The vast distances between star systems means even the closest would take years to cross at Endeavour’s best impulse speeds.
Fortunately a key piece of technology recovered from extra-terrestrial vessels makes interstellar travel feasible by warping space-time, effectively producing velocities a number of times the speed of light.
Known as the FTL (Faster Than Light) Drive, it is the fundamental discovery that gave rise to all of Earth’s deep space programs but is so complex that scientists and engineers have been unable to reverse-engineer it. The few working drives available will be directly integrated into vessels.
Adding FTL to the simulator significantly widens the scope for exploration and means a much greater range of mission scenarios can be supported.
A significant part of the latest update adds stellar cartography to the simulator’s capabilities, which allows complete star systems including planets, moons and astronomical phenomena to be modelled.
With a different star system now available for every mission, crews will have new planets to explore, mysteries to be unravelled and dangers to be confronted each time they take Endeavour out.
For more detail, check out this post at the crew site: