Spacescifi

Post a recipe for food that you normally do not mix that you personalky did. And it tasted good. I go first: Pumpkin cornbread crumble U need: A box of cornbread mix (preferably one with sugar in it), one can of unsweetened pumpkin, flour and water EDIT: I forgot to add that I used an egg, which is critical for the richness of the dessert taste. Mix it up up really good until it is mixed well. I did not measure, but it is safe to say that the flour is what makes it taste like pie. Bake in the oven and you will have some sweet pumpkin pie crumble. Now what's your cooking recipe that went right? Even though it an odd experiment?

Haha... something tells me that I would likely be saying cheers when it is inapropriate and get a bunch of odd looks. Likely get called a bloke sooner or later haha! Not like I know the culture. Nonetheless, I do fancy their fish and chips, and believe me, finding a good fish and chips place is not easy in some parts of America. The nearest one for me is about 45 min away. Since the closer one calls itself 'London Fish and Chips' but has no flavor. The one 40 min away has flavor and they give goos portions too. Does not seem like you're getting ripped off.

Ha... are u british? I have heard those from the UK say that before. Even to me in person. Still never knew what it meant, but I appreciated the seemingly jovial nature of the culture. What does cheers mean? Translated in American?

Alluminum has a lower melting point than 1000 kelvin. I googled it. Excellent analysis! I think you answered how such strongly bonded metal could be harnessed. Granted, prior to modern technology I am not sure if we could utilize the strongly bonded unobtanium. But with modern tech? We can use lasers to heat stuff hotter than the core of the sun! We could use those same lasers to cut the unobtanium and melt it to form into shapes. And if it really does not react or bond with anything, that makes it perfect for refining with other metals so long it stays molten, since it will always stay separate from normal metals, like oil and water mixed together. You could tell where the unobtanium is in molten slag by scooping out the hottest, brightest slag of the bunch. That said, refining the unobtanium would be incredibly expensive, so any rocket nozzle/engine core using it better be reusuable. I think man is clever enough that he could still make stuff with this unobtanium, and our modern tech could do it. Hard, but not impossible. If it only existed... but that is for scifi to answer. EDIT: With the high tensile strength you described, we could build wayyy stronger electromagnets, like maybe 5000 Tesla. Currently the coils break at high Teslas of a 1000 or more, which is why they myst generate the tesla rated magnetic force in micro pulses of time. Basically, this unobtanium just might make fusion a go. Barring that, NTR closed cycle spaceplanes become more reasonable and probable.

Extrapolating from known science, just like I have already done. Someone who is good at chemistry or atomic bonds no doubt could share some interesting theories.

So unobtanium is matter that does not exist but we can at least explain it's prpperties, so lets analyze a few possible types of unobtanium that would be useful for spaceflight. 1. A metal that can take over 1000 kelvin of heat before melting (definitely not 2000 kelvin though). 2. A metal that does not react with antimatter but otherwise behaves like a normal piece of metal... under most circumstances anyway. Sooo... what properties would they need to behave so weirdly? How would each metal look? I will take the first stab at this. Properties: The chemical bonds of over 1000k to melt metal must be either superstrong. Since it cannot be super dense, because if it was one could probably never lift the thing with a rocket. Applications: Possible SSTO rocketships, as now we can operate at much higher temperatures and thus have more efficient rockets... and more superflamey landings. Fusion is still iffy, since who knows if 1000k or below is goid enough for fusion. Is it? Also the chemical bonds holding such metal together in the first place might make it explode like a small tactical nuke when it is finally vaporized. So be careful to keep the temperature within acceptable limits. As for the metal that is otherwise normal behaving but won't react with antimatter, I have'nt a clue what it's properties might be. Do you? I do think it may also behave strangely under certain circumtances, but I have no clue what such circumstances might be, nor how it would behave in strange ways other than not reacting with antimatter. Do you? Thoughts on this subject?

