Bill Clinton Backs 100 Year Starship 299
astroengine writes "The light-years between the stars is vast — a seemingly insurmountable quarantine that cuts our solar system off from the rest of the galaxy. But to a growing number of interstellar enthusiasts who will meet in Houston, Texas, for the 100YSS Public Symposium next week, interstellar distances may not be as insurmountable as they seem. What's more, they even have the support of former U.S. President Bill Clinton."
Ah, The B-Ark... (Score:4, Informative)
As long as Bill is on this ship it would be fine.
Still, a horrible thing to inflict upon whatever world it lands on. [wikia.com]
Re:Methinks people don't appreciate the scales her (Score:5, Informative)
The reason it is about to run out of juce as you put it, is that the material in the thermocouples have degraded, the Plutonium in the RTG's is still very hot, it is just the part that converts this heat to electricity is breaking down. In a manned ship it would be a relatively simple matter of pulling out the worn out thermocouple and inserting a fresh one. (of course a manned ship would likely need a much larger power source than an RTG could ever provide) This of course brings up the point of limited space for spare parts and needing to design everything with universal plug in modules and have onboard micro fabrication facilities.
Re:Bill, why do you flip flop on science? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/31/us/stating-regret-clinton-signs-bill-that-kills-supercollider.html [nytimes.com]
Re:Methinks people don't appreciate the scales her (Score:3, Informative)
Yes. A ship accelerating at 1g and then decelerating at 1g halfway there, could reach the Andromeda galaxy in less than 50 years (passenger time). The nearest star could be reached in less than 5 years.
Again, the engery and engineering requirements for this is way beyond anything we have today, but it is theoretically possible.
Re:Methinks people don't appreciate the scales her (Score:3, Informative)
The B52s of today are NOT the same as those flown 60 years ago. Engines, Airframes, Electronics. I think even the bolts that hold it together are not the same. It resembles the plane from 60 years ago, that is about all.
Re:Methinks people don't appreciate the scales her (Score:3, Informative)
Re:in 150 years you can go anywhere in the galaxy. (Score:5, Informative)
No, you won't. You'll be going near the speed of light. Of course, you'll be doing that in ten years.
Note that if you can handwave a constant 1G boost, you can reach anywhere in the galaxy in 20 years, including deceleration time.
No, you can't. In your own frame of reference, you'll still be going sublight, and the Universe will look rather odd (blue shifted in one direction,red-shifted in another, and VERY, VERY FLAT!).
Alas, it doesn't actually work that way....
Not only will an outside observer see that you're not going lightspeed+, he won't see you at all. since it will take you ~3E44 years as the universe measures time for you to accelerate for 100 years at 1G. And you'll be about that many lightyears away by then (note that the universe is only about 1E13 lightyears across, by one estimate).
Note, by the way, that by that time, the Milky Way Galaxy, if it still existed (it won't - the collision with Andromeda in a few billion years will see to that, much less the death of every star in both galaxies long before), would appear (to you, in your speedy little spaceship) to be ~1/1000,000,000,000,000 of a nanometer wide.
Oh, and the entire sidereal universe would by approaching a nanometer in width (to you)....