Starship pilots: speed kills, especially warp speed

http://www.newscientist.com ^ | February 17 2010 | Valerie Jamieson

[mikrofon]

You can “jump” in the BSG universe, not Star Trek....

[DoughtyOne]

When it comes to light, light speed, gravity, time and space, there are some things we know and a whole lot more we don’t.

[KarlInOhio]

Should that be spacial or spatial?

Special as opposed to general.

[Still Thinking]

StarBurst — the propulsive confection!

[RinaseaofDs]

Actually, that would be Warp Factor 5000.

Too much of the yodles and Chocolate moo.

[Ed Condon]

I wonder how many tax dollars this study cost us.

I can’t wait for them to debunk Superman.

[Huebolt]

99.9999999999 % the speed of light

...time compression. To passengers, it would be 10 years. To the rest of the universe, and all the folks back home, it would, indeed, be 50,000 years. The effect of compression actually makes the distance shrink.

The passengers themselves don't seem to be exceeding the speed of light. If they shine a light beam out the front of the mighty ENTERPRISE, the beam would leave them behind at...the speed of light.

It's one case where everything actually is "RELATIVE". That's why it's called "relativity". TANSTAAFL.

[Sloth]

Much cheaper & faster.

[dmcnash]

A back of the envelope calculation, if you keep acceleration around 1Gs, it will take on the order of 10 years to get to light speed. Of course you have to start to slow down before you get there too.

[rabidralph]

Okay. Thanks.

[Zetman]

I believe that is why a starship has a warp field generator. The warp field encases the starship, and is what carries it at what appears to be faster than the speed of light. However, the warp field generator is in fact warping space, so that the starship inside the field never actually excedes the speed of light. The warp field also protects the ship from the nasty effects described in this article. This is why the propulsion system used on starships is called “warp drive”.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

Have you not heard of Warp Factor 500?!?

Actually, it doesn't take Warp 500... LOL... check out Warp 9.

[GAB-1955]

Time dilation on the ship close to the speed of light would make only ten years pass for the crew.

[Sloth]

if they could accelerate instantly to near light speed.

And if you can do that, or even a small fraction of it, you need inertial dampers to prevent your crew from becoming chunky salsa.

[LiberConservative]

Warp drive is so mid-20th century. Give me a wormhole drive any day.

[plinyelder]

Or even .. The sound of one hand clapping!

[hdbc]

Isn't it possible that a sufficiently advanced civilization would be able to work out these technological problems if they reached the stage where they could build a ship capable of near-light speed? Just sayin.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

You can “jump” in the BSG universe, not Star Trek....

I thought they did it Star Trek: Deep Space Nine... :-)

[Tijeras_Slim]

10 years is still a long time to listen to the kids whining “Are we there yet?”