Spacescifi

So in plainly you are saying that thermobaric bombs have a TWR on par with chemical rockets? Which means rockets SHOULD outperform them due to actually having nozzles? But... I was thinking what if the thermobaric bomb was one nuke level blast? Surely there are thermobaric bombs that generate more energy per second than the chem rockets and weigh less than the combined weight of all that propellant and tankage, and turbopumps/pipes? Maybe the pusher plate can be lighter since it no longer has to confront nukes? If so... I was thinking just blast a bunch of those and you could scream through the air plasma along a curve and just coast into orbit.... maybe with more bomb fuel left than if you used chemicals? Yeah the nose would ablate some, but that should not be a showstopper. Just use tungsten tip or something else heat resistant. This idea is basically like an air augmented rocket on steroids... since it is getting a good deal of it's power from the air blast anyway. Only difference is exploding bombs and pusher plates.

Fuel/air bombs are said to exceed even some kinds of fission and nuclear bombs (likely not the maxed out ones). That said, in theory, spacecraft could be launched and use fuel/air bombs where air is still thick enough to help the explosion of the bombs. Where air thins out... perhas there are non-nuke shaped charge bombs that could still propel it at better than normal chemicsal rocket efficiencies? Granted it won't lift as much as the original Project Orion, but perhaps it could compete with chemical rockets at least? What do you think?

I see... so use air suction again... not water. Makes sense I suppose. Also explains astronauts says the ISS smells like.... cleaning solution and burnt steak if I remember correctly. You know what grosses me out though? Cleaning. I presume disposable wipes, but on a long mission or just living in space that may not do at all. It's ironic really, it turns out big scifi space stations, barring inner life support that is heavily geared toward recycling and reusuability (which is not what we see on TV) actually would need vessels to dock regularly just to drop off disposable supllies and pick up garbage so the station won't have to deal with it. Spacestations and spaceships are their own ecosystems.

An otherwise professional astronaut in the early days of manned flight once said "Another $^$%# *human waste*" live to flight control back on earth. Apparently some of the waste was freed from the plastic bag and the astronauts resorted to picking it out the air with paper towels. That's a worst case scenario. With rotating gravity, you need two toilets, one for gravity, and one without... or do you? Not to mention all that flushing, water is precious so I imagine if anyone has diarrhea or one too many bathroom trips the rest of the crew will start sternly looking at him/her. Anyone else think of the challenges and solutions here. The challenge is REAL people. This is serious! But really.... it is. Floating human waste in your hab module is no joke....

True... still... enough power will make up the difference. Not totally related, but also a cool propellantless way to change trajectories. Using solar wind and magnets only. https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2017/12/29/the-plasma-magnet-drive-a-simple-cheap-drive-for-the-solar-system-and-beyond/ Spaceship drives gonna be big no matter what.

Wow.... so if sufficiently good plasma drives are made then this is the best ISRU drive ever. Since ANYTHING can be turned into plasma, which means unlike conventional rockets you can use any kind reaction mass you want so long you heat it to plasma and eject it magnetically. Even said in the wiki article that a beamed power version would have enough thrust to be an upper stage from low earth orbit. Plasma drives are quite good, not torch but you do not really need torchdrives any way if your ship is big enough to roll sideways and generate sufficient g-force. The main challenges are power and heat, which can be helped with larger and longer engines to dissipate it as well as proper materials used. Long story short, no proper manned spaceship will be small.... not for any prolonged voyage.

Realistic: Shoot a ferromagnetic chunk of metal out fast enough and it propels your ship. Unrealistic: Shooting that chunk of metal out so hard that it propels the spaceship like project Orion. Like the Kizinti lesson... only with metal slugs fired at high sublight speed. That would be space only use... and don't point your cannon at a planet either. Both: IRL I reckon if one had a a coil cannon of such power, the mass of the necessary radiator fins and cooling equipment would cancel out the thrust to low levels anyway. Still... interesting concept. Praticality: IRL it may be practical for unmanned vessels, like asteroid mining drones. What's easier? Refining chemicals for rocketry or just drilling and bagging metals before shooting out the back. Limited fuel sure, but unmanned does not need ASAP flight dynamics anyway.

