The show was created and produced by Ron Thornton and Douglas Netter, its executive story editor was Christy Marx, who also wrote four episodes.

Due to its lineage, Hypernauts featured relatively detailed designs of its technology and its aliens, as well as a fairly intricate plot, especially for a Saturday morning children's series.

The premise of the series was that three cadets from the Academy of Galactic Exploration become lost in a Hyper Bubble (hyperspace) mid-jump and must band together with an alien named Kulai in order to survive in an unfamiliar part of the galaxy.

The sole purpose of the Triiad is to wipe out intelligent races, and in the process acquire raw materials from their destroyed planets to continually create new war machines using automated self-replicating factory ships called "Makers".

Russell 'Ace' Antonov (Glenn Herman) is the team's "ace' pilot who joined to Max and Sharkey on the discipline mission as a punishment for using the Academy of Galactic Exploration's sim trainer to play war games.

[1] Noriko 'Max' Matsuda (Heidi Lucas) is the team medic who was sent on the disciplinary mission that stranded the three Hypernauts because of unauthorized calls to her sister.

[2] Ricardo 'Sharkey' Alvarez (Marc Brandon Daniel) is the team's engineer and computer technician who was placed on the disciplinary mission after hacking into the Academy's mainframe.

Reunion, Hole in the Sky, New Alliances, and the Challenge parts one and two never aired in the United States, but were available on various media in Australia, Japan and Germany.