NASA Engineer Designs Near Light Speed Engine Concept

[FRANZGA 13,920]

That's really cool 

The fact that these past few days i've been watching videos about twin paradox, time dilation, relativity and the sorts.. what a cool coincidence 

[PartySick 175,227]

The problem being the faster you go, the more mass you have, the more energy you need to accelerate

I think wormhole technology is more useful but this is still really cool

[RAMROD 118,229]

I need this engine for upgrading my Volantis purpose. I hope it is not as loud. 

[JustTea 6,989]

16 hours ago, Economy said:

 

 

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

IDK if you math is correct by other aspects, but by this logic it would take 590 days, not 340 000 days. So less than 2 years.

[JustTea 6,989]

8 hours ago, TheSlash said:

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 .

Actually it wouldn't take eternity to reach that 99% speed of light (c), only about one year.

Also found this quite interesting:

"Observed from the spaceship, accelerating at 1g would reach 0.77c after 1 year.
Observed from Earth, it would take 1.19 years, and would have travelled 0.56 light years.

After two years on the ship at 1g, you would reach 0.97c, however 3.75 years would have elapsed on Earth and you would have covered 2.90 light years. Viewed from the Earth, your mass would have increased 4x, and you would be a quarter of your size!

After five years on the ship, you would reach 0.99993c. 83.7 years would have elapsed on Earth, and you would have covered 82.7 lightyears. You would stand about an inch high, and have a mass of about 6 tons as seen from Earth, though you would not notice any difference.

After 8 years, you would reach 0.9999998c. 1,840 years would have elapsed on Earth. Great, you are far from what was your home. 400 US presidents came and went. What is more, you are now 1mm high and have a mass of 140 tons.

Nothing to lose now, lets go on, still at 1g...

After 12 years, you would be travelling 0.99999999996 c. By now you would have crossed the galaxy and be 113,000 light years from home. Time is now running 117,000 times more slowly for you than on Earth. You stand 15 microns tall, and your mass is about 9000 tons.

So, in fact you have travelled "faster than light" by covering 113,000 light years in 12 of your years, but well and truly burnt your bridges in doing so.
You have also become a very significant problem for any destination, and would require 12 years too to slow down at 1g, assuming you have survived the deadly blueshifted light and cosmic radiation."
 

Spoiler

From here: https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=34381

 

 

[LGMonster95 13,704]

In theory what they are trying to achieve it might work but practically we'll need to find a way more advanced energy source to allow that to happen. Here's someone talking about this whole thing. 

 

[Economy 53,209]

3 hours ago, PoggersFace said:

IDK if you math is correct by other aspects, but by this logic it would take 590 days, not 340 000 days. So less than 2 years.

Ur right i made a flub.... 14,166 hours turned into days is the part i somehow messed up

 

So a year and a half not far off what the other user was reporting

 

so i guess it is duable after all

[Economy 53,209]

13 hours ago, TheSlash said:

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 .

Did i say 9 centuries? More like 1.5 to 2 years

 

i accidentally multiplied the hours instead of dividing them which have me wayyyyyyy too many days

 

still tho 1.5 years to 2 years wouldnt be practicle

[TheSlash 14,539]

1 hour ago, Economy said:

Did i say 9 centuries? More like 1.5 to 2 years

 

i accidentally multiplied the hours instead of dividing them which have me wayyyyyyy too many days

 

still tho 1.5 years to 2 years wouldnt be practicle

Well, considering it will be 100 years of them racing around the globe, 1.5 to 2 years don't seem too long for that. Also, time slowly slows down in the acceleration process, sooo  

[Economy 53,209]

6 minutes ago, TheSlash said:

Well, considering it will be 100 years of them racing around the globe, 1.5 to 2 years don't seem too long for that. Also, time slowly slows down in the acceleration process, sooo  

Yeah but for u its still 1.5 to 2 years tho even if outside more time than that passed

[Lilmonzter 2,864]

The physics is going to be very interesting 

But  the serious pitfalls are only going to come up during implementation 

But if it's doable then we'd be able to discover other lifeforms 

[Economy 53,209]

2 hours ago, Lilmonzter said:

The physics is going to be very interesting 

But  the serious pitfalls are only going to come up during implementation 

But if it's doable then we'd be able to discover other lifeforms 

If the nearest life forms are hundreds of years away tho... we better either come up with stasis or significantly increase our lifespans

[LostBoyfriend 1,137]

On 10/16/2019 at 12:54 PM, 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!

Hey, can you explain that to me please?

If we are inside the object we shouldn't feel or move that much right? Just like driving, we feel the "pushing" motion when going forward in a car at a very high speed, but... Ok I kind of answered my own question, but I'm still confused

[homomo 23,883]

4 minutes ago, Indeciso said:

Hey, can you explain that to me please?

If we are inside the object we shouldn't feel or move that much right? Just like driving, we feel the "pushing" motion when going forward in a car at a very high speed, but... Ok I kind of answered my own question, but I'm still confused

You got it spot on.

We feel acceleration, because it is a change in motion. But once any change ceases, regardless of your speed; you won’t feel it.

For example: the Earth rotates on its axis as it orbits around the Sun. The Sun orbits around the galactic centre while our galaxy is drifting towards Andromeda. And then of course all of the galaxies in our local group are being gravitationally pulled towards the great attractor at inconceivable speeds. HOWEVER, we don’t feel any of this, because there is virtually no acceleration. It exists, because we are being bound to other gravitational objects, but the effect is so minuscule that it would be the equivalent to hopping on a train from one end of your city to the other that takes billions of years.

[Lilmonzter 2,864]

6 hours ago, Economy said:

If the nearest life forms are hundreds of years away tho... we better either come up with stasis or significantly increase our lifespans

Elon Musk has something in development called the neuralink

Which is kind of implantable brain AI studies a particular persons thought processes and adapt the machine to a detectable patterns.

Still under development but if he cracks it in time who knows then age will truly just be a number and life will be as humanoids