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Post by jandl100 on Sept 21, 2016 14:13:52 GMT
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 22, 2016 6:58:36 GMT
And then there is the Alcubierre 'warp drive' concept -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive2 weeks to travel the 4.2 light years to Alpha Centauri  ... if theory turns out to be correct and if the concept is physically realisable.  |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 23, 2016 6:09:12 GMT
That's what we need, otherwise we'll be forever locked to local space and/or generation ships.
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 23, 2016 6:46:31 GMT
It's beginning to look that it might just be doable! Reactionless EM drive for Impulse Power, Alcubierre engine for Warp Drive. All we need now is a Transporter, and maybe that's no longer as far fetched as it may seem! -- and a clone of William Shatner to command the ship.  |
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Post by ChrisB on Sept 23, 2016 7:59:44 GMT
OK, so say we can build something that can go this fast. What about all the 'stuff' that's in the way between starting point and destination? Who is steering? I think I'd lose a game of Slaps with a person with reactions like that!
Seriously though do we have systems that can react that fast? You can't map everything that's out there.
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 23, 2016 8:59:51 GMT
Well -- I'm not sure the ship is actually moving. The crew will feel no acceleration - otherwise they would be paste on the rear wall! It's actually the universe that is being distorted around the ship.
I can't really get my head around this, though - the science is way too deep for me!
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Post by pre65 on Sept 23, 2016 9:07:02 GMT
I can't really get my head around this, though - the science is way too deep for me!  |
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Post by ChrisB on Sept 23, 2016 9:07:40 GMT
That's kind of what I thought, but it's surely even worse though, because you have steer all the 'stuff'!
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 23, 2016 9:26:29 GMT
Yeah, but that's nitty gritty fine detail - the crucial first step is to prove the underlying physics is viable. It seems to be entirely consistent with Einstein's theory of relativity and space/time curvature.
Exciting stuff, to say the least.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 23, 2016 9:49:33 GMT
Worse than any concept of movement is time dilation. The crew are rapidly going to lose everyone they know back on Earth unless that effect is also nulled by the 'warp' effect.
...I was going to add, Arthur C Clarke's The Songs of Distant Earth is a very moving portrayal of time dilation.
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 23, 2016 10:50:26 GMT
Hmm -- does time dilation apply with this? I have no idea. The craft isn't really 'moving' at all.
Even if it does apply, 4 light years to the nearest solar system to ours - 8 years adrift from us back home with the return trip, not too bad.
But yes, trickier for much further distances.
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Post by Eduardo Wobblechops on Sept 23, 2016 12:33:00 GMT
As I understand it, the ship would not be moving at relativistic velocities with respect to the rest of the universe, so time dilation does not apply.
The fact that exotic matter will be required to make this work might make it a bit problematic to put into practice though..
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 24, 2016 15:11:44 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Sept 24, 2016 19:55:53 GMT
Ah, but the big question remains: is the person transported actually killed and the arrivee just a copy?
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Post by Mr Whippy on Jan 23, 2017 21:15:09 GMT
Some interesting claims.
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... if theory turns out to be correct and if the concept is physically realisable. 
