Starship Asterisk*

How fast can we go?

That answer is available with a little basic math.

First find out how fast we could go from the time of a horse's speed, then the today's top speed of say the fastest rocket, say 35,000 mph? ( or there abouts) And, about 200 years to reach this level of speed.

Now extrapolate out the probable time it will take to reach the speed of light based on that.

I wish it would really work this way. So that the day before they pay my salary, I have 0 bucks, and then they pay, and then the next day it's doubled, and so on, ad infinitum... sigh

Hi
i have at some of these conversations ..they are a tremendous lift to the spirit

i expect a quasar 13 bill l-y-o would be pretty bald by now!

bearing in mind the clarity of the Absolut ..what does are future propositions regarding space travel ..are new capabilities in space travel on the horizon

travelling at warp factor 5 ..Linx

I think what is needed is the CHALLENGE to mankind to go beyond what we are currently capable of. What would drive this challenge is the edict to put humans back in space and traveling farther than the moon. If the Government were to state (like Kennedy did in the early 60's) "Our objective is to safely place a human presence on Mars and then return them to the Earth with (Xlb) quantity of soil samples from (X#) locations on the surface and do it in the next 10 years, We would be able to do so.

Man can accomplish much when challenged and funded properly.

Hello All

How fast can we go?

The question is what limits the speed?

If we have no limit to energy?

If man can unlock the secrets of the atom. Than maybe we could travel at the speed of light and go where no "MAN" has gone before. To a galaxy far far away.

MAN as being both male and female. I could have used person.

harry wrote:The question is what limits the speed?

Now this is much better question. RT explains "how" space and time are connected, but not "why". Actually, I can't even think of terms in which "why" question can be answered.

Then again, , , should it be answered?

should not, if we are to think of time and space as primaries forever. then, people once came up with ideal gas formula PV=RT where all the symbols were primaries, but when they realized gas is made of atoms and stuff, they we able to deduce that formula. what we have now is L=cT for light, and all the symbols are primaries. this is, again, idealization of experiment. to deduce it, we have to come up with new concepts for what are space and time made of, or something. so maybe then some way of breaking the speed limit will become obvious.

With out a way to dampen the inertia we could never get up to speeds fast enough to go anywhere quickly enough for great distances.

hmmmmm

craterchains wrote:With out a way to dampen the inertia we could never get up to speeds fast enough to go anywhere quickly enough for great distances.

hmmmmm

You know for thousands of years the fastest man could go was by horseback. Now look how crazy things got in the last 150 years of so. What do you supose things will be like in the next 150 years? I wish I was young enough to watch! Let us hope for good things to come.
Orin

, , , and by my calculations it just may happen in the next few years. 8)

Hello All

The power of the DREAM.

The ability for man to Dream has lead him to journeys far beyond other animals.

Inertia is a problem, if gravity could be solved maybe there maybe a key to travelling much faster and than a bit more.

How fast can we go?

No faster than it takes to stop when you get to where you were going.

Unless you start stopping when you get half way there, Constant 1G of thrust + constant 1G of reverse thrust = travel and arrival in constant 1G environment.

and that is a very old concept that could work if we had thousands of years to get there, , and my bananas would rot before I got there, ,

That is why we blast off at several G's, , hmmmmm

We might be able to "blast off" at just 1G if our goal wasn't to attain orbital altitude and speed, but rather to go directly to travel.

I believe we blast off at far greater than 1G in order to attain orbital speed, appx. 17,500mph, over the very short time allowed (matter of minutes) to attain orbital altitude of appx 200 miles high.

Thrust of greater than 1G would also be unnecessary if "Blast off" occured from an orbital launch platform.

BMAONE23 wrote:We might be able to "blast off" at just 1G if our goal wasn't to attain orbital altitude and speed, but rather to go directly to travel.

I believe we blast off at far greater than 1G in order to attain orbital speed, appx. 17,500mph, over the very short time allowed (matter of minutes) to attain orbital altitude of appx 200 miles high.

Thrust of greater than 1G would also be unnecessary if "Blast off" occured from an orbital launch platform.

I like the concept! That would also make artificial gravity unnecessary. Howaever; maintaining constant 1G of acceleration would also take some doing .
Orin

It would most likely take a nuclear reactor and 50 or so ION drive engines that are 10 times the size of that which was recently tested. It wouad at the least be an interesting experiment ti take several ION drive engines into space each successive larger than the last to a factor of 10 and see if the thrust increases to the same magnitude.

