Thread: Faster space travel? (Don't hurt me, just random thoughts)

I was thinking today about traveling faster, maybe not the speed of light, but perhaps a lot faster than we do today.

I came up with a small idea that maybe if two different objects of the same mass pushing on each other with the same force. Perhaps taking another objects and wedging it in between those two objects. Like 2 rubber balls and putting a 3rd ball in between them and applying the same force. Wouldn't the ball shoot out from in between them very fast?

I was just throwing around the possibility if they could make two objects with the same mass and force to possibly orbit each other and then, using a craft that can generate a magnetic field or something, place another object in between them. Would it shoot off like a ball would?

Note: I'm just 13 and I don't really know much about this kind of thing. This was just a thought I had today.

Well, i did see on the History channel show, The Universe how 3 stars could be in orbit of each other and one could get thrown out of orbit at i think they said up to 10,000km a second. So, maybe what you propose isnt too crazy.

Reassurance is always a good thing I guess.

There's only one problem I see right now though. After that initial push, the craft would eventually slow down and it would take a hell of a long time to get back.

So I thought that they could make an intergalactic type trail like you would do in the grass.. But It would be more like hot wheels cars on those tracks. It would go through the spinning discs and it would speed off. It would be complicated though.

Apollo 13, in 1970 used the Moons gravity to propel it back to earth, after breaking down. NASA uses planets regularly to propel probes around the solar system and a couple to are nearing the edge of the solar system.

I would think if a well built probe (able to stand high acceleration) could be aimed between any binary star system, getting quite a push, but as said that same gravity, would slow it down. All our comets reflect this as they orbit the sun...

Just a couple thoughts...

Originally Posted by jackson33

I would think if a well built probe (able to stand high acceleration) could be aimed between any binary star system, getting quite a push, but as said that same gravity, would slow it down. All our comets reflect this as they orbit the sun...

That sort of "gravity boost" trick where you speed up or change direction by flying past a planet works because the planet that the probe flys past is also moving, so even though the probe has the same relative velocity to the planet as when it started, the planet has "pulled it along" as the probe passes close. Whether you would want to pass between the binary stars or just close to one star (but not the other) would depend on the initial relative motion of
the probe, both stars, and whatever target you are trying to hit with the probe.

Theoretically at the beginning of the universe matter started in a form that allowed objects to go faster than light. Also all of the forces were one, so logically you can deduce a theory that if you amalgamate something to harness a UFT spaceship in similar, yet controlled circumstances as to the beginning of the universe, then yes it is theoretically possible.

However, that is just one possible method, there could be far easier methods, to which I could not yet guess.

"The farther you get into fact, the farther away becomes imagination" - 425 Chaotic Requisition.

One suggested idea is to surround the craft with tracheons, a theoretical particle, so that by the laws of physics it cannot go slower than the speed of light and therefore will instantly accelerate to tsol.

Another idea is to bend a piece of the universe far away to our current position, step into it, then upon release of it be instantly teleported in a way to that spot. They want to do this by amassing a tremendous amount of matter or energy into a very small space, and project its "time space curvature pull" to your destination.

Originally Posted by metalhealth

There's only one problem I see right now though. After that initial push, the craft would eventually slow down and it would take a hell of a long time to get back.

Correct me if im wrong but, The ship would not slow down for a considerable amount of time most likely, because it is space and there is no air to force the vessel to slow down. The only thing that will slow it down are gravitational pulls from planets, or other outside forces.

As far as the "time space curvature pull" theory i have never been too big of a fan of that, it just seems a little bit too far fetched, also even if the technology was developed to compress space itself there would be no way that there wouldn't be any bad repercussions, either caused by the energy needed to do such a thing or the action itself.

Evolve into pure energy then go wherever the hell you want.

Evolve into pure energy then go wherever the hell you want.

lol.


As I have mentioned in previous posts...people tend to force things from the start that would be very difficult to accomplish, as opposed to putting time into contemplating the best way to start going about reaching your goals from the beginning.

Instead of amassing an exponential amount of energy, we should try to find a less evasive way to go about doing any sort of space time curvature bending.

An easier variation on that would be to create a 1 atom wide curvature beam, convert our body to pure energy and compress it into an abstract particle, then surround your compressed energy by tracheons, and fire. This seems reasonable to me.....creating a field like that the size of your body would likely require the net output of the sun for day, at least, but creating one an atom wide? We could do that, just net all of a major cities power into a 1 Billion farad capacitor network and fire all the energy at once.


By the way, have we ever handled tremendous amount of energy before?
As in, as if you channeled L.A.'s or London's power into one machine or spot all at once. How much energy will the LHC require to run? What will generate the power?

