1: Space Elevators. Number 1 reason why it's so hard getting to space? Fighting off gravity to get off the planet. Over 60% of the payload that goes up doesn't come back down. Most of it is fuel and the tanks. Space elevators would easily solve this, and many other problems. Theoretically possible, but we don't have the money and materials to build something of this magnitude just yet.
dude, this is ing amazing lol :eyes:
infinity HiGH
quote:
Originally posted by geroin
dude, this is ing amazing lol :eyes:
yea pretty ing crazy. it'll definitely change space travel as we know once these things are built. The EU is determined to build one but it may be a while before that happens. No mass produced material is strong enough for this. Carbon Nanotubes could do the trick but we're still a ways off before we can produce the at an affordable level.
VERTiG0
quote:
Originally posted by cammaxwell
Space Travel- I think the human race needs to start exploring the rest of the universe and this is inevitable. I would just love to see the space flights they do now become more accessible to everyday people too.
This is what I really, really want to see but we'll never see it. Hell, our great-grandchildren probably won't. Unless we find a way to travel faster than the speed of light or screw with space-time itself, we'll never even leave our solar system.
Even at the speed of light it would take over 4 years to reach the nearest star to us other than our own Sun, Proxima Centauri. Over 1 billion kilometres per hour and it'd still take that long.
Also, at those speeds how could you compensate for g-forces acting upon the crew when the ship is accelerating at such ridiculous velocities? They'd be splattered inside the ship as soon as it starts moving at a decent clip.
Then there's the whole time dilation thing. When you move that fast, time essentially slows down for those inside the vessel. If a ship were travelling faster than the speed of light and made a trip that was 1 year to the crew, time on, say, Earth would have passed by thousands of years. They'd return to a planet that would be completely different, or not even there. This is the kind of stuff that makes my brain hurt.
Space is amazing.
oh yeah lets also not forget the massive shielding that would have to be invented to protect against motes of space dust at high velocities that would otherwise blow a ship to smithereens
cammaxwell
quote:
Originally posted by VERTiG0
This is what I really, really want to see but we'll never see it. Hell, our great-grandchildren probably won't. Unless we find a way to travel faster than the speed of light or screw with space-time itself, we'll never even leave our solar system.
Even at the speed of light it would take over 4 years to reach the nearest star to us other than our own Sun, Proxima Centauri. Over 1 billion kilometres per hour and it'd still take that long.
Also, at those speeds how could you compensate for g-forces acting upon the crew when the ship is accelerating at such ridiculous velocities? They'd be splattered inside the ship as soon as it starts moving at a decent clip.
Then there's the whole time dilation thing. When you move that fast, time essentially slows down for those inside the vessel. If a ship were travelling faster than the speed of light and made a trip that was 1 year to the crew, time on, say, Earth would have passed by thousands of years. They'd return to a planet that would be completely different, or not even there. This is the kind of stuff that makes my brain hurt.
Space is amazing.
oh yeah lets also not forget the massive shielding that would have to be invented to protect against motes of space dust at high velocities that would otherwise blow a ship to smithereens
Yeah, if we were ever able to travel at the speed of light I don't think coming back to Earth should be the priorty. It should be to just travel and colonize other planets.
I just LOVE how the law of physics won't let us go faster than the speed of light, so it will slow down time if we get to close. That to me is just AWESOME!!!!!
infinity HiGH
quote:
Originally posted by VERTiG0
This is what I really, really want to see but we'll never see it. Hell, our great-grandchildren probably won't. Unless we find a way to travel faster than the speed of light or screw with space-time itself, we'll never even leave our solar system.
Even at the speed of light it would take over 4 years to reach the nearest star to us other than our own Sun, Proxima Centauri. Over 1 billion kilometres per hour and it'd still take that long.
Also, at those speeds how could you compensate for g-forces acting upon the crew when the ship is accelerating at such ridiculous velocities? They'd be splattered inside the ship as soon as it starts moving at a decent clip.
Then there's the whole time dilation thing. When you move that fast, time essentially slows down for those inside the vessel. If a ship were travelling faster than the speed of light and made a trip that was 1 year to the crew, time on, say, Earth would have passed by thousands of years. They'd return to a planet that would be completely different, or not even there. This is the kind of stuff that makes my brain hurt.
Space is amazing.
oh yeah lets also not forget the massive shielding that would have to be invented to protect against motes of space dust at high velocities that would otherwise blow a ship to smithereens
LOL exactly! I think we'll figure out more unique ways of efficient space travel than simply flying fast. Too many hurdles to overcome by simply going at the speed of light. However, they'll have to figure out something sooner or later because eventually the Earths resources will be depleted and there's A LOT of them out in space.
I wish we found some ancient alien tech that would help us out with space travel :(
VDub
quote:
Originally posted by VERTiG0
This is what I really, really want to see but we'll never see it. Hell, our great-grandchildren probably won't. Unless we find a way to travel faster than the speed of light or screw with space-time itself, we'll never even leave our solar system.
Even at the speed of light it would take over 4 years to reach the nearest star to us other than our own Sun, Proxima Centauri. Over 1 billion kilometres per hour and it'd still take that long.
