^It isn't - Wikipedia has that built-in search function which makes it easy to find any of their relatively easily read articles. It's a pretty good site when it comes to the kind of things discussed on non-expert fora -like this one 
What could a future earth space ship look like.
- Thread starter KJbushway
- Start date
Wikipedia is an excellent starting place for information. As long as you follow it up with footnotes/references.
You only show your ignorance of the subject with that statement. I recommend you read the article to at least get the basics of the subject.
I was the person who said that, and only in the sense of a vehicle with a forward command section and aft engine pods. Never said anything about it looking exactly like the NX-class, because the command section could be anything from a sphere, to something angular, to something bullet-shaped, IMO.
I'm a bit dubious myself whether or not laser propulsion in the proposed sense would even work. The literature on it implies that practical limitations can be overcome by the fact that a ground-based power station can be immense, but I personally doubt you can ever design one big enough to make it workable.
It could kinda work as a launch system, though, using a laser beam to superheat the air behind a vehicle or even using laser power beaming to support some kind of thermo-electric booster system.
Have a read of Buzz Aldrin's Encounter with Tiber, where the sections about the alien space expeditions includes hefty detail on the use of lasers to boost solar sail spacecraft... both at launch, and destination deceleration.
^ That's actually just what I had in mind. I think either Aldrin or one of his advisors is taking a piss on this one, or maybe just throwing it out there because its fanciful. Didn't seem all that well thought out to me.
All this "but we can't imagine what we'll discover in the future, so anything is possible" stuff sounds vaguely familiar to me.
Can we rig up a sail to work with magnets?
Can we rig up a sail to work with magnets?
Not really, because you've got men waiting behind on Earth, waiting for the results of the mission.
Men are impatient.
Intra-solar system transits won't be that slow, I'm predicting. Since there are plenty of big heavy objects to slingshot round and since a bit of forethought will choose the optimum time to make a journey, times can be cut drastically without using a shedload of fuel.
This might be a slightly mad idea/question, but would it be possible/feasible to use a catapult type station to 'throw' ships and probes to impart extra delta-v to the craft without adding mass to said craft? Obviously this is a somewhat one way set up, unless you happen to have an equivalent station at the destination planet (so setting up a 'relay' system on each planet in the system could be possible) and the craft would have to have the necessary delta-v to decelerate at it's target destination.
Essentially the station's throwing apparatus would be like a trebuchet, with the payload craft on the long arm and the other arm would be some kind of thrust module to spin the whole set up, or a counterweight, if the set up has the whole apparatus as only a section of a station and the station itself spins the apparatus with large scale motors. Once the desired amount of spin is achieved, the craft is released in the correct direction.
I imagine the problems with this kind of set up would include:
-Keeping the station stable to get an accurate 'throw'.
-Structural stresses upon the station and quite likely the craft as well.
-Accuracy of 'throwing' the craft.
Essentially the station's throwing apparatus would be like a trebuchet, with the payload craft on the long arm and the other arm would be some kind of thrust module to spin the whole set up, or a counterweight, if the set up has the whole apparatus as only a section of a station and the station itself spins the apparatus with large scale motors. Once the desired amount of spin is achieved, the craft is released in the correct direction.
I imagine the problems with this kind of set up would include:
-Keeping the station stable to get an accurate 'throw'.
-Structural stresses upon the station and quite likely the craft as well.
-Accuracy of 'throwing' the craft.
Didn't NASA once play with this thought?
I remember watching an animation on TV where this kind of system was installed in orbit around Earth and the moon.
My ignorance, really name calling. Like I said Wiki is not a valid source of information, while some of it maybe true, the fact that anyone can go in there and write their own bias is why its not a valid source, links and references included. It was banned and blocked by many schools in my state for those reasons. Now will I go to a scientific website, yes and I plan too.
However, its my design, one of many and I will not change it. I am truly sorry that you have lost all imagination, hopefully, one day you realize why I said this.
^So now your saying even the links and references from wikipedia are no good!?!?! So, this is fake:
http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Solsail.htm
and this:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/nanosaild.html
this one too:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/26jun_nanosaild/
and all the rest:
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Solar sails
????
Dude, wikipedia is a fine source of information, just don't use it as your only source of information.
I haven't lost imagination, I just temper it with knowledge.
http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Solsail.htm
and this:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/nanosaild.html
this one too:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/26jun_nanosaild/
and all the rest:
External links
- Planetary Society site for solar sailing projects
- NASA Mission Site for NanoSail-D
- NanoSail-D mission: Dana Coulter, "NASA to Attempt Historic Solar Sail Deployment", NASA, June 28, 2008
- Far-out Pathways to Space: Solar Sails from NASA
- Solar Sails Comprehensive collection of solar sail information and references, maintained by Benjamin Diedrich. Good diagrams [3] showing how light sailors must tack.
- U3P Multilingual site with news and flight simulators
- ISAS Deployed Solar Sail Film in Space
- Suggestion of a solar sail with roller reefing, hybrid propulsion and a central docking and payload station.
- Interview with NASA's JPL about solar sail technology and missions
- Website with technical pdf-files about solar-sailing, including NASA report and lectures at Aerospace Engineering School of Rome University
- Advanced Solar- and Laser-pushed Lightsail Concepts
- Andrews, D.G. (2003). "Interstellar Transportation using Today’s Physics". AIAA Paper 2003-4691 (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics). http://www.andrews-space.com/images/videos/PAPERS/Pub-InterstellarTransportation(200307).pdf.
- www.aibep.org: Official site of American Institute of Beamed Energy Propulsion
- Concept for using a solar sail to simultaneously provide a Global Energy System and a Weather Control System.
????
Dude, wikipedia is a fine source of information, just don't use it as your only source of information.
I haven't lost imagination, I just temper it with knowledge.
Yeah, that whole "Wikipedia is no valid source because it can be changed by everyone" is getting tiresome already. Wikipedia is a fine source. There is a version control, you can look up all the changes made to the article, and it references the actual sources of information. Scientific articles that matter are mostly written by scientists anyway and don't contain bullshit. And you can always double check.
I suggest the trebuchet design as an alternative to mass drivers, since I'm under the impression that mass drivers suffer from massive heat build up, even when used in atmospheres, so I could imagine that such a heat build up in void vacuum could be highly dangerous. I suppose however that if the launches where rare, or if the cooling technique is improved, mass drivers again come up ahead.
hotlinking from other sites is against board rules.
Similar threads