Inflatable spaceships seem quite logical. From designs I have seen, the heaviest stuff is in a shaft down the center. Under constant acceleration of 1g, would a inflatable spaceship still be practical? I think it could work with sufficient bracing and a central shaft for heavier items. The main utility if inflatable spaceships is lighter materials weight for launch. Thus future spaceships will likely be inflatable. There is even a case for inflatable SSTO's if you could make a material hear resistant enough.

Running tbe reactor very hot is the issue, and doing thst without melting the core would require a vacuum environment and precise magnetic field strength of a degree that we do not possess today. I saw a youtube video of one of the more powerful electromagnets, and the coils began to snap because of the current fliwing tbrough them. We simply cannot beat material limitations without new materials to start with. I also wonder if one really could pull off a magnetic nozzle SSTO. As a scifi concrpt. Hear me out, plasma windows could screen the air like a shutter. On when engines are'nt thrusting, but off when engines are thrusting. So kind of like this when engines are shuttered: Only difference being that these would just have a glow, no grille panel whatsoever as it is just a plasma window. When the engines are thrusting the plasma window would shutter off, and you would see a normall rocket engine plume, only coming from an engine port hole, as the magnetic nozzle would need to be retracted into the hull within a vacuum environment to avoid air contamination. Once engines turn off just shutter the plasma wiindow on again. If any air molecules find their way inside the vacuum nozzle chamber there won't be many, and they will be flushed out anyways when the engine fires up. The advantage of magnetic vacuum chamber nozzles with plasma shutters is that you can get the heat that would melt the nozzle otherwise and still use iy in an atmosphere because the plasma shutter would seal the nozzle when not thrusting. Thus easier SSTO's, higher thrust, higher top speeds and all that. I also think that if we ever manahe to generate stronget mahnetic foelds thay we can sustain without breaking the magnets, we would profit more applying it to fission rocketry thsn fusion, which seems to be far more of a challenge.

8000k is good but we are not totally out of the woods yet. It dawned on me that with 8000k heat tolerances, it almost matters not what propellant you use, you will get good boost. Since if metallic hydrogen creates over 6000k temp, running liquid hydrogen through an unobyanium reactor with 8000k tolerance at over 6000k I would hope would give similar thrust and ISP. Right? The real difficulty is size vs weight. A smaller ship is easier to lift off and would probably reach a higher top speed with the same fission reactor made of unobtanium running at over 6000k (even though it tops out at over 8000k). While a larger heavier ship would have a lower top speed and have a slower time lifting off. Obviously there is a balance that must be struck between temperature, weight, and speed. I think we can safely write off destroyer size/weight fission SSTO's even with my unobtanium. Since the heat required for lifting heavier loads just goes higher and higher. Where the unobtanium would work is large shuttlecraft. Big ships should just be Orion pusher plates, boosted by unobatinum fission rocket core rockets before using pulse detonation on the unobtanium plate.

So not good enough for metallic hydrogen, which has reaction chamber temperatures as high as 6000k. I will say it again, we are not power limited, just material limited. Where we should redouble our efforts is making super heat resistant materials. If we can do that, SSTO's are quite viable, even with modern rocketry. Since we could already do highwr pressures and temps, but our materials cannot take it. That brings to mind, what other applications would a material that could withstand 8000k be good for besides rocketry? Scifi is why I ask. I love to explore the logical conclusion of scifi tech capability that popular media scifi often ignores. What do u think?

Good points, but the real concern is thrust. Would such nuclear thermal engines even have the thrust for orbit? I am still thinking that asking for a solo SSTO is s bit much. I would rather have a saucer that can hover indefinitely, and lift to an air ceiling, and then use detachable rocket boosters to reach orbit. So where the saucer shape would really shine along with the modified SLAM engines is reentry and landing. Hover as long as you want, and land where you wish. Eat your heart out Elon!

