The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Topic started by: kevindavis007 on June 11, 2014, 11:46:18 pm
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NASA does have a starship enterprise, but not a Starship Enterprise.
The collaboration between a Dutch artist and a NASA researcher who works on warp-drive theories and other advanced propulsion concepts has brought forth some flashy and inspiring graphics — but it's also fuzzed the line between science fiction and fact.
For years, Harold "Sonny" White has been delving into the technical details of a concept known as the Alcubierre warp drive as part of his job at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The idea, put forward by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre, suggests that faster-than-light travel might be achieved by distorting spacetime in a clever way.
To illustrate his talks, White has drawn upon computer graphics from Mark Rademaker, an artist in the Netherlands whose work is often featured in calendars and other publications related to the Star Trek saga. Rademaker, in turn, incorporates the ideas from White's work into his graphics.
Over the past couple of years, Rademaker has created a concept craft known as the IXS Enterprise, with a ring-ship design that might come in handy for an Alcubierre warp drive. The artwork was turned in for the Star Trek Ships of the Line 2014 calendar, but Rademaker continued to fine-tune the look.
"I could have walked away, but I wanted this to be really good, so I put in an extra three months of spare time, with the new images as the result," Rademaker told NBC News in an email.
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasas-warp-drive-starship-enterprise-makes-virtual-splash-n128831
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(http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2014_24/503186/140611-ixs2_d7c4f0196d2d6b7159be68acf263a457.nbcnews-ux-720-480.jpg)
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This is one of those items that probably cannot be proven or dis-proven sitting at the bottom of a gravity well on the surface of the Earth, and probably not withing the electromagnetic and gravitic influence of the planet or the moon. This is why we need long term facilities out at one of the LaGrange points to do this kind of research and development....
Considering how far we have come since the Wright Brothers just over 100 years ago, where do you suppose we will be 100 years from now...??
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This is one of those items that probably cannot be proven or dis-proven sitting at the bottom of a gravity well on the surface of the Earth, and probably not withing the electromagnetic and gravitic influence of the planet or the moon. This is why we need long term facilities out at one of the LaGrange points to do this kind of research and development....
Considering how far we have come since the Wright Brothers just over 100 years ago, where do you suppose we will be 100 years from now...??
Who knows.. The sooner we leave this rock, the better imho..
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Who knows.. The sooner we leave this rock, the better imho..
That's what I'm sayin' Kevin...we need to get the hell on it.....now!
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This is one of those items that probably cannot be proven or dis-proven sitting at the bottom of a gravity well on the surface of the Earth, and probably not withing the electromagnetic and gravitic influence of the planet or the moon. This is why we need long term facilities out at one of the LaGrange points to do this kind of research and development....
Considering how far we have come since the Wright Brothers just over 100 years ago, where do you suppose we will be 100 years from now...??
I agree. Who knows what is going to happen in the 2100. Carl Sagan wrote about this in his last book "Pale Blue Dot" and Stephen Hawking wrote about this subject several times.
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That's what I'm sayin' Kevin...we need to get the hell on it.....now!
and quickly.. Something is up and I hate to see the work that that human race did go away all for nothing..
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Who knows.. The sooner we leave this rock, the better imho..
Carl Sagan has making this case for many years
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Carl Sagan has making this case for many years
and so has Stephen Hawking as well..
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The Alcubierre drive is an interesting concept. There was a recent article arguing that it might destroy the planetary system it was heading for because the interstellar particles it met would build up on the front edge of the warp and, because the warped space is moving at light speed, would spray those particles at light speed toward the target as it slowed down. I was just thinking though that, provided that effect could be mitigated, the fact that the warped space would block interstellar particles - cosmic rays - from entering the local space surrounding the craft itself might actually make space travel feasible because without some sort of a shield the passengers in an interstellar craft would be hit with lethal doses of cosmic rays in very short order.
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and quickly.. Something is up and I hate to see the work that that human race did go away all for nothing..
I've already seen a couple of groups out there doing some basic research into asteroid mining. Lots and lots of good metal to be had out there if we can (A) find a way to harvest it inexpensively and (B) process it in orbit into usable metal shapes. There are lots of precious metals to be had out there as well. Consider the frequency with which the platinum group of metals occurs in Iron/nickel deposits....then consider how much of those platinum group would be found in an iron/nickel asteroid massing only 2 trillion tons........
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I've already seen a couple of groups out there doing some basic research into asteroid mining. Lots and lots of good metal to be had out there if we can (A) find a way to harvest it inexpensively and (B) process it in orbit into usable metal shapes. There are lots of precious metals to be had out there as well. Consider the frequency with which the platinum group of metals occurs in Iron/nickel deposits....then consider how much of those platinum group would be found in an iron/nickel asteroid massing only 2 trillion tons........
Also we can build the ships in space with the materials coming from the asteroid belt. There is gold in those planetoids.
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Planetary Resources Inc., a venture of some biggies like Branson, the CEO and the chairman of Google, and some others, had originally planned to mine the asteroids for metals, but has now scaled back and will focus on water: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/planetary-resources-scales-back-its-spacemining-mission-20140507-01710
A paper was just released at the beginning of this year that tentatively concludes that there aren't many commercially exploitable asteroids; certainly not as many as once thought. The pre-print pdf of the paper is here: http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1312/1312.4450.pdf
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Actually, scratch my earlier remark about the alcubierre drive destroying its target with a slew of light-speed particles. According to this article (http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184143-nasa-unveils-its-futuristic-warp-drive-starship-called-enterprise-of-course) - which is mainly about this new concept - that conclusion has been disproven.
