DaveS

To get this back on track

Anyone with better physics than me @Macavity? want to take this apart and debunk it?

Had another go last night using Deep Sky Camera beta on my OnePlus 8 Pro, tracking on a SA. Set up a sequence of 30 x 30 sec exposures at ISO 800. Not all made it into the stack. Stacking and post in AstroArt 8. Sigma stacking with 2x2 demosaicing.

First up Low down in Aquilla through Sagittarius. Only 17 of the subs made it into the stack, a number had headlight fogging.

Then a bit further north picking up the Summer Triangle in Cygnus.

Neither are going to win any prizes, but hay ho. Colour balance is a bit wonky, but can't seem to fix it.

11 hours ago, iapa said:

That's what we are missing, the Infinite Improbability Drive, finite improbability generator and a really nice hot cup of tea........

The improbability is down to using "Vacuum Energy"

This is what Sabine Hossenfelder has to say.

That assumes that FTL will be possible, even with warp drive technology.

I'm going to put this here, as it's one of the less barking ideas from AstronX.

Some of the comments are just plain woo-woo, but ignore them, this channel does seem to attract to nut-jobs.

For centuries long journeys the sort of deep frozen hibernation used in several SF novels makes more sense than generation arks. You're not using / recycling resources during the trip, and the people arriving are the ones who started, with all the drive that sent them out in the first place.

The Magellan starship in Clarke's "Songs of Distant Earth" (Novel, not short story) is a good example (Leaving out the rather improbable drive).

TBH I'm getting more than a little depressed by the whole "Chuck-it-away" attitude. It might have been acceptable for Apollo where the aim was to get to the moon as quickly as possible with barely adequate technology, but I would have hoped that technology would have moved on.

It just isn't sustainable.

For all that I hate his Starlink garbage, Musk is at least showing us that there is another way.

I do have to wonder sometimes whether the throwaway attitude is wholly down to physics, or whether the fact that the early space program had a lot of military input, including re-purposed ICBMs (Both USA and USSR). After all when the army fires a missile they don't want it coming back. Maybe the mindset has hindered the search / development of alternatives.

Told you it would happen.

SLS is a misbegotten heap of junk.

T-40 min and holding.

I will be very surprised if this heap of junk makes it off the pad toady. Or any other day for that matter. Not while Boing can milk some more government money.

As I was saying

You want to look at some of the youtube videos by Jordan Wright, the Angry Astronaut. What he says about SLS and Boing is excoriating, just short of being downright libelous.

ASA mounts use a whole sky model for pointing and rough tracking, then a local model along the path of the imaging to take account of refraction etc.

With the encoders having a resolution of 0.02", and being read at 100Hz even wind gusts can be corrected before they have a chance to affect the subs.

And a lot faster than guiding, with no danger of chasing the seeing.

I already have my dream mount ASA DDM85, alas no longer made, and £12k when it was.

I did a Google Maps, and got a journey time of 3h 30 mins along the south coast. A bit far for a casual visit alas.

Project Orion would work.

It's been tested, albeit with non-nuclear explosives, the maths and engineering has been well worked out, if we need it, it's there.

But even without such engines nuclear power is the only viable prospect for space travel. There are plenty of new designs of reactors that are inherently safe, plus there are regulations prohibiting weapons grade nuclear fuel in space.

We just need to tell the bunny-huggers to take a long walk on a short pier.

This is getting off the original point, but hey ho...

I do think that we don't know enough about interstellar debris etc to go blindly charging off at even 0.2C (The practical limit suggested in the PBS video). Perhaps if we manage to launch the Starshot Swarm, that might give us an idea.

For charging around the Solar System, I think we have a reasonable idea of the hazards, just keep the speeds down to a sensible value, 0.1C is likely to be plenty, once we get beyond the zodiacal debris. Until then I suspect something lower will be more sensible.

Dark Energy is something inherent in the structure of space I think, not something we can use for any practical purposes.

I wonder if a Warp Drive bubble will act as a barrier to debris? If it should ever become a reality.

1G for 1 year gives you lightspeed, near enough.

Gotta love AstronX, just one step short of being awa' wi' the fairies.

This is the Epstein drive from AstronX. Just barely this side of voodoo science.

I was leaving interstellar travel out of the picture for the time being, as being too problematic.Jjust getting around the Solar System in a sensible time frame will be a challenge enough for the time being. Unless Warp Drives really do turn out to be possible and feasible.

However, in the meantime have a look at this video from PBS Space-time.

So it's gone quiet.

Does that mean people aren't interested in space exploration / travel?

If we're going to put bigger telescopes in L2, or better still, out in the outer solar system away from the zodiacal light pollution, then we're going to need *much* better engines to reduce transit delays to days, or weeks at the most. Especially if we're thinking of sending a maintenance crew at any time.

Storage is cheap.

I would never bin my light frames, unless they were obviously unusable.

4 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

Solar sails and orbital transfers, slow and steady is my bet.

But only if you have a longer life expectancy than our mayfly 100 years.

And solar sails ain't gonna work out in the Kuiper belt.

NSWR

From Wiki

And Scott Manley

That sounds like the Bussard ramjet, which has been shown to be a very good *Brake* rather than drive.

Aviation equivalent? No, unlikely, but C18 / 19 sea travel, maybe.

NSWR (Technically possible with today's technology) would get us anywhere in the solar system in short order, but might also be a good way of getting dead.