So this is the inverse of the nuclear thermal rocket idea. Instead of taking the hesvy reactor and radiation shielding with your rocket at launch, you keep all of that at a power station on earth. NTR offer good but still weaker thrust than combustion chemical or solid booster rockets. It seems to me that a nuclear laser beam heating up the rocket's fuel through heat exchangers is the best of both worlds with the least risk. Since you still get your chemical LOX or methane rocket for high thrust, but this time a laser is increasing your ISP while you still get good thrust. It is a win-win! Scifi scenario: In an advanced setting with antimatter in use, one could drop antimatter pods into reentry from orbit, and then use lasers powered via the antimatter from the landed pods to actually increase a starship"s chemical rocket ISP as it lands and even when it launches. To extend ISP even more air intake thermal laser boosted rockets. A thermal jet essentially. Once out of antimatter laser pods you likely could not land as easily again, but it is still a nice advantage for a large vessel SSTO. From my reading, any high ISP thermally powered rocket's efficiency scales up better than down, but the scaled up weight makes it all for naught at launch. That is why I favor laser beam to rocket heat exhanger material. EDIT: The real problem is not so much power as it is material limitations. A hotter engine is great as it can increase a rocket's ISP and thrust, but too hot and your engine melts and you fall out of the sky. So what are the most heat resistant materials known? Those would be what we make the engine out of and possibly the heat exchangers. EDIT 2: Assuming we did have a material that could stand the heat of high efficiency thermal rocket engines, we would not need to play around with magnetic nozzles in space. Furthermore if the hull was plated with the same material it would make reentry an easier endeavor, not to mention that reentry heat exchange alone might boost a rocket's ISP for landing VTOL. Your thoughts?

Perhaps. RTG's still aren't as piwerful as NTR though if I recall correctly.

Why would they? I can't see it giving them any advantage whatsoever, only negative publicity, which they already spend plenty of resources deflecting because of war and social unrest. Have'nt a clue what they are using, but I bet intelligence agencies do and probably have been watching them for a while yet. Either that or this is worse than it seems. Sabotage and spygames like mission impossible. It is not like such is unthinkable. Or the project blew up in their face with no outside intervention. Has happened before,

Indeed. It is not everyday that governents will just flat out say they are testing NTR. Because that tends to make other nations freak out. Although declassification often comes decades later. Makes me wonder about the tech projects they have'nt revealed, probably just as dangerous or more so.

I looked up the SLAM project, AKA project Pluto, a nuclear thermal jet which was designed to stay in the air indefinitely flying around mach 3 at sea level. The shockwave air blast alone would kill designers thought, not to mention the radiation. So if billionaire wanted to one-up Elon Musk and had both the funding and government support, could he/she build a large flying saucer with VTOL capabilty and orbital ability? Using a modified SLAM engines that are not open cycle so that the exhaust is not radioactive? Because I think the ability to stay in the air indefinitely is huge, but could SLAM engines be modified so the ship could hover if necessary? Instead of using ramjets at mach 3, could it just hover and use it's nuclear thermal jet engines to hover? Or would the air intake mechanics be too heavy? I do not think they would. What is the heaviest payload you think it could lift? 1000 tons? EDIT: Space capability should be optional and could be down with detachable boosters once the ship lifts to where the air thins out. Therefore saving on the propellant mass needed for orbital velocity. Once in orbit you really are halfway to anywhere. Since that alone is a big enough challenge completed.

What is an oberth maneuver? And you have lost me in understanding? How would use a black hole? Or are you using the OP or my mod to prevent RKV's? Neither did I know relativistc mass had any tidal forces of it's own.

