if we were to build a starship using current technology

Originally posted by HumptyDumpty
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We cant make a "starship" with our current technology.

We can make a starship. What we can't make is a starship that can get someplace before the crew dies.

Theororetically of course...Can the hyperdrive "jump" right into its hyperdriving mode from on the earth or in the air...or does it have to be in space?

Because if it had to "jump" while in space...then its construction would be massively complex and mind bogglingly expensive, think of ISS construction times 100.

[edit on 21-1-2006 by Murcielago]

I think if We put our minds to it with technology today and a blank check
could make a star ship. I remember in 2000 we had all kinds of things on the boards for this, just no money. Money for some kind of star drive would cost over a billion just to test and develop.
I think we need to spend a little more time here. There is so much of our oceans floors that we have not seen yet. One should be masters of ones home before stepping out unto the unknown.

A full fledged quantum computer, publicly known about, I'd have to say is 20 years off.

With all do respect I think you're being fairly pessimistic. I'd say we'll start seeing quantum computers within the next seven to ten years.

The fun part will be when they try to explain to the general public how they work and then when people really start to understand the signifigance of how they work, well that's going to be an eye opener.

IMO of course.

SPiderj

PS Hey 101 regarding your edit. Funny thing, you wrote MER and I read it as MRE, didn't even notice it until you edited it.

So I knew what you were saying. The brains a funny thing.

I think we need to spend a little more time here. There is so much of our oceans floors that we have not seen yet. One should be masters of ones home before stepping out unto the unknown

I agree. I think this is most likely how it would go down. Before any repsonsible group would ever dare of sending a group of people out into space they would test the colonization process here on earth and the ocean is the best place to do it.

From learning how to build and live in an unbreathable alien atmosphere to miniing/processing (ex: methane hydrate) to growing, processing and using available alien vegetation (kelp farming).

There are many other examples but those are just a few. It wouldn't be a simple or cheap process but compared to inter-stellar exploration it's a financial drop in the bucket.

Also considering we have a population with infinite growth potential and finite space, we'll eventually have underwater cities anyway.

IMO of course.

Spiderj

PS Unless mary kate and ashley decide to fund a space ship...them chicks is loaded man!

Originally posted by Spiderj

I think we need to spend a little more time here. There is so much of our oceans floors that we have not seen yet. One should be masters of ones home before stepping out unto the unknown

I agree. I think this is most likely how it would go down. Before any repsonsible group would ever dare of sending a group of people out into space they would test the colonization process here on earth and the ocean is the best place to do it.

I dissagree. You cant think like that, if everyone did we would still be wondering who paints the sky a different color for day & night. Ocean research is always on going, its not like its all stops just so we can build this spaceship. Or oceans are freakin huge, it will be a long time until we know everything about them, every species found, every foot of it mapped, etc.

Personally I think we should be spending much more on space, Nasa's budget should be around 50 billion per year.

Spiderj
Also considering we have a population with infinite growth potential and finite space, we'll eventually have underwater cities anyway.

I doubt that....that would just be way to expensive. I think a better Idea is to get crackin on terraforming Mars.

[edit on 21-1-2006 by Murcielago]

You cant think like that, if everyone did we would still be wondering who paints the sky a different color for day & night

If that's really what you think about colonizing the ocean I don't think you're putting as much forward thinking into this as you claim.

I'm not talking about basic oceanic research and I don't think 101 is either. What I'm talking about is a dedicated facility for the purposes of training and testing what it would be like to colonize a hostile (climate wise) alien planet.

As for it being too expensive to colonize the ocean floor, the materials such as nano-tubing and such would be widely available and comparably cost effective by the time somthing like this happens. This is a seperate issue from the dedicated space colony simulation.

As for just shooting people into space without doing practical long term tests on earth that's just irresponsible.

It will logically go oceans first space second. I'm not talking about a basic trip to the moon here for a couple of days but interstellar exploration which is what the thread is about.

Terraforming is fine as a concept but where much closer to having the technologies to adapt to a hostile enviroment than we are in changing that environment to an earth type atmosphere.

Spiderj

[edit on 1/21/2006 by Spiderj]

Originally posted by Murcielago
I dissagree. You cant think like that, if everyone did we would still be wondering who paints the sky a different color for day & night. Ocean research is always on going, its not like its all stops just so we can build this spaceship. Or oceans are freakin huge, it will be a long time until we know everything about them, every species found, every foot of it mapped, etc.Personally I think we should be spending much more on space, Nasa's budget should be around 50 billion per year.

Spiderj and I are on the same page here.
I to am happy that we have our communication satellites up and a flag on the moon, but We should have spent more time and money here learning on our own backyard. I person don't think we should change Mars until we know more about our homeplanet! Look how bad we have been to our home! We don't know crap! I live in Florida were this year may see more and bigger huracanes then history! I can't get a strata answer from no one about why this is happening. Some say It just happens, We have changed to weather with the green house affect. It's all speculation! WE should know, We are just now spending money on making a good weather satellite and that is just cause hundreds of more people are getting killed from the changes in the weather. If we would have spend a little more time in our own backyard we may have seen all this coming.
I don't think we have to power to tame Mars if we can't tame our on home.

I hate to bump an old thread, But then again after reading it i have noted one important thing that no one else has mentioned and i have to admit alot of you have made comments that make alot of sense but really dont do any good without, artificial gravity.

Once we figure that one out we are on our way to the stars. With artificial gravity you also pave the way for Warp drive.

