Cap'n Refsmmat

I think everyone would simultaneously go "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!" and buy every canned food in the store.

Read the first three posts! It talks about propulsion... Navigation is easy. Star tracking. How is fission "overkill"? I mean, you need power to draw in hydrogen, heat it up to high temperatures, shoot it out the back, as well as for the computers, life support, etc. Submarines have one and that's not overkill.

How about 4 of them? I mean, there aren't any good viable alternatives besides fusion, and that's unlikely.

Why is it so mysterious? We don't know what it is!

Mine? ME! I'm sorry, I suffer from chronic high self esteem. I really can't choose one...

Hey, modern radar could pick up a football at hundreds of miles away, getting it to get micrometeors is easy. The Air Force picks up and tracks all objects over a foot in diameter in Earth orbit, so why can't you pick up a golf ball on radar and zap it? If you're thinking itty-bitty micrometeors, think depleted uranium armor.

If it weren't for people like Dave, this forum would be SO boring.

Micrometeors-what do you think the radar and lasers are for? Blast them to smithereens! THEORY ALERT! If it was possible, couldn't you lower the ship's mass to 0, hit light speed, then drop to negative mass, and accelerate further? Assuming you can change the mass of an object, of course.

Why no reactors on a mid-range cruiser? You can't get enough power for things with the alternatives. Money is the biggest problem here. Unless we get replicators so materials cost is zilch, it will be hard to make it without causing scandals. Deflectors, I agree, are hard to make, since it really isn't possible to make a magnetic field (what it might use) to deflect uncharged items made of things other than iron, nickel, or cobalt, without it being ridiculously powerful. Especially because the ship would be affected by it too. Shielding: You don't need that much. Just enough to lower levels down enough. If there's a solar storm or something that bombards it with radiation, have a section of the ship (bridge included, so you can command it) heavily shielded. Just hide in there for an hour and you're fine.

Why not just buy a dry-erase marker?

The last installment: Communications: We all know that the farther from Earth you get, the longer it takes for a message to get back and forth. Subspace communication doesn't exist at all, so you need an alternative to communicate rapidly. What is it? Quantum entanglement. You have a cloud of entangled particles on the ship, and one at base. They are entangled with each other. As you change the properties of one, it changes the other. So if you have it so you change it one way, get a binary 0, another, get 1. With a cloud, you can have hundreds of these at once, so you get bandwidth. The only problem is I don't know if both particles react instantly, so tell me: Would that work?

Yes.

Same.

Oops. Forgot weaponry and such... Weapons: With several fission reactors, I suppose you could easily power large lasers mounted in some sort of turret on the ship. These would easily heat up to the melting point the hull of another ship, or, burn through a threatening asteroid and separate it into pieces. There could be smaller systems to track incoming projectiles and destroy them, lest they blast a hole in the ship (little meteroids pack a big punch at high speed). Sensors: Again, with the reactors, you could power a large radar and infrared array that would detect objects and meteroids that pose a danger to the ship. Then the laser system would blast them out before they perforate the hull. The infrared is to pick up objects that are warmer than the environment (which is very cold), like incoming rockets or, in some cases, stars. So is it feasible?

I just did a bit of thinking, and came up with something: with today's technology, you could theoretically create a (less capable) version of the Enterprise. Here is how it would work: Propulsion: I know that with today's technology, you really can't make warp drive or whatever. But part of it is possible. You have several fission reactors powering the ship. These also power giant electromagnets which suck up all the atoms floating around in space. These are heated up and blasted out the back, like a rocket. Some of the gases could be used for maneuvering, also. You could get to maybe half light speed in a year or so, but you really wouldn't have the ability to do quick stops and high-speed acceleration. Dashes between planets would have to be carefully planned so you can get into orbit without overshooting because you can't decelerate fast enough (which is hard, considering how much thrust you have, compared to the Enterprise). Atmosphere and Food: On a long-range ship like this, you'd need lots of food. Replicators aren't possible yet, so you would have to grow your own. The plants would also have to recycle some of the CO2. There would also have to be scrubbers, so you could balance oxygen and carbon dioxide so both humans and plants have the optimal amount. Too little CO2, plants die. Too much, the humans do. There also would have to be heating and cooling, but mainly heating, since in deep space there is hardly any light to heat up a ship. Crew Comfort: On a ship like this, you need a large crew. Preferably you would have cabins for the officers, and bunk spaces for the crew. Since artificial gravity is not yet possible, you would have to let them all float around, and use the space version of a sleeping bag. (you just float inside it, arms hanging out and floating in front of your face) To keep the crew's muscles and bones strong, you need to have some sort of centrifuge to let them feel like they have gravity, at least once a week. The technology (I think) would work for this, the only problem is money, and how much you are willing to risk. So, is it really feasible? Any suggestions? Possibilities? Whatever? note: I'm doing this in installments, as I haven't the time to write it all at once.

With illustrations? I'm not going to be able to eat for a few hours... ugh. Why is there no "disgusted" smiley?

Pity I only get BBC on shortwave, and only with luck.

Idea! Make a "decoy" shed with loads of locks on it, so it looks valuable. Rig it to explode when they open the door.

I have 0.9 and I have the problems.

There isn't much difference, except Earth's is bigger.

Yes.

Did you compose it?

I'm glad all the spam in this thread was deleted. Oh really? They HAVE to. It's necessary to cooperate between scientists to get things to work.

Actually, you could add sawdust to it. As I mentioned earlier, they intended to make aircraft carriers out of ice, but with sawdust in it. It gets to be as strong as concrete (or was it as dense? I'm not sure) and makes a very capable (and cold) ship. Here's a link for it And another one What happens when you shoot pykrete:

If you're in the US, pi day is March 14, or 3/14. EVIL BRITISH PEOPLE SCREWING UP DATES!