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Post by Kerr on Jun 10, 2017 11:01:01 GMT
You are suggesting that building a hypothetical megastructure which uses a giant solar sail, (with nearly the same area as the sun itself) which pushes the sun with it's own light? We need to mine the entire solar system Mining Mercury may be sufficient, though that could be anything up to the entirety of Mercury's mass being processed, so if by mining the entire Solar System you mean bringing material down from many other bodies as not everything is avaiable on one, then quite likely. the thrust is extremely low, heck, I even think that the expansion of the universe would be faster than this ship. Expansion of the universe is already superluminal though, I think? Already something we may never catch up with. If half of the solar radiation thrust is directed on the sun itself back, we achieve an acceleration of 4m/...... 100,000 years. Yep. It's more like a mobile home than a means of travel. I mean, by the time we could build something like this, we may not be human anymore and 100k years might make little odds to us. 1. And mining billions of tons on mercury is easier than creating fusion? 2. I am talking about the expansion made by dark energy, and in the long run heat death. 3. If you multiply the acceleration with 1 million. You'd still need 35k years to reach trappist-1. Even if humans will be living for hundred thousands of years, 35k for them is nearly as long as 35k for us.
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Post by The Astronomer on Jun 10, 2017 11:03:36 GMT
In a completely unrelated topic, I wonder what people here think of the planet Earth, and if Earth is a person, what would you guys expect them to be like?
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Post by Kerr on Jun 10, 2017 11:08:21 GMT
In a completely unrelated topic, I wonder what people here think of the planet Earth, and if Earth is a person, what would you guys expect them to be like? Having a raging hatred against humanity.
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Post by Kerr on Jun 10, 2017 11:11:45 GMT
Rocket WitchHave you thinked about using solar sails instead? If you utilize 0.0001% of light energy of our sun in a Solar Gun™, you could accelerate a 500 million ton spacecraft with a constant acceleration of 1G.
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Post by bigbombr on Jun 10, 2017 11:48:50 GMT
Why are you hauling an entire planetary system anyways? It's were I keep most of my stuff .
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Post by bigbombr on Jun 10, 2017 11:53:13 GMT
1. And mining billions of tons on mercury is easier than creating fusion? ... Yes, from a purely technological perspective it is. It's just a massive untertaking taking place over vast stretches of time. It's hard in the way building the Great Wall of China is hard. Creating fusion is hard in the way that creating a SSTO is hard. One is a lot of easy steps and is hard because of the sheer scale, the other is hard because it takes a lot of expertise and cutting edge technology.
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Post by The Astronomer on Jun 10, 2017 11:59:05 GMT
1. And mining billions of tons on mercury is easier than creating fusion? ... Yes, from a purely technological perspective it is. It's just a massive untertaking taking place over vast stretches of time. It's hard in the way building the Great Wall of China is hard. Creating fusion is hard in the way that creating a SSTO is hard. One is a lot of easy steps and is hard because of the sheer scale, the other is hard because it takes a lot of expertise and cutting edge technology. The thing is, if you get fusion, you'll have that tech in your bag, ready to be used and improved. When you play RPG games, you are likely to go and improve your character, not going on a noobrush against the boss, right?
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Post by Kerr on Jun 10, 2017 12:19:13 GMT
1. And mining billions of tons on mercury is easier than creating fusion? ... Yes, from a purely technological perspective it is. It's just a massive untertaking taking place over vast stretches of time. It's hard in the way building the Great Wall of China is hard. Creating fusion is hard in the way that creating a SSTO is hard. One is a lot of easy steps and is hard because of the sheer scale, the other is hard because it takes a lot of expertise and cutting edge technology. I hope you understand how hard doing something like this would be, first of, you need to get millions of tons of equipment to mercury, then you need even more equipment to build the sail. The problem with fusion isn't that we can't make, we make it every day in fact, but contain it for hours, you won't have this problem in most fusion ships. Theoretically you could already build a fusion ship with our technology, I am not suggesting that it will be effective nor efficient, but it's most likely doable, you suggesting: 1. Spend few hours to unlock a spell/weapon (Fusion) or 2. Spend days repeating a bug where you get 2-3 healing potions per minute.
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Post by The Astronomer on Jun 10, 2017 12:28:38 GMT
Assuming the current technological advance, fusion is less than 100 years away. That's probably even before someone set up a mine on Mercury.
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Post by Enderminion on Jun 10, 2017 12:43:51 GMT
yep, which is why low yield nuclear weapons are second in the list (can't be that hard to contain half a kiloton of TNT, right?) With a engine bell radius of 125m your wall will experience 10 MW/m² according to the inverse square law, this is considering that all x-ray and neutrons reach the wall, considering that the majority of the radiation is supposed to be absorbed by the fusion fuels, plus and a little bit of active cooling your engine can very well survive half a kiloton of TNT, but only when it is fourth kilometer in diameter. who said i was building an engine? also it would be smaller and more reinforced so as to increase the pressure on the fusion fuel being injected into the chamber
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Post by Kerr on Jun 10, 2017 13:10:14 GMT
With a engine bell radius of 125m your wall will experience 10 MW/m² according to the inverse square law, this is considering that all x-ray and neutrons reach the wall, considering that the majority of the radiation is supposed to be absorbed by the fusion fuels, plus and a little bit of active cooling your engine can very well survive half a kiloton of TNT, but only when it is fourth kilometer in diameter. who said i was building an engine? also it would be smaller and more reinforced so as to increase the pressure on the fusion fuel being injected into the chamber What are you building then?
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Post by bigbombr on Jun 10, 2017 13:21:26 GMT
The thing is, if you get fusion, you'll have that tech in your bag, ready to be used and improved. When you play RPG games, you are likely to go and improve your character, not going on a noobrush against the boss, right? If we had FTL, colonising the stars would be easier. "If's" are irrelevant. With existing technology, dismantling Mercury is possible. Both strip mining and spaceflight exist. Fusion drives don't (not yet, at least).
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Post by Kerr on Jun 10, 2017 13:40:16 GMT
The thing is, if you get fusion, you'll have that tech in your bag, ready to be used and improved. When you play RPG games, you are likely to go and improve your character, not going on a noobrush against the boss, right? If we had FTL, colonising the stars would be easier. "If's" are irrelevant. With existing technology, dismantling Mercury is possible. Both strip mining and spaceflight exist. Fusion drives don't (not yet, at least). You are comparing Something that isn't practical for REACTORS yet, and something that is impossible with our current understanding of physics. Only because something doesn't exist doesn't mean it is not possible, fusion drives are easier to achieve, with our current tech we can already ignite fusion, and contain it for 11min (2015). So Fusion drives don't seem that far away. Fusion reactors are another thing. The problem with fusion is, lack of funding. Same with mining mercury, even worse with the later. it's millions times more expensive than fusion research.
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Post by The Astronomer on Jun 10, 2017 13:47:16 GMT
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Post by Enderminion on Jun 10, 2017 14:06:00 GMT
who said i was building an engine? also it would be smaller and more reinforced so as to increase the pressure on the fusion fuel being injected into the chamber What are you building then? fusion powerplant maybe
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