NASA Engineer Designs Near Light Speed Engine Concept

[Economy 52,864]

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.sciencealert.com/no-this-new-space-engine-isn-t-going-to-break-physics/amp

 

A NASA Engineer has designed a concept for a new type of engine that theoretically could thrust up to 99% the speed of light

 

You may read article for more indepth details but it has to do with particle acceleration

 

For now its only a design without proof it would work and other experts say the engineers math still has to be checked

 

Were this to hypathetically work, other issues for human interstellar travel would still have to be overcome such as the deadly G-Forces such acceleration would cause tho some types of cargo may manage to hold up to the forces depending on the rate of acceleration 

[Fantina 3,438]

As a science nerd, I liveeee for news like this. Keeps me sane, especially during college, congrats to the scientists. Hopefully, the match checks out

[DC 25,164]

Woah! That's REALLY cool actually! Like I could never be smart enough to come up with anything like this  

[JazzGa 14,654]

Besides hurtling human flesh bags through space for the remainder of their short century long lives, what else could a lightspeed engine be used for? We could move materials across Earth in the blink of an eye. It would be like the instant information revolution of the internet, but with actual physical objects. 

[calmar 22,768]

8 minutes ago, the Devil of Pop said:

 We could move materials across Earth in the blink of an eye. It would be like the instant information revolution of the internet, but with actual physical objects. 

yes hi police I just got spam sent 300 bottles of ketchup from a transporter in Shenzhen about 10 seconds ago and  oh god they keep coming he-

[Economy 52,864]

11 minutes ago, the Devil of Pop said:

Besides hurtling human flesh bags through space for the remainder of their short century long lives, what else could a lightspeed engine be used for? We could move materials across Earth in the blink of an eye. It would be like the instant information revolution of the internet, but with actual physical objects. 

If this was our reaction everytime we take a first step in something new wed never advance if we assumed there would never be a use for it

 

im sure when electricity was first discovered and we didnt have any machines to run on it a lot of people must of thought “ok, cool it zaps, so?”

 

Or how about Oil? That black sludge. Probably took a long time to discover it had any use at all now the whole world runs on it

 

right now theres no use for light speed it but if we ever colonize mars, or colonize another planet even if its centuries or mileniums away this would be useful. Even if its just to carry cargo... even if the full speed isnt required say to go to mars

 

 

[LibraOctober98 3,505]

There's no way a human could travel that fast... People pass out in jets going no where near as fast at no where near as many gs.  

BUT, it's very cool nonetheless and will probably open the door for many other discoveries!

[Petie Estie 5,707]

he says as long as you have enough time and energy/fuel..and only in the vaccuum of space. So it wouldn't be a huge huge acceleration it sounds like. Just theoretically in the vaccuum of space the top speed of this engine is very fast. 

So no moving objects really fast on earth or worrying about human bodies getting destroyed by G-forces. 

[mister max 18,480]

57 minutes ago, LibraOctober98 said:

There's no way a human could travel that fast... People pass out in jets going no where near as fast at no where near as many gs.  

BUT, it's very cool nonetheless and will probably open the door for many other discoveries!

I'm mean as long as the speed goes up little by little, they wont notice a thing

[box 582]

it would be cool to see gaga get reinvested in the technology side of her brand.

 

[Economy 52,864]

22 hours ago, LibraOctober98 said:

There's no way a human could travel that fast... People pass out in jets going no where near as fast at no where near as many gs.  

BUT, it's very cool nonetheless and will probably open the door for many other discoveries!

 

22 hours ago, SEANGT said:

he says as long as you have enough time and energy/fuel..and only in the vaccuum of space. So it wouldn't be a huge huge acceleration it sounds like. Just theoretically in the vaccuum of space the top speed of this engine is very fast. 

So no moving objects really fast on earth or worrying about human bodies getting destroyed by G-forces. 

