cubinator

Banned for accusing me of stealing something that I've never heard of.

So I did some research, and basically an EM drive works by bouncing microwaves around in a resonating cavity and it magically produces thrust. From a physics perspective, this is mind-blowing. But from an engineering perspective, it's quite a simple machine. The ones that have been made are basically just a hollow truncated cone made of a conductive material like copper or silver, with a hole in the side with a magnetron from a microwave oven. Turn on the magnetron and the Kraken pushes it a little harder on one end than the other, producing thrust. The thrust measured has been minuscule, but there is a mention on the official website (scroll to the very bottom) that if the cavity is superconducting, it would produce a lot of thrust. So basically, in order to do this, you need the cavity in the right truncated cone shape, made of a superconductive material, cooled to superconducting temperatures while it's being blasted with microwaves originally intended specifically for heating things up. That takes a bit of effort. My idea would be to have the cavity made of a high-temperature superconductor like yttrium beryllium copper oxide, with another cavity surrounding it which is filled with liquid nitrogen which is continuously pumped through and refrigerated, as what is in there will quickly heat up from the magnetron's heat. In order to do this, I would basically have to make the cavity myself. I would do so using this method, but I'm not sure how i would manage to get a truncated cone out of that. Then I would have to make the outer shell out of something that retains heat and is airtight so that the nitrogen stays in and doesn't get heated up from outside. Then I would need a refrigeration system that would keep the nitrogen cold and thus keep the cavity cold. Also, I would need some liquid nitrogen. So all in all that's kind of a lot, but it would be doable if I had a few thousand dollars to spare. I don't expect to be doing it anytime soon, but I'd just like to know how feasible it is. The non-superconducting version would be easy, just get some sheet metal and gut an old microwave. But the superconducting version would be much harder to do, but possible if I had the materials readily available, and it would produce really definite thrust that can actually be used for something if it works. What do you think?

-5 (-)

Banned for making the same mistake twice. NO PUNCTUATION!!!!!!!!!!

banned for too much capitalization.

The repulsve effects of positive energy levels propels the total away by subtracting one resulting in negative two.

Banned for no punctuation.

Language would be awfully complicated to explain without any kind of reference, it's not like they have similar grammar or even talk in the same sound range, or even talk at all. Hell, they might communicate by warming up different parts of their bodies. As for technology, I would leave it at what they can understand, which, with 11th century technology, probably amounts to telescopes and Rubik's Cube. But the one thing that I would give them is math. It would be as simple as writing a list of numbers from 1 to 100. Then we could ask them to tell us the same. They most likely have a writing system, so it wouldn't be too hard. After we've exchanged numbering systems, we could tell them about pi and zero. The Pythagorean Theorem. Graphing. We could show them how their planet goes around the sun and it's moons go around it, but knowing how well that turned out on this planet, even when it was our own species, I would leave that bit out for the moment. We could probably tell them that we come from a star in the sky without too much trouble. That's all I would give until they ask for more, because too much information about how the universe works could shatter their ideologies and create turmoil, like the heliocentric model did for us. Imagine if we showed them that not only were they not the center of the universe, and that they shared it with others, but that we had devices that could communicate across a planet and even across solar systems, or worse, that we had devices that can destroy them at the push of a button.

The hills in Nilokeras Scopulus are significantly worse than what Curiosity has had to deal with. They are often more than a kilometer long and get close to 30 degrees in places. I trust that we will have rovers big enough to drive the 20 kilometers or so up and down the hills, but still, it's a significant aspect of that region.

Granted. KSP updates at the same time and b9 is broken again. I wish for my computer to work when I switch the graphics card later today.

Well, it was just an idea The only downside to that area is the hills, it could be hard for a rover to go up, it looks pretty sandy.

Banned for comic sans.

I know. We won't be finding anyplace that can specifically support us until we manage to go there, and even then it's unlikely we'll be able to survive there unprotected, but we may find someplace that can support other lifeforms. Hoping for another Earth is futile, but a world with its own life may be closer than we think. It may just take a probe to the oceans of Enceladus or Europa.

Banned for not knowing where you are!

Subtract 1 resulting in -2

I know the Earth has lots of salty water, but it also has water that is drinkable, and it has enough of it that it can support billions of us. Thus, we could disregard the presence of salty water if we also find fresh water.

I would like to see rovers become more important, last time I used one was a looong time ago. Now I just use my mad skills to do a precise landing on places I want to visit. Driving rovers is also currently boring and time-consuming. I think it all comes down to how much science we can do on the surface. Right now, you just land, Observe Mystery GooTM, Materials Bay, Seismometer, Negative Gravioli Detector, etc. and you're done. Drive a hundred kilometers to the next biome if you want and do the same thing again. I think this could be fixed with different science areas closer together. This could be done with something like the "Interesting Rocks" thing mentioned above. I would love to experience getting out of my space capsule, planting a flag, and looking over the hill and seeing some strange formations or anything that makes me want to say "Ooh, let me go check that out!" Something worth walking a few kilometers other than a great view of Kerbin or a fun crater to slide down. Something worth driving 20km over rough terrain to gather rock samples from. I realize that all this might be too much to ask, and I can wait until I go to Mars myself if that's the case. But it'd sure be nice to get a little taste of what's to come.

What kind of a name is "Numb rave?"

Banned for posting in bold.

For an exoplanet to be habitable to humans, it must have: -About 1atm of pressure -Almost exactly the same atmospheric components* (73%nitrogen or something that doesn't mess up our cells, 20ish% oxygen (O2 of course), a bit of the other stuff) -It must be habitable to all the other (essential) little critters that live on/in us -It must have water that is not full of salt and stuff -It must have a good magnetosphere -It must not have some kind of alien bacteria that is impossible for our carbon-based bodies to fight off -It must be just the right temperature so we don't freeze/boil -Other stuff I forgot but is still important So for an exoplanet to be habitable, there are a lot of factors that will get us killed when we take off our space helmets. I'm sure we will find planets with some of the right conditions, and even some with life of their own, but I doubt we will find one with all the right conditions for us. I'm sure we'll find a Laythe sooner or later, but we won't find a Kerbin for a long time. Also, shouldn't this be in Science and Spaceflight?

(i^2)-1 (-)

One-twelfth more than the sum of all positive integers, aka 0. (-)

Subtract one resulting in negative one.

Every

Gets an explosion from the reaction with the liquid hydrogen. Inserts juice from space