This Is Mind Blowing!

[Bloodl3tt3r]

Sounds like you're talking about the warp drive theory that I was just reading. It involves shrinking the fabric of space time in front of a ship and expanding it behind. Basically creating a bubble around the ship being propelled at an expansion rate that is likened to the rate of expansion just after the big bang. There was something about this theory however that stated that the 11th dimension would have to be manipulated in order for this expansion/contraction theory to work, but it would allow for Faster Than Light travel. The interesting thing is that a light particle traveling alongside the ship would be moving at the same rate of travel as the ship but light rays behind the ship would be left far behind successfully allowing the ship to arrive at its destination faster than a light ray. The thing is that we cannot as of now manipulate the 11th dimension in order to get this yet - but we're hoping for a piece of alien technology to fall out of the sky (like Roswell) so that we can reverse engineer or even copy the technology and pull this off!

The other thing that you could be talking about is Ion Drive, NASA is currently using it to propel deep space probes out into the far reaches of the galaxy. The problem with the current models is that they are very slow and they have to build up speed exponentially in order to achieve any type of movement at all.

Actually, we've had this technology since the early 20th century and it has been used during the cold war as Ballistic Missile stabilizers as they seem to work very well in space.

Basically the engine involves the electromagnetic or electrostatic acceleration of atoms out of the back of the thruster. And just as all other forms of propulsion work, stuff coming out the back makes forward motion. The problem is in maintaining the lifespan to power ratio. A Xenon thruster is the best because it only takes about as much energy as a few car batteries and can last for a very long time on an adequate power source. Problem with a Xenon thruster is that it takes about 4 days to go from 0 to 60 (about the same time it take a VW Microbus to do the same thing). The most recent successful mission was the Japanese Hayabusa probe that made it to its target asteroid to collect data off of it. There was also the Smart 1 Probe (crashed into the moon on purpose) that made the trip to the moon in 3 years. To give you a frame of reference, the Apollo missions made the trip to the moon in 3-1/2 to 4 days on conventional fuel alone.

Actually, it was something else entirely, neither of those. I've heard the one where you bend space around your own personal bubble, and I've known how an ion drive works since I read an article on the Deep Space 1 probe or whatever the hell its name was. However, ion drives don't have the power to accelerate to lightspeed in a reasonable amount of time. Lemme go find my book and I'll type it up here.

EDIT: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ender in Exile, Orson Scott Card (2008))</div><div class='quotemain'>"'Strong force field dynamics... What it really does is change the direction of the strong force. Molecules simply can't hold together when the nuclei of all the constituent atoms start to prefer a particular direction of movement at lightspeed.'
Ender knew he was pouring on technical terms, but he was tired of the game. 'What you're saying is that the field generated by this device takes all the molecules and objects it runs into in the direction of movement and uses the nuclear strong force to make them move in a uniform direction at lightspeed.'
The captain grinned. 'Touche.'...
'What happens to the energy from the breaking of the molecules into their constituent atoms?' asked Ender.
'That, sir, is what powers the ship. No, I'll be more specific. that's what actually moves the ship. It's so beautiful. We move forward under rockets, and then we switch off the engines - can't be generating molecules of our own! - and turn on the egg - yeah, we call it the egg. The field goes up... and the leading edges start colliding with molecules and tearing them up. The atoms are channeled along the field and they all emerge at the trailing point. Giving us an incredible amount of thrust.'"...</div>
Ok, there you have it. Sounds kinda far-fetched to me.

 

[BFDesigns]

Actually, it was something else entirely, neither of those. I've heard the one where you bend space around your own personal bubble, and I've known how an ion drive works since I read an article on the Deep Space 1 probe or whatever the hell its name was. However, ion drives don't have the power to accelerate to lightspeed in a reasonable amount of time. Lemme go find my book and I'll type it up here.

EDIT:

"'Strong force field dynamics... What it really does is change the direction of the strong force. Molecules simply can't hold together when the nuclei of all the constituent atoms start to prefer a particular direction of movement at lightspeed.'
Ender knew he was pouring on technical terms, but he was tired of the game. 'What you're saying is that the field generated by this device takes all the molecules and objects it runs into in the direction of movement and uses the nuclear strong force to make them move in a uniform direction at lightspeed.'
The captain grinned. 'Touche.'...
'What happens to the energy from the breaking of the molecules into their constituent atoms?' asked Ender.
'That, sir, is what powers the ship. No, I'll be more specific. that's what actually moves the ship. It's so beautiful. We move forward under rockets, and then we switch off the engines - can't be generating molecules of our own! - and turn on the egg - yeah, we call it the egg. The field goes up... and the leading edges start colliding with molecules and tearing them up. The atoms are channeled along the field and they all emerge at the trailing point. Giving us an incredible amount of thrust.'"...

Ok, there you have it. Sounds kinda far-fetched to me.

Kinda sounds like bullsh!t. No offense, I know Orson Scott Card wrote it. But this FTL theory doesn't sound plausible at all. Harnessing energy by breaking atomic bonds seems like it would not be efficient in that it would take more energy to break the bonds than the broken bonds would produce. I kinda like that the "egg" would basically turn a ship into an atomic plow but there would be some seriously impossible work to try to focus all the tumbling atoms off of the back of the bubble into a single quick moving stream. It seems like it would be easier to just use the plow method to tear a hole in space-time and run underneath it to your destination; kinda like the controlled wormhole theory except instead of generating a bridge between space-time ripples, you just tear a hole and jump through the ripple. Like folding a map and driving a pencil through it. No less implausible than the atom plow, you'd just have to divide by zero in order to generate the hole to jump through.

