JimboUK Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 In all reality..... coming up with a viable method of colonizing other worlds, be it faster than light travel, shipping folks frozen (suspended animation), or even generation ships...... would do great things for the world as a whole. New industries, new frontiers, and a way to relieve some of our excess population, without resorting to a war...... I am thinkin' though that FTL travel would have the highest likelihood of attracting 'explorers', or 'pilgrims', as the case may be.Well we can't really travel faster then light according to our current model of physics, it would be more like teleportation or warping matter. A good start would be developing a good source of fusion power, something like a artificial sun. That way we have a long lasting source of power, as well as a lot of power. So IMO, we need to focus a lot of research on fusion power before anything else. I agree, a viable power source is most certainly going to be a necessary first step...... As for FTL.....well, that's an open question....... I like to believe we just don't know enough yet...... not that it simply can't be done. Power is the big problem, if you're even going to think about bending space you'll need a means of creating a hell of a lot of power before you start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndorilTheGreat Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 Now, I'm no astrophysicist, but wouldn't bending space essentially require "tearing" a hole in the very fabric of space and time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeTomaso Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 No, the main problem here is the incredible time necessary for acceleration and braking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndorilTheGreat Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 No, the main problem here is the incredible time necessary for acceleration and braking. This is true. The closer you get to the speed of light, the sooner you need to start slowing down. Essentially, you would need to "turn around" and start decelerating about halfway there (i.e. as soon as you finish accelerating). That, and if there were any major expeditions, chances are that the ships would be extremely massive to hold all the needed materials (fuel, people, food, water, oxygen, supplies for colonization, etc.). Plus, mass is affected very differently at the speed of light than it is in "normal" space. That, and it (seems) impossible to travel at the speed of light, as light is not technically matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyYou Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 Acceleration/Braking are going to be products of whatever propulsion system is in use, and, may or may not even been an issue, depending on just HOW travel is accomplished. If you were simply bending space, there is no massive velocity required to travel huge distances, so, it wouldn't be that much of an issue. If using something like a wormhole, then you wouldn't be in normal space in any event, so, once again, velocity isn't that important. Where it DOES become important, would depend on the requirements for initiating whatever method you used to cover the interstellar distances..... how far you have to travel in normal space, before you can make your jump...... as taking three years to get outside the solar system, so you can travel several lightyears in the blink of an eye, then another three years getting to your actual destination, would make things terribly complicated..... So, what's needed, along with the FTL drive, whatever it may happen to be..... is a workable drive for getting to the point where you can USE your FTL drive....... and once again, power becomes the key issue..... A lot is going to need to happen before any of this becomes workable. I don't really expect to see it happen in my lifetime, barring some alien race showing up and giving it to us........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboUK Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 No, the main problem here is the incredible time necessary for acceleration and braking. This is true. The closer you get to the speed of light, the sooner you need to start slowing down. Essentially, you would need to "turn around" and start decelerating about halfway there (i.e. as soon as you finish accelerating). That, and if there were any major expeditions, chances are that the ships would be extremely massive to hold all the needed materials (fuel, people, food, water, oxygen, supplies for colonization, etc.). Plus, mass is affected very differently at the speed of light than it is in "normal" space. That, and it (seems) impossible to travel at the speed of light, as light is not technically matter. You can't reach those speeds by conventional means, the mass of anything traveling that fast would be approaching infinite thus requiring infinite energy to propel it. You also have the problem of the crew becoming a red smear on rear wall of the vehicle, Star Trek came up with inertial dampers to get around this problem but never explained how they would work. Anyway the speed of light is still too slow, it would greatly limit where we can go. We need to come up with something radically different, I mentioned bending space earlier because that is one theoretical way around the problem. If we can't move through space at the speeds required then bend it so your destination becomes closer, you wouldn't need to travel at high speeds either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marharth Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 No, the main problem here is the incredible time necessary for acceleration and braking. This is true. The closer you get to the speed of light, the sooner you need to start slowing down. Essentially, you would need to "turn around" and start decelerating about halfway there (i.e. as soon as you finish accelerating). That, and if there were any major expeditions, chances are that the ships would be extremely massive to hold all the needed materials (fuel, people, food, water, oxygen, supplies for colonization, etc.). Plus, mass is affected very differently at the speed of light than it is in "normal" space. That, and it (seems) impossible to travel at the speed of light, as light is not technically matter.Already fully explained how this could be done on the page before this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor. Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 (edited) More ufo sightingshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVbHtC4ARjs&feature=related I swear i saw something like this once before, it was stationary though but moved like in a wobble and didn't move off like that in the video. I couldn't really make it out because it was so high and it was dark, but it was to "BIG" to be an average star. Kind of hit me when i saw this. Also the most convincing video Edited May 31, 2011 by Thor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghogiel Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 I never could figure out why UFOS leave their lights on all the time. They have a stealth mode don't cha know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurielius Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 I never could figure out why UFOS leave their lights on all the time. They have a stealth mode don't cha know.http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/7030/space50.gifWell you know when you arrive somewhere after a long trip and you leave on your parking lights?..probably the same thing..lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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