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2012/11/27 20:45:47
Subject: Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
Meanwhile in the SciFi becoming reality department NASA has begun working on experiments in creating FTL Warp drives based on the theoretical Alcubierre drive, which instead of accelerating beyond the speed of light simply folds space to travel between two points. While the project is in it's infancy and hasn't had it's full proof yet (meaning they have yet to pull it off on a microscale test) the fact that this is a THING is awesome.
Waiting for my shill money from Spiral Arm Studios
The real issue is finding a way to actually fold space.
Plus we have no idea what actually happens to that folded space. What if you accidentially fold a star or something? If you fold it, does it unfold by itself or do you have to reverse the process?
It may not be possable for us mortals to fold space on itself.
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
Powder Burns wrote:what they need to make is a fullsize leatherman, like 14" long folded, with a bone saw, notches for bowstring, signaling flare, electrical hand crank generator, bolt cutters..
2012/11/27 21:31:40
Subject: Re:Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
Plus we have no idea what actually happens to that folded space. What if you accidentially fold a star or something? If you fold it, does it unfold by itself or do you have to reverse the process?
It may not be possable for us mortals to fold space on itself.
If you read the full article, it seems NASA actually has a pretty good idea of what they're doing here. And folding space is a rough term for what's actually being done and is slightly inaccurate, so that's my bad.
I beg of you sarge let me lead the charge when the battle lines are drawn
Lemme at least leave a good hoof beat they'll remember loud and long
AustonT wrote: Impellors and Warshawski sails will come first.
Oh god no! The universe can not survive unleashing that level of Mary-Sue-ism onto a poor unsuspecting humanity!
There is no such thing as a hobby without politics. "Leave politics at the door" is itself a political statement, an endorsement of the status quo and an attempt to silence dissenting voices.
2012/11/27 21:35:54
Subject: Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
Powder Burns wrote:what they need to make is a fullsize leatherman, like 14" long folded, with a bone saw, notches for bowstring, signaling flare, electrical hand crank generator, bolt cutters..
2012/11/27 21:48:38
Subject: Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
Plus we have no idea what actually happens to that folded space. What if you accidentially fold a star or something? If you fold it, does it unfold by itself or do you have to reverse the process?
It may not be possable for us mortals to fold space on itself.
isn't the power cost enormous, life half the galaxy's worth or some other obscene level?
And why is it that torpedoes never rate as powerful as a warp core breach? Torpedoes are freaking antimatter bombs. If warp cores are so awesome, how come they just don't weaponize those puppies?
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
2012/11/27 22:00:48
Subject: Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
Powder Burns wrote:what they need to make is a fullsize leatherman, like 14" long folded, with a bone saw, notches for bowstring, signaling flare, electrical hand crank generator, bolt cutters..
2012/11/27 22:01:59
Subject: Re:Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
Plus we have no idea what actually happens to that folded space. What if you accidentially fold a star or something? If you fold it, does it unfold by itself or do you have to reverse the process?
It may not be possable for us mortals to fold space on itself.
isn't the power cost enormous, life half the galaxy's worth or some other obscene level?
And why is it that torpedoes never rate as powerful as a warp core breach? Torpedoes are freaking antimatter bombs. If warp cores are so awesome, how come they just don't weaponize those puppies?
Because The Plot(tm) demands it, you can't mess with The Plot(tm).
2012/11/27 22:06:29
Subject: Re:Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
Plus we have no idea what actually happens to that folded space. What if you accidentially fold a star or something? If you fold it, does it unfold by itself or do you have to reverse the process?
It may not be possable for us mortals to fold space on itself.
isn't the power cost enormous, life half the galaxy's worth or some other obscene level?
Negative, the original math for the Alcubierre drive was equivalent to the energy mass of Jupiter or something ridiculous like that, the revised mathematics from our the Zefram Cochrane du jour makes it out to be much more feasible, enough for NASA to fund the experiments.
Edit: a reaction mass of approx 1,600 lbs apparently.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/11/27 22:09:23
I beg of you sarge let me lead the charge when the battle lines are drawn
Lemme at least leave a good hoof beat they'll remember loud and long
Plus we have no idea what actually happens to that folded space. What if you accidentially fold a star or something? If you fold it, does it unfold by itself or do you have to reverse the process?
It may not be possable for us mortals to fold space on itself.
isn't the power cost enormous, life half the galaxy's worth or some other obscene level?
And why is it that torpedoes never rate as powerful as a warp core breach? Torpedoes are freaking antimatter bombs. If warp cores are so awesome, how come they just don't weaponize those puppies?
