Recent comments in /f/space

spacex_fanny t1_j5p465b wrote

Yes, going ~850 km/s is not feasible today because we don't have torch drives like in The Expanse.

Torch drive / torchship is the generic term for the idea, an idea which has been used in various works of sci-fi. See more:

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/torchships.php

https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4df241e826b03

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Aggravating_Teach_27 t1_j5p0l9h wrote

Ion engines don't help you at all in interstellar distances. Not even for moving people around the solar system as they take forever to gain speed. They are nice to send unmanned probes to far away places in the solar system in multi-year missions and that's about it.

I'm not disparaging ion engines tech, it's wonderful. But falls terribly short of the sci Fi stuff the OP mentioned.

The sad reality is the only likely development left with the physics we know is nuclear engines, and those would still allow for slow but bearable transportation inside the solar system.

Nothing we have or can build with our current tech and understanding of physics allows interstellar travel, at all. Never mind quick and easy interstellar travel like in sci Fi.

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Aggravating_Teach_27 t1_j5ozfzs wrote

If you mean traveling inside the solar system, yes, that seems a likely estimate.

If you mean interstellar travel, either we find a loophole in physics that allows for traveling at a significant portion of C with our current energy sources, it we find a new energy source,, or the answer is never.

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Limos42 t1_j5ozb35 wrote

SpaceX's Starship is about to change all that. The shuttle cost billions per launch, and current (manned) rockets cost hundreds of millions.

Starship will cost an order of magnitude less per launch, and with it's 10x capacity of existing launch vehicles, the cost per kg is another order of magnitude cheaper.

This "cheap" access to space will result in the next leap in human advancement. So much new/renewed focus on new problems to solve, which'll result in new technologies, new inventions, new advancements.

The next 5 years are needed for this new paradigm to mature and become a "commodity" (just like the passenger jet era of aviation) but, from there, the "explosion" will begin.

The 2030's will be an amazing and exciting time to be alive. And, on a slightly different tangent, I can't wait to see what the Clipper and Juice missions learn about Europa, Cassini, and Ganymede (Jupiter), and what Dragonfly learns about Titan (Saturn). Hopefully we'll have something in the works for Enceladus (Saturn) soon, too!

Exciting times ahead!

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asupposeawould t1_j5oyw4h wrote

I read somewhere that even if we did have the potential to go really really fast like warp drive speed stopping would take years or if we were able to stop somewhat instantly the amount of force would destroy anything in front of us so if we just happened to stop Infront of earth it would be destroyed lol

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CptKeyes123 t1_j5oyubt wrote

400 years is a bit pessimistic. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, one of the key minds in rocketry, assumed that we wouldn't achieve orbit until the 21st century, let alone sending ships to the moon, or sending Voyager into interstellar space. I'd say we don't know, and to keep in mind that the future is always closer than we think.

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Aggravating_Teach_27 t1_j5oyj3f wrote

Science fiction has caught up and surpassed reality where physics allow.

Our mobile phones are way more advanced than any intercom system in old sci Fi shows. While at the same time our spaceships work pretty much in the same way than in the 60s

Physics allowed for one thing and made the other extremely challenging. The solar system is the ceiling with the physics we know, and barring new physics, it'll remain that way forever.

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Adeldor t1_j5oy5tv wrote

I had a look at your link, but didn't see anything indicating useful FTL communication.[*] Further, by all understanding, any such communication between points in our universe - even if attempting to bypass actual traversal through this space - results in time travel, raising the specter of causality violation. Regarding the paper's reference to "many worlds," that might be the only way around said violation. But again it would not be useful, as no information within the same timeline would be transferred.

[*]: If I missed it, could you highlight or quote the text?

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Aggravating_Teach_27 t1_j5oxx6b wrote

Thit.

Between 20 years and never ever, depending on whether it's possible at all, and then, even if possible, on wether it's actually feasible for tiny, delicate, short lived and insignificant human beings.

Any challenge in transportation we've mastered till now is nothing in comparison with the challenge posed by interstellar travel. And that was knowing physics allowed it.

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