I wonder if the Mormons will be starting their ship construction now?
They should be careful to hire someone they can trust, and they should probably hold onto the ignition keys...
Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
241–250 of 305 posts
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the two biggest issues seem to be a) stopping after accelerating and b) not getting hit by space debris while travelling at those speeds. That said they at least all seem like solvable problems given enough time and resources.
I think a slim profile and large ablative shield are two good ideas. that largely solve both of these issues. Build something like the TransAmerica Pyramid (without the two white flanges) and put the motor(s) where the foundation would be as to make the building fly like a rocket. Put the motors on at one G and you get artificial gravity, a slim profile and damage equally distributed along the bulk of the ship and mo…
TIL about Ablative Armour, thanks for the interesting read.
Isn't turning the ship at those speeds nearly impossible? You'd either have to slow the entire ship down first (the whole idea) or burn a ton of fuel to turn it while accelerating at a percentage of light speed, while avoiding debis and the spaceships engines explosions. I believe this is why scientists researching this prefer magnetic sails as a means to slow down. Or maybe an alternative engine scheme that doesn't require doing a 360 turn.
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm all in favor of science funding, especially projects that drive and give back technology capabilities to society. But I would like to see more balance and preference to solve hunger and poverty around the world. To me that question is high on the list as well. And preferably more so.
What is the point of solving hunger and poverty when we are unable to solve climate change? Having more people and more people who can afford luxuries will only make that problem worse. I know it's a tough argument to swallow, but that doesn't make it less true.
What's your argument exactly? Saving more people will worsen the climate situation?
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#244I really really want project Starshot to become a reality. I think this is our best bet for scoping out these near by star systems. At least within our lifetime. If we could hit 50% speed of light we could do a fly-by mission in ~25 years. Then another 12 years waiting for the data. Honestly, ~37-40 years isn't bad for an interstellar mission. Remember the Voyager program has been going on for that long! So we alread…
I hope Elon Musk reads your inquiry
Paul Allen provided a lot of the funding for SETI Institute's radio array design and construction, but operational budget has been really tough.
It's not quite enough to build the instruments. We have to fund the ongoing science, too. Philanthropy does play a role here, too, of course: endowments for academic research, but generally not as inspiring as making Very Large objects.
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#245Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#246I am flabbergasted that as a society we aren't rushing to build a 100 metre wide telescope mirror large enough for us to directly image the spectra of the potentially habitable exoplanets around us. A telescope this large could tell us whether any of these potentially habitable planets contain oxygen, and thus, biological processes. Yet thanks to funding cuts in science the biggest telescope we have in the pipeline r…
You're hilarious, where's the maximized profit in that?
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes even most people in Pakistan/India have access to those, plus broadband internet. Yes I've been there.
> Yes even most people in Pakistan/India have access to those, plus broadband internet. Yes I've been there. Indian here, lot of people in metro cities dont have clean water. Most middle class and rich people use water filter to clean the water in their house. Forget the villages.
Oh well I stayed in Pakistan cities and villages and farms and there's clean water, housing and mobile broadband... Sorry to hear the state in India - I incorrectly assumed they were ahead due to higher GDP per capita.
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#248Ggggggggrrrrreeeaaaatttt
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#249I am flabbergasted that as a society we aren't rushing to build a 100 metre wide telescope mirror large enough for us to directly image the spectra of the potentially habitable exoplanets around us. A telescope this large could tell us whether any of these potentially habitable planets contain oxygen, and thus, biological processes. Yet thanks to funding cuts in science the biggest telescope we have in the pipeline r…
>I am flabbergasted that as a society we aren't rushing to build a 100 metre wide telescope mirror large enough for us to directly image the spectra of the potentially habitable exoplanets around us. This is because most of society is still struggling with day-to-day tasks like getting housing, clean water, reliable food, healthcare and dealing with physical conflicts. Even people rich enough to not be stuck in the s…
They're not mutually exclusive.
There's more than enough money for both. It's a lack of political will that holds us back.
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
The world had less reliable housing, less clean water, less reliable food, worse healthcare, and more physical conflicts in the 60s, and we still had the Apollo program put people on the moon. Only the most pathetic hacks would argue that we are the worse for having invested that money to push the bounds of exploration. At a point, there are 6 billion people on the earth, and there will always be _some_ problems unso…
The Apollo program did result in significant advances in science and technology. Had we put the same resources into solving other more earthbound problems would we be better off? Maybe we could have developed a better, standard, safer nuclear power plant design and could have left coal and oil behind 30 years ago. And we would not be discussing climate change or at least not the idea that it was man-made.
We have designs. The problem is they aren't also capable of creating nuclear weapons so they are irrelevant to NATO. IIRC.