Originally Posted by Cold Fusion

An easier variation on that would be to create a 1 atom wide curvature beam, convert our body to pure energy and compress it into an abstract particle, then surround your compressed energy by tracheons, and fire. This seems reasonable to me.....creating a field like that the size of your body would likely require the net output of the sun for day, at least, but creating one an atom wide? We could do that, just net all of a major cities power into a 1 Billion farad capacitor network and fire all the energy at once.

No offense, but the above is only very slightly different from saying "we should use magic."

Well, in order to send a projectile into space near the speed of light, (hence, Einstein's theory of relativity states no object can travel at or above the speed of light) you would need tremendous amounts of force, which in theory could be created by using the centripetal force or gravity of an object.

However, smashing three rubber balls together compared to smashing three 100,000 mega-ton balls together are two very different things. Chances are, the inertia and kinetic energy from the balls would be too great for any spacecraft, yet alone human to handle.

An easier variation on that would be to create a 1 atom wide curvature beam, convert our body to pure energy and compress it into an abstract particle, then surround your compressed energy by tracheons, and fire. This seems reasonable to me.....creating a field like that the size of your body would likely require the net output of the sun for day, at least, but creating one an atom wide? We could do that, just net all of a major cities power into a 1 Billion farad capacitor network and fire all the energy at once.

What's a tracheon? Are you just making this stuff up? Do you mean tachyon?

What is the real problem with the speed of space travel? Not being able to travel at C, the speed of light? No, that's not the big problem. The real problem is being restricted to C. Even if we could travel at C, it would take too long to explore even our own galaxy with a manned mission.

We need to master our knowledge of space time to successfully explore the universe. Until then we will be probing around our own solar system searching for evidence of past life and a place where we can inhabit so we can protect our species against the enivitable extinction that awaits us.

it is not that we do not have the technology to go faster than the spead of light, it is just physically impossible to go faster than the speed of light. when you increace your vellocitiy you gain mass. so when you reach the speed of light you have infinte mass and to move somthing with infinte mass you would need an infinte amount of energy wich is impossible. and with your idea would launch the third ball at high velocitity but it would not reach the speed of light.

Originally Posted by unoscooter

it is not that we do not have the technology to go faster than the spead of light, it is just physically impossible to go faster than the speed of light. when you increace your vellocitiy you gain mass. so when you reach the speed of light you have infinte mass and to move somthing with infinte mass you would need an infinte amount of energy wich is impossible. and with your idea would launch the third ball at high velocitity but it would not reach the speed of light.

I'm not actually talking about going the speed of light. I'm just thinking of faster travel. however, I do think that there is a way that we have not found that would allow something to go that fast, possibly faster. A loophole perhaps.

in Slipstring drive, andrew bender talks about using a gravity wave generator to create a "bubble" of spacetime that is seperate from this universe by directing the gravity waves in such a manner that the space around your craft folds over and isolates a region from spacetime. once this easy task (hehe) is achieved, the bubble of spacetime can be shaped in a manner that the resultant "pressure" of spacetime pushing on it is distributed unevenly, thus causing your "spacebubble" to move. The cool part is that since you aren't moving though spacetime, you are not bound to the relativistic consequenses outlined by einstien, thus making faster than light travel possible. If this sounds interesting, get the book and read it. He has a new T.O.E. that is called the membrane theory of gravity and it is very cool.

I think thinking like that for a 13 year old is bloody marvelous lad or lass****!!! (in a posh english accent) i had a idea years ago that imagine a a ball rolling in space it will never stop unless force is pushed on to it so imagine making it go faster and faster and faster still , and my thought was that it woudnt stay at a certain speed with what power you gave it , my idea was that it would keep spinning faster and faster, eventually no power would be needed it would be proppelling it self constanrtly going fast until it hit the speed of light then went past that speed and kept going , getting faster and faster, This is why i Thought (as a teenager witha massive bob marley problem) that there were flying saucers!coz the shape in our atmosphere they level off so they can hover and for other uses such as weaponary etc, but when they hit space to travel back to where they came from they turn on there side, like a plate turned on its rim, and it starts to spin....
in space nothing will slow it down so it will generate more than the speed of light and if say there from sirios it will take 8 years at speed of light, but if you can go faster than that , say you 4X you'd be there in 2 years. it made sence because why would aliens or any sci fi experiment the government did if it wasent really aliens, would be that shape, the wright brothers worked out the best shape to fly along time ago, and concorde still prooves that so why disks, because they can spin.

It blew my mind at the time lol