SargeRho

Thanks, @GeneralVeers, @K^2, and @kerbiloid, that answers my question! Thread can be locked, then.

So, I'm in an ongoing discussion about Earth's magnetic field, and what it protects us against. From my understanding, it deflects protons, electrons, their antiparticles, ions, and some cosmic rays, of which some end up in the van allen radiation belts. But it has next to no effect on gamma rays, x-rays, and any other part of the electromagnetic spectrum, so, it protects us against some cosmic rays, as well as the solar wind and CMEs, but not against solar flares themselves. The person I'm arguing with is insisting that the van allen belts stop the EM-radiation from solar flares. I can't find anything that supports that claim.

Wouldn't it make more sense to just spin the entire ship, and put the solar panels on a ring that stays still in that case?

A VASIMR mission to mars would probably follow a brachistochrone trajectory, but the Hermes uses Xenon Ion Engines, not VASIMR engines. I think this kind of design would have made more sense for the Hermes, though: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Hermes-Rotate-564814706

Quantum Mechanics isn't simple, therein lies the problem. English isn't adequate to explain it, only math can do that. Unfortunately, the universe doesn't care whether or not we can explain it in our own language.

With DX11, rendering reasonably soft cloth is not much of a problem at all. I have a bit much to do on my own game at the moment, but if I find enough free time some time soon, I'll see if I can come up with something.

There's an explanation on the wiki, it's a kind of fusion drive, which uses extra magnetic coils to further boost the exhaust.

In that kind of situation you'd just stop sending supplies.

Not very far. We already have it, actually, it basically just needs to be scaled up, and of course any challenges that arise from that, overcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDdcS8anUWg

That won't happen, sadly. Alcubierre Warp Drives (and derivatives) always conserve your momentum, so you end up going in the same direction with the same speed as you were when you left, so you might end up suddenly moving 50km/s relative to the guy you jumped next to.

No, it won't be at point blank range. Unless by point blank range, you mean hundreds or thousands of kilometers. High thrust/High ISP engines, like Orion, or some fancy sort of antimatter/fusion engine might create "strafe" combat, where ships accelerate towards each other, firing bomb-pumped x-ray lasers, casaba howitzers, and railguns at each other. Even with FTL, since dropping out of FTL, where as far as I'm aware, Warp Drives are the only plausible variant, you would suddenly be moving at very high speed relative to your target, so you might come out at point blank range, but you'd not stay there for more than a few seconds.

It was a testbed for some of the systems of the Arkyd space telescope.

There's still a lot of century left in this century.

For tourism to become a major thing, anywhere in the solar system, first we need a considerable presence in low earth orbit, or at one of the ML points. Otherwise, it just won't be economically viable. Another thing that will be crucial would be, either a system wherein most people can work "from home", during the trip, or some sort of engine that can do the trip from Earth to Mars in a matter of days or weeks, or both. Essentially, a trip to Mars must be brought down to the cost, and to the comfort level, of a cruise around the mediterranean sea.

Farscape is sci-fi series running from 1999 to 2003, it began with a spacecraft that looks similar to the Dream Chaser, inadvertently flying into a Wormhole. With the protagonist in it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlHr1V2uX8I

Alien Planet, exploring the idea of an interstellar probe heading to a nearby habitable planet.

The moon may have plenty, but the concentration is abysmal. 15 parts per billion I think. The concentration won't be much higher in Uranus' atmosphere, but gas is a lot easier to process than dust, I think.

I think Project Daedalus included the possibility of mining Saturn or Uranus for Helium 3. That might have been an idea from Icarus Interstellar, though. And I read that the second stage of Daedalus could tender between Earth and Uranus in something like 150 days/trip.

Not to mention they are fundamentally different vehicles. The Falcon 9 is several times as big, and can't hover.

Well, the MSNW Fusion Rocket solves the problem of not being able to produce power by ignoring it, using an external energy source, instead of the fusion reaction, to power itself. We've had working fusion reactors for decades, just none that produce any energy. Several components of that particular engine have already been tested. That's a solar sail. Solar Electric propulsion uses solar power to run some other type of engine, usually Ion or Plasma engines.

Solar Electric. But not NASA's solar electric. I'd use a solar-powered pulsed Fusion engine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion#MSNW_Magneto-Inertial_Fusion_Driven_Rocket Requiring 100-1000kw, Requiring Big, but still very much manageable solar arrays. And Methane-Oxygen rockets for the lander.

Assuming we won't have brachistochrone trajectory-capable engines by then, ie, Fusion rockets.

The same way the STS stays stable: Taking gimbaling to absurd levels.

Yep

It would actually be a nice business Opportunity for Venus: Export freigherloads of CO2 to Mars, somehow