This time i think we are going to be talking about Culture. This isn't something a lot of people would think about but it is important, but think about it this way, you are going to have many people in space for a long time, and if they are going on a trip that will take more than a single generation they are going to develop their own kind of culture. The popular art will be different than that on earth. This goes along with entertainment, music and games and movies and technology will advance individually to this group in space.
In order to explain this situation better lets come up with a hypothetical situation. Or rather we will be creating two hypothetical situations. One where we just go to the closest star (Alpha Centauri) and use a fusion core. and the other where we go to the closest planet that is assumed to be capable to host life(Gliese 581c). The difference is not that one has a planet, they both do, but Alpha Centauri's planet is really hot. Like its surface is 1200°c. To put in comparison the hottest planet in our solar system is Venus and is only a mere 462°c.
For our Ship going to Alpha Centauri, it must travel 4.37 light years. With our current space traveling methods it would take thousands of years, you could use a fusion core but that would also take a long time. With traditional rockets it would take about 79000 years, but with a fusion core it would cut that time in roughly half. still a very long time. Just under 4000 years. On earth we went from building the pyramid in Egypt to going to the moon, that's twice the time that Christianity had been around. Anything could happen and no one would ever know.
To get to Star Gliese 581 and furthermore to the planet Gliese 581c, they will have to go 20.3 light years away from earth. by our math from the last situation, it would take only 20000 years to get to. We would need a faster drive.
But as you can see if a self containing part of a civilization were to go into space it would result in them creating and maintaining their own culture, and if their group and ours were to meet up anywhere from 200 years to 2000 years it would have unpredictable results. Think about the difference between Chinese culture and Mexican, or Canadian and Saudi Arabian culture, though this would be on much larger scale.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Energy
Because its fun to talk about energy this is what I am going to go over.
So, in the media star ships always have like a core thing. The great thing about this subject is that this is kinda true, but only in the sense that in the center (kinda) of the ship is where the energy will be produced. Now when we talk about a ship that can exist in the next 100 to 150 years this core will either use fusion. Either way it will need to produce massive amounts of energy and radiation. This star ship could also use solar energy but that wouldn't have a core and would not produce nearly as much energy. Now if you are reading this keep in mind that nuclear power is currently the cleanest form of energy, it does produce radioactive waist but we would have ways to to deal with that.
Hopefully we will have Fusion as a source of energy and we could then use that. Hypothetically there is Antimatter, and if we could make large amounts of this substance (grams at a time) we could have a much larger and cleaner form of energy. But as far as i know the only way to create Antimatter is by speeding matter up to near the speed of light and then slamming it into equivalent mass traveling at the same speed. Unfortunately I must say we cant count on rotating crystal pyramids to get energy from so for this example we will be hopeful and say that we have Fusion unlocked and ready to be used in this sort of situation.
This core would have to be placed in the center or the center back bottom. I give two options because the center would allow for the most protection, where as the center back bottom would give less radiation to the rest of the ship.
Because Fusion runs on Hydrogen you never have to worry about running out of fuel. This might sound absurd but if we used hydrogen as fuel your exhaust would be helium. If you did enough reactions to produce enough helium to fill a normal balloon, it would be enough power to light an average light bulb for 300 years. And because hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe its something you don't have to worry about. Large gas giants like Jupiter are made mostly out of hydrogen and helium so any ship with the tech could stop by one of these as a refueling station.
With this form of energy as a fuel we would be able to move with relative speed throughout the galaxy.
So, in the media star ships always have like a core thing. The great thing about this subject is that this is kinda true, but only in the sense that in the center (kinda) of the ship is where the energy will be produced. Now when we talk about a ship that can exist in the next 100 to 150 years this core will either use fusion. Either way it will need to produce massive amounts of energy and radiation. This star ship could also use solar energy but that wouldn't have a core and would not produce nearly as much energy. Now if you are reading this keep in mind that nuclear power is currently the cleanest form of energy, it does produce radioactive waist but we would have ways to to deal with that.
Hopefully we will have Fusion as a source of energy and we could then use that. Hypothetically there is Antimatter, and if we could make large amounts of this substance (grams at a time) we could have a much larger and cleaner form of energy. But as far as i know the only way to create Antimatter is by speeding matter up to near the speed of light and then slamming it into equivalent mass traveling at the same speed. Unfortunately I must say we cant count on rotating crystal pyramids to get energy from so for this example we will be hopeful and say that we have Fusion unlocked and ready to be used in this sort of situation.
