.
But some authors play this speed limit for [[PlayedForDrama drama]] instead. In these settings, faster-than-light travel remains impossible well into the future, or alternatively is impractical to use for whatever reason. You might have a SubspaceAnsible so people can at least ''communicate'' in real-time, but that's about it.
When you can't travel faster than light, and interstellar travel takes years or decades at a ''minimum'', it raises all kinds of interesting questions about how a spacefaring civilization would work. A centralized interstellar government [[UngovernableGalaxy likely won't be possible in this kind of setting]]; every planet, or at least every star system, would have to be able to provide for themselves without relying on {{Space Trucker}}s to deliver goods to them from elsewhere. Warfare might be far more indiscriminate as well, focusing on destroying infrastructure rather than toppling governments that might not even exist anymore by the time your fleet gets there. Interstellar voyages will likely be conducted aboard GenerationShips or {{Sleeper Starship}}s, or else fly close to lightspeed to take advantage of TimeDilation.
A setting that meets this criteria will likely qualify as a PointsOfLightSetting, consisting of isolated bastions of civilization separated by a wide, hostile expanse (in this case, interstellar space). If FTL is eventually achieved and adopted, expect those slower-than-light ships to fall prey to LightspeedLeapfrog.
Compare:
* HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace, where FTL travel ''is'' possible, but very dangerous, which may be used to {{justif|ied Trope}}y this trope;
* NoWarpingZone, which is a specific location where FTL is not possible within a wider setting;
* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay, where FTL travel is possible but not used to travel beyond the Milky Way;
* UngovernableGalaxy, where the galaxy is too big for a centralized government to be effective, a likely outcome of this trope
Contrast CasualInterstellarTravel, where FTL capability is accessible to everyone.
----
!!Examples
[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'': Many decades were spent in the construction of the Hyperspace Gate network that reduces travel time between planets down to mere hours/days, depending on the distance. Most of that time constructing the gates was the manual distance traveled just to get to Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto to set them up in the first place. This leaves Humanity limited to the Solar System since it would take most of an entire lifetime to reach the nearest star.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'': The Gundam franchise takes place within the solar system (the furthest inhabited part of the Earth Sphere is the colonies around Jupiter). Despite various alternate universes, the travelling distance between locations like Earth or space colonies are often used to up dramatic tension.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'': Several episodes take place during the comparatively dull travel between locations in space. The first few episodes feature the ''White Base'' being repeatedly attacked by [[TheRival Char Aznable]], and after the ''White Base'' heads up to space as the 13th Autonomous Corps they take part in occasional skirmishes during the long travel to battlefields like Solomon.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory'': FTL doesn't exist in ''Gundam'', but the Delaz Fleet makes use of momentum. While being pursued by the main Earth Federation fleet, they make their way towards the moon, leading the Federals to suspect an attempt to seize control of one of the lunar cities. The Delaz Fleet instead uses the moon's gravity to slingshot themselves towards their true target: Earth itself. The Federal fleet, taken by surprise, burns most of its fuel in a desperate attempt to catch up, but are unable to do so and it's up to the ''Albion'' and the defense fleet around Earth to prevent the Delaz Fleet from performing a ColonyDrop. [[ForegoneConclusion They fail]].
** ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'': Paptimus Sirocco, a Titan officer who comes from the Jupiter Fleet [[note]] an independent fleet that transports the precious Helium-3 gas needed to power the various Minovsky reactors used by just about all advanced machinery[[/note]], has spent so long away from Earth due to the sheer amount of time it takes to travel from Earth Sphere to Jupiter that the Titans [[FantasticRacism consider him even more alien than they do their Spacenoid enemies]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'': In "The Geek shall inherit the Earth", Doug and Troy [=McClure=] make a sci-fi movie together, in which Doug insists on not allowing FTL travel since he believes it would cause the spaceships to collapse into a black hole. Unfortunately, because he refuses to allow any AcceptableBreaksFromReality and values being scientifically accurate over the movie's enetertainment value, it ends up bombing.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]
* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'': Antimatter-powered human spacecraft can only reach a significant fraction of the speed of light, with the 4.3 light years between Earth and Alpha Centauri (where Pandora is located) taking about a decade to traverse.
* ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'' takes place upon a slower-than-light SleeperStarship that has been traveling for several years, long enough for the descendants of the earliest waking colonists to evolve into feral cannibals.
* ''Film/{{Passengers2016}}'': The voyage of the ColonyShip ''Avalon'' to the colony planet Homestead II takes over a hundred years. Thirty years in, the ship has a ''Titanic''-esque collision with an asteroid which lodges chunks of rock in the bowels of the ship, causing a hibernation pod containing one of the traveling colonists to open. Now he's trapped alone on the ship since it's still decades away from its destination and he can't even call for help since it would still take years to get a response to it.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* Partial use in ''Literature/Aeon14''. TheVerse has two major time periods in which it takes place, the 5th Millennium and the 9th Millennium. In works taking place before the TimeSkip, humanity deployed a fleet of {{terraform}}ing ships to prepare the galaxy for humans to settle nearby stars. Interplanetary travel is commonplace, but communication is light-limited, and traveling between stars, as the protagonists do in ''The Intrepid Saga'', takes decades as {{Human Popsicle}}s. Averted in works set in the 9th Millennium: in the intervening years, experiments with ArtificialGravity led to the discovery of the "dark layer", which allows FasterThanLightTravel.
* ''Literature/AllTomorrows'': FTL travel is not possible, leading to the Second Empire of Man being held together mostly through deep-space radio transmissions rather than physical travel between planets.
* ''Literature/AxiomsEnd'':
** The amygdalines have been spacefaring for thousands of years, but remain limited to sublight travel at relativistic speeds. Because of TimeDilation, individual space travelers are said to have a relative age (the time elapsed since their birth) and a subjective age (how much time they've experienced).
** The sequel reveals that [[spoiler:they do have access to [[SubspaceAnsible FTL communication]] by means of folding space and transmitting information through. The amygdaline Nikola is able to adapt this technique to transport himself to the solar system, but this was an ''extremely'' risky edge case that he never would have attempted if he weren't already a DeathSeeker. He also destroyed his research before leaving, and is confident that his kin will never reproduce it.]]
* ''The Century Long Journey'' by Vladimir Tendryakov has Earth communicating with another race 36 light years away. There is no FTL in any form, so they take a person with eidetic memory, upload his brain, and [[MentalSpaceTravel broadcast it to the other guys]]. The other planet grows a body for him, learns about Earth, teaches him everything about itself, and sends his mind back.
* ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'': When Jan stows away on an Overlord ship he takes drugs to induce hibernation; when he returns to Earth from the Overlord homeworld he discovers that decades have passed and humanity is [[spoiler:about to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence]].
* In the ''Literature/ChildrenOfRuin'' series, refugees and explorers cross the stars as [[HumanPopsicle "cargo"]]. A jaunt to a neighboring star system takes decades - which is time for entire cultures to rise and fall, on planets and even ships!
* ''Literature/{{Cluster}}'': Downplayed. {{Teleportation}} is possible but prohibitively expensive, so the only practical way to travel between star systems without [[GenerationShips spending a lifetime on the journey]] is to [[MentalSpaceTravel have your mind projected into a loaner body]].
* The ''Literature/{{Doom}}'' novelization (yes, really) uses completely hard science when it comes to space travel: ships can only approach the speed of light but never reach it, it requires a long time to speed up and down without squishing the crew from insane G-forces, and the horizon is noticeably blue- and redshifted while moving at relativistic speeds. This is used to explain why the aliens invading Mars took the form of demons: the last intel they got on Earth came from medieval Europe and showed that humanity had a superstitious fear of hell, and they intentionally exploited this. The matter of taking hundreds or thousands of years to travel between planets isn't an issue for the aliens because of one factor that is very much not hard science: all intelligent species except humans have souls that manifestly survive bodily death and can be easily revived through repair of the original body or reincarnation. Thus, nobody has to worry too much about their family being dead after a jaunt between another solar system.
* Zig-zagged in the ''Literature/EndersGame'' series, which initially has [[SubspaceAnsible instantaneous communication]] but no FTL travel. In the original book, this is a double-edged limitation of the interstellar war with the Formics, hobbling Earth's logistics but giving it time between to narrow the [[HigherTechSpecies technology gap]] between invasions. 3000 years later in ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'', humanity has settled the galaxy, but anyone who travels between star systems has to abandon their old life and era forever. However, instantaneous travel is invented in ''Literature/{{Xenocide}}'', promising to change galactic society forever.