 

[Bloodl3tt3r]

Ok, there you have it. Sounds kinda far-fetched to me.
Kinda sounds like bullsh!t. No offense, I know Orson Scott Card wrote it. But this FTL theory doesn't sound plausible at all. Harnessing energy by breaking atomic bonds seems like it would not be efficient in that it would take more energy to break the bonds than the broken bonds would produce. I kinda like that the "egg" would basically turn a ship into an atomic plow but there would be some seriously impossible work to try to focus all the tumbling atoms off of the back of the bubble into a single quick moving stream. It seems like it would be easier to just use the plow method to tear a hole in space-time and run underneath it to your destination; kinda like the controlled wormhole theory except instead of generating a bridge between space-time ripples, you just tear a hole and jump through the ripple. Like folding a map and driving a pencil through it. No less implausible than the atom plow, you'd just have to divide by zero in order to generate the hole to jump through.

Lol, that's what I thought.

 

[UNSC Leatherneck]

The energy released from the breaking of bonds between molecules and, to a greater extent- atoms, is considerable. Basically what he's describing is a new type of fission. If they can generate a field that can rip molecules and atoms apart, they can use that field to control what those constituent parts do afterwards.

 

[Bloodl3tt3r]

The energy released from the breaking of bonds between molecules and, to a greater extent- atoms, is considerable. Basically what he's describing is a new type of fission. If they can generate a field that can rip molecules and atoms apart, they can use that field to control what those constituent parts do afterwards.

But considering the tiny amount of atoms/molecules in deep interstellar space, I don't think there's enough to accelerate a ship up to lightspeed.

 

[BFDesigns]

But considering the tiny amount of atoms/molecules in deep interstellar space, I don't think there's enough to accelerate a ship up to lightspeed.

True that, what are they breaking apart? Flecks of dust? Not many molecules out in the vast and empty nothingness of space. There are an over abundance of hydrogen atoms in the void in pockets but it seems like you'd have to bring your own supply with you and focus it in a cloud that moves along in front of the ship which would be even more impossible.

And what is described sounds almost like the reverse of fusion which deals with fusing molecules by breaking certain ones apart (Tritium-Deuterium Reaction; Heavy Water). Fission deals with splitting atoms to harness the energy produced by the split.

FISSION:

FUSION:

 

[UNSC Leatherneck]

Basically what he's describing is a new type of fission.

Yes, fission, the reverse of fusion. Flecks of dust, stray hydrogen atoms, small furry animals, break apart anything in the path of the ship and spit it out the other end. If you've got the field thing figured out, you can accelerate a small amount of matter to relativistic velocities and provide a workable amount of thrust. This is science fiction, though. Anything is possible. The principles behind the Shaw-Fujikawa drive are a bit sketchy as well.

 

[Fragclone]

DAMN just makes me appreciate how fkn awesome the world is wish i could explore all of that

thus, Garry's Mod was created!

 

[ILOLD]

Imagine how big creatures would be if there were planets of this scale....

Attack it's weak point for massive damage!!!

 

[Bloodl3tt3r]

Yes, fission, the reverse of fusion. Flecks of dust, stray hydrogen atoms, small furry animals, George W. Bush, break apart anything in the path of the ship and spit it out the other end. If you've got the field thing figured out, you can accelerate a small amount of matter to relativistic velocities and provide a workable amount of thrust. This is science fiction, though. Anything is possible. The principles behind the Shaw-Fujikawa drive are a bit sketchy as well.

I believe it was using particle accelerators to generate microblackholes that evaporate through Hawking Radiation, but in the space of time they were there, they generate a portal that can be widened and such. Sounds hella sketchy. Especially when the particles don't collide with other particles.

EDIT: as to the breaking apart molecules thing, isn't Hydrogen diatomic?

 

[UNSC Leatherneck]

EDIT: as to the breaking apart molecules thing, isn't Hydrogen diatomic?

Yes, hydrogen molecules are diatomic and are the most abundant molecule in the universe.

 

[BFDesigns]

Yes, hydrogen molecules are diatomic and are the most abundant molecule in the universe.

They are indeed diatomic in their natural state (H2). The variants that I'm talking about are deuterium (which has a neutron) and tritium (which has 2 neutrons). These are heavy forms of hydrogen that occur naturally - I'm not sure if they exist diatomically or not. However, scientists estimate that where current fusion technology is today, there is enough deuterium and tritium on the surface of San Francisco Bay to run the US for 50 years! And that's just skimming the surface of the water!

 

[Bloodl3tt3r]

They are indeed diatomic in their natural state (H2). The variants that I'm talking about are deuterium (which has a neutron) and tritium (which has 2 neutrons). These are heavy forms of hydrogen that occur naturally - I'm not sure if they exist diatomically or not. However, scientists estimate that where current fusion technology is today, there is enough deuterium and tritium on the surface of San Francisco Bay to run the US for 50 years! And that's just skimming the surface of the water!

Unfortunately, fusion is nothing like using the strong force to strip molecules apart and propel them in one direction at lightspeed to generate thrust. But we'll get there someday.


It's either that or vacuum/zero-point energy.

 

[Radioactiv]

Wow, this topic is still going?