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Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

projecthyperion.org

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Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#221

Post by Ekaros »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #209
Ekaros wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Energy is the limit. If used Wolfram Alpha right for reasonable comparison that is largest cruise ship with mass of 248663000 kg to speed up to 0.01c mentioned the kinetic energy would be 2.9 times the worlds fossil fuel reserves... Then double that to slow down. And remember efficiency and that well you need to spend some to keep people alive... Seems like energy in general is one of the true problems.

> If used Wolfram Alpha right for reasonable comparison that is largest cruise ship with mass of 248663000 kg to speed up to 0.01c mentioned the kinetic energy would be 2.9 times the worlds fossil fuel reserves This math is wrong. Back of the envelope: accelerating 250 x 10^6 kg to 1% of c over one year is about 310,000 TWh. That’s like half of current annual energy production. Even at like 10g, which would accelerat…

Yeah, stupid thing went with c^2... Not (0.01c) ^2... My bad from not reading the steps properly.

Still, even half of current annual production is quite a ask. For single ship, and I might venture to guess that 250e6 kg might be light for what is needed...

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#222

Post by KineticLensman »

Looking at view #28 in the winning presentation, the system carries 200 shuttles that can each do a one-way trip to the target planet carrying 10 people and delivering 5 tons of cargo. So the overall system can deliver up to 2000 people and 1000 tons -in comparatively small pieces - to the planetary surface.

It would be good to see some discussion of how you can bootstrap a colony (let alone a civilisation) under these very tight constraints. For example, whether flight systems would be cannibalised to support the colonists, and how the colonists would establish a viable, self-sustaining tech tree (including critical life support) after landing, where there may be essentially no immediately accessible raw materials.

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#223

Post by ben_w »

jamiek88 wrote: post #173
mjevans wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that timeframe it would by nature need to be capable of full self repair, with the shipped materials and energy, and with no wasted byproducts. We'd have to completely re-think industrial processes. I'm in favor of realized nanotechnology and 3d printers at an atomic level. Evolution stumbled across carbon based lifeforms as it's answer on Earth.

> full self repair, with the shipped materials and energy, and with no wasted byproducts. Isn’t this impossible? Doesn’t entropy preclude perfect ongoing repair?

> Isn’t this impossible? Doesn’t entropy preclude perfect ongoing repair?

Yes, but we don't actually need "perfect". Also: you can counter a lot of entropy from the energy supply of those engines.

Counter-but: we aren't even close to good enough for what we do need.

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#224

Post by M95D »

levocardia wrote: post #28
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…

You're on a voyage through space in a big spaceship right now!

And I wish we could change course a little bit, away from the sun.

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#225

Post by palisade »

worldsayshi wrote: post #174
palisade wrote: post #164

Meanwhile biodome couldn't keep an artificial ocean from acidifying.

Do you mean Biosphere? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2

OH yea, I confused it with the movie name.

Surprisingly, the wikipage fails to mention it was a failed experiment and doesn't mention the ocean issue at all.

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#226

Post by konart »

virgildotcodes wrote: post #12
codeulike wrote: post #2

Link to Canva presentation for the winning entry https://www.canva.com/design/DAGmr3ubC8E/LHHAeeAIGGQe_TkZVs-...

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.

Speed is one thing. Surviving space is another.

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#228

Post by slightwinder »

WithinReason wrote: post #179
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 had the technology to do it in 44 years 60 years ago: An atomic (fission) Orion can achieve perhaps 9–11% of the speed of light. [...] At 0.1 c, Orion thermonuclear starships would require a flight time of at least 44 years to reach Alpha Centauri, not counting time needed to reach that speed (about 36 days at constant acceleration of 1 g or 9.8 m/s2). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls..…

> We had the technology to do it in 44 years 60 years ago:

No, we had not. That was only theoretical work, no real technology, not even a prototype.

Re: Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition

#230

Post by dotancohen »

jvanderbot wrote: post #50
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.

We're one good new religion away from colonizing the solar system. Cathedrals were built over 100s of years. Imaging just living in a massive one and your whole holy purpose is to survive and thrive and spread. It's entirely reasonable we'd have the will to make it happen, and pretty reasonable we'd be able to build it with planet scale effort, but sadly quite difficult to imagine it surviving even dust impacts for 4…

  > your whole holy purpose is to survive and thrive and spread.
Religion already covers that.

Go forth, and multiply.

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