* Humans cross the ColonizedSolarSystem of ''Literature/TheExpanse'' with fusion rockets. Even after the Protomolecule [[spoiler:ring gates connects the Solar system and other habitable star systems]], travel there still takes ''months''.
* ''Literature/TheForeverWar'' follows a couple fighting in an interstellar war at relativistic speeds as they go on increasingly long tours of duty and find Earth has changed in the subjective centuries they are gone.
* In Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/{{Hainish}}'' novels, there's a light-speed limit on travel, but there is a way to transmit messages instantaneously over interstellar distances.
* ''Literature/HouseOfSuns'': Countless millennia in the future clone-lines traveling the galaxy at near-lightspeed provide some continuity of civilization for the countless human and posthuman colonies across space.
* ''Literature/PostSelf'': By the 24th century humanity has only colonized the Moon and a space station at Lagrange Point 5 that primarily hosts a massive server storing billions of [[BrainUploading uploaded]] consciousnesses. In ''Toledot'' the Lagrange station launches two starships with uploaded crews and solar sails, which have only traveled thirty light-days twenty years later. In ''Nevi'im'' one of the ships encounters an alien craft that has been traveling for five ''thousand'' years and communications with Lagrange are delayed by a month.
* ''Literature/{{Proxima}}'': Human-built starships rely on constant thrust to reach near-lightspeed, then spend the second half of the trip decelerating. The crew experience about three years of time thanks to TimeDilation. [[spoiler:The Dreamers' [[PortalNetwork Hatches]] are instantaneous to the transportee, but to outside observers work at just shy of lightspeed]].
* The setting of ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' is (mostly) limited to slower-than-light travel.
* ''Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem'':
** This trope forms the basis of the [[CosmicHorrorStory dark forest theory]], which is that meaningful communication is impossible to achieve across interstellar distances, resulting in paranoia and eventual xenocide between alien civilizations.
** [[spoiler:Lightspeed travel is eventually achieved]] in the third book, but [[spoiler:''faster''-than-light remains impossible. Furthermore, it turns out that the speed of light is permanently slowed in the wake of a lightspeed ship, and these wakes can chain together across space to create permanent {{No Warping Zone}}s that can span ''millions'' of light-years. It's eventually revealed that the universal speed of light was once nearly infinite, but the abuse of lightspeed travel over billions of years has reduced it to its current speed universe-wide, which will only get slower as the wars continue]].
* ''Literature/SchildsLadder'' and other far-future works by Creator/GregEgan have a [[GalacticSuperpower galaxy-spanning civilization]] with all kinds of [[ClarkesThirdLaw Sufficiently Advanced Technology]] but no faster-than-light travel. Most interstellar "travel" consists of transmitting a [[BrainUploading copy of your mind]] via gamma-ray beam, often [[DestructiveTeleportation destroying the original]], so people only travel to distant worlds when they're ready to abandon their current lives forever.
* In the ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' novels, human civilization spans multiple star systems originally colonized by GenerationShips. The only practical form of interstellar "travel" is to [[MentalSpaceTravel transmit your Ego]] via SubspaceAnsible and buy or rent a BodyBackupDrive at your destination. [[spoiler:However, it turns out the [[{{Precursors}} Martians]] and at least one other species in their time had FTL travel in the second book.]]
* The light novel ''Literature/WeAllDiedAtBreakawayStation'' by Creator/RichardMeredith centers on a communications station on a lonely world. Faster-that-light travel isn't possible for starships, but interstellar messages can be transmitted much faster than light, provided the light beam link is intact. The HollywoodScience explains that tachyons can travel a photon beam the same way that electrons travel through copper wire. A war between Earth and some aliens means critical intel about the aliens will take many years to reach Earth if Breakaway Station is destroyed.
* ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'': The Race's {{Sleeper Ship}}s take 20 years to get to Earth, traveling at half lightspeed. When humans send a starship to the Race's homeworld, it takes even longer, only able to travel at a third of the speed of light. [[spoiler:Subverted when humans discover FTL travel while the first ship is on its mission, and send a second ship that arrives only months after the first one.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/AlteredCarbon'': Interstellar travel relies on [[MentalSpaceTravel "needlecasting" your uploaded mind]] via SubspaceAnsible to a BodyBackupDrive at the destination system. Human civilization spans several star systems, but they were colonized by GenerationShips, and physical interstellar travel is limited to cargo hauling.
