How Mass Effect’s Mass Relays Work

The Mass Relays give the Mass Effect series its name because of their method of mass manipulation, which allows transit across the entire galaxy.

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Space is big. It’s possibly the most widely accepted fact in human existence, even well before Douglas Adams cleverly expounded on the phrase. That is certainly no exception in the critically acclaimed world of Mass Effect. Because of this fact, traveling through space is both the most complex of feats and greatest of fantasies, and one BioWare navigated with the clever invention of Mass Relays.

Over the years, science fiction has found any number of workarounds for the pesky problem of actual real-life physics, from warp drives to faster-than-light engines to Adams’ own Infinite Improbability Drive. The mass relays are but a recent method in a very long line of ways to expedite travel through the vastness of space where so many things could go wrong, and in Mass Effect’s universe they do so by creating a literal relay system through points in space that allow for travel between without the risk of destruction. In order to accomplish this, the relays have a well-executed scientific design.

With Mass Effect set strictly in the Milky Way galaxy it has a confined space, albeit a large one, in which to work. Even within the Milky Way there are massive distances to be covered between the star systems, and the relay system, along with the Citadel itself, created a galactic web of transit points, making it one of the most impressive sci-fi transit systems. Despite the name, the “secondary” relays make up the bulk of the transportation system, as they function openly within the network for players to use.

How The Mass Relays Effect Mass

The entire name Mass Effect comes from the relays themselves, as they function by creating a near mass-free connection, or “corridor,” between two relays in the galactic system. As many sci-fi works have showcased, the biggest challenge to space travel is mass. From gravitational pull that slows mass to inertial forces that affect an object’s movement, mass is the common variable. Thus, the relays solve this issue by negating the specific amount of mass of the ship entering the corridor, and transports it across space.

There are two types of relays in Mass Effect’s mass relay system. Primary relays, which are not used by space-faring species because of the events in the Rachni War that occurred before Mass Effect’s story, are a linked pair of relays that can only transport between one another and can span any distance. Despite its name, the primary travel method used in Mass Effect are the secondary relays, which are open connection relays which can send ships to any other relay (within a few hundred light-year radius). Due to the secondary relays not having a direct link between two points, as the primary Mass Effect mass relays do, they are only able to maintain the corridor over the shorter distance, and ships transmit their mass data and flight telemetry to the departure relays to be transported in the general vicinity of the arrival relay.

BioWare built an incredibly realized and detailed world for the series with technological feats like biotic implants, and in-depth lore like the Keepers than maintain Mass Effect’s Citadel. The mass relays may provide the backbone of transit throughout the Mass Effect universe and give the game its namesake, but they are just one piece in a much larger narrative that spans all the way back to the beings that first made them.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/mass-effect-mass-relay-space-travel-warp-speed/