Unless you happen to be an arms dealer.
Posted on 03/16/2018 9:36:20 PM PDT by LibWhacker
*ping* ?
Too much information. Let’s just hope Hillary is left-handed.
Not sure what exactly we would be trading. We’ve got raw materials up the wazoo right here in our own solar system. If it’s some exotic technology, then the information to replicate that could just be transmitted at the speed of light.
We’ve already beamed out all our best culture via radio & TV, so I’m not sure what they’d want from us (besides a “To Serve Man” scenario)
Once null-space Transit technology is refined, travel time to the stars will be measured in days.
ping
Well, it is a science FICTION blog or site. But still an interesting read
The problem that never seems to be addressed, when discussing near light speed ‘craft’ is.... how do you slow down ? You can’t just fly along at .80c and then suddenly stop when you arrive at your target.
Did they figure in the cost of interstellar tariffs? Do we want a trade war with Proxima Centauri?
They better not try any funny stuff, or Trump will hit them with tariffs so fast it’ll make their tentacles spin!
Utter nonsense discussed without having the foggiest nature of if it will ever be possible.
It’s either that or go on a liquid diet.
“Travel between stars is hard.”
Ya think?!
I wonder what would happen if one of the micro spaceships failed to stop, would we drop a few grams into the middle of an alien City at .8 times the speed of light. I wonder how many megatons that would be. I wonder how long until they mailed us a package back.
Light exerts pressure on anything it hits. So one of the methods I’ve seen involves unfurling a light sail that’s hundreds of miles in diameter when you get near your destination star and the light pressure on your sail will slow you down. Don’t know about 0.80c. You might need a considerably larger sail, or you’ll just fly right on by.
Bitcoins.
At first I expected this to be a bunch of crackpottery. Then I read the article. I have to admit, this guy has some novel and way out of the box thinking, whether it makes a lick of sense or not.
I was reading the history of the Hubble Space Telescope here on FR last week. The guy who conceived it did so in the 40s long before we launched our first orbital vehicle. He was certainly a BIG thinker and it came to fruition within about 40 years.
I think we would deplete all the mineral wealth of the moon first, then Mars, then the outer planets. I think we should concentrate on building big pipelines to bring the oceans of methane on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune back to earth before going interstellar. That would solve all of our energy problems for all eternity.
People do not invest in things that will not give them a good return in their lifetime.
Energy requred to accelerate to 10% of the speed of light and then decelerate is off the charts insane.
Modern humans are only about 50,000 years old. As such our science is primitive to civilizations that may be millions of years old. If those civilizations could traverse interstellar distances they would have already been here and left their calling cards.
However, James Carville may give lie to my suppostiion. Perhaps they are here now. :)
It takes about a year to accelerate to near light speed at 1g, and another year to slow down again. That has to be taken into account. And of course the energy required is ridiculous.
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