New engines for space travel?

[iapa]

 

8 hours ago, DaveS said:

The improbability is down to using "Vacuum Energy"

This is what Sabine Hossenfelder has to say.

 

for those who prefer to read; http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2021/08/physicist-despairs-over-vacuum-energy.html

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by iapa

[Zermelo]

17 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........

I prefer Adams's later drive, powered by bad news ... because nothing travels faster than bad news

[Ags]

Not true, I've updated the engine to run off Fake News!

[DaveS]

To get this back on track

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

[wulfrun]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

To get this back on track

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

MHD is a thing, it's been been known about for a long time. Nowt wrong with that aspect from a science point of view. Whether it's useful & practical in this application is a different matter.

Seems to me that all our ideas so far involve throwing "stuff" out of the back, at as high a velocity as possible. I'm aware that we don't know of any alternatives but it's a severe limitation since you have to take said "stuff" with you (on a practical basis and at least to start off). Perhaps this is where the next leap will be, with either new physics knowledge or lateral thinking. I can't see how serious speeds can be attained without a new concept, which means we're stuck at the not-yet-practical stage for covering astronomical scales of distance.

[Chaz2b]

We might have destinations in mind, dreams perhaps, but the main problem is not going to be just propulsion, but our very physical well being! We know what just a few months in space does on our muscles and bones, not to mention protection from radiation, so whether we have an engine with unlimited supply of fuel or not, it’s going to be down to how long we can survive in space.

We evolved in gravity, and I guess, so do all those aliens out there, if there is indeed, anybody out there.

I for one, would very much like to stay on terra firma with hopefully, a damn good tracking telescope to watch you time travellers zoom off into the void.

I do find these discussions entertaining, mostly because I do understand some of it.

chaz……an earthling.

[DaveS]

I should have been clearer. My mild scepticism was about the practicality rather than the principle of MHD.

[wulfrun]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

I should have been clearer. My mild scepticism was about the practicality rather than the principle of MHD.

Well founded scepticism, I suspect. One problem would appear to be generating enough electrical power, which got no mention. I'm not convinced it'll work in space on "virtual particles" either. The video seemed very fanciful with too much dreamy music and too many cgi, futuristic-looking ships and no demonstrations of any working reality.

[Macavity]

13 hours ago, DaveS said:

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

Heheh. I'm not really into "debunking" stuff! There are Physics Teachers (and Academics?) here
who are far more up to date - and perhaps deal regularly with general physics questions? But I
thank you for the recommendation! (Better than some of the allegations & speculations? lol) 🥳

P.S. I could warm to Dr. Sabien H: "Conspiracy Theorists are not stupid... Zey are just WRONG! 🤣
 

[Macavity]

An early inspiration of mine was "Flight to the Stars" by James Strong (1965)!



Technology aside, one of the more interesting notions was the "moral dilemma"
re. (then speculated) ever increasing (near light) speeds! If you can travel at (now)
"warp" speed, it is KINDER not to hail a multi-generational "Ark" as you overtake! 🙃

Edited September 1, 2022 by Macavity

[Louis D]

But imagine the surprise of an Ark ship arriving at a planet that has been fully colonized for centuries by folks who arrived via faster drive technologies.  That, and they're tech knowledge is centuries or millennia out of date.  Perhaps they would have appreciated being "hailed" centuries earlier now that they have no place in the modern world except perhaps to make period dramas.  Imagine a 1600s cross-Atlantic ship full of colonialists just now arriving in the Americas.  Awkward!!!

[DaveL59]

10 minutes ago, Louis D said:

But imagine the surprise of an Ark ship arriving at a planet that has been fully colonized for centuries by folks who arrived via faster drive technologies.  That, and they're tech knowledge is centuries or millennia out of date.  Perhaps they would have appreciated being "hailed" centuries earlier now that they have no place in the modern world except perhaps to make period dramas.  Imagine a 1600s cross-Atlantic ship full of colonialists just now arriving in the Americas.  Awkward!!!

thing is what could they do if you did hail them. Unless you could bring them aboard to travel on with you they're still stuck and of course by the time you've caught them up they're probably already way out of date in terms of tech and social/cultural ways.

Unless of course you mean hailing them in the Klingon style? 😉 

Edited September 1, 2022 by DaveL59

[DaveS]

16 hours ago, wulfrun said:

Well founded scepticism, I suspect. One problem would appear to be generating enough electrical power, which got no mention. I'm not convinced it'll work in space on "virtual particles" either. The video seemed very fanciful with too much dreamy music and too many cgi, futuristic-looking ships and no demonstrations of any working reality.

Yep, I find the deemy music / CGI one of the more irritating features of the AstronX channel. I would rather see a rough mobile phone video of a real working prototype any day.

I suspect this would only work with a flight-certified micro nuclear power plant to provide the electricity. The energy requirements are fundamental, 7.8 km/s for LEO, and 1/2 MV^2. kinetic energy. And no getting around it with voodoo physics.

Ionised air up to a few km, then an on board working fluid. Argon perhaps?

[billhinge]

7 hours ago, Macavity said:

Heheh. I'm not really into "debunking" stuff! There are Physics Teachers (and Academics?) here
who are far more up to date - and perhaps deal regularly with general physics questions? But I
thank you for the recommendation! (Better than some of the allegations & speculations? lol) 🥳

P.S. I could warm to Dr. Sabien H: "Conspiracy Theorists are not stupid... Zey are just WRONG! 🤣
 

Certainly not stupid, if you can convince enough of the public to buy your books and merch then you can make a nice living with no qualifications - plus no one can prove you are wrong

[DaveS]

A prime example of Voodoo Physics, but it's not really his fault, he's just reporting other researchers' voodoo. gotta love Jordan, but he does have a tendency to go off piste occasionally.

 

 

[DaveS]

Not voodoo, but a bit of a stretch / speculation

 

[Macavity]

38 minutes ago, billhinge said:

Certainly not stupid, if you can convince enough of the public to buy your books and merch
then you can make a nice living with no qualifications - plus no one can prove you are wrong

Doesn't that apply to almost EVERYONE, these days? lol. Previously "reputable" academics,
having become "freelance" (rid themselves of awkward "contracts of employment"?) - once
with a "scientific conscience" (whatever) now court the exact same "credulous" audience. 😑

Once you are assumed to be "maverick" or...  "non-establishment", it's money in the bank. 🥳
 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Macavity