Light Speed Challenge

[Not Colgate]

If light speed isn\'t possible, (Even though I don\'t see why not) tell me so I can delete the thread

A thought just occurred to me, what would it be like if something went the speed of light?

And then I remembered that I had KSP was installed.

And then I thought 'Could I make a ship go light-speed?'

And then I made a thread.

Mods allowed, just not extreme ones that get you that fast in half a second.

So the goal is 299,792,458m/s

GO!

[Tim_Barrett]

Well I don\'t think anyone can go that fast without super OP parts, but it may just be possible in the future when we can construct things in orbit

[Not Colgate]

Well I don\'t think anyone can go that fast without super OP parts, but it may just be possible in the future when we can construct things in orbit

Your challenge of my challenge is accepted

Or already has been accepted. I think.

[r4m0n]

Using a heavily cheated thruster, I\'ve managed to get a continuous acceleration of around 26G before breaking the connection to the fuel tank (non-cheat one, maybe with a properly cheated one it can go higher).

With those 26G of acceleration, it would take roughly 2 weeks of game time to get to light speed (never mind that the Kerbonauts would think it a bit uncomfortable, they would still be mostly bored I guess).

With a less cheated mod part, like stuff we already have around, you could say, hook a NERVA engine to a few solar panels and get infinite fuel... You would just need to wait then, probably a few months game (and real) time to get to the light speed 8)

Good luck on your tries, it mostly needs patience else than anything else

[Ivan Ivanovich]

Whether that\'s possible at all depends on whether the game implements physics in which the Lorentz transformation, more specific, the Lorentz factor, plays a role. If yes, it\'s not possible.

Basically it\'s g=c/sqrt(c^2-v^2)

With g being the Factor, c being light speed and v being the speed of the object (in fractions of the speed of light as the unit). It also causes other effects such as time dilation or length contraction, which isn\'t really the topic now.

In relation to mass (relativistic mass) we put it into the formula of m1=m*g, with m being the mass at rest, g being the Lorentz factor and m1 being the actual mass we have to accelerate. As you can see, at very low speeds, g would equal c/sqrt(c^2-0)=c/sqrt(c^2)=c/c=1, or in short, the accelerated mass would be identical to the mass at rest. As we approach light speed, and hence get a denominator that approaches zero, the Lorentz factor grows rapidly, increasing the mass to accelerate likewise. At light speed, we\'d have to accelerate an infinitely heavy mass, needing infinite amounts of energy to do so.

And infinite energy isn\'t available in this universe, or any that I know of.

[Kerbacide]

Whether that\'s possible at all depends on whether the game implements physics in which the Lorentz transformation, more specific, the Lorentz factor, plays a role. If yes, it\'s not possible.

Basically it\'s g=c/sqrt(c^2-v^2)

With g being the Factor, c being light speed and v being the speed of the object (in fractions of the speed of light as the unit). It also causes other effects such as time dilation or length contraction, which isn\'t really the topic now.

In relation to mass (relativistic mass) we put it into the formula of m1=m*g, with m being the mass at rest, g being the Lorentz factor and m1 being the actual mass we have to accelerate. As you can see, at very low speeds, g would equal c/sqrt(c^2-0)=c/sqrt(c^2)=c/c=1, or in short, the accelerated mass would be identical to the mass at rest. As we approach light speed, and hence get a denominator that approaches zero, the Lorentz factor grows rapidly, increasing the mass to accelerate likewise. At light speed, we\'d have to accelerate an infinitely heavy mass, needing infinite amounts of energy to do so.

And infinite energy isn\'t available in this universe, or any that I know of.

...Awwwww, no you did-aaant!

[CarolRawley]

He is right, there is no device that can accelerate to light speed within the real universe. In KSP, not so much.

[Kerbacide]

He is right, there is no device that can accelerate to light speed within the real universe. In KSP, not so much.

Yeah, that post was before I knew every member of this board was the certified owner of a doctoral degree in astrophysics, and jet technology. My appoligies, Ivan. I\'m sure his math is infailable.

[CarolRawley]

Yeah, that post was before I knew every member of this board was the certified owner of a doctoral degree in astrophysics, and jet technology. My appoligies, Ivan. I\'m sure his math is infailable.

Most people on this forum, yes. Me, not so much.

I just read lots of astrophysics articles and the like.

[Herra Tohtori]

Question is irrelevant because there is no light speed in KSP.

All light in practically all 3D rendering is always assumed to be instantaneous, and I heavily doubt we aren\'t going to geta renderer in KSP that uses real time photon ray tracing, taking into account individual photon travel times.

Aside from that, the physics engine would cry hail Mary with special relativity, as the photons would have to be moving at constant c in the viewpoint\'s reference frame, rather than in some spatial universal co-ordinate system.