As per the usual... I agree and disagree... but most I like (not a bacon fan.... don't hurt me... sorry lol). About the burners.... yeah... burned a few good pots that way learning how to cook. Patience is what one needs most cooking... along with a recipe and needed ingredients. Learning a new thing only costs time... so learning a new thing depends on how much value you put on learning whatever it is. Interests vary by individual, so so opportunities I may pass in a heartbeat others will take, and what others will pass I will eagerly lock down the opportunity to take.

We cannot solve just any problem IRL... if we could then we would be gods fighting each other.... which is basically what we do in online MMO gaming anyway. Yet for lesser problems in life that do not require god-level hacking there often is a solution. Sometimes we have not found a solution we like so we may ignore the ones we do not want to use. To use a video game analogy... grinding is a definite way to level up, but many prefer pay to win as it does not take nearly as long to level up that way.

And here even I will plumb the depths of profundity: For every problem there is a solution.... and every problem is an opportunity to either rely on a tried and true solution or learn a new one you did not have to use before. If real life was a video game, then this is like increasing your character powers/status from beginner to... wherever you wish to be. From competent to expert at whatever you are seeking to secure or do. In all honesty though, what worked on level 1 seldom is enough to successfully pass through level 80. Life is no different, which is why research on finding solutions when what you have does not work or you have nothing at all is important. EDIT: Someone should make a game where each level is a year of life for the character, and their stats physically alter or decline in some ways based upon it. Key events and follow up till death would be good enough for entertaining a player. Would be fun! If human life is too complex, one could always make a cat simulator game... they surely get into enough shenanigans to make it entertaining. What's not to love? Social cat politics (everything from territory to mating rights to vying for owner affections) and plenty of adventure from outside adventures to standard mouse hunting.

Pretty much what Gargamel said is how I feel.... since in spite of my name.... not EVERY thread am I considering for story use. Sometimes I just want to know what is possible and what is impossible. The link between them is what currently is impossible but won't always be, and the problem with scifi solutions is it is a true rabbit hole, since a simple solution to any problem can make ten more greater possible dangers and break all plausibility of civilization existing as is. That said... the future reality will be made of the same stufg as the present, so it is fun to see how good our tech can do when put to the test.

The irony of the responses versus my feelings is that most here seem to be plumbing the depths of profoundity.... when even simple lessons that are not remotely profound could have also been put down LOL.

Really cool you guys are using math to figure this all out. So we know what to expect with a few surprises still when 'we' (mankind' do it for real. And we can also chew apart any scifi movie for accuracy that uses rotating tethers.

I know... less heavy I remarked is not doomed because if it breaks it is easier to thrust back and reconnect it BECAUSE it weighs less, making the ship weigh less which means less fuel burned during recovery. That's the irony of spaceship design. The heavier and more redundant a ship becomes, the more it becomes too big to fail like the Titanic. It's arguably easier to fix what is less redundant and lower mass than what is heavy and redundant to the nth degree.

Had not considered static versus variable dynamic loading.... thanks. I just assumed... build a super awesome tether guys! Problem is... you can't just... do that. Because like another poster said, one thing effects another, meaning you either get superheavy but redundant tether and lower thrust ship, or less heavy tether but doomed if something goes wrong but no problem! Ship has better thrust since tether is lighter!

Here is where I or anyone can post tips, or things they learned doing things as an adult that they did not know earlier. Here is my list of adulting 'secrets' 1. You can find informatijon for help with virtually ANYTHING off the internet.... useful in practical ways like working on the house, car, etc. Whatever it is... you bet a solution usually exists, just make sure the site is legitimate and the information is correct first. If parents failed to teach you something, no need to fear, you really can teach yourself so long you have the power of the internet and a reasonable job. 2. Going to the same restaurant over and over seems to result in diminishing returns for most restaurants as the staff may begin to take your patronage for granted. On the other hand, if quality has not diminished despite this... you have found a rare but good thing. Still... murphy's law means that by virtue of regular visits you are more likely to find a decline in quality on occasion. As long as it has not become routine for you it should not be a problem for future visits. 3. A reasonable job as an adult is usually full-time and makes wages that will provide for all normal expenses of living (rent, food, utilities, car repair etc). If your job does not provide this then it will be wasting your time until you can acquire a job that does. Part-time jobs that pay a reasonable wage usually require you to pay back student loans, and work less than reasonable jobs while training. 4. What you want is less important than what you absolutely KNOW you do not want when it comes to life choices I think. Since what you want can and will change, but your feelings about what you absolutely cannot stand seldom does. Take my opinions with a grain of salt if you like because they are just that... but I have lived through the experiences which formed them.