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' takes place in a single [[BinarySuns multiple-star]] system. No FasterThanLightTravel exists, though ships move fast enough to be able to travel between planets within hours or days.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E19TheOmegaDirective The Omega Directive]]", it's stated that the detonation of a large number of Omega molecules could destroy subspace across an entire quadrant of the galaxy, enforcing this trope upon any civilizations within. Accordingly, the titular directive orders Starfleet vessels to safely neutralize the molecules whenever they're detected, even if doing so violates the [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Lancer}}'' has blink gates, but they're sufficiently expensive compared to near-light starships that some colonized planets are twenty light-years from the nearest gate. Meaning that it can take decades for Union to respond to a crisis.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Video Games]]
* The titular ''VideoGame/{{RimWorld}}s'' are isolated because of the lightspeed limit and the vastness of space.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': Ten thousand years into the future humanity's descendants have only explored a small portion of the titular galactic arm thanks to a complete lack of FasterThanLight travel. Wormholes exist but each end has to be towed into position at less than 77% lightspeed so they don't count. While AlcubierreDrive can only ''approach'' the speed of light with a max speed just short of meeting it.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* PlayedForLaughs in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "A Clone of My Own". When Professor Farnsworth brags about the engines on the Planet Express ship allowing it to traverse entire galaxies in mere hours, Cubert points out that this is impossible, as nothing can exceed the speed of light. The Professor agrees, claiming that scientists had somehow ''increased'' the speed of light some years ago.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Real Life]]
* TruthInTelevision, and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, for reasons explained on our Analysis page on Analysis/FasterThanLightTravel.
[[/folder]]
-->-- '''Common nerd saying'''
To the best of our knowledge, the speed of light in a vacuum -- 299,792,458 meters per second, or ''c'' -- is a cosmic speed limit. Nothing with mass can reach or exceed it, as detailed on our page on UsefulNotes/{{Relativity}}. While that's very fast by human standards, the limitations add up pretty quickly once you start to calculate distances in space. At that speed, it takes about eight minutes for light from the sun to reach the Earth, hours for it to reach the outer planets, and ''years'' to reach the nearest stars outside our solar system. Consequentially, sci-fi writers tend to come up with some form of FasterThanLightTravel to enable CasualInterstellarTravel.
But some authors play this speed limit for [[PlayedForDrama drama]] instead. In these settings, faster-than-light travel remains impossible well into the future, or alternatively is impractical to use for whatever reason. You might have a SubspaceAnsible so people can at least ''communicate'' in real-time, but that's about it.
When you can't travel faster than light, and interstellar travel takes years or decades at a ''minimum'', it raises all kinds of interesting questions about how a spacefaring civilization would work. A centralized interstellar government [[UngovernableGalaxy likely won't be possible in this kind of setting]]; every planet, or at least every star system, would have to be able to provide for themselves without relying on {{Space Trucker}}s to deliver goods to them from elsewhere. Warfare might be far more indiscriminate as well, focusing on destroying infrastructure rather than toppling governments that might not even exist anymore by the time your fleet gets there. Interstellar voyages will likely be conducted aboard GenerationShips or {{Sleeper Starship}}s, or else fly close to lightspeed to take advantage of TimeDilation.
A setting that meets this criteria will likely qualify as a PointsOfLightSetting, consisting of isolated bastions of civilization separated by a wide, hostile expanse (in this case, interstellar space). If FTL is eventually achieved and adopted, expect those slower-than-light ships to fall prey to LightspeedLeapfrog.
Compare:
* HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace, where FTL travel ''is'' possible, but very dangerous, which may be used to {{justif|ied Trope}}y this trope;
* NoWarpingZone, which is a specific location where FTL is not possible within a wider setting;
* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay, where FTL travel is possible but not used to travel beyond the Milky Way;
* UngovernableGalaxy, where the galaxy is too big for a centralized government to be effective, a likely outcome of this trope
Contrast CasualInterstellarTravel, where FTL capability is accessible to everyone.