And don\'t even ask about time dilatation and lorenz contraction effects caused by high relativistic velocities. ???

[derhp]

Whether that\'s possible at all depends on whether the game implements physics in which the Lorentz transformation, more specific, the Lorentz factor, plays a role. If yes, it\'s not possible.

Basically it\'s g=c/sqrt(c^2-v^2)

With g being the Factor, c being light speed and v being the speed of the object (in fractions of the speed of light as the unit). It also causes other effects such as time dilation or length contraction, which isn\'t really the topic now.

In relation to mass (relativistic mass) we put it into the formula of m1=m*g, with m being the mass at rest, g being the Lorentz factor and m1 being the actual mass we have to accelerate. As you can see, at very low speeds, g would equal c/sqrt(c^2-0)=c/sqrt(c^2)=c/c=1, or in short, the accelerated mass would be identical to the mass at rest. As we approach light speed, and hence get a denominator that approaches zero, the Lorentz factor grows rapidly, increasing the mass to accelerate likewise. At light speed, we\'d have to accelerate an infinitely heavy mass, needing infinite amounts of energy to do so.

And infinite energy isn\'t available in this universe, or any that I know of.

Take your math and your science and get the hell out of my space program.

***turns to Jebediah***

You know what to do...

***Jeb continues attaching SRBs to a skyscraper made up out of... more SRBs.***

[CarolRawley]

Take your math and your science and get the hell out of my space program.

***turns to Jebediah***

You know what to do...

***Jeb continues attaching SRBs to a skyscraper made up out of... more SRBs.***

You cannot fire us. Without us, Jeb has to invent new and more efficient fuels. And you know what that means...

[Phoxtane]

You cannot fire us. Without us, Jeb has to invent new and more efficient fuels. And you know what that means...

What, more boosters?

[Leonon]

I cheated in a perfectly massless and frictionless rocket with infinite fuel, no heat production and 1700 max thrust (slightly over the maximum the unmodded structures can take, didn\'t mod structural integrity) and managed to get to constant 54.4G acceleration or about +1000m/s each second (didn\'t stop watch it). Unless light drives are much sturdier than stock parts it should take a minimum of 3.5 days constant flight to hit light speed.

[Herra Tohtori]

massless and frictionless rocket

I\'m surprised you didn\'t crash the program with your physics ideal rocket, and I suspect the program substitutes a non-zero mass to avoid div by zero errors (such as defining acceleration as a = F/m...).

[Leonon]

I tried setting the mass for each part to 0.000001 to see how it compared to the 0 mass version. Results were...interesting.

I guess this proves a few things, not entirely sure what though.

[Herra Tohtori]

0.05c in less than 21 seconds.

Nice, but I think you need more boosters. 8)

[millsw]

Its easy now that we have time compression.

[Jarnis]

I tried setting the mass for each part to 0.000001 to see how it compared to the 0 mass version. Results were...interesting.

I guess this proves a few things, not entirely sure what though.

The green re-paint of the seats = your kerbonauts. I don\'t think they survived that acceleration...

[Leonon]

The green re-paint of the seats = your kerbonauts. I don\'t think they survived that acceleration...

Look at their pictures. Not only are they still alive, Jeb is still smiling.

EDIT: I did some more testing and made a

showing me breaking light speed in a cheated rocket. The game starts behaving strangely at high speeds.

[Johnnyd2871]

Jeez... and I thought I was on to something when I managed 532178m/s. You guys sure can figure it all out! Nice going speedy!

[Guest Flixxbeatz]

I tried setting the mass for each part to 0.000001 to see how it compared to the 0 mass version. Results were...interesting.

I guess this proves a few things, not entirely sure what though.

Congratulations on making Kerbert Keinstein shit his pants. 8)

[Wintersniper]

This is what I have to say, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!! And I will reach the speed of light with a NERVA! and yeah..... current velocity of the valkyrie echo at this time is 20000 KPS and counting..... this will take several days..... at least..... yeah..... BUT I WILL NOT STOP TILL I REACH THE SPEED OF LIGHT WITH A NERVA!!!!!!!!!

[NightKev]

I suppose doing it via bug doesn\'t count?

[Ivan Ivanovich]

Ffffft. Sorry to butt in with reality in a game that\'s supposed to be a simulation... I tend to take my sims rather serious, and while I do not have a degree in astrophysics so far, the game really makes me ponder getting one. Then again, who has the time?

And yes, I\'d enjoy very much to be unable to reach light speed in the game, and the game behaving in sync with what we consider real physics. For me, part of the fun is to calculate trajectories and fuel consumption, to plan and prepare missions and then enjoy watching them unfold and go according to plan.

Yeah, I\'ll never be Jebs love child, especially since 'more boosters' isn\'t my solution to everything (more often than not it\'s 'less weight') but that\'s how I like it.