The article is interesting beyond just that point as well.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkj2lR9CT08
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Planetary Resources Inc., a venture of some biggies like Branson, the CEO and the chairman of Google, and some others, had originally planned to mine the asteroids for metals, but has now scaled back and will focus on water: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/planetary-resources-scales-back-its-spacemining-mission-20140507-01710 (http://www.nasdaq.com/article/planetary-resources-scales-back-its-spacemining-mission-20140507-01710)
A paper was just released at the beginning of this year that tentatively concludes that there aren't many commercially exploitable asteroids; certainly not as many as once thought. The pre-print pdf of the paper is here: http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1312/1312.4450.pdf (http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1312/1312.4450.pdf)
Damn... But water is good as well..
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Actually, scratch my earlier remark about the alcubierre drive destroying its target with a slew of light-speed particles. According to this article (http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184143-nasa-unveils-its-futuristic-warp-drive-starship-called-enterprise-of-course) - which is mainly about this new concept - that conclusion has been disproven.
The article is interesting beyond just that point as well.
We live in interesting times..
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and so has Stephen Hawking as well..
you are right
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rDVcnXb3oQ
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Damn... But water is good as well..
water is very, very good. the article's conclusions are also only tentative, and subject to dispute already, so there's still plenty of hope. Also, the article focused on asteroids that could be commercially exploited now, it didn't focus just on the resource content of asteroids per se, so it's entirely possible that if the realm of commercially feasible changes, the value of the asteroids changes as well.
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water is very, very good. the article's conclusions are also only tentative, and subject to dispute already, so there's still plenty of hope. Also, the article focused on asteroids that could be commercially exploited now, it didn't focus just on the resource content of asteroids per se, so it's entirely possible that if the realm of commercially feasible changes, the value of the asteroids changes as well.
Asteroids are a very good source of material that would be beneficial. You can develop a space elevator to keep the asteroid in line.
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Asteroids are a very good source of material that would be beneficial. You can develop a space elevator to keep the asteroid in line.
that all depends on doing an accurate survey of the asteroids themselves. the conclusion of the article I linked to is that there really isn't that much that's useable in the asteroids.
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that all depends on doing an accurate survey of the asteroids themselves. the conclusion of the article I linked to is that there really isn't that much that's useable in the asteroids.
I disagree. There are water vapor on these asteroids and comets.Observations of the Solar System's biggest asteroid suggest it is spewing plumes of water vapour into space.Water vapor detected from the largest object in the asteroid belt could be from a number of sources including cryovolcanoes. There are rare sources of elements that are not found on the Earth like iridium in mass quantities.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/massive-asteroid-spurts-plumes-of-water-vapor/
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Good luck with that NASA. With this administration we can't even get a man to ISS without hitching a ride with the Russians.
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Good luck with that NASA. With this administration we can't even get a man to ISS without hitching a ride with the Russians.
NASA is paying $424 million more to Russia to get U.S. astronauts ... That's $70.6 million per seat
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I disagree. There are water vapor on these asteroids and comets.Observations of the Solar System's biggest asteroid suggest it is spewing plumes of water vapour into space.Water vapor detected from the largest object in the asteroid belt could be from a number of sources including cryovolcanoes. There are rare sources of elements that are not found on the Earth like iridium in mass quantities.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/massive-asteroid-spurts-plumes-of-water-vapor/
Read the article first, then respond to it, not just to me.
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and so has Stephen Hawking as well..
As well as pretty much every astrophysicist ever. Scientific endeavors need more funding if we are to see real progress is our lifetimes. We may regret it if China manages to start mining asteroids and leading the way in other space endeavors before we do.
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As well as pretty much every astrophysicist ever. Scientific endeavors need more funding if we are to see real progress is our lifetimes. We may regret it if China manages to start mining asteroids and leading the way in other space endeavors before we do.
I agree.. Science is one of few things that I don't mind if the Government funds. In fact I prefer spend more on Science than on Entitlements.
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As well as pretty much every astrophysicist ever. Scientific endeavors need more funding if we are to see real progress is our lifetimes. We may regret it if China manages to start mining asteroids and leading the way in other space endeavors before we do.
It does not mean a national mandate to mine asteroids or the moon. Have the corporations pony up the money for exploration.
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It does not mean a national mandate to mine asteroids or the moon. Have the corporations pony up the money for exploration.
Corporations can't pony up the money for exploration if we don't first have the technology to do it. We should be exploring the universe for the sake of science, not just profit. Increasing our understanding of the universe around us is beneficial to all of man kind.
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Corporations can't pony up the money for exploration if we don't first have the technology to do it. We should be exploring the universe for the sake of science, not just profit. Increasing our understanding of the universe around us is beneficial to all of man kind.
If a bunch of corporations come to together they will do it.It will be interests of both parties. NASA cannot do it alone.Their budget has been severly slashed and all it remains is robotic missions and the ISS. They are already doing it with the Falcon 9 rocket and that is a private venture
http://science.howstuffworks.com/10-major-players-in-private-sector-space-race.htm
http://www.spacex.com/falcon9
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Corporations can't pony up the money for exploration if we don't first have the technology to do it. We should be exploring the universe for the sake of science, not just profit. Increasing our understanding of the universe around us is beneficial to all of man kind.
With all due respect, corporations - and every other form of business - will pony up the money and will develop the technology - without a smidge of "help" from Uncle Sugar - if/when there's a realistic prospect of a positive return on investment. And there isn't any "we should" way of getting into, exploring, and exploiting, space - any legitimate use, whether private or public, that an individual or a business wishes to make of space is just as much a "we should" as is anything else. Knowledge solely for the sake of knowledge is sterile; knowledge has no value until something can be done with it.