I'm glad you cleared that up, I just wasnt going to enjoy my lunch till I was sure about this.
The Final Frontier.
- Thread starter Von Smallhausen
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I'm glad you cleared that up, I just wasnt going to enjoy my lunch till I was sure about this.
Looks like I need to go back and read
I thought, for example travelling 10 light years at the speed of light would take 10 years.
So how travelling 10ly at 0.8c(a slower speed) only takes 7.5 years really confuses me!
Are you basing this off time back on earth/outside observer? or time from the onboard observer's watch? (for example and to simplify)
Because I think you need to take the outside observer out of this equation and base it entirely on the crew of the ship. I am not concerned about what time appears to have passed if you're outside the ship or relative to another object.
Let me know
From the point of view of the person on the ship, he wouldn't actually be travelling 10ly. Distance dilates as well as time, so it would look like space was compressing in front of him. It would seem to the shipboard observer that the distance travelled is only 6ly (10/gamma), and so time taken = 6/0.8=7.5. So the model is consistent.
Do these rules apply to current modes of transport or is it only when you get up to light speed?, Maybe in a Blackbird at mach 3 or something would a 3 hour journey seem a few mins less to the pilot ?
I've never heard of this theory before, I always though time was a constant.
Does this mean that time travel could be possible at some point in the future ?
I've never heard of this theory before, I always though time was a constant.
Does this mean that time travel could be possible at some point in the future ?
A blackbird at 3M would experience some time dilation, but not a lot. This is because 3M is such a small speed compared to c. Basically, time(shipboard) = time(external)/gamma where gamma = 1/sqrt[1-(v^2)/(c^2)]. This approaches infinity as v approaches c.
I'd like to see it happen, but theres a lot of problems like people have said the amount of time it takes to get places.
But also artificial mavity, humans cannot really survive without it, our bodies fall apart really, so without it we'd be stuffed, and as it stands there is no real way to make it thats very efficient and works well.
And long range communications, I personally would not want to go on a mission to the outer reaches and not be able to call back to earth, or for the a message to take years to get there. But I guess this would be solved by the new engine systems to make it viable to get somewhere within a couple 1000 years lol
But also artificial mavity, humans cannot really survive without it, our bodies fall apart really, so without it we'd be stuffed, and as it stands there is no real way to make it thats very efficient and works well.
And long range communications, I personally would not want to go on a mission to the outer reaches and not be able to call back to earth, or for the a message to take years to get there. But I guess this would be solved by the new engine systems to make it viable to get somewhere within a couple 1000 years lol
Time slows as you approach the speed of light, you also gain more mass, this was outline by Einstein I believe.
The more mass thing is basically why attaining the speed of light is impossible, as your mass increases exponentially with speed, so you would in theory be infinitely heavy I believe, or you would become what light is, both a particle and energy, overcoming this problem perhaps?
Who knows!
Its easy, but the ship would be massive-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_gravity#Rotation
"To produce 1g, the radius of rotation would have to be 224 m"
Thats not small!
And seeing as we cannot lift much into space in the first place, thats a lot of rocket trips with bits to be built in space.
Space ship construction yards are on the drawing boards, I've been told by a lecturer, to enable space exploration to be performed more easily, we could even be seeing one for the ESA Human Mars Mission in 2020.
If you can built a ship in space, it saves you a lot of effort, and could make it reusable, its would basically be like the IIS but with some engines, then with Pods to drop down to planet surfaces and come back up
That happens with all particles already. Problem is there's no known way of us sending information via this mechanism. At present it is impossible for information to be transmitted faster than light.
Regards the original post, yes interstellar travel is theoretically possible. There are lots of different propulsion methods which would enable a feat, such as:
Ion thrusters
VASIMR
Nuclear pulse production (Dropping atomic/hydrogen bombs from the rear of the craft and having them explode, pushing a massive plate attached to the ship)
Plasma thrusters
Solar sails, and many many more. Wiki/google any of these for more info, I might elaborate later if I have time.
