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NASA coverup 100 year starship
- Thread starter Ron Collins
- Start date
Free episodes:
Sean Elifritz
Administrator
Considering the budget is a mere 1 million dollars it sounds like a simple thinktank to me. That's not a big deal as the US government funds thinktanks for every idea you can imagine.
exo_doc
Foolish Earthling
It is a think tank. And sending astronauts out to colonize some other planet is a one way death trip? And why call it the 100 Year Starship? That's just weird.
Colonizing space will not be feasible until a reliable fast propulsion system with an almost unlimited power source (something like zero point energy if that's even feasible, or at least fusion) to power it. And it would be expensive as hell, like the Gross National Product of the U.S. for 2 or 3 years (pure speculation) for a decent sized ship, plus ALL the supplies and equipment and replacement parts and greenhouses, etc etc that they could possibly need because there ain't no Walmarts out yonder.
Colonizing space will not be feasible until a reliable fast propulsion system with an almost unlimited power source (something like zero point energy if that's even feasible, or at least fusion) to power it. And it would be expensive as hell, like the Gross National Product of the U.S. for 2 or 3 years (pure speculation) for a decent sized ship, plus ALL the supplies and equipment and replacement parts and greenhouses, etc etc that they could possibly need because there ain't no Walmarts out yonder.
Sean Elifritz
Administrator
There's a few things you have to keep in mind though. First of all, relativity. Although decades might pass on Earth if the ship is moving very fast time is going to slow down for the passengers. Also, if there's one thing that is abundant in the universe it's hydrogen. The ship wouldn't necessarily need large supplies of it when it departed because it could collect hydrogen as it travels. Additionally, if you're willing to take a long trip an extremely powerful propulsion system isn't even necessary. Just a tiny bit of thrust repeated over and over again for a long time could get you close to the speed of light since every thrust would be cumulative. And then on a speculative level you've got dark energy. It appears to be nothing but the vacuum of space yet we now know that somehow it accounts for 70% of energy in the universe. If that could be understood and tapped into who knows what capabilities it would bring.
Thabtos
Hopkinsville Goblin
I would imagine that any sort of colonization would be the result of trial and error. Since even pro-NASA types seem to constantly complain about "bloated" projects like the Constellation program. What would be the net loss to send a colonization team off to Mars, only to have them all get sick and die of some malady as soon as they get there?
CapnG
Devil's Advocate
I always find the economic gripes about space exploration hilariously ironic. How much gold and platinum and other precious metals do you suppose there are on Mars? Or just floating around in the asteroid belt? Now imagine folding them into our present economy and the vast depreciation that would instantly ensue. Talk about disruptive. Then again making shiny bits of soft metal worthless might be just what we need to shake us out of this imaginary shell game we've been playing since the dawn of civilization.
