The Enterprise... Now?

[JaKiri]

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.

 

If it were possible to travel faster than lightspeed, you could travel faster than lightspeed. This is a singularly useless line of investigation.

 

there is currently no way to get to alpha centuri in the next 1000 years. fission reactors would likely be overkill.

 

Re: this whole propulsion argument.

 

You don't need thrust, other than directional, throughout the voyage. You only need it at the start and at the end. It'd be fairly trivial in science terms to build a vessel that could get to Alpha in, say, a decade, but the resource cost would be astronomical. Boom boom.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

If you do it only at the start and the end, you don't get there as fast as accelerating the first half, and decelerating to get into orbit in the last half. Your average speed is higher than just the start and the end.

[atinymonkey]

You're confusing it with ion engines.

 

Nope, I just fragmented my reply somewhat. Sorry about that, I'm not always as lucid as I should be.

[JaKiri]

If you do it only at the start and the end, you don't get there as fast as accelerating the first half, and decelerating to get into orbit in the last half. Your average speed is higher than just the start and the end.

 

Faster, yes, but infinitely more inefficient, especially as you approach the speed of light.

[MolecularMan14]

I think that with today's technology, it could very well be possible, but any voyage out of the solar system is a little beyond NASA's or pretty much anyone else's hands. Not that Im saying that someone wont do it someday, hell, maybe one (or all) of us can put together an accurate, feasable design THAT WORKS! And when that happens well, I don't know what will become of space as we know it.

(by the way, what did they eat on Star Trek? )

[JaKiri]

an accurate, feasable design THAT WORKS!

 

Brute force works very very well.

 

(by the way, what did they eat on Star Trek? )

 

From TNG on, anything they wanted to.

[MolecularMan14]

lol,

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

For food:

I have seen an article stating that scientists "grew" meat artificially in a lab. The meat was taken (while fresh and still alive, at a cellular level) and put in a bowl of nutrients. It grew.

You can also grow fruits and veggies, and with no gravity, you can grow them on all of the walls of a room, and the ceiling.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I Not that Im saying that someone wont do it someday, hell, maybe one (or all) of us can put together an accurate, feasable design THAT WORKS! And when that happens well, I don't know what will become of space as we know it.

How do we pay for it?

[MolecularMan14]

For food:

I have seen an article stating that scientists "grew" meat artificially in a lab. The meat was taken (while fresh and still alive' date=' at a cellular level) and put in a bowl of nutrients. It grew.

You can also grow fruits and veggies, and with no gravity, you can grow them on all of the walls of a room, and the ceiling.[/quote']

 

Thats pretty cool!

would definitely be fun to walk around in

 

lol, that was simply hypothetical. But who knows, with enough billionare investors perhaps something could come together.

What I suggest is that we come up with a usable design (by today's standards) and then go from there...(dont ask me where we'll go, but we'll start with that)

[ydoaPs]

What, are u suggesting we design a cruiser? What purpose would that surve, unless you want to be a geek or submit it to NASA or something.

[MolecularMan14]

Like I said, I dont think that something like NASA would accept it yet. And even so, why not, if need be...I'll be that geek. But until there is a feasable design, it doesnt really matter a whole load.

 

Im not suggesting that WE come up with one, but come to think of it, Ive got nothing much better to do, so yea it would be cool for us to design one. I mean why not?

[MolecularMan14]

lol, then agian I havnt thought a whole lot in the last week or so, so Im just bored, and desperate for something to do

[ydoaPs]

Well, I'm a geek and I'd do it, but I am not an artist.

[MolecularMan14]

lol, me neither but hey, if we all work together, we could probably make a workable design...but the only limit then would be $$$

[ydoaPs]

wat, u want to build it? well, u could make a model i guess (assuming someone makes a workable design). if u want to spend some money you could build a mini bussard collector and an electric heater for the reactor.

[MolecularMan14]

lol, not out of MY pocket, and no, I didnt plan on building it, but still, the design and workability is the first and hardest step. So if we put our knowledge together, we could think of things that no one has ever thought of before, and put those to work on building a vehicle capable of carrying travelers to and from deep space.

 

Its really a great idea to start with, but we need to put something together that we can all agree upon.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I can tell we're optimists.

 

I've been drawing my ideas for this for a few days, and at some point I'll come up with the best design... funny, though, that they all have nacelles like Star Trek.

Anybody else going to draw them? I mean, I'm drawing cross-sections... that is fun.

 

But that's beside the point. The point is, is it possible?

[MolecularMan14]

Well, I would say by today's standards...it's a longshot, but yea, if we were to put some serious thought behind it, its possible.

 

Sure Ill draw a few designs...why not?

[ydoaPs]

is your collector where the deflector dish should be? What are the nacelles used for in your designs?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

No, no, no. They don't look like the enterprise, they just have nacelles. The nacelles have the engines and hydrogen collectors in them.

 

 

But please, can a physicist tell me if this will work? Are there enough hydrogen atoms in space to capture with gigantic magnetic fields and use in a nuclear rocket? Etc? Etc?

[JaKiri]

Depends where you are.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

On average.

[ydoaPs]

o, u r using dual engines. i was thinking have the ship built around the engine.

[TheProphet]

Well i'm happy to contribute (if i can)! To just design and so forth shouldn't need any $$.. since u guys already speend so much time here But we shurely must come to agree on the Propulsion first! Since this seems to be the most central point of any ship!