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Lagrange Point
Lagrange Point (LP) allow for instant intra-system travel. Any ship can jump between any LP within a system, without requiring special components, nor do they suffer jump shock.
Overview
Every planet size 150 and over has a Lagrange Point sixty degrees behind it in its orbit. As the planet orbits the star, the Lagrange Point orbits with it. As some systems may have multiple large planets, they will also have multiple Lagrange Points (LP).
These LPs act as mini-jump points within their system (single or multi-star). Because jumps from LPs are to destinations within the same system, the gravitational stresses are far less than for an interstellar jump point and therefore a ship does not require a Jump drive to use LPs, nor suffer from Jump shock. Any ship can make an intra-system jump from one LP to any other LP in the same system, even one orbiting a different star within the system. When you select an LP as a movement destination, you will get a list of possible intra-system jump destinations in the popup box where teams or commanders are selected. Ships moving within a system will automatically use LPs if it shortens the trip.
They are shown on the map simply as LP1, LP2, etc. In the Task Groups window they are shown next to the planet whose orbit they share. So you might see Jupiter Lagrange Point as a destination. When you add intra-system jump orders, the name of the planet sharing the orbit is listed. So an order may read Intra-system jump to Jupiter Lagrange Point. Because these are intra-system rather than interstellar jumps, there is no scattering on arrival.
Creation
A player can create their own stabilised Lagrange points with ships equipped with a stabilisation module. Any planet or moon with a mass 0.25 Earth masses or larger can have a Lagrange point added. Points around smaller bodies take longer time to stabilise.
The time in months required to stabilise a Lagrange point for a given body is equal to: 60 / SQRT(Planet Mass). The production bonus of the ship commander will reduce this time.
Some examples from the Solar System:
- Jupiter has a mass of 317 so it already has a stable Lagrange point.
- Saturn has a mass of 95 and would require six months.
- Uranus has a mass of 14 and would require 1.3 years.
- Neptune has a mass of 17 and would require 1.2 years.
- Earth has a mass of 1 and would require 5 years.
- Venus has a mass of 0.82 and would require 5.5 years.
Mars has a mass of 0.11 and Mercury has a mass of 0.055 so they are too small.
A new 'Stabilise Lagrange Point' order is available for bodies where stabilisation is possible. The stabilisation ship remains at the associated body while the task is carried out. Apart from the location and different required time, this is very similar to a jump point stabilisation task.
See also
- Real life Lagrangian Point on Wikipedia.