LOL. Okay... I just found a really easy way to modify the drive to solve these doomsday attacks. Translation navigation: Once a starship starts translating it must translate to something with more mass than itself, autoswitching it's speed and trajectory to match once it drops out of translation. However if there is no suitable mass found within 3 kilometers the vessel will continue to translate, deflecting objects away in it's path harmlessly. The problem is that a starship cannot translate forever, as sooner or later the translation drive will overheat. 7 hours of use will do this. Max translation speed is a LY per hour, slowest speed of translation is sublight at a lightsecond per minute. There! No easy WMD planetkillers for you LOL. You can steer your ship where you wanna go like an airplane while translating, but trying to actually hit the 3 kilometer radius of a mass larger then you while translating at a LY per hour is.... hard? I mean you could fly to stars easier, but that is like 27g or more or slightly less, and you will plunge into a fiery doom. Planets? Harder. Can you do it? Using only lightspeed sensors while traveling at FTL? As for RKV's? Still possible, but people will notice if you translate to mars and start constantly accelerating toward earth. In this scifi verse, constant acceleration of 1g past an hour is considered an act of war or hostility unless you have cleared it with local government. Since such acceleration rates are unnecessary due to translation drives. This also means small ships become popular for in situ asteroid mining, as big ships would dwarf asteroids and woud have to use constant acceleration to reach them, so it would be more time efficient to send a fleet of smaller vessels to translate to it and mine it in situ, or just extract and send back.

Yeah, if an electromagnetic pulse fried the away team's communicators that would be a fun episode, something star trek rarely ever explores, and doubt they ever did between crew members themselves. It would be amusing to see crew flail around helplessly speaking gibberish until they finally start drawing symbols in the dirt with stcks. Low tech and kinda anti-trek. Funny. Ironic too, and I love irony.

True, but that is so not happening on an away mission on some alien world talking to each other outside.

Cameras mainly to track eye movement and object of interest. All things considered, I think a floor location based translator would be the simplest to implement and therefore the most common. Stand in that circle there to talk to that other person over there. Wanna talk to random people? Wave at them and have a network of lines with rings painted on the floor to stand within. Use a phone device to specify which ring is occupied by the person you wanba talk to and communicate. Simple. Also for the big important guy in charge, his voice is like a walkie talkie broadcast that everybody hears in their own language regardless.

Quite complex, and all the characters would have to wear google glass cameras or something. Still interesting though. That said, what you made is like this: Kerboloids Ool language translator glasses: When you absolutely, positively, have to talk to everybody in the galaxy! Also good for for professionals working on a starship. My main scifi use was for aliens/humans on a starship together who do not speak the same language. If your starship medical doctor is a lizard man with a translator, knowing exactly what he is saying becomes vital. As are such things as "Raise shields!" and etc.

Why so violent? Although yeah, it is good to think of what could go wrong. Although I only think kerbal players would even have the know how to do this. In a game, the solution would be to make blackholes rare. And guarded. I presume that having a black hole is like automatic WMD's for this tech, putting them at the level of nuclear deterrents today. The only surefire counter I could invent is insta-comms. Instant communication: Starships in the fleet can talk to each other immediately via energy portals which transport energy, not mass. This is also how they dump waste heat, dumping it onto some powerstation on a homeworld linked to the ocean. Max range is 7 lightyears. If you have a ship in a location, those are your eyes and ears, even though ships sensors only possess normal lightspeed, their warp capacity makes up for that. Thus warp scout starships become popular. EDIT: The waste heat issue also means that you need to scatter enough starships every 7 LY or at least have a power station on a planet to dump heat to, since they are all connected. It is also means that massive several kilometer ships are most valuable for their heatsink capacity, serving as a bridge through which the local fleet feeds the nearest power station waste heat. Destroy the power station they are relying on and all the ships relying on it WILL cook. Sooner or later. Suddenly old school war territory strategy is back.

I once saw a scifi short that seems a bit more realistic than the translators from star trek. It is here below. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mHLYuOFPf_c The one limit I can think of is voice detection. In a room of people speaking Japanese how do does the device know who to listen to if you only want to speak to one person and you speak english? What would be your solutions? Since devices are not good at reasoning things out. My solutions: Free speech rings: Just walk into a ring spot on the ground where your device will only hear the person who joins you. Many other things could be this way, yables, chairs, ect. What are your solutions?

Yes perhaps. But I also found newtonian more interesting. Interestingly, warping within 3 kilometers of the sun would be a 27 g fall. 3 kilometers in milliseconds likely. Very fast way to die. Or warping somewhat farther away could led to a roche limit where the gravity is not equalized and the vessel is ripped apart as it is sucked toward the flaming ball of gas that is the sun.