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Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

projecthyperion.org

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Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#131

Post by mighmi »

munificent wrote: post #100
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we are never leaving this solar system unless we discover some new physics to get around our speed limitations The winning proposal coasts at 0.01c. Propulsion systems--not the speed of light--and thus engineering, not phsyics, are the relevant limitors.

I am increasingly certain that culture is by far the biggest limiting factor when it comes to large-scale problem solving now and in the future. We couldn't even reliably get people to put a piece of fabric over their face to stop killing their own relatives. Even if we could build a generation ship, it would turn into an Event Horizon hellscape if we don't figure out better cultural, communication, and sociological…

Sweden did not have a mask mandate and did very well.

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#132

Post by JumpCrisscross »

9cb14c1ec0 wrote: post #119
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a country is more constrained by space than a spaceship? At the point that we're building 60 km spaceships, yes, I think that's a possibility. > you're reaching into antiquity then not even normal democracies The further back we go the more consensus-driven small societies get. I'm also reaching back due to familiarity. There are plenty of small island communities that did fine for generations on their own. > They…

> Sorry, I missed this in the winning design. Where does it say that? I didn't notice any prisons included in the design, so that assumption seems fair.

> didn't notice any prisons included in the design, so that assumption seems fair

Does it?

You don’t need dedicated prison space as you won’t have a permanent prison population. (Depending on labour requirements and resource availability this may not be a choice.) Nothing about not having a prison implies no hierarchy. And you don’t need prisons to “condemn people to death.”

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#133

Post by ifckncantakeit »

cvoss wrote: post #21

This feels like the grown-up ideological successor to the International Space Settlement Design Competition for high school students. That was (is? anyone still in the know?) a competition that ran for years out of NASA Houston as a pet project of some engineers and contractors who wanted to engage and cultivate the next generation of aerospace minds. Teams would submit proposals for the design of a permanent space s…

> This new competition seems like its goal is to actually take the design/ideation of working professionals as a serious output

While it’s interesting, the only things that sell trips to space are cheap ways to get additional resources (information or materials), steady flows of income (from recurring tourism, travel, services), or war/defense.

Long, expensive one-way trips that require incredible amounts of money to pull off will never, ever make business sense.

The only reason explorers were funded hundreds of years ago was the promise of vast amounts of gold, magical life-extending water, mysterious new jewels and materials, wild native art, new sources of food, beautiful mostly naked natives that would look to you as gods and be your slaves willingly, and a shitton of fertile land to farm and colonize; and it must benefit the homeland within a reasonable time period, preferably not more than a year or two.

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#135

Post by [deleted] »

cvoss wrote: post #21

This feels like the grown-up ideological successor to the International Space Settlement Design Competition for high school students. That was (is? anyone still in the know?) a competition that ran for years out of NASA Houston as a pet project of some engineers and contractors who wanted to engage and cultivate the next generation of aerospace minds. Teams would submit proposals for the design of a permanent space s…

[deleted]

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#136

Post by Apocryphon »

svachalek wrote: post #105
Ancalagon wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they have artificial gravity in star wars iirc

And anti-gravity, as seen in the many machines and craft that easily hover around.

Most popular sci-fi in visual media up until recent examples like The Expanse and Cowboy Bebop (though only because the remake revived interest in the original) are soft sci-fi when it comes to walking around in spaceships.

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#137

Post by andrewflnr »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #29
virgildotcodes wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading through this in detail just cements that we are never leaving this solar system unless we discover some new physics to get around our speed limitations.

> we are never leaving this solar system unless we discover some new physics to get around our speed limitations The winning proposal coasts at 0.01c. Propulsion systems--not the speed of light--and thus engineering, not phsyics, are the relevant limitors.

I read their comment as saying that current physics doesn't allow the kind of propulsion systems we need, even with optimal engineering and well below the lightspeed limit.

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#138

Post by aeve890 »

munificent wrote: post #100
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we are never leaving this solar system unless we discover some new physics to get around our speed limitations The winning proposal coasts at 0.01c. Propulsion systems--not the speed of light--and thus engineering, not phsyics, are the relevant limitors.

I am increasingly certain that culture is by far the biggest limiting factor when it comes to large-scale problem solving now and in the future. We couldn't even reliably get people to put a piece of fabric over their face to stop killing their own relatives. Even if we could build a generation ship, it would turn into an Event Horizon hellscape if we don't figure out better cultural, communication, and sociological…

>that culture

>Limiting Factor

I see what you did here.

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#139

Post by throwaway290 »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #45
poisonborz wrote: post #13

I doubt the human psyche is capable of such a voyage while being awake the whole time. Even with all the toys and biomes, life will get boring and pointless fast, producing unfulfilled needs, disorder, conflict and revolt. People can't be ants in a colony working for such a narrowly defined goal through a lifetime, especially not multi-generationally. Our existence is based on constant questioning and revolutions. A…

Particles are indistinguishable, this means that the specific particles that make up a physical object (like a human) are not important, you could replace all of them with different particles, ship of Theseus style, and it would be the same object. What makes an object unique then is the specific configuration of the particles that make up that object. This configuration is a form of information. Fortunately, we alre…

> Particles are indistinguishable

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_(physics)

A particle spins on any number of axes

> You need something that harvests particles locally and can receive a stream of data with what to print

You cannot obtain that data because this spin is impossible to measure)

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#140

Post by WalterBright »

sien wrote: post #122
WalterBright wrote: post #116

My design would be to send a nanobot builder. Then you could beam it instructions on what to build, based on what it finds at its destination. Sort of like sending a cell capable of life and creating more life. Aliens are always sending such probes here in scifi, so why don't we do it, too?

How would you power it? Solar sail or nuclear? How big would the payload be?

> How would you power it?

Given that the payload would be tiny compared to a generation ship, I expect the powerplant would be able to get it there much faster.

> Solar sail or nuclear?

Solar sail won't work outside the solar system.

> How big would the payload be?

We cannot build it yet. But I expect the technology to do it seems possible.

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