Big issues are shielding the crew from cosmic rays/other radiation, keeping the crew healthy (astronauts lose bone and muscle mass at an alarming rate) and of course sustaining the crews lifes long enough so that they are still around when the ship docks at nearby stars.
There's no way we will be travelling at the speed of light as for anything with mass that's impossible. Not technically unfeasible, but physically impossible. There's nothing stopping us travelling at a respectable proportion of it though- 10% of the speed of light would be a great figure to aim for. A breakthrough will have to come in slowing down human metabolisms sufficiently so that crew may be placed in suspended animation- a kind of long term hibernation (think Alien/Aliens). That way there would be no problem in travelling for a hundred years or so with minimal nutritional requirements.
I believe that this aspect is a mere technical difficulty and come be overcome this century certainly, perhaps in the next 30-50 years.
Its easy, but the ship would be massive-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_gravity#Rotation
"To produce 1g, the radius of rotation would have to be 224 m"
Thats not small!
And seeing as we cannot lift much into space in the first place, thats a lot of rocket trips with bits to be built in space.
Space ship construction yards are on the drawing boards, I've been told by a lecturer, to enable space exploration to be performed more easily, we could even be seeing one for the ESA Human Mars Mission in 2020.
If you can built a ship in space, it saves you a lot of effort, and could make it reusable, its would basically be like the IIS but with some engines, then with Pods to drop down to planet surfaces and come back up
224m isn't that large though either. Hell the flux capacitors of the engines themselves could be bigger than that...
A space craft of this size wouldn't be built on earth anyway. It would be assembled, at the very least, on either the Moon or Mars. Because launching the craft into space from these is much easier due to lower mavity...
I've always had some interesting thought on jump gate styled space travel within our time, where the jump gate is basically a giant rail gun that fires you to another gate, and all your ship needs to do is slow down at the other end and have maneuvering abilities.
It's a good way. Having an external power source would save weight and size. But would be a one way trip untill it was assembled teh other end.
They are also looking at laser powered flight. Where they build a jumbo sized laser and they can then fire that at a spacecraft giving it constant power till it is out of range.
ooooo thats an interesting idea!!
The jump gates would be easy to setup as well, make one, point it somewhere, fire a ship carrying a jump gate, ships deploys the gate, then jumps back using the deployed gate
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Interesting point.
I personally think our galaxy alone is too vast to even contemplate that we are alone.
Beyond that, there are billions of galaxies .... the mind boggles.
Travelling to another solar system is not the same as finding another civilisation.
We also laugh at the "evidence" much more than the idea
ooooo thats an interesting idea!!
The jump gates would be easy to setup as well, make one, point it somewhere, fire a ship carrying a jump gate, ships deploys the gate, then jumps back using the deployed gate
but how does it sopt at the other end without a gate to catch it?
it will need to be able to provide the same amount of power as the first gate in reverse to stop.
Soldato
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it will start shrinking one day , according to theories
Currently the best information we have says the universe is expanding and the rate of expansion is increasing. The gravitational pull of all the matter in the universe is not enough to overcome the inflationary force.
wiki said:
I've included the last line in the quote for completeness, but it's straw clutching of the highest order and I'd ignore it personally.
Jumpgates could be feasible for travel between planets in our solar system though. You can use gravitational slingshots to slow down as well as speed up. If you do the maths right and have enough spare fuel, the ship carrying the other jumpgate could slow down at the other end. The biggest trick would be anchoring the gates. If you let them drift in orbit around a planet, you would have to constantly adjust the Earth gate so as to make the ship arrive right on top of the other jumpgate. Those calculations are not trivial, and the slightest error would mean your spaceship would drift forever-more into the void.
To start with at least. I think the power source would have to external. Like a rail gun or laser. Powered by huge solar rays pointed at the sun. And that the first missions would be 100's of years to go and set up a similar system the other end. I think you would need both in place, to be able to slow down. If you even got to half the speed of light. You would require far to much fuel. Similar with slingshots. you would be just going to fast to use it. So a slow mission to set it up. either stasis,generational or robots.