Will interstellar travel ever be reality?

[yevaud]

Bingo. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[qso1]

If that is indeed the case, I would think the workarounds may be easier to achieve relatively speaking. Its one thing for some electromagnetic transformation to be occuring but entirely another if the problem is simply collisions with hydrogen atoms. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Those atoms and particles are impacting your hull at 30% of the speed of light. Imagine they would have an effect? If they make it through the hull, you have something with a huge velocity (energy) sleeting through you. If they impact the hull, they cause cascades of radiation. It's very basic physics. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

Even the CBR can be blue shifted into a problem at high enough speeds.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Exactly correct.<br /><br />Not my idea of a good day. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[spacefire]

<font color="yellow">Those atoms and particles are impacting your hull at 30% of the speed of light.</font><br /><br />I believe the speed of a stationary object will be different from the POV of the moving ship. Relativity.<br />But it's been a long time ago since I took a class on relativity. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[djtt]

so a very thick hull could protect you from this?<br />and if so how to calculate how thick?

 

[dragon04]

Here's a link to a discussion on the SS&A forum you may be interested in regarding your question.<br /><br />Link <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[dragon04]

Post deleted by Dragon04 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Here - you can edit it:<br /><br />[*url=http://whatever.com]Link Words[/url*]<br /><br />Of course, without the "*" <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[dragon04]

Thank You, Kind Sir. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[yevaud]

S' my job.<br /><br />And my work is done here.<br /><br />Spoon!!! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[spacefire]

bye lovebirds. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Shaddup. Save that stuff for the Jim and Eddie hour. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[spacefire]

<font color="yellow">so a very thick hull could protect you from this?<br />and if so how to calculate how thick?</font><br /><br />find the relativistic kinetic energy equation and calculate the energy transmitted by the impact from there. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[spacefire]

hey, you wanted to spoon. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Problem is, while it may prevent immediate penetrations, it then causes secondary, tertiary, and quatenary cascades of radiation. And if you make the hull so thick as to prevent <i>that</i> from occurring, there's so much mass, you couldn't possibly propel the thing. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[strandedonearth]

Well, a Bussard Ramjet would take care of those pesky hydrogen atoms, but that's science fiction. *checks forum* Well, at least we're in the right place.<br /><br />Now just gotta find a way to shield from the heavier stuff.<br />

 

[yevaud]

<i>hey, you wanted to spoon. </i><br /><br />No, no, no. That's the <i>Tick's</i> battle-cry. Why, I have no idea. He's not terribly tightly wrapped, after all.<br /><br />Then again, neither am I. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[qso1]

Yevaud:<br />Those atoms and particles are impacting your hull at 30% of the speed of light. Imagine they would have an effect?<br /><br />Me:<br />Sounds pretty close to what I recall seeing when I looked into it a few years ago. This was one of the reasons I came to favor the idea of hollowed asteroid star ships. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[qso1]

djtt:<br />so a very thick hull could protect you from this?<br /><br />Me:<br />That was the problem I was having. I figured a hollowed asteroid could be hollowed to the point of having a thickness of several hundreds to maybe a thousand feet thick. This would be a tremendously massive object to move through space however.<br /><br />Another solution might be a double hulled spherical craft or teardrop shaped where the teardrop taper at the aft end would be an entry area. The inner hull external skin separated from the outer hull inner skin by perhaps a few feet. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[dragon04]

In terms of current technology, interstellar travel will be ponderously slow.<br /><br />Think in terms of the "navigational deflectors" of Star Trek. Even a relativistic spacecraft would have to be able to project a prodigious electromagnetic field ahead of the ship to "deflect" incoming particles and radiation relative to the ship's velocity at significantly less than <b><i>c</i></b>.<br /><br />I have no doubt that if Mankind can accurately identify habitable planets at interstellar diastances, we can colonize the galaxy, but it will take millions of years to do so.<br /><br />The "good news" would be that over epochal time, it would be achieved exponentially. The bad news is that I can see no circumstance under which we get beyond our own galaxy before the "big crunch" or "entropy" occurs.<br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[qso1]

Dragon04:<br />In terms of current technology, interstellar travel will be ponderously slow. <br /><br />Me:<br />I would think by the time we undertake interstellar travel that we will do so with technology well beyond today or near term tech. At least the tech needed to build and operate the craft. But thats just me.<br /><br />Dragon04:<br />I have no doubt that if Mankind can accurately identify habitable planets at interstellar diastances, we can colonize the galaxy, but it will take millions of years to do so.<br /><br />Me:<br />I agree, its going to take a very long time to colonize the galaxy and unless there is some massive unforseen breakthrough in FTL travel, I doubt we will ever go beyond the Milky Way. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[enigma10]

Once, long ago, man,woman and child use to wonder what was across the great blue divide, and how they'd ever explore it. The innitial voyages across that great expanse were costly, in both lives and supplies. Often there was no returning. The explorations often tested mankind to thier limits both scientifically and spiritually. Each voyage, no matter how far travelled, helped pave the way for more efficient techniques to cross with efficiency, speed, and safety.<br /><br /> We are at that point again. The great black divide, instead of blue. We are not going to know , until we get out there, what it will really require, and how to do it. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"<font color="#333399">An organism at war with itself is a doomed organism." - Carl Sagan</font></em> </div>

 

[djtt]

yea the asteroid idea seems to have been worked out into a decent amount of detail in mackenworth's "a sphere of darkness"<br />it seems a good idea but has quite few hooks and angles still