main
side
curve
  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

JCC The American Space Program and its Future...

Discussion in 'Community' started by Lazy Storm Trooper, Oct 17, 2013.

  1. Chancellor_Ewok

    Chancellor_Ewok Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2004

    Agreed. There are some really cool proposals kicked around for the SLS. My only beef with it, is they couldn't come up with a better name?
     
  2. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002


    "Best case to Mars, 10 years. Worst case 15 to 20."

    The Space-X stuff is around 13 minutes.
     
  3. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002


    Supersonic 71,000 feet.
     
  4. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Lord Vivec Lowbacca_1977, one of the problems I see with space flight will be probably more practical than how many years it would take to accelerate to close to the speed of light, but what happens if you hit any solid mass. Assuming, say, a chunk of rock the size of a tennis ball. At that speed, would it not shear through the hull like a bullet through butter - and as such, does that put brakes on the space program?
     
  5. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Hey it never happened on Star Trek. The rocks and space chunks should know better or something.
     
  6. Volderon

    Volderon Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 23, 2007
    That's because Star Trek ships have the Main Deflector Dish.
     
  7. Lowbacca_1977

    Lowbacca_1977 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jun 28, 2006
    I think the gist of it is that space is really, really empty and so while hitting something would be damaging, it's not likely to happen. Even with the higher density of material in the solar system, we don't really have collisions and missions in the asteroid belt have to go out of their way to get close to anything.
    I leave it as an exercise for the reader to calculate out the mean free path in interstellar space.
     
    Lord Vivec likes this.
  8. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Asimov stated that approx 30% lightspeed is about as safe as it will get even considering a diamond hard shield in front.
     
  9. Chancellor_Ewok

    Chancellor_Ewok Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2004

    Yeah, without which FTL travel is basically impossible, since a starship travelling at warp one is doing about 7 billion miles a second.
     
  10. Volderon

    Volderon Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 23, 2007
    Yep and then it grows exponentially every warp factor so we are talking some crazy speeds.
     
  11. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Warp One in Star Trek is the speed of light, 186,000 mile sper second. At Warp 9+ you ar in the thousands of times the speed of light.
     
  12. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Well then obviously cover the whole damn ship with it.
     
  13. Mr44

    Mr44 VIP star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 21, 2002
    But I thought that's why current theoretical physics has refined the concept of warping space even further.

    The problem with the original Alcubierre type drive was that it required prohibitive amounts of energy-Energy with a mass of Jupiter just to move a small spaceship. I believe, but I could be wrong because the science is getting beyond me, but the older concepts which existed during Asimov's time relied on gravity, while the current concepts use lasers.

    But even NASA's website illustrate new calculations which require much less energy. NASA's Johnson's Space Center concept space ship has a rounded doughnut shaped ring which encircles it, and which produces the actual warp field. The ring itself is made from graphite/polymer and/or other alloys. This warp drive only requires the energy equal to a mass of 722 Kg's, or about 1,500lbs, which could easily be carried by the ship itself. The amazing thing is that NASA estimates that an effective speed of Warp 10 could easily be achieved. Of course, since the actual space ship itself isn't really moving all that fast, there is no danger of collision.

    If one looks up the "White-Juday Warp Field Interferometer," NASA even has a working prototype, even if the scale is extremely small.
     
  14. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    It was my understandng that no matter the mass to be moved the energy originally calculated was beyond the entire mass of the universe.

    The current NASA numbers now might only be as you indicated, but it isn't a "warp 10" it's just ten times the speed of light but it was not clear if that was an absolute limit for any given energy amount. As I pointed out many pages back, the whole thing in their words is "slightly less implauable", but worth testing.
     
  15. Lowbacca_1977

    Lowbacca_1977 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jun 28, 2006
    Basically, the concept is that you create a warp in space time inclined in one direction so that you ride that warp, like a surfer riding a wave, and being carried along by it rather than having to have their own energy. If it's actually feasible is a separate matter.
     
  16. Lazy Storm Trooper

    Lazy Storm Trooper Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 18, 2012
    Warp 10 is the Speed of Light raised to the ten.


    Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
     
  17. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Warp ten is a Star Trek term that means infinite speed. Warp 9.975 is approx 2900 X lightspeed. there is nothing 'warp ten' in what the NASA folks are addressing, they are just saying ten times the speed of light but give no details as to why or if any more energy yields a faster speed.
     
  18. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 20, 2012
    You know Dune? Why can't we get those ugly worm things to teleport our ships everywhere?
     
  19. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001

    Yeah but how many years would it take to accelerate to that speed?
     
  20. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    There is not a chemical, fission, or fusion design imagined that will get there at all. Beamed power or antimatter only. And those can get to 30% in perhaps a few years. If the design encompases a magsail it need never have a slow down leg, just deploy the sail and it will slow down no matter how fast it is going so one can accelerate all the way if possible.

    A nuclear pulse propulsion system might achieve 7% lightspeed and take 50 years to reach the nearest star.

    In other words it is not technicaly impossible at all. But even a beamed ship at the very least is still many decades away if nto a century. Beyond 30% might become safe if there was a way to pave the way and reduce the amount of particles in the travel path possibly by shining the beam before launching the craft or just having a stronger shield.
     
  21. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Yes, but... to get to that actual speed, you will be accelerating for an insanely long time. Years.
     
  22. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Half a G would hit lightspeed in a year and have traveled half a light year.

    A beam powered craft could reach 30% lightspeed in 1.5 years.

    The models are old, requiring lenses larger than the Moon. I have not seen any technical updates but I have not looked either.
     
  23. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
  24. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002


    Moo.
     
    Juliet316 likes this.
  25. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000