My theory on how they will come up with artificial gravity, Create a very small and weak black hole generator (its just a theory) and the warp drive technology will evolve on how well we are able to siphon off the energy it creates and convert to a form of propulsion. The rest of the stuff is imaterial. who cares if you can destry half a planet in one shot if you cant catch what you are trying to shoot.

reply to post by JIMC5499


THAT IS A RATHER SIMPLE SOLUTION TO NAVIGATION.....all one would have to do is have in the flight control system a system that monitors the gravity/magnetic fields of all large and small objects through out space...and then would be able to alter the flight path for such objects or could arm the wepons system and could vaporize the small asteroid type objects...no one mass has the same exact gravity/magnetic field

Deep space travel by conventional means & understandings would be impossible,
All the 'ship' would have to do is fly slightly to close to a large planetary body/star
and the gravity would pull it in with ease,

And my personal opinion is that 'hyperdrive' will never be a possibility,
Sorry cant explain reasoning why, but i just cant see it ever being feasible

Originally posted by AmmonSeth
Deep space travel by conventional means & understandings would be impossible,
All the 'ship' would have to do is fly slightly to close to a large planetary body/star
and the gravity would pull it in with ease,

And my personal opinion is that 'hyperdrive' will never be a possibility,
Sorry cant explain reasoning why, but i just cant see it ever being feasible

technically that problem would not happen with a hyperdrive because it works by moving the ship into the 4th dimension using a intense magnetic field created around the ship. The 4th dimension is smaller compared to our dimension so it will take a considerable less amount of time to travel light-years compared to what it would take in the 3rd dimension. Then when the ship arrives at the corresponding point to our dimension you disengage the magnetic field and reemerge in the our dimension at the destination.

Well with all the UFO technology the government has, I'm sure that reverse engineering could make space flight plausible in the next 10 years if the government hasn't achieved it already.

Something I find most interesting is the concept of folding space. So travel is instantaneous!

Example: a piece of paper (paper being space) is folded one corner to the opposite corner length wise across. That is what folding space is like.

Maybe it is just science fiction, though I would think it is possible outside of the government technology. example: alien technology.

just wanted to butt in and say that posting on this thread and mentioning hyperdrives seems like an oxymoron. i don't know about you guys but i have yet to hear of a science team working on a feasible hyperdrive as a means of propulsion. the thread title itself states the word "current"; meaning, contemporary and available today. or are they selling hyperdrives at walmart and forgot to tell the world about it?

Originally posted by tomas
if nasa and german scientist actually make a working hyperdrive what real tech would you think she would need to transport a crew to alpha centarii system.computers , food, weapons,ect.

Ion thrust drive

Plasma shield

Rail guns mounted various locations on ship

a.i. defense system used to quickly identify any potential moving threats that are incomming

a.i. health used to monitor everyone sleeping OR awake during travel

a.i. robots used to SCOUT NEW REGION

farm and livestock housing spanning the entire distance of the ship

detachable minicraft weaponized attached to main craft as well as a a.i. simular detachable craft for human support also weaponized

UNIVERSAL MAP OF ALL STARS IF YOU CAN GET ONE LOL!

Originally posted by toreishi
just wanted to butt in and say that posting on this thread and mentioning hyperdrives seems like an oxymoron. i don't know about you guys but i have yet to hear of a science team working on a feasible hyperdrive as a means of propulsion. the thread title itself states the word "current"; meaning, contemporary and available today. or are they selling hyperdrives at walmart and forgot to tell the world about it?

Looking at the date of the first post, this is obviously in reference to 'Heim theory'. In the articles regarding it, it said the US military were interested in it & that a prototype could be tested within something like 5 years or so.

It's a nice dream, to have the ability to send a manned expedition over to Andromeda for scouting out habitable planets or even just limiting our activities to the Milky Way but we simply don't have technology that's reliable enough (as yet). Systems like propulsion, life support, food production and storage would have to be capable of indefinite operation without interruption and minimal to zero human intervention IE self-maintaining 'machinery' that ideally would use no moving parts to eliminate the problem of wear & tear over long periods in harsh conditions. Multiple levels of redundancy would be required to cover off any risk of total failure because, out there, you're completely on your own.

Hey thought I would just add this comment.. I believe that we should pull our troops from Afghanistan, stop all wars on this beautiful planet Earth, and head for space.

After all, it is the final frontier and we need to do the star trek thing and "boldly go where no man has gone before". Why can't we plug all of our planet's resources into making a few starships, research propulsion technology and maybe have a room on the ship that is full of plants for oxygenating the craft. After all we breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Plants use carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and we breathe in oxygen to create carbon dioxide which plants use to.... you see the circle here don't you... so there is our oxygen problem sorted.

Now for food, the plants we use for oxygen can be used for food as well because we can use one plant for 2 uses... food and oxygen. Also have a water treatment plant on board which filters and purifies the water and also waters the plants that provide food and oxygen so there is 3 uses. See where i am going? I'm just a Star Trek fan from Newcastle in the UK and even I can think that one out. Its easier than it looks for life support.

To power the craft, you can use hydroelectric power (although not powerful enough) or you can use the propulsion systems and "warp drive" to supercharge the battery so whenever the engines are on, the power is charging (a bit like a hybrid car) so either way the future spacecraft will be very energy efficient and also very resourceful.

I agree with what people are saying here about the time it will take to develop as it is a long process but even with limited technology in 1942 we still managed to develop the first spacecraft (V2 Missile from Germany) so if you think, we had the limited technology then, now we have more advanced technology now, so what's stopping us from adventuring from our own planet to others?

Also I have thought maybe if we bump into alien life, maybe they can help us with technology and upgrade out stellar spacecraft. So we need to keep some space on board the craft to allow for such developments.

You cant fly in space with out deflectors or ridiculously strong armor, if you had nothing to keep micro meteorites and debris traveling at great speeds to machine gun a spaceship in transit.