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If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

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Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#51

Post by orobus »

clocker wrote: post #32
amelius wrote: post #3

Make sure you press the "c" button in the bottom right. Light is incredibly slow, and everything seems out of reach. I think we'll have a holodeck before we reach another star. And maybe that'll be enough.

> Lightly is incredibly slow Its relative! Sitting on a couch and watching the pixel move from the sun to the earth for 8 minutes feels incredibly slow but if you are actually traveling in a light speed aircraft then it won’t feel that slow.

If you were actually traveling at the speed of light it wouldn't feel like anything at all! Photons don't 'experience' time—any length trip would be instantaneous from the traveler's point of view.

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#52

Post by dylan604 »

ant6n wrote: post #37
sheepscreek wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not the destination, it’s the journey :)

10,000 years of empty space to get to the next solar system. Exciting.

Plenty of time for reflection on one’s choices in life that put them in that situation.

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#53

Post by sheepscreek »

ant6n wrote: post #37
sheepscreek wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not the destination, it’s the journey :)

10,000 years of empty space to get to the next solar system. Exciting.

Not with light speed travel. At even 1% the speed of light, the travel time diminishes significantly:

- Titan, Io and Ganymede are only 2.5 days away - Pluto is about 23 days

Edit: Even at such speeds, we still can’t visit a nearby star system in a reasonable time-frame. Oh well.

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#54

Post by Vvector »

sestep wrote: post #36
thrance wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you travel at relativistic speeds, your trip will appear far shorter to you than to those that stayed on Earth. With a ship able to accelerate at 1G continuously, you can be at the edge of the observable universe in [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/s4tbry/oc_...

Naive question: is accelerating at 1G continuously within the range of what we consider possible?

It's a simple question of weight ratios.

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#55

Post by thrance »

sestep wrote: post #36
thrance wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you travel at relativistic speeds, your trip will appear far shorter to you than to those that stayed on Earth. With a ship able to accelerate at 1G continuously, you can be at the edge of the observable universe in [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/s4tbry/oc_...

Naive question: is accelerating at 1G continuously within the range of what we consider possible?

Not naive at all. With chemical rockets we can only sustain 1G for a few minutes, so it won't do at all for interstellar flights.

There is a known way to achieve 100% fuel efficiency: antimatter. By storing equal parts matter and antimatter, you can fuse them to propel your spacecraft. It's unknown wether or not this kind of engine can actually be made.

Alternatively, and even more far-fetched, you could onboard a small singularity. Dumping anything into it will result in it being turned to pure energy at 100% efficiency, through Hawking's radiations. The smallest the singularity, the fastest it radiates, meaning you can sort of control the output. You can create singularities with very large particle colliders.

With 100% fuel efficiency you can probably sustain 1G for long enough to reach the nearest stars. You would need a very large spacecraft (on the order of kilometers) for a comparatively very small payload. And it would arrive completely empty at its destination, meaning no turning back. I think I saw someone do the math, but can't find it anymore.

Anyway, there are other difficulties. Travelling at .99c means tiny space dust now becomes very dangerous. So does radiations, all made extremely energetic by the Doppler effect.

On the plus side, continous 1G means you have artifical gravity for the whole trip.

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#56

Post by tomxor »

Shameless plug: Accurate solar system in 192 Bytes:

https://www.dwitter.net/d/26521

The red bit is the sun. 1000 kilometers per pixel, and 1000 seconds per second.

They all fit onto the screen by looking through the orbital plane, as if through a telescope from a distant world, i.e effectively an orthographic projection. The orbits are accurate in terms of mean orbital distance (in reality there is slight perturbance) and sidereal periods.

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#57

Post by philwelch »

amelius wrote: post #3

Make sure you press the "c" button in the bottom right. Light is incredibly slow, and everything seems out of reach. I think we'll have a holodeck before we reach another star. And maybe that'll be enough.

We’re barely even using our first solar system, it’s way too early to be worried about reaching other stars.

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#58

Post by dylan604 »

jjbinx007 wrote: post #49
quchen wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite the opposite, much like when skydiving, going really fast without any close reference point makes everything stand still. And in space, there wouldn’t even be (very loud) atmospheric drag to physically remind you about what speed you’re actually going.

I believe the OP was referring to relativity - the closer to the speed of light you get the slower time appears to tick. So if you could travel at light speed you'd arrive at your destination immediately from your reference frame, but much slower from another person's.

Then what’s up with all of those sci-fi chows where using FTL still takes some amount of time to arrive?

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#59

Post by jethkl »

There are many physical scale models of the solar system around the world, many walkable, some bikeable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System_model

I've seen several, Planet Trek in Wisconsin is a good bikeable one with high quality signage. The sun is downtown, the moon is the size of a peach pit, Pluto is ~20 miles away.

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