----
!!Examples
[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'': Many decades were spent in the construction of the Hyperspace Gate network that reduces travel time between planets down to mere hours/days, depending on the distance. Most of that time constructing the gates was the manual distance traveled just to get to Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto to set them up in the first place. This leaves Humanity limited to the Solar System since it would take most of an entire lifetime to reach the nearest star.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'': The Gundam franchise takes place within the solar system (the furthest inhabited part of the Earth Sphere is the colonies around Jupiter). Despite various alternate universes, the travelling distance between locations like Earth or space colonies are often used to up dramatic tension.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'': Several episodes take place during the comparatively dull travel between locations in space. The first few episodes feature the ''White Base'' being repeatedly attacked by [[TheRival Char Aznable]], and after the ''White Base'' heads up to space as the 13th Autonomous Corps they take part in occasional skirmishes during the long travel to battlefields like Solomon.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory'': FTL doesn't exist in ''Gundam'', but the Delaz Fleet makes use of momentum. While being pursued by the main Earth Federation fleet, they make their way towards the moon, leading the Federals to suspect an attempt to seize control of one of the lunar cities. The Delaz Fleet instead uses the moon's gravity to slingshot themselves towards their true target: Earth itself. The Federal fleet, taken by surprise, burns most of its fuel in a desperate attempt to catch up, but are unable to do so and it's up to the ''Albion'' and the defense fleet around Earth to prevent the Delaz Fleet from performing a ColonyDrop. [[ForegoneConclusion They fail]].
** ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'': Paptimus Sirocco, a Titan officer who comes from the Jupiter Fleet [[note]] an independent fleet that transports the precious Helium-3 gas needed to power the various Minovsky reactors used by just about all advanced machinery[[/note]], has spent so long away from Earth due to the sheer amount of time it takes to travel from Earth Sphere to Jupiter that the Titans [[FantasticRacism consider him even more alien than they do their Spacenoid enemies]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'': In "The Geek shall inherit the Earth", Doug and Troy [=McClure=] make a sci-fi movie together, in which Doug insists on not allowing FTL travel since he believes it would cause the spaceships to collapse into a black hole. Unfortunately, because he refuses to allow any AcceptableBreaksFromReality and values being scientifically accurate over the movie's enetertainment value, it ends up bombing.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]
* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'': Antimatter-powered human spacecraft can only reach a significant fraction of the speed of light, with the 4.3 light years between Earth and Alpha Centauri (where Pandora is located) taking about a decade to traverse.
* ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'' takes place upon a slower-than-light SleeperStarship that has been traveling for several years, long enough for the descendants of the earliest waking colonists to evolve into feral cannibals.
* ''Film/{{Passengers2016}}'': The voyage of the ColonyShip ''Avalon'' to the colony planet Homestead II takes over a hundred years. Thirty years in, the ship has a ''Titanic''-esque collision with an asteroid which lodges chunks of rock in the bowels of the ship, causing a hibernation pod containing one of the traveling colonists to open. Now he's trapped alone on the ship since it's still decades away from its destination and he can't even call for help since it would still take years to get a response to it.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* Partial use in ''Literature/Aeon14''. TheVerse has two major time periods in which it takes place, the 5th Millennium and the 9th Millennium. In works taking place before the TimeSkip, humanity deployed a fleet of {{terraform}}ing ships to prepare the galaxy for humans to settle nearby stars. Interplanetary travel is commonplace, but communication is light-limited, and traveling between stars, as the protagonists do in ''The Intrepid Saga'', takes decades as {{Human Popsicle}}s. Averted in works set in the 9th Millennium: in the intervening years, experiments with ArtificialGravity led to the discovery of the "dark layer", which allows FasterThanLightTravel.
* ''Literature/AllTomorrows'': FTL travel is not possible, leading to the Second Empire of Man being held together mostly through deep-space radio transmissions rather than physical travel between planets.
* ''Literature/AxiomsEnd'':
** The amygdalines have been spacefaring for thousands of years, but remain limited to sublight travel at relativistic speeds. Because of TimeDilation, individual space travelers are said to have a relative age (the time elapsed since their birth) and a subjective age (how much time they've experienced).
** The sequel reveals that [[spoiler:they do have access to [[SubspaceAnsible FTL communication]] by means of folding space and transmitting information through. The amygdaline Nikola is able to adapt this technique to transport himself to the solar system, but this was an ''extremely'' risky edge case that he never would have attempted if he weren't already a DeathSeeker. He also destroyed his research before leaving, and is confident that his kin will never reproduce it.]]