A wild estimation for mars at 1 G acceleration. 1 G acceleration on half the way to mars and the other half on breaking at 1 g. Estimate time (3 to 5 days depending on where mars is relative to earth) . Earth to moon is 3 to 4 hours .Also, a 1 G acceleration maintain for a year and the final speed will be close to the speed of light. Of course the relativity explain why it could'nt be reach. But it will be fast.
The best i read about what is feasible on space engineering in a relative short time (100 years) is 20 % the speed of light. So it make alpha-centauri a mere 25 years away.

So may be the hibernation or freezing will help make that travel possible.
Low metabolism (Long control sleep) will be more feasible if someone want to see the end of the travel.

Doum wrote:A wild estimation for mars at 1 G acceleration. 1 G acceleration on half the way to mars and the other half on breaking at 1 g. Estimate time (3 to 5 days depending on where mars is relative to earth) . Earth to moon is 3 to 4 hours .Also, a 1 G acceleration maintain for a year and the final speed will be close to the speed of light. Of course the relativity explain why it could'nt be reach. But it will be fast.
The best i read about what is feasible on space engineering in a relative short time (100 years) is 20 % the speed of light. So it make alpha-centauri a mere 25 years away.

So may be the hibernation or freezing will help make that travel possible.
Low metabolism (Long control sleep) will be more feasible if someone want to see the end of the travel.

And of course going that fast would make you age a lot slower!
Orin

orin stepanek wrote:

Doum wrote:...20 % the speed of light. So it make alpha-centauri a mere 25 years away.

And of course going that fast would make you age a lot slower!

Meaning you will get there a bit faster than 25 years.

I'm not good at calculating relativity space time effect, but from what i understand of it, we will be only a few second younger at the end because we are just moving at 20 % of light speed. Even at 90 % of the light speed the effect wont be that big (Tho quite noticeable).

But you are right by saying it. We will be younger and it would take less time.

I would add to this that reaching the 20 % light speed will take time and that time will have to be add to the rough 25 years travel.

But hey, in a few months or years, new discoverys might emerge and made it possible to go faster then 20% of light speed and at the same time being able to equip that ship with a very very very very good shield against particles up to a grain sand size. Bigger then that and it will be too bad.
As for space engine, i'm not talking about advance concept of physic because they are far fetch. Except may be the casimir effect and the possibility of a lot of energy production. Futur will tell.

By the way, If we could have a 1 G constant acceleration space engine at hand, the pluton planetoid or planet would be a 3 to 4 week away. Jupiter a mere 2 weeks or less. Assuming half way acceleration and half way deceleration at 1 g what ever the destination. If you have a 2 G space engine then start being amaze by it. Tho a 1 G engine is incredibly amazing. Best ion engine exisiting that i'm aware of in reality can give a mere 1 tenth of a G. So time will tell if better can be done. Deep space probe (Equip with it) work marvelously well with it. (It's a personal opinion.)
Cya!
I have done my speculation here. I beleive it. Let's do it now. For the sake of the humand kind. Let's leave the earth nest and spread before one single meteor destroy humand kind. If we have poeple on the or on the planet Mars, it will make humand kind more immortal. The farther we spread the better chance we have of prevaling.

LAST SENTENCE
OR ALMOST THE LAST ONE.

"If we have people on the moon or on the planet Mars......"

need to be corrected,i miss to put the word moon it.

Thank you for your concern and you can delete this post correction after correcting it. Thank to the admin.

Doum wrote:By the way, If we could have a 1 G constant acceleration space engine at hand, the pluton planetoid or planet would be a 3 to 4 week away. Jupiter a mere 2 weeks or less. Assuming half way acceleration and half way deceleration at 1 g what ever the destination. If you have a 2 G space engine then start being amaze by it. Tho a 1 G engine is incredibly amazing. Best ion engine exisiting that i'm aware of in reality can give a mere 1 tenth of a G. So time will tell if better can be done. Deep space probe (Equip with it) work marvelously well with it. (It's a personal opinion.)
Cya!
I have done my speculation here. I beleive it. Let's do it now. For the sake of the humand kind. Let's leave the earth nest and spread before one single meteor destroy humand kind. If we have poeple on the or on the planet Mars, it will make humand kind more immortal. The farther we spread the better chance we have of prevaling.

I believe that man will someday populate the galaxy; not just Luna or Mars or other moons in the solar system; but around planets around other stars as well. But to do that better ways of travel will have to be developed than by space ships as we know them. That is if man doesn't destroy himself first with useless wars that are more of a threat than the sun dying or a meteor or an asteroid plunging into the Earth.
Orin