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The space agency will be launching its Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation (SUMI) on Thursday to study the magnetic fields on the sun.SUMI will set out to study the constantly changing magnetic fields in an area of the sun’s low atmosphere called the chromosphere.These magnetic fields lie at the heart of how the sun can create huge explosions of light, like solar flares and eruptions of particles like coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
Originally posted by punkinworks10
Actually the hottest part of the suns atmosphere is the corona, at over 1,000,000 ' F .
Also there seems to be a basic non understanding of physics in this thread. People forget that there such things as acceleration and inertia, basics of dynamics.
Reaching mars in twenty minutes would not be possible in any fashion. Here's why
Mars is 34 000 000 miles away, or 183 744 000 000 ft
To cover that distance in 20 min you would have to accelerate at 5 104 000 ft/ sec or
159 000 g's for ten minutes then decellerate at the same rate for ten minutes.
That's one hundred fiftynine thousand time the force of gravity.
That's why sci fi writers invented such mythical devices as inertial dampers and mass negation fields.
Originally posted by ubeenhad
This is not the issue. The issue is money. We could build an object with todays technology that would be propelled by anti-matter. And could for awhile. Who knows if it would be practical. But its possible.
Some in this thread have mistaken acceleration for speed. If you stop and slow down gradually enough then there is no issue with inertia. Why have to make it in 20 minutes? Effects of gravity are the same for acceleration not speed.
But I do agree there are still other fundamental problems, too many to list. So yea, there are other things we gotta worry about first.edit on 20-10-2012 by ubeenhad because: (no reason given)edit on 20-10-2012 by ubeenhad because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by chr0naut
No amount of money with today's technology could build a star-ship propelled by antimatter.
In the last few years, we've only produced a few micrograms of the stuff. Even less has been captured for any length of time. We'd need tons to make an efficient drive.
There's some things money can't buy.
Originally posted by Kashai
reply to post by ubeenhad
The thread is not about the present and had you read the thread you would know that.
Originally posted by Kashai
Originally posted by ubeenhad
Originally posted by chr0naut
No amount of money with today's technology could build a star-ship propelled by antimatter.
In the last few years, we've only produced a few micrograms of the stuff. Even less has been captured for any length of time. We'd need tons to make an efficient drive.
There's some things money can't buy.
Money could buy enough anti-matter. And you don't need a lot.
And what is your definition of a 'starship'?. Thats the case im making. A 'starship' in general is not plausible right now. Is a small satellite powered by anti-matter possible with today's technology? Were is the huge lapse in technology? Your making a lot of assumptions
This sounds like an anti-matter version of NASA's VSMPD Thruster.
Originally posted by Kashai
Latest simulation shows that the magnetic nozzles required for antimatter propulsion could be vastly more efficient than previously thought--and built with today's technologies.
So these guys focus on the exhaust velocity--the speed of the particles produced in matter-antimatter annihilations as they leave the rocket engine.
Any thoughts?