i got a question....this has been puzzling me for a while!
is it possible to buil a space ship with some kind of power plant on it...and then that would generate fuel and such?
i dunno this thought just struck me so i decided to post!

the power plant would have to be able to escape earths gravity for 1. there for somthing like a standard nuclear power plant could not be able to make it out of earths gravity for the need of force to escape is too great not to mention the shear force of this trying to move somthing of this magnitude is not possible because shear force would rip it appart before it left the atmosphere.

It also depends on the kind of power plant that would and could be used in space. Ion Prepulsion would work if xeons could be reflected as easily as ion's but nothing I know of yet works in that manner. Space matter is different in some respects the other types of matter on the face of the dirt ball. Dirt ball = Earth. In order for somthing like this to work you would have to build a power plant in space this is one of the only ways that you could get somthing like this to work. This also is dependant on how far we have come with nanotechnolgy.

Originally posted by falcon
the power plant would have to be able to escape earths gravity for 1. there for somthing like a standard nuclear power plant could not be able to make it out of earths gravity for the need of force to escape is too great not to mention the shear force of this trying to move somthing of this magnitude is not possible because shear force would rip it appart before it left the atmosphere.

It also depends on the kind of power plant that would and could be used in space. Ion Prepulsion would work if xeons could be reflected as easily as ion's but nothing I know of yet works in that manner. Space matter is different in some respects the other types of matter on the face of the dirt ball. Dirt ball = Earth. In order for somthing like this to work you would have to build a power plant in space this is one of the only ways that you could get somthing like this to work. This also is dependant on how far we have come with nanotechnolgy.

If it is build large enough it could work. I mean very Large though.

3 words, International Space Station, the platform to making a space port, where ships could be built. you take the raw materials up on shuttle flights and build it in space, then you can build it as big as you want. oh and nuculear waste could be shot into any nearby star that the 'space ship' was around.

I don't know if it is posible but what if you would use a gravitational vortex, just like a tornado under a flying disk.

no it is not possible because it would take fuel to generate fuel so something would be needed to power the aircraft.

the vortex can also being used to work like somekind of dynamo, just like on a bike when you are traveling and want light in the dark. or you go and use a nuclear power plant fusio or fision. whatever does the job best.

The only problem with the Dynamo Idea, is that you'd KILL your pilots. The sort of centrifugal force exerted by a gravitational vortex is not the amount a human wants to be enven close to. No dice, man.

not really. but if they are protected. it is possible to use a magnetic shielding shield. and the you tap that force also for energy. And there is know people in space.

thanks......

no it is not possible because it would take fuel to generate fuel so something would be needed to power the aircraft.

I think so because with todays tehnology we are able to do pretty muchh anything. Once you think aout that, it;s kind of scary isn't it/

never say never.. anything can be done and believe me, one day this will be done

Einstein was correct with his E=MC/2. It takes a energy to mass ratio to achieve light velocity. Therefore I agree and disagree with the vortex scenario. Yes it would work in theory as it would have to be an outside field as a power source for the trip. Loki was also
right if my physics comprehension serves right: The vortex or 'wormhole' would have to be generated away from the ship, or the acceleration would be incomprehensible because the event horizon would exponentially magnify spacetime as it increased in causality. Kind of like a pond ripple that "gained" rather than lost momentum. Plus, with that occurance, your entire 'entropic proportionates' (the extent of you and your contact matter to its external limit-inclusive of magnetic field which all matter generates) would disperse a particle at a time, with each one doubling in velocity to the next; uncontrollable phenomena.

You would have to invert the event horizon to push open space rather than dig a hole you would have to 'pry' a hole. Then of course discerning the distance even with a stable incursion/excursion portal....how would you predict time, velocity,
force, mass, density, fulcrum, leverage etc. in accordance with those specifics even when known to your own vessel-you couldn't calculate the response stability without a few trial runs....and I ain't goin' first!

Sounds like the initial idea of this thread, is a perpetual motion machine... As some have pointed out...just because a power plant puts out energy, it still takes energy to make it, itself go, and so far, we are unable to make a machine that generates more energy than it consumes...(and would violate the Law of Conservation of Energy while we're at it, hehe...)

The biggest problem with interstellar travel isn't energy...it's speed. There are concepts to use the vast materials available in space for fuels... The problem instead is...even with the fastest of these concepts, it would take us generations to get to a star, and even then, we may find nobody home, so it isn't deemed worth the effort. The real problem to be solved is the propulsion system. The leading candidate seems to be the space-folding idea... However, unless they go public with stuff they've recovered, we're currently at a point of theory only with this...

3 words, International Space Station

Indeed, this would solve the problem of escaping the planet's gravity... Again though, it isn't a question of energy, it's a question of speed....

Since "edit" seems to be flaky right now...

you couldn't calculate the response stability without a few trial runs....and I ain't goin' first!

Nope, me neither....that's why we train chimps....*shudders for the poor janitors to clean up those runs....*

You guys, how do you know "the problem is speed?" As far as you or I know, no on e has ever reached light speed. According to navy peeps that I've talked to, we can exceed that speed.
One of these guys had a paper on lightspeed confiscated by his superiors. that tells ME that there are things about LS that the government DOESN"T WANT US TO KNOW>
as far as propulsion is concerned, there are 2 options:
1. an ion drive.
2. electrogravitic propulsion.

do the research.

i heared (read in "popular science") that light moves faster than it should in expanding space.
Experiments were made as a part of a NASA program that was researching for new propulsoin tipes...i don't remember the name....a yes
NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP) Project .I think they stoped that one because they thought it was useless.

the reason u cant go light speed or faster is because the amount of energy required to accelerate to this speed would generate its own gravity and therefore its own weighta(e=mc2) which would require even more energy so that it is possible to get infinitely close to the speed of light with an infinite amount of energy but never actually light speed however if you were already going faster than the speed of light then no rules are broken these particles are called tachyons maybe all this will be proved wrong some day who knows