Also, at those speeds how could you compensate for g-forces acting upon the crew when the ship is accelerating at such ridiculous velocities? They'd be splattered inside the ship as soon as it starts moving at a decent clip.
Then there's the whole time dilation thing. When you move that fast, time essentially slows down for those inside the vessel. If a ship were travelling faster than the speed of light and made a trip that was 1 year to the crew, time on, say, Earth would have passed by thousands of years. They'd return to a planet that would be completely different, or not even there. This is the kind of stuff that makes my brain hurt.
Space is amazing.
oh yeah lets also not forget the massive shielding that would have to be invented to protect against motes of space dust at high velocities that would otherwise blow a ship to smithereens
Every one of these issues were answered and expalained in Star Trek...
In theory of course...
kotsy
quote:
Originally posted by Swamper
Go-Go Gadget Helicopter.
haha, yes!! now I want to watch the show
Endlesswave
quote:
Originally posted by cammaxwell
Yeah, if we were ever able to travel at the speed of light I don't think coming back to Earth should be the priorty. It should be to just travel and colonize other planets.
I just LOVE how the law of physics won't let us go faster than the speed of light, so it will slow down time if we get to close. That to me is just AWESOME!!!!!
For sure man. :)
Playa24_7
quote:
6. Wireless wiring and electricity - I do not know if it is possible or not as i'm not a scientist but i do have a feeling that this will somehow be possible in about 5000 years by using the existing technology we have in place today for sending radio wave signals. It could be potentially improved to the point where we would be able to send electric signals to all the devices without having to use wiring at all. I don't know how that will affect our overall health and how some or all devices will interact this way but i do feel like that massive movement towards wireless technology that we already have in place now and that is improving quite rapidly.
Although not wireless in the way we think of it, this can be put by itself off the power grid and hooked up to a house or business. Producing energy from an oxygen and fuel reaction, with ZERO emissions. There is NO combustion here.
These are already in place powering data centres and buildings for companies like Fed-Ex, eBay, Google, Amazon and WalMart.
The creator orginally developed this technology for NASA in their MARS mission, to produce Oxygen, but when that mission was scraped, he reversed the idea. Instead of producing Oxygen, it pumped Oxygen in, and combined with fuel and special cells, the reaction creates energy. Around $400 million in private funding helped make this happen.
The big one's for corporate businesses cost around $800,000, as they are pretty big. Smaller ones for homes would cost around $3000 which they hope to have in 5-10 years.
5 Bloomboxs on the front lawn of eBays building
BloomBox on 60 Minutes back on Feb. 2010 showing a sneak peek
BloomBox Press Conference Feb. 2010 where it was revealed
BloomBoxes outside eBays building
geroin
quote:
Originally posted by Playa24_7
CLEAN ENERGY - BLOOM BOX (powerplant in a box)
this is pretty amazing as well, didn't know about this, but what this does is it eliminates the need for power plants send the electricity to our home which is great but what i was referring to though was the need to use wires altogether for any type of signal+electricity in our homes, things like connecting a cable to our tv, using a MIDI wire to plug into the keyboard, connecting an instrument like a guitar to a monitor speaker, interaction of a computer with any other devices + complete elimination of using wires for power up or electricity purposes. the day this happens will be a very good day but imo we are still a very long time away from that, maybe not 5000 years but at least few hundred to a 1000.
Playa24_7
quote:
Originally posted by geroin
this is pretty amazing as well, didn't know about this, but what this does is it eliminates the need for power plants send the electricity to our home which is great but what i was referring to though was the need to use wires altogether for any type of signal+electricity in our homes, things like connecting a cable to our tv, using a MIDI wire to plug into the keyboard, connecting an instrument like a guitar to a monitor speaker, interaction of a computer with any other devices + complete elimination of using wires for power up or electricity purposes. the day this happens will be a very good day but imo we are still a very long time away from that, maybe not 5000 years but at least few hundred to a 1000.
I think BloomEnergy is far more important than being able to connect a TV to power wirelessly, that should be an after thought. This is related in being off the grid, no wires from a power plant, which is why I brought it up (and yes I know it's still not exactly what you mean when you say "wireless" as in over the air waves).
This is essentially a "powerplant" in your backyard, you eliminate the powerlines having to be run all over the place from the plant to your home. Also imagine this being able to power small villages in 3rd world countries, an entire street, or an entire city. No big chemcial reactions or dangerous processes, no combustion or moving parts, no big heat conductors, and all ZERO emissions.
This idea was orginally pitched in 2001, and almost 10 years later, it's finally a reality. These things are NOW being used by Google, eBay, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Fed-Ex, Bank Of America, and Staples. The CEOs of all these companies talked about it and answered questions about it in the main press conference this year in 2010. You can't ignore these companies using it, it's amazing, and it works, NOW. They are working towards having the cost down, and the unit sized enough that in 5-10 years we will be able to purchase such a thing.
Endlesswave
There are still issues w the reliability of these Bloom boxes apparently. Amazing though nonetheless!!
Check this out (has to do with retinal eye scanners) It's crazy:
