TimeFlipper
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If you cannot see the video clip, go onto You Tube and type in, NASA Warp Drive Project Speeds That Could Take a Spacecraft To Alpha Centauri In Two Weeks..
NASA Warp Drive Project..2 week trip to Alpha Centauri
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Dalet
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I live in hope that such a thing can be accomplished, however it is still very much on the "drawing board" stage right now - lots of theory, but no actual, physical testing.
I'm wondering, though: If such a drive can be built, then wouldn't the passengers on a round trip to Proxima Centauri and back still take about eight years, our time, here on Earth - even though they would only experience a month or so on the trip? Or am I missing something?
I'm wondering, though: If such a drive can be built, then wouldn't the passengers on a round trip to Proxima Centauri and back still take about eight years, our time, here on Earth - even though they would only experience a month or so on the trip? Or am I missing something?
TimeFlipper
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Your final comment regarding the single month travel for the astronauts, is something that i too am unsure about, lets see if our other Paranormalis members can assist on that issue
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Kairos
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relativistic effects kick in with acceleration. If the fabled "warp drive" has no acceleration, then no relativistic effects.
We have had technology to go to Alpha Centauri since the 1960s. Dyson led the project to build an Orion drive that could accomplish it. That would be constant acceleration, so to the crew, it would indeed be only 5-10 years depending upon pulse rates, but to people on Earth that could be anywhere between 50 and 100 years (maybe more, depending upon the destination).
We have had technology to go to Alpha Centauri since the 1960s. Dyson led the project to build an Orion drive that could accomplish it. That would be constant acceleration, so to the crew, it would indeed be only 5-10 years depending upon pulse rates, but to people on Earth that could be anywhere between 50 and 100 years (maybe more, depending upon the destination).
Kairos
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I don't personally believe the drive is the bigger problem. As I said, we already have the technology to physically propel a ship there. The problem has more to do with the fact that the nancy science fantasy shows don't depict the reality. It's not as if humans are their own little islands of water and protein independent of everything else. Humanity is part of the Earth's biosphere. You have to bring all that shit with you. You need a mini-biome.
Think: living on a homestead inside an artificial habitat. It should be more like you are just farming in the countryside, except the countryside inside a spaceship cruising to another star system. To do that you need to hollow out an asteroid or something. You need to figure out light. You need to figure out power. You need to figure out how to keep that ecosystem viable come hell or high water. For possibly a century or more, ship time.
You also would need something like a hollowed-out asteroid because of radiation issues.
Think: living on a homestead inside an artificial habitat. It should be more like you are just farming in the countryside, except the countryside inside a spaceship cruising to another star system. To do that you need to hollow out an asteroid or something. You need to figure out light. You need to figure out power. You need to figure out how to keep that ecosystem viable come hell or high water. For possibly a century or more, ship time.
You also would need something like a hollowed-out asteroid because of radiation issues.
samzeman
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Or, you can have hibernation pods or something, interstellar (or passengers) style. I know that that is science fantasy, but it is a possible alternate route, to have people in a medically induced coma instead. You just have to have machines you trust enough, which is almost as big of a barrier as the artificial habitat, honestly.
Kairos
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I think figuring out how to hollow out an asteroid and build a little ecosystem inside there is more practical than figuring out how to make humans hibernate.
Plus, you need all that biomass when you wake up anyway. Somebody has to tend to the system that whole time.
Plus, you need all that biomass when you wake up anyway. Somebody has to tend to the system that whole time.
Dalet
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Here are a couple of videos from one of my favorite YouTube producers, Isaac Arthur, which deal with generation ships and sleeper ships:
samzeman
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Very interesting stuff, thanks man.
Kairos
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My thoughts on this is more like building a giant habitat that has a propulsion system of some kind. As long as you can maintain a constant 1gee acceleration, you will have 1 gee in gravity, just like on Earth. When not in acceleration, you could rotate the thing to simulate gravity as well. At the half way point to the destination, you would have to flip it over and burn down your retrograde such that you still keep your acceleration going, but you reach your destination at the same relative velocity as the star you are going to. This should get you there in less than twenty years, ship time.
So it would be more like traveling through space while living in cabins and farming. You'd just be inside a habitat and, more important than even food production, your task would be to maintain and grow the biome.
People have this weird idea that humans are separate from the Earth. Your body is a complex ecosystem of cellular life. You pick that stuff up from your environment all the time. You need the biosphere to live. The soil too is like a complex living organism.
Then, when you get there, you need a very large biomass in order to begin seeding this planet with Earth's biosphere, in addition to whatever terraforming technology you wish to place.
So you essentially plant an automated terraforming apparatus that mines and builds factories, robots, structures, etc, while slowly altering the planet to be like Earth. Then you pack your shit and make a round trip to a much further star system to do it again. Once you are done setting up star system number two, you set course back to star system number one. By the time you return, what might have been a total trip time of fifty years to the inhabitants of the colony ship would be tens of thousands on the new world. It should be ready to go, with your colony already pre-built through automation and the environment at least close to habitable. If it failed, then you turn around to your other world.
So it would be more like traveling through space while living in cabins and farming. You'd just be inside a habitat and, more important than even food production, your task would be to maintain and grow the biome.
People have this weird idea that humans are separate from the Earth. Your body is a complex ecosystem of cellular life. You pick that stuff up from your environment all the time. You need the biosphere to live. The soil too is like a complex living organism.
Then, when you get there, you need a very large biomass in order to begin seeding this planet with Earth's biosphere, in addition to whatever terraforming technology you wish to place.
So you essentially plant an automated terraforming apparatus that mines and builds factories, robots, structures, etc, while slowly altering the planet to be like Earth. Then you pack your shit and make a round trip to a much further star system to do it again. Once you are done setting up star system number two, you set course back to star system number one. By the time you return, what might have been a total trip time of fifty years to the inhabitants of the colony ship would be tens of thousands on the new world. It should be ready to go, with your colony already pre-built through automation and the environment at least close to habitable. If it failed, then you turn around to your other world.