calbiterol

They've also created an antimatter trap that prevents these antihydrogen atoms from obliterating. And the whole point is power:weight ratio on the spacecraft.

Where'd you go? Vacations are always nice. I thought I might clarify, since after reading it just now, my last post (#12) is a little vague. It's referring to nuclear propulsion systems. Anyways, in case it wasn't clear.

Good call. Unfortunately they havent had any news updates since the X-Prize (the $10 million) was won. It's rather enteratining to read these things in two different languages. You can tell really, really fast if they used a translation program or if they had someone type it out in the other language. Virgin Galactic is of the latter, more professional kind, at least for German. It kind of surprises me, just in that not many people bother. A pat on the back for that.

He did it without a heat shield by using a special technique that has been dubbed "feathering" the wing. Note that even though he didn't get out of the atmosphere, if he was going fast enough, he'd need a heat shield. He just prevents the craft from going that fast on the way down. The other groups are going to do test flights, it's just Rutan is always 2 steps ahead of them. There are a couple who are(? have? I don't remember) scheduling test flights of their own craft. They just haven't gotten to the actual flight stage yet.

That's wasn't the idea. He had sponsors. AFAIK, Rutan got the 10 million, and the sponsors will get back their money through commercial flights to space.

Oh, and there's other companies doing this as well - or, are about to - there was a $10 million (US) prize for the first group to privately get to suborbital space. There's bunches more out there, even NASA prizes, some have to do with the moon, others orbital craft, other space stations, but all privately funded.

Actaully, he did do something the government couldn't do. He did it in under 10 years, for under umpteen trillion dollars. I forget the figure of what it cost his company, but he did it for less than $100 mil US, IIRC, and that's a lot cheaper than what the gov't spends, even for suborbital. The way he did it was also an engineering feat - he used a hybrid nitrous oxide / rubber motor, and a drop from a high altitude plane. He's (from what I hear) planning to make orbital craft next. His design, by the way, is completely scalable, IIRC.

His company, Scaled Composites, is actually (in some ways) just as secretive as the government. His facilities have more security than a fair amount of the world's enriched uranium. Not that that's saying anything, but...

I'd go for number 4: sending in special agents, carrying an emergency backup EMP. If they can't find it, or do and can't do anything about it, then absolute worst case - you know it's going to go off, so doing nothing is pointless - they use the EMP. Always have an escape route, a backup plan. Or so I've been told. That's what I'd go with, at least.

Yourdad, the link you gave was quite good. Not only was the gravity vid quite point-proving, but the other clips were great, too.

Nothing. If you take air resistance out of it, the only thing that really matters is gravity. Well, that and the fact that there are actually things falling, but that's a given.

I'm not sure I'm reading you right. If there is no air resistance, then they will hit the ground at the same time. In other words, if you have two identically spheres, one solid and made of pure lead, and you drop them in an environment devoid of air, they'll hit at the same time. I'm not sure what happens when they are the same shape but in an atmosphere. I think that's where the difference comes to play.

I don't think it was ever specified which one, but it definitely seems like everyone else took it that way. No matter, they are at V=0 WRT each other and no "leading" of the target (the other ship) is needed.

Kygron, your signature is bloody confusing. That said, 91 teraflops?! Wow. With a petaflop on the way? I'm floored.

I wonder if the way you read the question makes any differnce, but it's quite possible it doesn't. When I originally read the situation, I thought the spaceships were travelling parallel, one behind the other (essentially the same line), and in that case, it really wouldn't matter where the laser was aimed, as long as it is dead ahead. Make sense? But I don't know about sideways... I would think you would have to accomodate for the fact that it takes light time to travel the distance, but then again, it's like they're stationary. Ahh, light bulb. Anyways, I just thought it was interesting that I read the question one way, and from the looks of it, everyone else read it differently.

Doesn't the power supply's fan have to remove the heat from converting AC to DC? Adapters like that generate large amounts of heat (my aunt's cat likes to sit on my laptop's adapter to stay warm, it's quite entertaining to move it ), which, IIRC, is removed/dealt with by the power supply's cooling fan. IMHO, no, if anything, it's only contributing to the problem.

Ahah! *Lightbulb* Doh! Good luck to you, try to stay active in the forums, though! (That probably won't happen, but it's the thought that counts, right? ) More on topic, though, I am interested by both the notion that there was no time before the Big Bang and by the notion that there was. Either way, it makes for some abstract thinking. IIRC, though, we really don't know, because everything as we know it brakes down at the singularity.

What does the army have to do with [imath] E=mc^2 [/imath]?? I'm so confused.

Do you think you could use magnets to both push them away and pull them in at the same time? Like with this? Only problem is, no way to rotate thewheel. Hmm... [Edit: I figured I should explain this more. The spherical halbach array (the "wheel") is attracted by the hemisherical, fixed halbach array in the vehicle. The other magnet repels the "wheel" when it gets close to it - it would have to have very dense field lines, though. Alternatively, the outer magnet could also be a halbach array, but still repelling the "wheel." Perhaps a halbach array made out of superconductor magnets?]

AHHH! This is becoming a thread of punctuationless posters! antimind might as well call himself anti-punctuation-man or anti-readable! AHHHHH!

I was under the impression that octane rating was a ranking of the ratio of hydrocarbons to other impurities in a fuel. Seeing as hydrogen has no carbons... But I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time. My concern with the computer is that computers, in general, have very limited running environments, that is, I'm not sure that this is a scenario that was foreseen and accomidated (sp?) for in the computer. It's also completely possible that the computer will do exactly what you want anyway; I'm not experienced enough with cars to knw (I don't even drive), I'm just saying that you should make sure it's gonna work beforehand, and saying whatever seems logical in my mind and could result in a trouble spot. And the last thing that seems like it could be a problem is engine knock. Is this going to cause too much knock? As far as materials go, I can recommend carbon and/or platinum for electrodes (or plated with platinum), but other than that, I really have no idea. Like I said, I can't even drive.

Yep, at least that how I saw it. I actually liked that movie, it was an interesting way of interpreting and synthesizing Asimov's stories.

That's what they call "black budget," but our current president can't even pronounce the word correctly ("nucular" ), much less image a spaceship using it... And as far as I understand, the negative byproducts of such a propulsion system are relatively few (to us) because none of the harmful particles would ever reach us. But I don't know much about ORION, so I'm not one to talk - but it's a very intriguing project.

Wouldn't this result in a lower-octane rating? Where are you attaching the H2 line? Are you willing to risk destroying your engine to test this?