Afterburner Fuel
- Thread starter Treguard
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Unless metallurgy advances at an incredible rate any ship travelling at this high velocity would have to employ some sort of shield-technology. The reason for this is that the space isn't absolutely empty and at this high speed the impact of the small particles floating arround in space would rip the ship apart.
Tachyon particles could be a way of accelerating a ship beyond lightspeed, but there are two problems with it:
a) We don't know how to generate them
b) Due to a tachyon beeing very small and light-weightened the thrust generated by it would be very small.
Tachyon particles could be a way of accelerating a ship beyond lightspeed, but there are two problems with it:
a) We don't know how to generate them
b) Due to a tachyon beeing very small and light-weightened the thrust generated by it would be very small.
I think the most realistice theory out there for FTL is the space-fold theory. You simply create enough of a gravitational distortion to bend space/time, creating a means to slip through to the other side.
This theory has been in numerous sci-fi movies, books and TV shows; Event Horizon, Star Trek, Robotech, etc, etc.
My only question is, what happens to the matter in between points A & B? Won't anything in the middle be crushed by the fold??
This theory has been in numerous sci-fi movies, books and TV shows; Event Horizon, Star Trek, Robotech, etc, etc.
My only question is, what happens to the matter in between points A & B? Won't anything in the middle be crushed by the fold??
Unforgiven
Spaceman
A reply to a few things:
Ramscoop: to be used efficiently at the given size, you would need an field of some sort swooping up particles. In Star Trek it's one of the additional functions of the Navigational deflector.
Tunneling effect: That has nothing to do with FTL. Tunneling is the sudden appearance of a small particle at a certain location, because the Schrodinger equation gives a chance (not a large one but still a chance) to particles just appearing outside of the potential well in which they are trapped. Without it, there'd be no radiation, because any core-particle never has enough energy to escape the core it's in, if Quantum Tunneling didn't allow it to magically do so. It's also used in tunneling microscopes: a needle with a point of 1 atom thick is placed in very close proximity of a surface in a vacuum. Tunneling causes electrons to suddenly jump from the needle to the surface, which registers as a potential difference. Moving the needle to keep the difference the same allows us to map the surface relief at an atomic scale.
I've seen that thing at my University. The chamber with the needle is hung up with springs, and the entire construction is resting on a airbed which is build on a seperate concrete structure which is not attached to the rest of the building, just to keep it free of vibrations!
FTL: On of the quirks of the General Theory of Relativity is that it's formulas don't work at lightspeed. We cannot predict what would happen if you travel at lightspeed. You can however never reach it because you would, as said, need infinite energy and get infinite mass to get there. Star Trek doesn't actually fold space, they expand space behind them and shrink it in front of them, creating a 'wave' on which they can ride to their destination. It's the same principle applied differently. A transporter seen in the first season of Voyager did use folding, and it could cross 40000 ly instantly. The problem with this is that without (theoretical) exotic matter you can never get the energy balance right to actually achieve that effect.
Ramscoop: to be used efficiently at the given size, you would need an field of some sort swooping up particles. In Star Trek it's one of the additional functions of the Navigational deflector.
Tunneling effect: That has nothing to do with FTL. Tunneling is the sudden appearance of a small particle at a certain location, because the Schrodinger equation gives a chance (not a large one but still a chance) to particles just appearing outside of the potential well in which they are trapped. Without it, there'd be no radiation, because any core-particle never has enough energy to escape the core it's in, if Quantum Tunneling didn't allow it to magically do so. It's also used in tunneling microscopes: a needle with a point of 1 atom thick is placed in very close proximity of a surface in a vacuum. Tunneling causes electrons to suddenly jump from the needle to the surface, which registers as a potential difference. Moving the needle to keep the difference the same allows us to map the surface relief at an atomic scale.
I've seen that thing at my University. The chamber with the needle is hung up with springs, and the entire construction is resting on a airbed which is build on a seperate concrete structure which is not attached to the rest of the building, just to keep it free of vibrations!
FTL: On of the quirks of the General Theory of Relativity is that it's formulas don't work at lightspeed. We cannot predict what would happen if you travel at lightspeed. You can however never reach it because you would, as said, need infinite energy and get infinite mass to get there. Star Trek doesn't actually fold space, they expand space behind them and shrink it in front of them, creating a 'wave' on which they can ride to their destination. It's the same principle applied differently. A transporter seen in the first season of Voyager did use folding, and it could cross 40000 ly instantly. The problem with this is that without (theoretical) exotic matter you can never get the energy balance right to actually achieve that effect.
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Wing Commander's ramscoops are electronically generated fields that tunnel hydrogen into a ships intakes.
FTL is a problem. A professor of mine put it this way a couple of days ago: "We know that the speed of light here, in earth's lower atmosphere, is slightly (very minutely) different from light speed in space. Why then is it so unthinkable for the academic society to accept the fact that we probably will someday be able to generate a field that elevates the speed of light to such an extent that the infinite mass and infinite energy problem is no longer a problem."
But the guy is considered kind of a nutcase by most students. (but I, believe him, and like him too. He's the only one bold enough to speak his mind)
But then again, I'm a nutcase too.
But the guy is considered kind of a nutcase by most students. (but I, believe him, and like him too. He's the only one bold enough to speak his mind)
But then again, I'm a nutcase too.
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Well, yes, it's an electromagnetic field. (*electro*... <G>)
(You don't have to imagine how propulsion works -- it's explained in-depth in the Handbook).
(You don't have to imagine how propulsion works -- it's explained in-depth in the Handbook).
Originally posted by Talyn 83
FTL is a problem. A professor of mine put it this way a couple of days ago: "We know that the speed of light here, in earth's lower atmosphere, is slightly (very minutely) different from light speed in space. Why then is it so unthinkable for the academic society to accept the fact that we probably will someday be able to generate a field that elevates the speed of light to such an extent that the infinite mass and infinite energy problem is no longer a problem."
But the guy is considered kind of a nutcase by most students. (but I, believe him, and like him too. He's the only one bold enough to speak his mind)
But then again, I'm a nutcase too.
Nah...
Its not that the speed of light changes, its that time itself is slowing down on a local level.
I'm not quite too sure about one particle at a quarter the speed of light going to to give a force of a million tons of TNT.
If you use the mass dialtion equation even if you had a one kilogram mass travelling at a quarter the speed of light it will then have a mass of 1.03kg and since F=ma, some how I don't think that even this 1 kilogram mass is going to give a force of a million tons on TNT
If you use the mass dialtion equation even if you had a one kilogram mass travelling at a quarter the speed of light it will then have a mass of 1.03kg and since F=ma, some how I don't think that even this 1 kilogram mass is going to give a force of a million tons on TNT
I would imagine he meant energy of a million tonnes of TNT. Since the speed of light is approximately 300,000,000m/s, a particle of 1 gram travelling at 1/4 the speed of light has a kinetic energy of 5,625,000,000,000 Joules (i.e. 15,625,000kWh or enough energy to run a 100W lightbulb for 1782 years). For comparison, this is over 5 times more energy than was released by an atomic bomb dropped on Bikini island in 1946.
