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To: TexasFreeper2009

Um, not likely. The zero point field is everywhere, and it is energy dense. Tapping into the field is the unlimited energy supply for interstellar travel. BTW, Physicists are already working on isolating a craft and contents from the source of inertia and thus gravity. See Haisch and Rueda, et al


60 posted on 01/27/2015 7:01:24 AM PST by MHGinTN
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To: MHGinTN
All ya need is the Zed Pee Em!


61 posted on 01/27/2015 7:03:47 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: MHGinTN
I've posted this before, but figure this is a good thread for a repeat....

Robert Heinlein once said "If mankind is to survive as a species, for all but a very small portion of it's ultimate history, the word "ship" will mean "spaceship"."

The biggest problem with going anywhere in space is that space is freaking huge. It's much bigger than your average person thinks it is. Even distances faced within our own solar system are daunting to the extreme. To get a good feel for how big space really is, I recommend downloading a program called "Celestia". (available for free for Linux/Mac/Windows) This program is essentially a 'universe simulator'. It allows you to travel just about anywhere you want to go in the known universe at any desired speed.

However, if you just limit yourself to light speed, it takes forever to go much of anywhere. Want to travel to Jupiter, at the speed of light? Takes about half an hour. It's an hour to Saturn. Neptune is 4 hours away. If you travel at somewhat more reasonable speeds, like say, how fast the Voyager spacecraft is travelling (40,000 KPH) you're looking at distances measured in years just within the solar system.

Getting to any place outside our own planetary system is many orders of magnitude greater. At 40,000 KPH, a voyage to the nearest star is a 70,000 year trek.

Now, let's say you want to go there anyway. Well, in order for that to be possible at all, you'll need one of two things to be possible.

  1. Faster than light travel - Science fiction writers talk about hyperspace and other methods to get FTL speeds, because it's the only way to make it feasable at all unless you want all starships to be multi-generational. If you can go faster than light, it make extra-solar voyages possible, if you can go much faster than light. (Betelgeuse is 500 LY distant, so even at light-speed, you're talking multi-generational vessels except to the closest of stars.

  2. Zero Point Energy - If you can't go faster than light, then you're stuck with those multi-generational ships. So, if you're going to spend hundreds or thousands of years going somewhere you need to consider the fact that for the vast majority of your voyage, you're out in the middle of nowhere. Solar collectors won't help you out in the black.

    Nuclear power might help, but you'd need a heck of a lot of it. If you're stuck with fission, you'll need a heck of a lot of radioactives for your trip. Fortunately, disposal of waste won't be much of an issue, as you can just jettison it. Fusion is better, but you'll still need reactor mass, (hydrogen most likely), which will be a consumable. Run out of reactor mass, and your ship doesn't have fuel. I'm not even talking about fuel for flight, as Newton's laws won't require you to continue to expend mass once you've reached your target speed, though you'll need it to slow down and maneuver at your destination. However, you're still going to need power to maintain those hardy individuals who are taking this leisurely trip. On a voyage of hundreds or thousands of years, that's kind of a big issue. That's not even considering the fact that your vessel is a closed loop, and that everything will have to be recycled endlessly. Any leakage at all will be cumulatively catastrophic.

    The only way to have power for this kind of voyage is to be able to tap the zero point field for the ergs you need. With essentially limitless fuel, you might be able to make it if you're careful, and perhaps make use of cryogenics (though I suspect you'll always need someone to keep watch).

There are a lot of other considerations of course, but in order for us to get off this rock permanently, we're going to need one of these two things.

90 posted on 01/27/2015 10:06:04 AM PST by zeugma (The act of observing disturbs the observed.)
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