This core would have to be placed in the center or the center back bottom. I give two options because the center would allow for the most protection, where as the center back bottom would give less radiation to the rest of the ship.
Because Fusion runs on Hydrogen you never have to worry about running out of fuel. This might sound absurd but if we used hydrogen as fuel your exhaust would be helium. If you did enough reactions to produce enough helium to fill a normal balloon, it would be enough power to light an average light bulb for 300 years. And because hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe its something you don't have to worry about. Large gas giants like Jupiter are made mostly out of hydrogen and helium so any ship with the tech could stop by one of these as a refueling station.
With this form of energy as a fuel we would be able to move with relative speed throughout the galaxy.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
The Next Step, What it Would Take: Part One, Navigation
As the title suggests i am going to talk about all of the things that would be needed in a ship that was going to be leaving the planet earth for a longer period of time. By that i mean longer than a year with no contact with our planet, an example of this would be a large ship going to a new planet.
The first thing that this ship would need would be a navigation system, this is to even arrive there. Remember that moving through space is unlike anything on earth. One way you could navigate through space would be to use the sun and known orbits of the planets. This way you would have an item that doesn't move (it does but not relative to this said ship), the only problem with this method is that you wouldn't be able to use it if you left this solar system. Another method you could use is to use the center of our galaxy as a replacement for our sun and use photos as a map.
But a more likely and more effective method would to use a form of the Doppler Effect called Redshift/Blueshift. Redshift and Blueshift work by our current understanding of light, that being that light is a wave (and a particle but ignore this for now) and it has a specific wave length. In Redshift or Blueshift, if you move toward an item that is producing light than its light turns a shade of blue, if you are moving away from an item that is emitting light, it would turn more red. To use this idea than you could use a picture taken from your location (floating in space where ever), from here you would compare it to other photos to locate the place you want to go to. After you locate what direction your destination is in you would accelerate towards it. At this point two new things are needed, one you would need to be going really fast, and second, you would need something to monitor the 'color' (frequency) of this stars light. This way as you approach this star your computer will inform you when you need to slow. But just like everything this only works if you are Not using a FLT (faster than light) mode of transportation, so it is not a permanent method of navigation. My money would be on the mapping of this galaxy and then pre-programming that into on board spaceship computers.
When humans first took to the seas we didn't know about the shorelines. We will just have to learn all over again, and i hope and believe that our future generations push through this challenge.
(maybe we will find a Nice extraterrestrial species and they can help us, but i doubt it)
Next we are going to go over either Water or Energy, i dont know yet.
The first thing that this ship would need would be a navigation system, this is to even arrive there. Remember that moving through space is unlike anything on earth. One way you could navigate through space would be to use the sun and known orbits of the planets. This way you would have an item that doesn't move (it does but not relative to this said ship), the only problem with this method is that you wouldn't be able to use it if you left this solar system. Another method you could use is to use the center of our galaxy as a replacement for our sun and use photos as a map.
But a more likely and more effective method would to use a form of the Doppler Effect called Redshift/Blueshift. Redshift and Blueshift work by our current understanding of light, that being that light is a wave (and a particle but ignore this for now) and it has a specific wave length. In Redshift or Blueshift, if you move toward an item that is producing light than its light turns a shade of blue, if you are moving away from an item that is emitting light, it would turn more red. To use this idea than you could use a picture taken from your location (floating in space where ever), from here you would compare it to other photos to locate the place you want to go to. After you locate what direction your destination is in you would accelerate towards it. At this point two new things are needed, one you would need to be going really fast, and second, you would need something to monitor the 'color' (frequency) of this stars light. This way as you approach this star your computer will inform you when you need to slow. But just like everything this only works if you are Not using a FLT (faster than light) mode of transportation, so it is not a permanent method of navigation. My money would be on the mapping of this galaxy and then pre-programming that into on board spaceship computers.
(this is Redshift and Blueshift examples if you didn't get it)
When humans first took to the seas we didn't know about the shorelines. We will just have to learn all over again, and i hope and believe that our future generations push through this challenge.
(maybe we will find a Nice extraterrestrial species and they can help us, but i doubt it)
Next we are going to go over either Water or Energy, i dont know yet.
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