They do. Warp Cores are powered by antimatter. IIRC, though (don't quote me on this, my Trek-fu isn't very strong) core breaches feth up (or have the potential to feth up) subspace, which no one wants.
For thirteen years I had a dog with fur the darkest black. For thirteen years he was my friend, oh how I want him back.
2012/11/27 22:13:22
Subject: Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
Plus we have no idea what actually happens to that folded space. What if you accidentially fold a star or something? If you fold it, does it unfold by itself or do you have to reverse the process?
It may not be possable for us mortals to fold space on itself.
isn't the power cost enormous, life half the galaxy's worth or some other obscene level?
Negative, the original math for the Alcubierre drive was equivalent to the energy mass of Jupiter or something ridiculous like that, the revised mathematics from our the Zefram Cochrane du jour makes it out to be much more feasible, enough for NASA to fund the experiments.
Edit: a reaction mass of approx 1,600 lbs apparently.
Does the reaction mass needed have any bearing on the size of the ship in question?
Is that 1600 lbs regardless of the space ship in question? Or are they assuming a particular size?
Given the context of the article, I'm thinking no. Which would mean the size of the ship would have no real limits based on the drive itself.
Thus you could have quite large ships without it requiring additional long range propulsion. Meaning more space for transporting colonists and such.
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
Frazzled wrote: And why is it that torpedoes never rate as powerful as a warp core breach? Torpedoes are freaking antimatter bombs. If warp cores are so awesome, how come they just don't weaponize those puppies?
Photon torpoedoes don't carry anywhere near as much antimatter as a full-up warp engine core. Torpoedoes are what, six feet by three feet by 18 inches, and have to carry propulsion, maneuver, sensors, and control onboard in addtion to the warhead? And a warp core is three stories tall and 8 feet in diameter (roughly) of nothing but warp core?
Slight difference in magnitude there.
CHAOS! PANIC! DISORDER!
My job here is done.
2012/11/28 01:12:34
Subject: Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
Photon torpoedoes don't carry anywhere near as much antimatter as a full-up warp engine core. Torpoedoes are what, six feet by three feet by 18 inches, and have to carry propulsion, maneuver, sensors, and control onboard in addtion to the warhead? And a warp core is three stories tall and 8 feet in diameter (roughly) of nothing but warp core?
Slight difference in magnitude there.
There are varying sizes of warp core, warp capable shuttles have cores not much bigger than your arm.
Also a better explanation of the drive from the OP would be the drive used by the Futurama ship.
There's a whole section about it at the end of one of the earlier books.
It's been a day or two but I'm pretty sure the only way to translate to FTL in honorverse was using sai, pretty sure that everything you posted between impeller and sails are just words from the glossary.
Avatar 720 wrote: You see, to Auston, everyone is a Death Star; there's only one way you can take it and that's through a small gap at the back.
Powder Burns wrote:what they need to make is a fullsize leatherman, like 14" long folded, with a bone saw, notches for bowstring, signaling flare, electrical hand crank generator, bolt cutters..
2012/11/28 06:41:48
Subject: Re:Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
Space travel of this sort always sounds cool but I always fear the reality of it would be something like this:(Edit: WARNING contains adult language) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUQ91jago7M
The amount of people who actually would get the maths behind this stuff would be far to little for how many people will eventually be using it. But maybe I could be wrong. I mean travel by automobile had a bit of a shaky start.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2012/11/28 06:44:53
Ikasarete Iru
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2012/11/28 07:31:41
Subject: Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
There's a whole section about it at the end of one of the earlier books.
It's been a day or two but I'm pretty sure the only way to translate to FTL in honorverse was using sails, pretty sure that everything you posted between impeller and sails are just words from the glossary.
As far as I remember, you only use Warshawski sails when travelling in a grav wave in hyper - outside of grav waves you still accelerate using your impellers
Follow the White Scars Fifth Brotherhood as they fight in the Yarov sector - battle report #7 against Eldar here!
2012/11/28 08:19:25
Subject: Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
In fairness only idiots willingly step onto a ghost ship however many years after it's been lost and with no contact from anyone inside...
It's like space darwinism or something...
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2012/11/28 11:07:13
Subject: Re:Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)
d3m01iti0n wrote: And beffore you know it we will all be uploading our collective minds into the orbiting Matryoshka Brain.
Many people already do this. Unfortunately, it is ground based and called facebook and Reddit. Again, unfortunately, there are more strong willed ignorant people than smart people as a whole.
2012/11/28 17:38:16
Subject: Re:Take us out of orbit Mr. Crusher, warp three, engage! (Real FTL drives!)