Posted on 05/10/2017 1:33:26 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Great article. Thanks.
Speed shmeed. Space is malleable. Eventually we’ll figure out a way to bend it or fold it.
Also going to read that story.
This story seems to me to have a moral failing of the later society.
Would it not be a true moral failure of the later society knowing the history of the earlier launch not to have sent a rescue mission to the earlier mission.
The later society must assume that the earlier mission would be in danger of death on such a long journey. It would be a moral imperative to attempt a rescue of those on the earlier mission especially if it was a Generation Ship.
How do you plot a course for something that isn’t there? Plotting a course to a star that we’re seeing a thousand years after it’s moved would be pretty chancey.
You would need radar to avoid collisions with space objects and that would require inventing something tbat travels faster than you.
Not gonna happen...
The later society may not know about the accomplishments of the earlier society.
In the case of Alpha Centauri, it is “only” four light years away. So we’re seeing it not as it was thousands of years ago, but as it was four years ago. There is no problem figuring out where it will be 20 years from now when our (robotic) spacecraft get there and charting our course accordingly.
Was reading about that the other day. Takes a TREMENDOUS amount of energy to warp space.
Anti Matter holds the strongest potential for power but it would take longer than the universe’s existence to get enough for one trip.
Very good point. Future mankind were jerks in that story.
It takes infinite energy to travel at light speed.
Interstellar travel = fantasy.
We have to conquer our own solar system first. Not war type conquer but technology type conquer.
I figure (imho) Earth doesn’t have sufficient material to produce viable interstellar travel.
We need viable mining operations on moons, asteroids and planets.
Viable Industry complexes in very high orbit or even mid-space between here and the moon will the start of it all. Alls that’s needed for unmanned transport (or manned for you classic types) from earth to complex to moon.
Like radar radiation itself? Avoiding space obstacles is definitely a problem, but radar will spot a lot of stuff that can then be avoided. A strong artificial magnetic field around the ship will deflect charged particles, just as Earth's magnetic field deflects the solar wind and cosmic rays.
No. For humans right now, yes. For small robotic craft, no.
Conquering some aliens along the way would be good too.
Start with those runts on the dark side of the moon.
The lunatics?
I like the partial list of "challenges" they are going to have to overcome:
All will take considerable effort but aren't in principle things that can't be done. Personally, I think they may be able to launch these little "starchips" in 20 years or so.
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