It looks a bit..funky... Are those seriously solar panels on an FTL ship? What is the purpose of this ship, it looks to small to carry a meaningfull payload of equipment and too large to be a scout ship, plus for scouting purposes it is probably better to build a massive orbital telescope or something.
If anything has to be faster than light, it has to have no Matter. Anyway, what is light itself ? Is it a ray, is it a particle, does it move in a straight line, if its not a particle hence no matter then how come black hole gravity has such an affect on matterless light ? When NASA or for that matter any space organization finally defines what light is.....in no uncertain terms, thats when we will know what faster than light travel actually is and how do we achieve it.
Everything can be faster then light lad, it's only a mater of propulsion system. Or rather FTL technology. Jump engines, wormholes, Immaterium, warp tunnels... large numbers of theoretical solutions for space travel.
Shas you forgot about unubtanium, the most important thing, it is that thing ($) we can never get from government for cool or important stuff like this! We cant have a ship without that unubtanium, and we can't get the unubtanium without going to some strange parallel universe!
Yeah, that's part of the Alcubierre drive. So far, the design as two main problems, which hopefully will be resolved:
1) Starting the "jump" requires the energy equivalent to converting an entire Voyager probe's worth of matter (~725 kilograms) directly into energy. That's definitely better than the original design (which required more energy than is contained in the entire observable universe), and is beginning to approach the "not quite insane" level of energy generation. However, it's still far more power than we have the ability to generate on a mobile object, much less one as mass a constrained as a space vehicle (the world's most capable operational rocket, the Delta IV Heavy, can carry about 22 metric tons into LEO, which isn't really that much).
2) When traveling faster than light, the Alcubierre concept generates a massive amount of Hawking radiation. This would kill the astronauts inside, and would all be released when the "warp ship" came out of warp. This issue wouldn't occur in slower than light travel, so it doesn't invalidate the warp drive itself, but it'll have to be solved to realize it to its full potential.
Finally, there's one other problem:
3) Funding.
Overall, the Alcubierre drive is an interesting concept, and I hope it is developed. However, until those problems are solved (mainly the power consumption issue), I'd place the Alcubierre drive in the same category as antimatter propulsion and economical fusion power -- there's nothing we know of in the laws of physics that make it impossible, it should work from a theoretical standpoint, and it would be an amazing device, but it's currently having issues migrating from theory to reality.
Harold White theorizes that by reshaping the rings and oscillating the warp bubble, warp can be achieved with SIGNIFICANTLY less power. In fact a nuclear reactor could do this. If only nukes in space werent banned. Dont you people umderstand that if we build most of it,(sublight with refit ability) and prove it even orbit maybe theyll lift the ban and fund the rest. Who the hell is going to stop some vrazy rich guy from paying the Russians to launch it for their own personal use? Were not too far off from the day when billionaires will have Moon yachts. Really.
Yup, all they need is that exotic material called unobtainabletite. For a nation that cannot even fly it's astronauts to their space station they dream mighty big, wonder what they are smoking at NASA?
I see no port for the turbo entabulator or flux inhibitor to be housed in!! What if the encapsulator module gets over heated from not using enough muffler bearing grease ?That is used keep the main capacitor cool when throttling down?? Right??
Deception, deflection. But any real FTL transport can't use Newtonian Space. The ship looks cools as hell though. Too bad it'll never be built since they already have this capability.
Pfff... NASA, rotten husk of once great program. Sad.
ReplyDeleteIt looks a bit..funky... Are those seriously solar panels on an FTL ship? What is the purpose of this ship, it looks to small to carry a meaningfull payload of equipment and too large to be a scout ship, plus for scouting purposes it is probably better to build a massive orbital telescope or something.
ReplyDeleteIf anything has to be faster than light, it has to have no Matter. Anyway, what is light itself ?
ReplyDeleteIs it a ray, is it a particle, does it move in a straight line, if its not a particle hence no matter then how come black hole gravity has such an affect on matterless light ?
When NASA or for that matter any space organization finally defines what light is.....in no uncertain terms, thats when we will know what faster than light travel actually is and how do we achieve it.
Everything can be faster then light lad, it's only a mater of propulsion system. Or rather FTL technology. Jump engines, wormholes, Immaterium, warp tunnels... large numbers of theoretical solutions for space travel.
DeleteShas you forgot about unubtanium, the most important thing, it is that thing ($) we can never get from government for cool or important stuff like this! We cant have a ship without that unubtanium, and we can't get the unubtanium without going to some strange parallel universe!
DeleteTrue, I also forget about Navigators and Spice, if you want to bend they space & time you need to get high.
DeleteThose rings in the first shot are theoretical warp drives my friends.
ReplyDeletehttp://io9.com/heres-nasas-new-design-for-a-warp-drive-ship-1588948192
Yeah, that's part of the Alcubierre drive. So far, the design as two main problems, which hopefully will be resolved:
Delete1) Starting the "jump" requires the energy equivalent to converting an entire Voyager probe's worth of matter (~725 kilograms) directly into energy. That's definitely better than the original design (which required more energy than is contained in the entire observable universe), and is beginning to approach the "not quite insane" level of energy generation. However, it's still far more power than we have the ability to generate on a mobile object, much less one as mass a constrained as a space vehicle (the world's most capable operational rocket, the Delta IV Heavy, can carry about 22 metric tons into LEO, which isn't really that much).
2) When traveling faster than light, the Alcubierre concept generates a massive amount of Hawking radiation. This would kill the astronauts inside, and would all be released when the "warp ship" came out of warp. This issue wouldn't occur in slower than light travel, so it doesn't invalidate the warp drive itself, but it'll have to be solved to realize it to its full potential.
Finally, there's one other problem:
3) Funding.
Overall, the Alcubierre drive is an interesting concept, and I hope it is developed. However, until those problems are solved (mainly the power consumption issue), I'd place the Alcubierre drive in the same category as antimatter propulsion and economical fusion power -- there's nothing we know of in the laws of physics that make it impossible, it should work from a theoretical standpoint, and it would be an amazing device, but it's currently having issues migrating from theory to reality.
Harold White theorizes that by reshaping the rings and oscillating the warp bubble, warp can be achieved with SIGNIFICANTLY less power. In fact a nuclear reactor could do this. If only nukes in space werent banned. Dont you people umderstand that if we build most of it,(sublight with refit ability) and prove it even orbit maybe theyll lift the ban and fund the rest. Who the hell is going to stop some vrazy rich guy from paying the Russians to launch it for their own personal use? Were not too far off from the day when billionaires will have Moon yachts. Really.
DeleteIt won't survive, is not stealth,
ReplyDeleteYup, all they need is that exotic material called unobtainabletite.
ReplyDeleteFor a nation that cannot even fly it's astronauts to their space station they dream mighty big, wonder what they are smoking at NASA?
I see no port for the turbo entabulator or flux inhibitor to be housed in!! What if the encapsulator module gets over heated from not using enough muffler bearing grease ?That is used keep the main capacitor cool when throttling down?? Right??
DeleteDeception, deflection. But any real FTL transport can't use Newtonian Space. The ship looks cools as hell though. Too bad it'll never be built since they already have this capability.
ReplyDelete