 

21 hours ago, mister max said:

I'm mean as long as the speed goes up little by little, they wont notice a thing

Yeah the issue is acceleration not the speed itself. Earth is orbiting the sun, and our solar system to the Galaxy at huge speeds. We dont feel that speed across the universe because its constant. Change in speed is the real issue

 

As long as the acceleration isnt fast wed be ok...

 

the issue is that light speed is so fast tho that it would take an eternity to get there safely and then an eternity to brake safely

 

u feel the acceleration on ur stomach if a car accelerates quickly from stationary to 100km/h in a mere 5 seconds.... now lets do some simple math...

 

light travels at some 297,000km/second and there are 3600 seconds in an hour

 

297K multiplied by 3600 is approximately 1.06 Billion km travelled in an hour

 

if accelerating 100km per 5 seconds is enough for u to really feel it (20km/h) acceleration per second...

 

1.06 Billion divided by 20 = close to 51 Million roughly

 

it would take 51 Million seconds or about (850,000 minutes) or (14,166 hours) or basically 340,000 days which is 931 years

 

So even if u accelerate at double that speed for life, it would take you over 450 years

 

In short, our lifespan isnt long enough to accelerate to light speed safely 

 

of course much faster accelerations than what i used are survivable. But throughout ur entire life? The constant strain would probably kill u after not that long if u tried to accelerate fast enough to get to light speed within a human life span of 80 to 90 years

 

edit: i made an error i made a multiplication instead of division. 14,116 hours is 590 days not 340,000

 

So basically a year and a half. Yes thats way more manageable

[TheSlash 14,539]

I love that kind of science  

A very few fun facts about light speed:

1. Nothing but light can reach 100% light speed. Nature ( or physics or whatever you wanna call it ) has a "built-in" lock so that nothing passes 99% of light speed.

2. If we could build a train that travels through a vacuum tube around the Equator with 99% light speed, we could travel into the future. As time slows down when near light speed, humans on board the train would be there for a week of their lives, while for everybody outside the train it'd be 100 years.

I saw this concept in a documentary about time travel, with his scientific honor Dr. Stephen Hawking ( may he rest in peace  ).

I find this highly interesting and I hope, engineering will be at the point of constructing that very soon  

[Economy 52,864]

4 minutes ago, TheSlash said:

I love that kind of science  

A very few fun facts about light speed:

1. Nothing but light can reach 100% light speed. Nature ( or physics or whatever you wanna call it ) has a "built-in" lock so that nothing passes 99% of light speed.

2. If we could build a train that travels through a vacuum tube around the Equator with 99% light speed, we could travel into the future. As time slows down when near light speed, humans on board the train would be there for a week of their lives, while for everybody outside the train it'd be 100 years.

I saw this concept in a documentary about time travel, with his scientific honor Dr. Stephen Hawking ( may he rest in peace  ).

I find this highly interesting and I hope, engineering will be at the point of constructing that very soon  

Yeah time travel is scientifically possible (at least to the future) just by traveling fast

 

the issue is that to get to speeds to get meaningful time dialation it would take so long that ud die of old age by the time u got to that speed

 

u cant suddenly go at near the speed of light cuz of the G force and a safe acceleration would take longer to get to that speed than the human life span

 

based on my calculations above over 9 centuries

[TheSlash 14,539]

8 hours ago, Economy said:

Yeah time travel is scientifically possible (at least to the future) just by traveling fast

 

the issue is that to get to speeds to get meaningful time dialation it would take so long that ud die of old age by the time u got to that speed

 

u cant suddenly go at near the speed of light cuz of the G force and a safe acceleration would take longer to get to that speed than the human life span

 

based on my calculations above over 9 centuries

I know  . But that's why Hawking said the tube the train would travel through would have to be 100% vacuum so there's no friction caused by the air ( which would slow down the acceleration process ). And even if it's unrealistic af it's still cool to think about .

[Taylucifer 5,249]

woah, big brain