Singularity Drive Theory

[KGB]

http://io9.com/5391989/a-black-hole-engine-that-could-power-spaceships

Louis Crane and Shawn Westmoreland of Kansas State University propose a way to use black holes as fuel that is entirely within the bounds of physics and technology as we know them, but would take phenomenal amount of engineering.

The crux of their idea involves using using a laser to form a micro black hole, which could be used as an energy source. This would be a Schwarzschild, or non-rotating, black hole which outputs Hawking Radiation, and the smaller the black hole, the more energetic.

 

[Ronald Held]

That should work. There was a recent paper I have no time to look up(due to a dial up rate connect) that had some calculations on this. There may be a link to it in this forum or the Trek tech one.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

How can you create more blackholes from a blackhole? would you not bleed the blackhole dry so to speak just attempting to create another?

 

[Verteron]

How can you create more blackholes from a blackhole? would you not bleed the blackhole dry so to speak just attempting to create another?

Where exactly did the article say they were creating more blackholes out of a blackhole?

 

[Verteron]

Here's a question -

How would you move the blackhole around in such a system? Presumably you would need to take it with you, but it's not like you could act on it with any force requiring mechanical contact, since anything you touch it with would presumably end up inside its event horizon and consumed by its singularity?

Perhaps I'm not understanding the concept, or I'm missing something as a layman, but a 606,000 tonne black hole seems like quite a difficult thing to attach to the rear end of your spacecraft...

 

[All Seeing Eye]

How can you create more blackholes from a blackhole? would you not bleed the blackhole dry so to speak just attempting to create another?

Where exactly did the article say they were creating more blackholes out of a blackhole?

Here:

This power would be fed to a spherically converging gamma laser, with a lasing mass of around 10^9 tonnes. However, after you make a few black holes, you can use them as a power source to make more.

and here:

With a set of four machines: black hole generator, black hole drive, power plant, and a self perpetuating black hole powered black hole generator, the potential is enormous. As Crane and Westmoreland say:

The amount of power the blackhole generates would surely not be enough to create another blackhole. You would surely bleed the original blackhole dry just attempting to make another. You would in essence simply be replacing one blackhole with another.

 

[sojourner]

^I am guessing it's not an issue, otherwise they wouldn't have said it was possible. The math is beyond me, but you can read the original paper here:
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0908/0908.1803v1.pdf

 

[CuttingEdge100]

Well, hope that whatever black-hole they create won't end up engulfing the ship or powerplant that's supposed to exploit it. I need not explain why I don't think it would be a good idea to use these as terrestrial power sources...

 

[Scout101]

It worked well enough in Event Horizon.

well, kinda

 

[FordSVT]

How can you create more blackholes from a blackhole? would you not bleed the blackhole dry so to speak just attempting to create another?

Where exactly did the article say they were creating more blackholes out of a blackhole?

Here:

This power would be fed to a spherically converging gamma laser, with a lasing mass of around 10^9 tonnes. However, after you make a few black holes, you can use them as a power source to make more.

and here:

With a set of four machines: black hole generator, black hole drive, power plant, and a self perpetuating black hole powered black hole generator, the potential is enormous. As Crane and Westmoreland say:

The amount of power the blackhole generates would surely not be enough to create another blackhole. You would surely bleed the original blackhole dry just attempting to make another. You would in essence simply be replacing one blackhole with another.

Here's a lesson in reading comprehension:

"However, after you make a few black holes, you can use them as a power source to make more."

Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: few
Function: adjective
Date: before 12th century
1 : consisting of or amounting to only a small number <one of our few pleasures>
2 : at least some but indeterminately small in number —used with a <caught a few fish>

The key definition is the second one, where few means "at least some". So once you have a few black holes, you can use the sum energy to begin producing more. So where did you get "replacing one black hole with another" when there are more than one black holes?

Slow down and actually think about the things you want to discuss.

 

[Uplink]

Here's a lesson in reading comprehension:

"However, after you make a few black holes, you can use them as a power source to make more."

Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: few
Function: adjective
Date: before 12th century
1 : consisting of or amounting to only a small number <one of our few pleasures>
2 : at least some but indeterminately small in number —used with a <caught a few fish>

The key definition is the second one, where few means "at least some". So once you have a few black holes, you can use the sum energy to begin producing more. So where did you get "replacing one black hole with another" when there are more than one black holes?

Slow down and actually think about the things you want to discuss.

One or "a few" is irrelevant. The black holes are essentially batteries with energy supplied by that first solar power rig. If I charged 4 batteries with a solar panel, how could I use those batteries to create a "perpetual" supply of other charged batteries?
I could create 8 half-charged batteries from those 4 (assuming perfect efficiency), but as said in the article the black holes need a minimum amount of energy to stay together, so you could only create a finite amount of smaller and smaller black holes before you reached that minimum and the energy ran out. Definitely not a "perpetual" supply.

So 1 black hole into 1 other black hole, or 3 black holes into 3 other black holes, or into 6 half-sized black holes. It's really just the same thing.

 

[ProtoAvatar]

One or "a few" is irrelevant. The black holes are essentially batteries with energy supplied by that first solar power rig. If I charged 4 batteries with a solar panel, how could I use those batteries to create a "perpetual" supply of other charged batteries?
I could create 8 half-charged batteries from those 4 (assuming perfect efficiency), but as said in the article the black holes need a minimum amount of energy to stay together, so you could only create a finite amount of smaller and smaller black holes before you reached that minimum and the energy ran out. Definitely not a "perpetual" supply.

So 1 black hole into 1 other black hole, or 3 black holes into 3 other black holes, or into 6 half-sized black holes. It's really just the same thing.

Uplink. once you've created your first micro-singularity, you can easily transform it into a source of cheap and practically limitless energy.
How?
By throwing in the black hole matter - any kind of matter (for example, the waste our civilization is producing). The black hole will transform this matter into pure energy - via Hawking radiation.

 

[JustAFriend]

Theoriticians can easily describe what 'may be possible'

Getting the engineers to really make it WORK on the other hand....