Interplanetary space travel?

Jstas

Could be!

http://www.tfot.info/news/1006/mini-mag-orion-will-reach-for-the-stars.html

Looks interesting and a pretty viable concept. What's even cooler is that it's derived from an idea first floated back in like 1958.

sucks2beme

Jstas wrote: »

Could be!

http://www.tfot.info/news/1006/mini-mag-orion-will-reach-for-the-stars.html

Looks interesting and a pretty viable concept. What's even cooler is that it's derived from an idea first floated back in like 1958.

Can I make a list of suggested passengers for the trip?:D

Joelsbass

very cool

Systems

Will be obsolete by the Warp engine!

I think there is still a ban on sending radioactive materials up in a rocket right?

bobman1235

Imagine being off the planet for more than a YEAR? Even with this, six months each way on a rocketship not on the planet Earth.

That's just insane to think about.

Jstas

That's awesome to think about!

I can't even imagine how cool it would be to be able to get in a ship, fly off to arrive at another planet! That would be flat out incredible! Especially if that planet was outside the solar system or even outside the galaxy.

I don't think we'll see it in my lifetime though. So for now, it's just pipes dreams and what-ifs while looking up at the night sky wondering just what the hell is out there?

bobman1235

Haha, the end result is awesome. I just can't imagine being in a ship for six months straight. I'd freak out, no matter how big the ship was.

MacLeod

Ion propultion is another technology that has great potential. It can achieve very high speeds but it accellerates much slower which is easier on the human body. Plus it is much more fuel effecient.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/deepspace_propulsion_000816.html

Systems

MacLeod wrote: »

Ion propultion is another technology that has great potential. It can achieve very high speeds but it accellerates much slower which is easier on the human body. Plus it is much more fuel effecient.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/deepspace_propulsion_000816.html

Read a lot about that. Isn’t the Ion drive what they used on that satellite that a few years back they landed on that huge asteroid. Now that sheet blows your mind. Launch a satellite, toss it way the hell out there in space and target a asteroid that’s like 1 mile in diameter... hit it, orbit it and then land on it. friggen amazing.

DarqueKnight

It will be interesting to read what type of shielding system is proposed to protect this type of high velocity spacecraft from impact damage from space debris.

This ion drive spacecraft can theoretically reach a speed of 10% the speed of light, or 1.116 million miles per hour. Consider the cosmetic damage that a small rock can do to a car's windshield or front bumper at mere highway speeds. Now consider running into that same rock at over 1 million mph.

Systems

DarqueKnight wrote: »

It will be interesting to read what type of shielding system is proposed to protect this type of high velocity spacecraft from impact damage from space debris.

This ion drive spacecraft can theoretically reach a speed of 10% the speed of light, or 1.116 million miles per hour. Consider the cosmetic damage that a small rock can do to a car's windshield or front bumper at mere highway speeds. Now consider running into that same rock at over 1 million mph.

Ive actually been amazed that there hasn’t already been trouble with existing satellites and craft. Material in space can be moving at any speed and usually fast. All it takes is a couple of grains of sand hitting something at 8000 mph to cause some serious trouble.

MacLeod

That is an interesting point. I know a lot of the components on a satelite are as thin as tin foil.

Still, some are heavily shielded. I know they sent a satelite up to fly in the tail of a comet. There is a buttload of debris flying around back there. They used multiple layers of shielding with about a 1" space in between them. Nothing got thru.