Warp drive may be a possibility
- Thread starter BrianDamage
- Start date
LeRoy_Was_Here
Senator
A very interesting science story, indeed, but I have a mild disagreement with the last two sentences of the article:
And other scientists stressed that even outlandish-sounding ideas, such as the warp drive, need to be considered if humanity is serious about traveling to other stars.
"If we're ever going to become a true spacefaring civilization, we're going to have to think outside the box a little bit, we're going to have to be a little bit audacious," Obousy said.
LeRoy: We do not NEED to have warp-drive engines to become a true spacefaring civilization. Other star systems could be colonized with multi-generation star-ships, for example. This would not result in a United Federation of Planets, obviously, but the human race could split into many different branches, which would only rarely have direct physical contact with each other. Speciation would presumably follow....
And other scientists stressed that even outlandish-sounding ideas, such as the warp drive, need to be considered if humanity is serious about traveling to other stars.
"If we're ever going to become a true spacefaring civilization, we're going to have to think outside the box a little bit, we're going to have to be a little bit audacious," Obousy said.
LeRoy: We do not NEED to have warp-drive engines to become a true spacefaring civilization. Other star systems could be colonized with multi-generation star-ships, for example. This would not result in a United Federation of Planets, obviously, but the human race could split into many different branches, which would only rarely have direct physical contact with each other. Speciation would presumably follow....
NightSwimmer
Senator
You'd need a helluva driver, huh? 
fairsheet
Senator
Yeah...."No texting while warp-driving!!!"You'd need a helluva driver, huh?
OldGaffer
Governor
The multi-generation ship idea would only be feasible if the future of the race was in peril. It would take a massive world wide effort to build and staff a ship that would have to fly for possibly hundreds of years to find a habitable planet. There have been several well done novels on the subject.
fairsheet
Senator
Seriously....and I really AM serious!....I think we'd need to find a group of people that had done something so bad, that we'd be in a position to offer them "space exploration", or death. I know it sounds like the stuff of a novel-trilogy, but...it probably is the only way it could happen. But, in order for it to actually succeed, we'd probably need to create some sort of self-sustainable technology, such that future generations of our "lost in spacers", wouldn't be dependent upon the vagaries of earthbound humanity.
OldGaffer
Governor
If the ship is multi-generational you would need at least a couple thousand passengers to form a viable genetic pool. Mayb a hollowed out Asteroid with propulsion units attached? A massive project in any case. Imagine the storage space you would need to outfit a new colony on an alien planet. Lets go with the warp drive.
fairsheet
Senator
Obama put the kibosh on the warp drive, with his new CAFE thing. There's no way in hell we're ever gonna achieve that "3 light-years per quartec of dilithium crystals", he just 'Chicago-thugged through.
LeRoy_Was_Here
Senator
Deflector shields, silly! No, seriously, if you are traveling at near light speed....or faster than light speed....you wouldn't need to bash into a planet or a star to be in serious trouble! At that velocity, a tiny nugget of matter would cause tremendous damage to your ship; think of the kinetic energy involved. Doesn't even have to be a 'pebble'; a tiny fraction of a kilogram would do. So you really WOULD need some kind of deflector technology. On the other hand....if you are really traveling through hyperspace....it's not clear that there would be any matter there to collide into, at all. Unknowns abound. We are truly in 'new territory' here!
LeRoy_Was_Here
Senator
I don't know that this is necessarily true. Note first that I am ALL in favor of exploring these warp drive possibilities. [The story in the top post is truly exciting.] But suppose, for the sake of argument, that warp drive is simply impossible. I don't think that precludes interstellar voyages, and I don't know that the human race would have to be 'in peril' to contemplate such an adventure. I DO think that before you sent anyone off on such a long voyage, you'd want to be sure you were sending them someplace with a habitable planet, first. You DON'T want to be searching through several star systems before you found a place that was suitable. Preliminary UNMANNED missions would be the way to do this. Within a century, we should be able to at least THINK about sending missions with very advanced artificial intelligence to nearby star systems, to assay them for habitable planets. In fact, we might be able to detect such worlds with forseeable technology, right from the Solar System. The Terrestrial Planet Finder mission was a planned follow-up to the Kepler mission. Kepler can detect Earth-SIZED planets within the habitable zone of other star systems. Whether those Earth-sized planets are Earth-LIKE is another question. [Venus is Earth-sized but is decidedly NOT Earth-like.] The TPF mission could characterize the atmosphere of such worlds. Alas, it is no longer being funded. Contact your Congressman to complain.
LeRoy_Was_Here
Senator
A hollowed-out asteroid is in fact a fine idea for a multi-generational starship. One of the better Star Trek episodes (the ORIGINAL Star Trek!) was based on this idea: "For the World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky" was the name of the episode. It was the episode where McCoy has a terminal illness but falls in love with the leader of the traveling starship and is cured of his disease by the controlling computer intelligence of the starship. The people on the ship didn't even realize they were on a starship. This too has been a common theme in science fiction....
GordonGecko
President
Space is VERY empty, fairsheet. We've launched numerous probes to Jupiter and beyond...and none of them have been hit by a rock in the Asteroid Belt (which is always thought of like the asteroid field in "The Empire Strikes Back"...but actually the asteroids are often 100s of miles from each other).
LeRoy_Was_Here
Senator
That's all true, but when we sent the Cassini orbiter through the Saturn ring system, there actually was a fear---and I mean among the SCIENTISTS----that it might hit something big enough to knock it silly and completely out of commission. But we HAD to send it through the ring system to put the spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. And the point here is, that if you are traveling at velocities near light-speed, even a tiny nugget of matter would create a collision as powerful as a nuclear warhead. Kinetic energy goes up with the SQUARE of the velocity, if you remember your high school physics....
fairsheet
Senator
Yeah......Montana's very empty too....'til ya bash your sports car into a coyote!
LeRoy_Was_Here
Senator
I could be wrong, of course, but I don't think our starships are going to be colliding with any coyotes in interstellar space.
GordonGecko
President
I see the argument.....Yes.....running into a grain of SAND at near-light speed would vaporize a spacecraft. I was looking at him asking about "planets and stars".
Naturally, such a precaution would be needed, however, I think if we get to the point where we can 'warp space"?....we'll probably be at the point where we can create magnetic (or anti-magnetic) fields, which sweep ahead of the spacecraft pushing all but atom-sized material out of the way.
Or the simple act of warping the space, may "move" matter around the ship...a "bow-wake" effect.
GordonGecko
President
fairsheet
Senator
How do you know that aren't coyotes out there? Have you ever looked at a map of how much they've expanded their range right here on earth over the last coupla centuries?
