Is this possible?

[TimbaLanD]

I was just thinking!! When the sun dies, there is no gravity to hold our planet in orbit. Wouldn’t it be cool to turn planet earth into a space ship like the Borg ship from star trek!!! Fit some propulsion system for control and a solid shelter around the earth so it can be navigated to the nearest star?? Do you think it’s possible?

[insane_alien]

When the sun dies. it won't just vanish or stop having a gravitational effect. we'll still orbit the sun. although we will have been engulfed in the sun as it will expand past the orbit of earth. if were going to move the earth then we'll do it well before. the puppeteers did it in ringworld 5 worlds in a kempler rosette travelling at the speed of light.

[john5746]

When the sun dies. it won't just vanish or stop having a gravitational effect. we'll still orbit the sun. although we will have been engulfed in the sun as it will expand past the orbit of earth. if were going to move the earth then we'll do it well before. the puppeteers did it in ringworld 5 worlds in a kempler rosette travelling at the speed of light.

 

I'm not sure if that is truly known. It will definitely scorch the earth as a red giant, but it may not engulf the earth. The earth may escape the gravitational pull.

[AzurePhoenix]

I don't bleieve there would be anything to cause it to escape the pull. Whether or not the sun expanded enough to consume it entirely, nothing would happen to fling it from orbit so much as spiral it into the sun itself.

[insane_alien]

Well the atmosphere will be stripped away at least. un less we as a species move the planet it would, as azure says, spiral ino the sun via friction with the solar atmosphere.

[Daecon]

Even if we were able to turn it into a spaceship, there sould be no way of fuelling it or sustaining life. As soon as it goes past the orbit of Mars I expect it would quickly become a frozen desolate wasteland.

[insane_alien]

artificial suns and underground heating.

[Daecon]

How could you create an artificial sun with enough power (where could people get enough matter to make a decent one?), and how long would underground heating last until the energy has been spent?

 

Entropy and all that annoying stuff...

[TimbaLanD]

I am not sure if you have seen the construction of the millennium dome in England (http://www.rwa.org.uk/paintgs/rog1.jpg) So, why can’t we construct something like that around the whole world say in 5 billion years we would probably have the technology and the material. If we do that, we can use nuclear energy to generate light and heat and preserve the planet as it is. After all, E=MC2.

 

Maybe we can put in powerful nuclear propulsion systems to navigate motion of the planet? Do you think if we can do that? We can move the planet into a safe distance from the sun and watch the death of the sun? or we can even make the planet come to a complete halt in our reference frame??

 

We talk about building space ships and moving towards to settle in another planet. I am sure we will have the power and technology to move the planet and maybe put it into an orbit of another star maybe?

[insane_alien]

Well we could heat the earth the same way the sun heats earth. Fusion. we make an open fusion reactorin orbit around the earth. probably an orbit that takes 24 hours to go round the earth relative to the surface(not the same as a geostationary orbit.) although by that time we might have wormhole technologies and we could jump the earth into orbit around another star.

[TimbaLanD]

Imagine if the earth suddenly stops going around the sun, like a sudden break or something... We will all be thrown into space, right?

 

I still think the earth will be the coolest space ship ever!!!

[insane_alien]

well assuming the earth suddenly stopped with no force applied to the plant and animal life then we would suddenly be moving with a 32km/s relative velocity to earth. now friction with the atmosphere would vapourise us almost instantly so we wouldn't be thrown into space. some vegetetion might survive if its in the right place and maybe some microbes but the majority of life on earth would be dead. the earth is already a spaceship technically

[TimbaLanD]

well assuming the earth suddenly stopped with no force applied to the plant and animal life then we would suddenly be moving with a 32km/s relative velocity to earth. now friction with the atmosphere would vapourise us almost instantly so we wouldn't be thrown into space. some vegetetion might survive if its in the right place and maybe some microbes but the majority of life on earth would be dead. the earth is already a spaceship technically

 

Surely the atmosphere would move in the same direction as us??

[insane_alien]

yeah well i'm assuming that the atmosphere was part of earth and had the same force applied to stop it. if it was still moving we would survive a bit longer. maybe.

[TimbaLanD]

Do you think it’s possible to boost the speed of the movement of our planet or even slow it down? Imagine if we can slowly stop the planet from moving around the sun and just let it spin on its axis, we would only have one season!

[insane_alien]

its perfectly possible to apply a force to a planet to move it. its just with current technology we can't produce enough thrust for it to be measurable.

[scicop]

do we really care what's going to happen then? The human race will be extinct by then. So who cares?

Plus..I'll be dead way before then, if I have any distal progeny living then..well, they will have to pay for all the sins of the father (me) and die.

 

Simple as that.

[reyam200]

insaine alien is right, its not currently phesable. perhaps if we ever figure out how to make somthing like the "inerta dampers" from star trek, it would take less energy to move the earth. but untill then, who cares.

if my understanding is correct, the inerta dampers allow a object to go from 0 to any speed, without feeling the "jolt".