Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
backchannel.com
Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
1–10 of 76 posts
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#2Yesterday, I watched Bruno Vassel fly his glider in the Rocky Mountains for nearly 2 hours on Youtube. I hypothesize someday we will be able to extract energy from the Ether to power our own spaceships in a similar way to gliding. That's not to say we won't need to add our own energy to get somewhere specific!
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#3Yesterday, I watched Bruno Vassel fly his glider in the Rocky Mountains for nearly 2 hours on Youtube. I hypothesize someday we will be able to extract energy from the Ether to power our own spaceships in a similar way to gliding. That's not to say we won't need to add our own energy to get somewhere specific!
Well, our space crafts do "glide" on gravity.
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#4> The movie-makers were giving Christopher raw data, just like in real life, and he was trying to analyze it.
...
> In the final movie, the screen visuals are a mixture of ones Christopher created, ones derived from what he created, and ones that were put in separately.
I wonder -- did he synthesize the handwriting samples under analysis or was that from the film's conventional creative team? I read Chiang's story after having seen "The Arrival" and IIRC the descriptions weren't anywhere near as clear about the circular nature of the sentences.
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#5Yesterday, I watched Bruno Vassel fly his glider in the Rocky Mountains for nearly 2 hours on Youtube. I hypothesize someday we will be able to extract energy from the Ether to power our own spaceships in a similar way to gliding. That's not to say we won't need to add our own energy to get somewhere specific!
Well, our space crafts do "glide" on gravity.
Also see the Interplanetary Transport Network, a network of routes through the solar system that take the lowest energy paths, using Lagrange points to change direction. They aren't the fastest routes, but if you want to glide around the solar system this is where you travel.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Transport_Net...
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, our space crafts do "glide" on gravity.
Also see the Interplanetary Transport Network, a network of routes through the solar system that take the lowest energy paths, using Lagrange points to change direction. They aren't the fastest routes, but if you want to glide around the solar system this is where you travel. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Transport_Net...
I suspect one of the best ways to travel around the solar system is to find an asteroid with a very eccentric orbit. Land on the asteroid, and while it won't save energy, the asteroid will offer a radiation shield and raw materials to use on the journey. The asteroid can be slowly transformed into a "cruise ship" for the journey and subsequent ones.
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#7 It always seems to involve mastering gravity yet gravity is so incredibly weak compared to magnetism. Plus "alien spacecraft" aka UFOs always seem to output a huge amount of light so maybe gravity and light are linked in the process or mechanism for whatever makes the thing operate.
I like the article how it mentions getting the science believable or at least not terrible wrong. But what I dislike as much as that is whenever the science parts are dismissed. Usually a scientist in a movie or TV show tries to explain something the lead character rolls their eyes as if it were boring everyone laughs.
How can we encourage kids that science is interesting if it's treated as a bore or a joke and ridiculed? I know it's meant as a writing method to make the lead person seem dumb compared to the smart scientist but it sends a bad message that science is boring.
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#8There have been a number of posts about this movie on HN, many of them interesting https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Arrival&sort=byDate&prefix=fal...
Some of them address the linguistic side of the movie.
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also see the Interplanetary Transport Network, a network of routes through the solar system that take the lowest energy paths, using Lagrange points to change direction. They aren't the fastest routes, but if you want to glide around the solar system this is where you travel. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Transport_Net...
I suspect one of the best ways to travel around the solar system is to find an asteroid with a very eccentric orbit. Land on the asteroid, and while it won't save energy, the asteroid will offer a radiation shield and raw materials to use on the journey. The asteroid can be slowly transformed into a "cruise ship" for the journey and subsequent ones.
You could say that is what happened to earth.
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#10Yesterday, I watched Bruno Vassel fly his glider in the Rocky Mountains for nearly 2 hours on Youtube. I hypothesize someday we will be able to extract energy from the Ether to power our own spaceships in a similar way to gliding. That's not to say we won't need to add our own energy to get somewhere specific!
How curious you mention Bruno Vassel... I watched a number of his videos this week (and yes, @ fullscreen HD 1080 video it is mesmerizing!!). My goal was preparation for taking a new R/C model plane out for a maiden flight (a 3 meter ASW28). My hope was to glean some slope soaring tips. While I learned a lot and it helped me with my soaring, let me just say, he is highly skilled and makes it all look very easy and relaxing.
Soaring 100 miles without engine power is impressive. Doing so while literally feet away from a craggy mountain slope without freaking out, and taking the time to share some of the most beautiful scenery and sky one's ever likely to see with us is a real gift.
The part where he does loops to entertain some boy scout troops hiking along a mountain was joyful.