Not ship to ship directly you don't. They don't have to kiss docking port to port. Just need the tether to attach or secure itself to the other and then back off by thrusting as it unspools the rest. Several ways of doing it, one is using a mechanical arm once ships are close to attach the tether to latching area... or you could design a port area to stick the tether to as well. Docking is fine, but getting as close as possible to the point of kissing port to port is not absolutely necessary.... for tethering anyway.

Ideally you don't want a tether to break... but two vessels of equal weight is arguably easier than having to worry about docking... if the ship needed to because it was halved by tether and needed extra supplies from the other half. Granted I know weights will change with the mission, if the tether is good enough, which is a major challenge in of itself... it may be possible. In theory it works on paper. But in reality wear and tear and radiation and heat will add it's own input to the challenge to make it... just that.

We... you and I, will never have the power to make that call for the masses since the tech is scifi fantasy. And if such were ever possible, either it would be stopped or would have both it's enemies and supporters.... which makes for great fictional drama BTW so thanks!

I am not saying it is healthy... it's a scifi scenario. The cool thing is the hyper realism though... And again... although the matrix never went into detail... I am sure there are ways to keep a human in a pod without it becoming full of human waste products. Just use monitoning and human staff and machines to clean it. Actually... a human staff would be better to monitor the pods. They could be fed without ever leaving the sim as they are not aware of the real world body inside the sim anyway..... which opens a whole nother can of worms if the human staff misbehave that is.... that's the point where even I don't want to discuss it.

Nooooooooo! I am of the mind that JMS cannot redo Babylon 5 without updating it like Trek did to it's own peril. I mean... every scifi tv show is a product of it's time... that's part of the charm. And even then Babylon 5 had plenty of lessons that were simply.... timeless. Not sure I wanna see a Babylon 5 that is forced to update the characters to fit all the modern shifts in culture at the expense of all else. If JMS tries to do his own thing I do think the execs will do their best to kill it... and the CW? The same folks responsible for all the teen soap opera superhero shows that mistake preachyness for depth? CW may want JMS... but I don't trust CW.

Well.... as stated the entire simulation is hyper realistic... literally 'matrix' like. One camnot really tell the difference between reality and the sim unless they actually KNOW. what reality is supposed to be. Seriously... you can work, sleep, have a family and kids and die in the sim.... if you are an NPC. For an NPC, the sim is their 'reality' and they know of nothing more. And the NPC's are just as realistic in character as real people because they are.... just they don't live in our 'reality' but in one made by the OSAI. Humans can work, eat, have families, but are unable to actual have NPC offspring by mating with NPC's. Also human death in sims is not truly the case if they were just banned or logged off. Yes... this whole scenario COULD be forced... and not just a machines take over like the Matrix. Rather, one nation COULD use such technology to subjugate the populace rather than having to forcibly deal with resistance cells 24/7. And this way could be preferred if life in the sim is better than IRL anyway. Poor folks eat the same stuff day in and day out. In the the sim? Whatever the OSAI is directed to have available under the authority of the conquering nation. Imagine if third world folks lived like average westerners in the simulations? They may not want to go back ...

Not as bad as you may think... if I am right in assuming that you thought I intend the the tether for a space station. I only mentioned stations since all are more familiar with that than spinning coasting spaceships on tethers on interplanetary trips. Two ways: Separate a ship in halves with a tether. More risk involved. Or use two ships, one with the tether equipment and backup mission supplies, and the other with crew and main mission supplies. One ship attaches to other and spins. If a separation does occur no problem... that's what rocket engines are for that all spaceships worthy of the name have.

In lieu of actually making a huge torus rotating station which is harder still... do we have the ability to make tethers that could do 1 RPM at 1g at about a km length? Max weight load on both ends without breaking?

Well.... I would sure like to hear the speech he would give to try to 'sell' this to the American public! "I believe this nation should commit itself, before this century is out, to land a man on Mars and return him safely to the Earth.... we choose to go to Mars and do the other thing, not because they are easy but because they are hard!" Something IRL would be different given the change of scenery sunlit zenova mentioned... but hopefully will stilll include the epic phrase 'we do this not because it is easy but BECAUSE it is hard!' Still epic decades later, music was made based off it: