What would happen if there was a sci-fi race with your favorite intergalactic ships from TV, movies, and video games? Do you know who would win? Can you predict how many ships would travel faster than the speed of light?
We’ve gathered the data and run the calculations to find out what is the fastest ship in the universe. Here are the results.
Relativistic Ships
Acceleration in G Force = 9.8m/s^2]
Voyager 1 (NASA)
Gravity Assist
0G
Discovery One
(2001: A Space Odyssey)
Nuclear-powered magnotoplasmadynamic thrusters
0.00002G
Red Dwarf (Red Dwarf)
Hydrogen engines, fuel collected via large scope at front
0.000033G
Ragnarok
(Final Fantasy VIII)
0.015G
DeLorean
(Back to the Future)
Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor / flux capacitor
0.34G
Jupiter 2 (Lost in Space)
Two deutronium-annihilation atomic motors
0.55G
Thunderbird 3
(Thunderbirds)
Ion drive / chemical rockets
1.12G
Space Shuttle Discovery
(NASA)
Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25
3G
Space Launch System [SLS]
(Interstellar)
Solid fuel, liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen
3.8G
Saturn V, Apollo 11
(NASA)
Saturn V SA-506
3.94G
Serenity (Firefly)
Trace compression block engine
4.2G
Cylon Raider
(Battlestar Galactica)
FTL drive
7.5G
Moon Rocket X-FLR6
(Tintin)
Nuclear rocket engine
8G
Colonial ViperMark VII
(Battlestar Galactica)
3 turbo-thrust engines
9G
Thunderfighter
(Buck Rogers)
Fusion
9.4G
Kal-El’s Escape Pod
(Superman: The Movie)
11G
The Event Horizon
(Event Horizon)
Ion drive
30G
Swordfish II
(Cowboy Bebop)
Rolls-Royce AF-15C axial fusion aero-spike turbine
50G
Project Orion (NASA)
Nuclear pulse propulsion
100G
Death (humans)
100G
TIE Fighters (Star Wars)
Twin ion engine
4,100G
Acceleration of a proton in the Large Hadron Collider
27-kilometer ring of superconducting magnets
1,900,000,000G
Faster Than Light
speed in C [C = 299,792,458 m / s]
USCSS Prometheus
(Prometheus)
4 ion-powered plasma engines
19.5C
Fireball XL5
(Fireball XL5)
Nutomic reactor
24C
USCSS Nostromo (Alien)
Rolls-Royce N66 Cyclone thrust engines
44C
The Ark (Transformers)
4 hyperfuel intake accelerators
115C
The USS Sulaco (Aliens)
Hyperdrive tachyon shunt
271C
USS Enterprise NCC-1701 (Star Trek)
Warp drive
512C
Pillar of Autumn (Halo)
Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine
959C
USS Enterprise NCC-1701 D (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Warp drive
1,649C
USS Voyager
(Star Trek: Voyager)
Warp drive
1,909C
Borg Cube
(Star Trek: The Next Generation)
7,912C
Prawn Mothership
(District 9)
11,119C
Eagle 5 (Space Balls)
Liquid Schwartz
89,998C
Ascendant Justice
(Halo)
333,164C
Moya (Farscape)
Starburst
365,250C
The Gunstar
(The Last Starfighter)
Stardrive hyperdrive system
701,280C
Death Star (Star Wars)
Sepma 30-5 sublight engines
1,142,500C
The RoDger Young
(Starship Troopers)
1,300,000C
Galactica [BS-75]
(Battlestar Galactica)
1,680,000C
Axiom (Wall-E)
2,190,000C
Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer
(Star Wars)
Ion engine
2,285,000C
Trimaxion Drone Ship “Max”
(Flight of the Navigator)
Phaelon technology / David’s brain
4,460,000C
X-Wing T-65 Starfighter
(Star Wars)
Thrust engines and hyperdrive
4,570,000C
Samus’ Gunship
(Metroid)
Dual engines
6,500,000C
Slave 1
(Empire Strikes Back)
Ion engine
6,500,000C
Millennium Falcon
(Star Wars)
Class 0.5 hyperdrive
9,130,000C
Daedalus (Stargate)
Asgard hyperdrive
60,000,000C
Spaceball 1 (Space Balls)
Secret hyperjets
1,360,000,000C
Planet Express (Futurama)
Dark matter reactors with afterburners that move the universe around the ship; Later, whale oil
4,870,000,000,000C
The TARDIS (Dr. Who)
The sentient ‘Heart of the Tardis’ is powered by both the Time Vortex and the Eye of Harmony, which is an exploding star permanently suspended in time
10,000,000,000,000,000C
Heart of Gold
(The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
Improbability drive