* ''The Century Long Journey'' by Vladimir Tendryakov has Earth communicating with another race 36 light years away. There is no FTL in any form, so they take a person with eidetic memory, upload his brain, and [[MentalSpaceTravel broadcast it to the other guys]]. The other planet grows a body for him, learns about Earth, teaches him everything about itself, and sends his mind back.
* ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'': When Jan stows away on an Overlord ship he takes drugs to induce hibernation; when he returns to Earth from the Overlord homeworld he discovers that decades have passed and humanity is [[spoiler:about to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence]].
* In the ''Literature/ChildrenOfRuin'' series, refugees and explorers cross the stars as [[HumanPopsicle "cargo"]]. A jaunt to a neighboring star system takes decades - which is time for entire cultures to rise and fall, on planets and even ships!
* ''Literature/{{Cluster}}'': Downplayed. {{Teleportation}} is possible but prohibitively expensive, so the only practical way to travel between star systems without [[GenerationShips spending a lifetime on the journey]] is to [[MentalSpaceTravel have your mind projected into a loaner body]].
* The ''Literature/{{Doom}}'' novelization (yes, really) uses completely hard science when it comes to space travel: ships can only approach the speed of light but never reach it, it requires a long time to speed up and down without squishing the crew from insane G-forces, and the horizon is noticeably blue- and redshifted while moving at relativistic speeds. This is used to explain why the aliens invading Mars took the form of demons: the last intel they got on Earth came from medieval Europe and showed that humanity had a superstitious fear of hell, and they intentionally exploited this. The matter of taking hundreds or thousands of years to travel between planets isn't an issue for the aliens because of one factor that is very much not hard science: all intelligent species except humans have souls that manifestly survive bodily death and can be easily revived through repair of the original body or reincarnation. Thus, nobody has to worry too much about their family being dead after a jaunt between another solar system.
* Zig-zagged in the ''Literature/EndersGame'' series, which initially has [[SubspaceAnsible instantaneous communication]] but no FTL travel. In the original book, this is a double-edged limitation of the interstellar war with the Formics, hobbling Earth's logistics but giving it time between to narrow the [[HigherTechSpecies technology gap]] between invasions. 3000 years later in ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'', humanity has settled the galaxy, but anyone who travels between star systems has to abandon their old life and era forever. However, instantaneous travel is invented in ''Literature/{{Xenocide}}'', promising to change galactic society forever.
* Humans cross the ColonizedSolarSystem of ''Literature/TheExpanse'' with fusion rockets. Even after the Protomolecule [[spoiler:ring gates connects the Solar system and other habitable star systems]], travel there still takes ''months''.
* ''Literature/TheForeverWar'' follows a couple fighting in an interstellar war at relativistic speeds as they go on increasingly long tours of duty and find Earth has changed in the subjective centuries they are gone.
* In Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/{{Hainish}}'' novels, there's a light-speed limit on travel, but there is a way to transmit messages instantaneously over interstellar distances.
* ''Literature/HouseOfSuns'': Countless millennia in the future clone-lines traveling the galaxy at near-lightspeed provide some continuity of civilization for the countless human and posthuman colonies across space.
* ''Literature/PostSelf'': By the 24th century humanity has only colonized the Moon and a space station at Lagrange Point 5 that primarily hosts a massive server storing billions of [[BrainUploading uploaded]] consciousnesses. In ''Toledot'' the Lagrange station launches two starships with uploaded crews and solar sails, which have only traveled thirty light-days twenty years later. In ''Nevi'im'' one of the ships encounters an alien craft that has been traveling for five ''thousand'' years and communications with Lagrange are delayed by a month.
* ''Literature/{{Proxima}}'': Human-built starships rely on constant thrust to reach near-lightspeed, then spend the second half of the trip decelerating. The crew experience about three years of time thanks to TimeDilation. [[spoiler:The Dreamers' [[PortalNetwork Hatches]] are instantaneous to the transportee, but to outside observers work at just shy of lightspeed]].
* The setting of ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' is (mostly) limited to slower-than-light travel.
* ''Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem'':
** This trope forms the basis of the [[CosmicHorrorStory dark forest theory]], which is that meaningful communication is impossible to achieve across interstellar distances, resulting in paranoia and eventual xenocide between alien civilizations.
** [[spoiler:Lightspeed travel is eventually achieved]] in the third book, but [[spoiler:''faster''-than-light remains impossible. Furthermore, it turns out that the speed of light is permanently slowed in the wake of a lightspeed ship, and these wakes can chain together across space to create permanent {{No Warping Zone}}s that can span ''millions'' of light-years. It's eventually revealed that the universal speed of light was once nearly infinite, but the abuse of lightspeed travel over billions of years has reduced it to its current speed universe-wide, which will only get slower as the wars continue]].
* ''Literature/SchildsLadder'' and other far-future works by Creator/GregEgan have a [[GalacticSuperpower galaxy-spanning civilization]] with all kinds of [[ClarkesThirdLaw Sufficiently Advanced Technology]] but no faster-than-light travel. Most interstellar "travel" consists of transmitting a [[BrainUploading copy of your mind]] via gamma-ray beam, often [[DestructiveTeleportation destroying the original]], so people only travel to distant worlds when they're ready to abandon their current lives forever.
* In the ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' novels, human civilization spans multiple star systems originally colonized by GenerationShips. The only practical form of interstellar "travel" is to [[MentalSpaceTravel transmit your Ego]] via SubspaceAnsible and buy or rent a BodyBackupDrive at your destination. [[spoiler:However, it turns out the [[{{Precursors}} Martians]] and at least one other species in their time had FTL travel in the second book.]]
* The light novel ''Literature/WeAllDiedAtBreakawayStation'' by Creator/RichardMeredith centers on a communications station on a lonely world. Faster-that-light travel isn't possible for starships, but interstellar messages can be transmitted much faster than light, provided the light beam link is intact. The HollywoodScience explains that tachyons can travel a photon beam the same way that electrons travel through copper wire. A war between Earth and some aliens means critical intel about the aliens will take many years to reach Earth if Breakaway Station is destroyed.
* ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'': The Race's {{Sleeper Ship}}s take 20 years to get to Earth, traveling at half lightspeed. When humans send a starship to the Race's homeworld, it takes even longer, only able to travel at a third of the speed of light. [[spoiler:Subverted when humans discover FTL travel while the first ship is on its mission, and send a second ship that arrives only months after the first one.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/AlteredCarbon'': Interstellar travel relies on [[MentalSpaceTravel "needlecasting" your uploaded mind]] via SubspaceAnsible to a BodyBackupDrive at the destination system. Human civilization spans several star systems, but they were colonized by GenerationShips, and physical interstellar travel is limited to cargo hauling.
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' takes place in a single [[BinarySuns multiple-star]] system. No FasterThanLightTravel exists, though ships move fast enough to be able to travel between planets within hours or days.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E19TheOmegaDirective The Omega Directive]]", it's stated that the detonation of a large number of Omega molecules could destroy subspace across an entire quadrant of the galaxy, enforcing this trope upon any civilizations within. Accordingly, the titular directive orders Starfleet vessels to safely neutralize the molecules whenever they're detected, even if doing so violates the [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Lancer}}'' has blink gates, but they're sufficiently expensive compared to near-light starships that some colonized planets are twenty light-years from the nearest gate. Meaning that it can take decades for Union to respond to a crisis.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Video Games]]
* The titular ''VideoGame/{{RimWorld}}s'' are isolated because of the lightspeed limit and the vastness of space.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': Ten thousand years into the future humanity's descendants have only explored a small portion of the titular galactic arm thanks to a complete lack of FasterThanLight travel. Wormholes exist but each end has to be towed into position at less than 77% lightspeed so they don't count. While AlcubierreDrive can only ''approach'' the speed of light with a max speed just short of meeting it.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* PlayedForLaughs in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "A Clone of My Own". When Professor Farnsworth brags about the engines on the Planet Express ship allowing it to traverse entire galaxies in mere hours, Cubert points out that this is impossible, as nothing can exceed the speed of light. The Professor agrees, claiming that scientists had somehow ''increased'' the speed of light some years ago.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Real Life]]
* TruthInTelevision, and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, for reasons explained on our Analysis page on Analysis/FasterThanLightTravel.
[[/folder]]
